Amtrak

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/21/amtrak/index.html

It's nice to see that the Bush administration is finally weaning the passenger rail industry off the government money that it has grown accustomed to. The politicization of passenger rail has been known for a long time, with Amtrak running inefficient routes just so that a certain state or community can say that they have train service. Meanwhile, these routes are run without a concern for actually making money or performing efficient service. The only sector of the rail service that is actually efficient is the Northeast Corridor service.

Bankrupcy wouldn't be the end of rail service in the United States. It would just be the end of inefficient rail. Now, I have no problems with travelling by rail, in fact, when compared to other wastes of government money, it's actually money better spent than some of the waste that's in the American national budget. But luckily, the proposed budget cuts has finally gotten the attention of the Amtrak board.

Unfortunately, rather than face facts and attempt to reform internally, they are trying to put political pressure on Bush to restore the cut funding and allow the Corporation to run as it always has. The sad part is that some Republicans are being suckered into enabling Amtrak to continue operating as it always has, which is really a shame. Then again, as the past few budgets have shown, the fiscally conservative wing of the Republican party has died now that they have been in control of Congress for a while now.