Jesse, Barack, and the Railroads

History, in a way, tends to repeat itself. In this case look at the railroads. Back in the 1800s, the James boys stole from the public by holding up trains. Actually, it was an innovation by Jesse and Frank James who came up with the idea that it was quicker, safer, and more profitable to stop a train, rob the passengers and the express boxes, and scoot with the money. Innovation being what it is, Mr. Obama wants to do the same thing, but with a twist. He wants to build more railroads. To do it, he wants the American taxpayer to foot the bill. The difference here, between the James boys and Mr. Obama, is not as great as you may think.

Both of them are using the railroads to take money from the citizenry. The difference is in method, gunpoint versus tax legislation, or maybe there isn't that much difference after all. The President wants to dump eight billion dollars, that's an estimate, of course, into the building of more passenger routes between major cities in the country. We're talking passenger routes here, not freight, and that's an important point to remember. In addition, the Obama plan is to dump another billion dollars a year for the next five years, to "get it started."

Unfortunately, passenger traffic on the railroad has never been profitable. From almost day one, the railroads have been subsidized by the government in one form or another and the creation of Amtrack was welcome news to railroad management. The move by the government to take over the management and operation of passenger service from the railroad companies undoubtedly saved them from bankruptcy and allowed their continued operation as freight haulers. Last year Amtrack lost in excess of $468 million, which, by the way the government calculates things, was good news and a sort of victory, as it was $6.8 million less that what it had budgeted to lose. The number of riders dropped last year, with the shorter commuter routes showing the least loss, which makes sense when you consider these short routes serve the larger cities, New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles. The fact remains that even these heavily used routes are still, as they always have, losing money.

So with typical political logic, Mr. Obama wants to make a large transfer of money from the working public, which uses it for food, housing, medicine, and clothing, to the federal government to spend on Amtrack. The idea sounds great except for one thing. The national debt stands at $12.4 trillion. Unemployment rolls stand in excess of 11%, probably closer to 18% if you count those who are unemployed but not receiving benefits. Income to federal, state, county, and municipal governments are down, including Tuscarawas County and New Philadelphia. We're in a depression folks, and they just don't get it. Yep. That's the "D" word I just used. Depression.

But fear not. We can afford Mr. Obama's railroad expansion. He just hasn't told us how yet. That will be coming this year along with the proposals to raise taxes. They are coming, surely on the federal level, and probably on the state county and municipal levels as well. But don't be fooled by the oft repeated Obama promise that he won't raise taxes. That is part of governmental double-speak which translates to the Bush tax cuts will not be renewed. That isn't raising taxes, it's just not letting the taxpayer keep what he already has. Washington still doesn't understand that more taxes kill business and jobs.

And the trains probably still won't run on time.