House Republicans have just put together a transportation bill so horrid, that even Obama’s Republican Secretary of Transportation has called it “the worst transportation bill” he had ever seen. The crux of this measure is gutting federal support for public transit, a slap in the faces of poor Americans, minorities and environmentalists, while providing benefits for Big Oil.
House Republicans have released a transportation bill that would eliminate the government’s dedicated funding stream for mass transit, instead counting on a plan that the Congressional Budget Office found would cover just 5 percent of transit costs. The New York Times called the bill “uniquely terrible,” while Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican, called it “the worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen during 35 years of public service.”
Cuts to mass transit fall hard on low-income people who count on public transportation to get to work, go to school, and go about their lives. And they fall hardest on low-income minorities, who, as the research organization PolicyLink noted, as disproportionately likely to not own an automobile:
As housing and jobs have moved farther apart, the distance has created employment barriers for anyone without unlimited ability to drive. Nineteen percent of African Americans and 13.7 percent of Latinos lack access to automobiles, compared with 4.6 percent of whites. Poverty complicates the problem: 33 percent of poor African Americans and 25 percent of poor Latinos lack automobile access, compared with 12.1 percent of poor whites. Cars owned by low-income people tend to be older, less reliable, and less fuel-efficient. This makes commuting to work unpredictable and more expensive, at best.
“Communities of color, low-income Americans and people with disabilities will be disproportionately impacted since they are the most transit dependent communities and negotiate their daily lives on mass transportation to reach employment, health care, and educational centers,” said the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “These funding provisions will impact the millions of Americans who rely on public transit systems to get to work, to school, or to the doctor,” agreed the American Transit Association.
In addition to shortchanging transit and those who depend on it, the bill would also open up nearly all of America’s coastal waters to oil drilling… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
As a disabled American, I depend on busses and the train pictured above to get around, but I used public transit exclusively, even before that was the case, because it reduced my own carbon footprint. As if the increased pollution and congestion from additional automobile use were not bad enough, Republicans have also slipped “drill, baby drill” into the bill as well. This measure must be defeated in the Senate.
10 Responses to “Republicans Greedy on Transit”
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From where on earth are they getting their Big Ideas? Even their own guy, LaHood says it’s bad.
“Cuts to mass transit fall hard on low-income people who count on public transportation to get to work, go to school, and go about their lives. And they fall hardest on low-income minorities, who, as the research organization PolicyLink noted, as disproportionately likely to not own an automobile:”
Republicans and Tea-Baggies = Fail
Well said!
From their only true constituency: millionaires, billionaires, and corporate criminals
Once again republicans they Do not care about the poor. If you want to reducing spending, cut the spending to the rich, who don’t need it, and continue the assistance to the poor. Help at the bottom benefits everyone.
But Republicans want to benefit the top only.
This almost leaves me speechless–!! (almost )– The absolute gall of these bastards-!! Is there nothing they will not stoop low enough to do and hurt the people of this country ; It is more and more clear what the intent is– they must be stopped , the sooner the better–this is a slap in the face to every one who is not a part of the Limo and Rolls Royce crowd—
But even practically — we are already well behind most of Europe and China in developing efficient means of mass transit–something like this bill would barely put the US into the 20th Century– much less the 21st— What a bunch of damm fools-
If you think this id bad, you will come unglued over one of tomorrow’s articles. Amen.
22nd century for the rich, 19th for the poor.
Maybe the GOP solution costs 5% of the current funding stream for transit now, but what will be the costs down the road? What will be the costs of the increased pollution on healthcare and other areas? What will be the costs of oil spill clean-up in coastal waters?
Perhaps it would be better to divert the oil company subsidies to mass transit development! Works for me. I did take mass transit to work for several years but it actually took me about half an hour longer twice a day than if I drove my car. My meetings downtown became more frequent and I couldn’t justify the cost of a taxi nor the time away from my desk. So back to the car. Now I need my car to look after my elderly mother but if I don’t have to drive, I don’t.
The GOP legislators get picked up in their limousines and enjoy a coffee or scotch and soda as they commute. But what damage are they doing to the traffic plan and the environment, let alone their livers? This is just another way to discriminate against the poor, the working stiff, the elderly, the disabled, the students!
I’m with Robin Hood — Tax the rich and give to the poor in the form of affordable mass transit. (among other things)
This bill cannot pass. If it does, I hope there is a way for Mr Obama to veto it.
They do not care about the costs,m because they can be externalized.
Amen in spades!
Too true!
Amen.
There is.