Monday, October 6, 2008

"McCain = More Traffic " in DC

That was a sign held up at a rally in Arlington for transit. Northern Virginia Republicans have been trying to press John McCain to support the Dulles Extension if he is elected. Unfortunately, the Amtrak/Metro vote was telling with McCain voting against basically calling it pork that other transit agencies didn't get. So now he's trying to be equitable to all transit? Hardly.
A statement from the McCain campaign, however, targeted the Metro funding as well as Amtrak. "Senator McCain strongly objects to earmarks in the bill such as a $1.5 billion earmark for the Washington . . . Metro system and questions if this money is warranted above the needs that may exist among other mass transit systems in our country," the statement says. "With the serious financial situation facing our nation, this [multibillion-dollar] commitment of taxpayers' dollars can [be] dedicated to addressing far more important national priorities."
I'm not sure what other national priorities he's talking about. But it seems to me transit is pretty important, but maybe that's just me.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

national transit priorities... like fattening up the highway lobby even more... because they didn't get enough government handouts in the past 60 years.

That vote says everything that needs to be said about what a McCain/Palin administration would mean for transit not just in Washington, but nationwide.

Anonymous said...

McCain needs to be specific on what "other national priorities" are, just what exactly he means by "pork", and an economic plan that goes beyond merely cutting earmarks. Afterall in the debate 2 weeks ago, he called for a spending freeze if elected for everything but the military. I have a feeling not only is transit and Amtrak going to get no money but so is all of our crumbling infrastructure.

Anonymous said...

Though you can very well load pork projects through the military too.

Anonymous said...

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran...