Trump and Amtrak/Budget cutting funding

[AmtrakBlue]

Dear goodness we need a like button for this thread. ^_^

IMHO,"like" buttons are simply ego-strokers unless accompanied by "ho-hum" and "sux" buttons.

Like buttons can keep a thread from getting bloated with short posts saying "This", "I agree", etc.

 

[Ryan]

^^^ What she said.

The functionality is there, just needs to be turned on.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

What's with this idea of gold in Trump Station? He never NEVER uses gold in his buildings. It's all sort of gold-colored, well-polished bronze. Loud, flashy, phony, and cheap … just like himself.

I thought this Trump building had gold coated glass?

https://imagesus-ssl.homeaway.com/mda01/67852f56-9f72-492c-82e6-50eae6828ef2.1.10

You're right. I only know some of his NYC buildings and hadn't paid attention to this one in Vegas. But yes:

Trump International Hotel and Tower Las Vegas shines with Viracon's 24-karat gold-coated glass. The company applied an optically thin layer of gold to the second surface of insulating glass units enclosing the 45-story tower. Selected not only for dramatic aesthetics, the highly reflective coating lowers heat absorption. ...

Glass Magazine, 2008

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Does this mean the White House could become the Gold House?

 

[Eric S]

I would guess Trump would occupy a middle ground between a couple of candidates who are perhaps likely to propose budgets that would increase Amtrak funding and a couple of candidates who are perhaps likely to propose budgets that would decrease Amtrak funding (just looking at the Top 5 candidates, 2 Ds, 3 Rs). Or maybe it would be better to say he is a big question mark - perhaps increase, perhaps decrease, perhaps status quo, in regards to Amtrak funding.

 

[jis]

Remember that the President only proposes numbers, which are typically mostly ignored by Congress. It is Congress that comes up with the numbers that actually become law.

 

[PerRock]

Remember that the President only proposes numbers, which are typically mostly ignored by Congress. It is Congress that comes up with the numbers that actually become law.

^^This.

Remember if you really want to support Amtrak in your voting, pick your congressional representatives that support Amtrak. (I probably could say, "if you really wanted to change government...)

peter

 

[Railroad Bill]

Remember that the President only proposes numbers, which are typically mostly ignored by Congress. It is Congress that comes up with the numbers that actually become law.

And therefore: ask your Congressional Rep how he/she stands on Amtrak and vote accordingly. (of course, where I live, there is only one party running for the seat in the House), but an Ohio Democrat for Senate who will support trains.

Ask the questions and see what they say!

 

[JoeBas]

Dear goodness we need a like button for this thread. ^_^

IMHO, like buttons are simply ego-strokers unless accompanied by "ho-hum" and "sux" buttons.

The more the merrier!

I INSIST on a "Meh" button.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Dear goodness we need a like button for this thread. ^_^

IMHO, like buttons are simply ego-strokers unless accompanied by "ho-hum" and "sux" buttons.

The more the merrier!

I INSIST on a "Meh" button.

I'm EXTREMELY lukewarm to this request.

 

[JoeBas]

Exactly. All I know is my gut says maybe.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Remember that the President only proposes numbers, which are typically mostly ignored by Congress. It is Congress that comes up with the numbers that actually become law.

A Civics Lesson that All of the Candidates and most American Voters are badlyin need of, especially that Unreality TV Star with New York Values!

 

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

We all talk about if the right candidates get voted in then Amtrak will flourish.

Well Amtrak hasn't flourished since its inception from what I remember. We've had many more cuts and many cities lose service than we have gains/expansions (and I believe most if not all of the gains have been state funded).

Have we just voted in the wrong people for over 40 years? Or maybe Congress doesn't really have as much an effect on Amtrak as we think they do?

 

[A Voice]

Or maybe Congress doesn't really have as much an effect on Amtrak as we think they do?

Were it not for Congress, Amtrak would not exist. Two different Presidential administrations - Reagan and Bush - proposed to end all subsidies for Amtrak (sometimes with a vague, fictional promise that private interests would pick up the "profitable" portions).

In the horse trading necessary to pass a budget through a dysfunctional Congress every year, Amtrak is always shortchanged, with compromises that provide just enough funding to keep the trains rolling another year. But it survives every fiscal year too - thanks to the same Congress.

Such shortsighted planning has to change, of course, a point which was made previously - circa 1981 as I recall. Amazing how little the politics have changed.

 

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

Or maybe Congress doesn't really have as much an effect on Amtrak as we think they do?

Were it not for Congress, Amtrak would not exist. Two different Presidential administrations - Reagan and Bush - proposed to end all subsidies for Amtrak (sometimes with a vague, fictional promise that private interests would pick up the "profitable" portions).

In the horse trading necessary to pass a budget through a dysfunctional Congress every year, Amtrak is always shortchanged, with compromises that provide just enough funding to keep the trains rolling another year. But it survives every fiscal year too - thanks to the same Congress.

Such shortsighted planning has to change, of course, a point which was made previously - circa 1981 as I recall. Amazing how little the politics have changed.

There's a lot of cities for which Amtrak didn't survive and others who still have service but lost one or more trains (like Philly who lost the Broadway Limited/Three Rivers) for example. Don't ask someone from Phoenix or Las Vegas about Amtrak "surviving" because Amtrak didn't survive for them.

 

[jis]

And it should also be remembered that there are many cities which did not have service on A-Day got service. and some then lost it. Sunset East, Pioneer and Desert Wind are case in point. OTOH Lake Shore Limited was added after A-Day. So there has been ebbs and flows in the history of Amtrak. But make no mistake - Amtrak is a creation and creature of Congress and it lives and dies by what Congress does with it. People who think that an Amtrak CEO can brazenly defy Congress (and even just powerful chairmen in Congress) and go his own way are living in a fool's paradise.

 

[Big Iron]

I will cast my vote for our own Bob Dylan. He knows how to deal with the DC bureaucrats, and as one former Presidential candidate from Alabama said long ago, Dylan would " dump their briefcases in the Potomac!" LOL.

I'm reserving my vote for Mr. Hud....er Jim....uh Bob Dylan until I know who his running mate will be!!!

The list of AU'ers would be long and illustrious.

 

[Radvlad]

How the heck can Las Vegas not support service from Amtrak? Even if it was just Los Angeles/San Francisco to Vegas? I'm also surprised that Phoenix couldn't hang on to service. Wow.

 

[PRR 60]

Let's keep this focused on what we think is or will be Donald Trump's position on Amtrak. In that regard, discussion of the comparative Amtrak positions of other candidates of both parties is fine. To discuss issues like Phoenix and Las Vegas service, please start a new topic.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I'm suspending my campaign, and hereby announce that, if Trump is nominated and elected, Everything, including Amtrak, will be HUGE!!!

( and someone else will pay for it!)

 

[greatcats]

Bob- I am writing you in, anyway.

 

[sldispatcher]

As others have stated, I would think Amtrak could actually get a boost from Trump. Not sure about the LD trains, but the day trains could really get a pop.

 

[NW cannonball]

I don't have a clue what the big D might do, or not. The best info I got is, from some source or other, that The Donald was into sponsoring Pro Wrestling a while back.

His candidacy so so far seems like the stuff that "pro wrestlers" spout from the ring before their (fixed) bouts happen. Duh.

I doubt that this dude with his own private Boeing jet has any clue at all about Amtrak users, he's targeting a different demographic now.

Maybe, if elected, he might choose to sponsor "Trumptrak" or not. Who knows?

 

[andersone]

Well from an Ohio perspective if we relecTED (Ted Strickland ) to the senate the former congressman and governor actually started down the 3C path until he was replaced by Kasich who deep sixed it. That should give inspiration for two elections !!!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

As others have stated, I would think Amtrak could actually get a boost from Trump. Not sure about the LD trains, but the day trains could really get a pop.

Not even Trump himself has stated he would boost Amtrak. Trump has simply claimed, in the most simplistic terms possible, that he would fix all of Americas infrastructure problems with no explanation as to how any of his "plans" would actually work or why the establishment wing of either party would capitulate to his demands. What other people have tried to say, and you have apparently ignored, is that Trump is no position to control Amtrak's purse strings regardless of his largely undefined position. In order to have any direct control over Amtrak's future Trump would have to threaten a veto over lack of Amtrak funding. Which is a position that would likely incur a serious opportunity cost and force the expenditure of substantial political capital. This seems unlikely to me considering all the other controversies Trump has created or bought into. I think it's virtually guaranteed that the NEC will remain intact in some form regardless of who is elected, but the likelihood that Trump (or any other GOTP candidate) supports having Amtrak run it seems exceedingly unlikely to me. It seems far more likely to me that Trump's "solution" will be to privatize Amtrak as part of a giveaway to one or more of his fellow cronies, just like Putin or Burlesconi would.