There is PLENTY of Money for Amtrak. Teapubbies Need to Stop Stealing it, That’s All.

For all of Little Johnny Boehner’s lying and denying, lack of funding DID in fact help cause the Amtrak crash, and it IS the fault of our “Republican” congress that those funds were cut. YOU CAN’T BUILD ANYTHING WITHOUT TOOLS AND MATERIALS, AND YOU NEED MONEY TO GET TOOLS AND MATERIALS.

Duh. Really, man, f***ing DUH. Hey, John-Boy: companies won’t give you stuff for free just because they love your tan, man.

And why does there appear to be no money to fund Amtrak (and myriad other critical infrastructure projects around the US)? Because “Republicans” robbed the Peter that is Transportation funds to pay the Pauls who are Teapublican millionaires and billionaires, that’s why.

You can occasionally find a rare honest Congresscritter who will admit that Congress didn’t adequately fund the safety mandates imposed on America’s railway system by that very same Congress. But Boehner, who is decidedly not at all honest, would rather bluster out non sequiturs than admit that he and his fellow Teapublicans are looting the lot of us blind to pad their offshore bank accounts.

Offshore accounts like those of defense industry types, to whom the Pentagon shovels extra hundreds of billions of dollars, even though it can’t even keep track of the funds it already gets.

Accounts like those belonging to charter school scam artists who profit handsomely, providing substandard and unaudited “educations” to our children, all the while stealing from the taxpayers and starving the public schools of funds that were SUPPOSED to go to said public schools.

Accounts like those belonging to Big Motherf***ing Oil tycoons, who rob us twice: at the pump AND when we pay our taxes.

It’s all a symptom of Teapublicans’ pathological anti-government idiocy. The idea that government is bad, bad, bad, oh yesyesyyes, soverybadindeed: even as they mulct that government, and by extension we taxpayers, of every scrap of money we possess. Seems like they should LOVE the government for providing their illegal funds, but NOOOOO…the “Republican” party that once created infrastructure (like the Interstate highway system) now hates the very idea of spending on public works.

 “The reason we don’t have beautiful new airports and efficient bullet trains is not that we have inadvertently stumbled upon stumbling blocks; it’s that there are considerable numbers of Americans for whom these things are simply symbols of a feared central government, and who would, when they travel, rather sweat in squalor than surrender the money to build a better terminal.” The ideological rigor of this idea, as absolute in its way as the ancient Soviet conviction that any entering wedge of free enterprise would lead to the destruction of the Soviet state, is as instructive as it is astonishing.

The money IS there, Gentle Reader – we have provided trillions of dollars for it via our tax dollars over the years. If Congress would spend public money to benefit the, you know, PUBLIC, we could have trains that run safely and quickly; we could have roads and bridges that are safe; we could have clean water, safe food, and all the other benefits we are supposed to already be getting for our hard-earned.

The only reason we don’t get what we pay for, and it IS the ONLY reason, is because Congress is robbing us blind, even as their theft kills us. Time to throw each and every GOP official out of office at the next election. Then prosecute them and get our money back. With those funds in hand, we can build the America we’ve already paid for; indeed, paid for several times over.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Penny-Pinching Teapublicans Kill more Taxpayers. (Amtrak Edition)

Their response? “Pinch MORE pennies”. As witness the recent deadly Amtrak derailment, caused by “republican” budget cuts. Said budget cuts have slowed down improvements that could have prevented the accident:

One key safety feature was missing from the stretch of tracks where an Amtrak passenger train going more than 100 mph derailed and killed seven people.

Investigators say that if positive train control had been installed on that stretch, the technology could have automatically slowed the train down and perhaps saved lives.

Another GOP budget-cutting spree resulted in engineers being forced to work more and sleep less.

Accident investigators have been unwilling to speculate on whether operator error or mechanical problems led to Tuesday’s deadly Amtrak derailment. But for months, members of the labor union representing locomotive engineers have complained that recent reductions in rest and downtime could lead to tragedy. “You need to be able to have some kind of chance to get off the equipment, turn your mind off for a while,” said Fritz Edler, a veteran engineer who wrote a scathing letter last December to Amtrak managers on behalf the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. 

The letter accused Amtrak of forcing “dangerous changes” in the scheduling of engineers that have had the effect of reducing rest time in between trips to Washington, D.C. and New York City. 

“Forcing shorter breaks, day after day, between runs increases fatigue related risk and the potential for loss of focus,” the letter warned. 

But do the Elephants care? Nope. Within a few hours of the deaths that they helped cause, they passed even bigger budget cuts. Yes. They really did. Boehner and Co. are so blase’ about killing people, they stole even MORE taxpayer money to give to their fat-cat buddies, before their victims’ bodies had yet been given a decent burial.

Gentle Reader, we all know that stuff costs money. Trains, tracks, engineers, safety equipment, all of these things COST MONEY. Congress steals money from Amtrak just to hand it to a load of their billionaire cronies, regardless of whether or not the people whose taxes they stole live or die. Those budget cuts aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet: they are actions that have consequences. Consequences such as dead people.

“Republicans” Do. Not. Care. Not about anything but themeselves and the bastards who have bought them. Greedy, murderous motherf***ing Teapublicans.

Get on out, and vote them out. Before they kill you or yours with budget cuts, like they did those commuters on Amtrak.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

How “Republicans” Kill Government Agencies and Profit Thereby

Mr. Blunt and Cranky has a daughter who is very much into horses, and has been since her days in 4-H. He therefore knows about the “impost”. This is extra weight placed on a horse to slow it down during a race. It is supposed to make a race more fair, but is sometimes used to rig a race by making sure a certain horse loses: this makes lots of shady money for certain shady individuals.

We see the same thing in other areas, of course: one example is the United States Postal Service (USPS), a government agency that is mandated by the Constitution. The “impost” placed on this “horse” by Congressional “Republicans” is a requirement to pre-fund worker pensions 75 years into the future: that includes people who haven’t even been born yet. Needless to say, none of their competitors (like FedEx and UPS) have to do anything remotely like this.

Why would Congress do something to weaken an agency that is required by the Constitution? One word: Money. You see, the private companies bribe our “representatives”, and in return they use their power to illegally support those companies that bribe them by wiping out the Postal Service.

The ultimate goal is to “privatize” postal services. That would make the bribing bastards even more money, which means even bigger bribes for the corrupt swine who suck off the trough of dollars provided to them. Of course, if you’re not one of the lucky congresscritters who have access to those millions of dollars in baksheesh, it’s a pretty raw deal.

While our millionaire “representatives” loll about their sties, we the people would be faced with a several thousand percent increase in the cost of shipping everything from birthday cards to packages. imagine sending Christmas cards when instead of paying, say, fifty cents, you’d pay $10.00 or more for each piece of mail.

That is, you’d pay it if you could even get it in the mail. You see, another “impost” placed upon the USPS is the requirement to service anyone and everyone in the United States, no matter where you live and work. Private companies have no such requirement. In fact (and here’s another “impost”), the USPS is required by Congress to deliver items for their competitors.

Get the picture? Our “representatives” are so busy providing services to the industries that bribe them that they have no problem violating the Constitution by killing off the Post Office. Our loss, and Congress’s gain.

If that doesn’t get you angry, then you probably need an impost placed on your back. Then you might understand what it’s like to be illegally and permanently relegated to the back of the pack.

Mr. B & C