Politico
reported that House Republicans went on to vote to cut Amtrak’s budget,
“Democrats called this the worst possible time to chop Amtrak’s funding
to $1.13 billion from its typical $1.4 billion, as called for in a
House spending bill that was moving through the Appropriations Committee
on Wednesday morning. The House bill would also cut half the funding
for D.C.’s Metro system, which had a rush-hour meltdown just two days
ago because of smoke in the tunnel connecting Washington with Northern
Virginia, as well as a smoke-inhalation death in January.”
Republicans are hiding behind the sequester to
justify their cuts, but this excuse doesn’t hold up because had no
problem with manipulating the system to restore sequester mandated
defense cuts.
Hundreds of Americans were injured, and seven people
are dead. The Republican response to this loss of life is that the
country can not afford to spend more money on rail safety.
House Republicans have outdone themselves on tone
deafness. The Koch controlled Republican House majority has never been
sensitive to the wants and needs of ordinary Americans. Gerrymandering
has turned screwing over the bulk of the population into a profitable
strategy for House Republicans.
At a time when the nation’s transportation networks
are in desperate need of repair, Republicans are ignoring the
infrastructure as it crumbles around them. It is true that the cause of
the Philadephia Amtrak derailment remains unknown, but each of these
accidents are a warning.
The Republican refusal to heed the warning is setting the country up for a major disaster.
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