The Washington Examiner posted an article yesterday on some of the government spending plans of President Obama and Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood. President Obama is asking for an 84 percent increase over 2010 levels in the Department of Transportation Budget for 2012.
The article reports:
"The man Obama appointed in 2009 to manage the Transportation Department is former Illinois Republican Rep. Ray LaHood, who a few months ago promised to put cars and bicycles on "an equal footing" in federal funding decisions."
Try fitting your family on a bicycle for a family outing! How will that work with an aging population?
The article points out that the ultimate goal of the thinking behind funding 'big things,' as President Obama and Security LaHood propose, instead of funding 'traditional things' like roads and bridges, is to force people to move to cities where mass transit is readily available. The difference here is very simple, yet very stark--mass transit tells you where you go and when you go; people in private cars have the freedom to decide where and when they go. This is ultimately an issue of personal freedom.
One example of misspent government money is the Dulles Rail project now being built in Northern Virginia. Phase I of this project will cost the government $900 million. The Federal Transit Administration predicts that the finished line will attract only 10,000 new daily riders and is not expected to impact the miserable traffic that the area is known for.
The article concludes:
"Policies that reduce American's mobility also dramatically shrink their access to new job opportunities, which is crucial to wealth production in a dynamic economy. Mobility equals freedom, but under the Obama administration's latest transportation proposal, taxpayers will pay more for less of both."
Mass transportation projects are not the answer to either America's energy problems or her unemployment problem.
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