Fiery words over GOP proposal to cut transportation funds

[bloomington-lib]

Source: Washington Post

As congressional leaders from both parties traveled up Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday for a White House meeting on finances, open hostilities broke out on the traditionally bipartisan House transportation committee over a GOP proposal to cut spending by about $15 billion a year.

Democrats said the plan would cost 490,000 jobs. They called it “mind-boggling” and “fantasy funding”; they said committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.) was “out to lunch” and “a dictator.” Alarmed interest groups called the bill a “grave mistake” and a “sure-fire job killer.”

“We need $87 billion just to maintain the existing transit system, just to maintain the existing highways and bridges in this country,” DeFazio said. “If you want to improve it, you’re talking about $115 billion a year, more than three times what they’re proposing.”

Rahall suggested that Congress draw on general-fund money, as it has in recent years, and settle on a two-year bill in the hope that economic recovery would provide additional revenue after that.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fiery-words-over-gop-proposal-to-cut-transportation-funds/2011/07/07/gIQAm6fo2H_story.html

[JDPriestly]

1. If they put in toll roads and cut Social Security, a lot of

seniors will be trapped in their homes.

What a bunch of nutcases.

I'm beginning to wonder whether this will end the union of the United States of America.

It would be so easy for the country to become seriously divided over this with more liberal western and coastal states just being shunted off, the Northeast going its direction, the South returning to whatever moronic existence it would choose and the Midwest becoming kind of a loose federation.

This could happen if the funds aren't collected to keep the federal government whole. The highway system is what makes the idea of a nation as opposed to states exist. Also, in some areas, the trains are absolutely essential.

The downfall of America could turn into the destruction of America.

I don't think the Republicans have thought about the potential outcome of their assault on the US government.

[jwirr]

2. Those seniors will not be trapped in their homes - they will be heading

for the more expensive care in nursing homes because they will not be able to live in their homes anymore.

[JDPriestly]

5. Good point. But there are homeless elderly including homeless elderly

women in LA.

[jwirr]

11. It is easy to become homeless when you are elderly. I have been

homeless for several years - moving from one family to another. Years ago if you did not have a home you would have been placed in the nursing home to just live there. Today the nursing homes have screenings to see if you qualify to be in a nursing home - which means that you NEED special care. In a perfect world the team that screens you would then help you find housing if you were homeless but I suspect there are a lot of cracks to fall through now.

[JDPriestly]

12. Thanks for letting me know.

[blank space]

3. Have not considered this -

what if this is what they want ? I would not be surprised at all, have heard a lot of this mentioned over the years, particularly from Texas.

Scary thought - would be for the best though. Just cut them lose. Texas would be the only state that wouldn't be a basket case in less than a week, most southern states would be overrun, while Florida would be annexed by Cuba......win, win, win.

[JDPriestly]

4. California, Oregon and Washington states would do all right.

We have the ports to the East as well as wonderful beaches.

[Doctor_J]

9. Since the red states get a lot of money from the blue, they're lying when they

say they want out.

[No Elephants]

6. Maybe we could just split off into North and South again.

California would suffer most initially, but, in the long run, it may be worth it.

[Doctor_J]

8. The populace is too cowardly to ever fight back

If we were going to resist the fascist takeover, there would already be a big pile of bodies. Ain't going to happen.

[Doctor_J]

7. I wonder who the president will side with

:freak:

[No Elephants]

10. Oh, noes!!!!11111!!. Not fiery words, Please, have mercy.

I can only thank God no one has yet escalated this carnage to a very stern letter.