Thursday, May 10, 2007

Democrats get it wrong again

Washington DC - Democrats are poised to further screw up mass transit across the nation through their latest boondoggle known as the "PROGRESS Act" (H.R. 1300). As usual, they have good intentions but gave absolutely no thought to actual long term costs that they would saddle public transit operators with. A typical move. The Hill has an article by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) regarding the PROGRESS Act that he introduced.

The big problem is that the PROGRESS Act provides a one time stimulus grant to transit systems to expand service. The Democrats (as usual) fail to understand that these same transit systems can't afford to run what they have now, even if everything was a peak capacity on every trip. What good is expanding service on a one time grant when in the following year, the transit system can't afford to run the expanded service?

While I agree that public transit is important in playing a key role in America's energy independence, the Democrats (once again) fail to acknowledge that you have to get what you have working first. Expanding service based on a one time grant that will run out after a year will only further cause the transit systems across this country to collapse even more.

Also, if the Democrats want energy independence, let drilling occur in the United States instead of blocking it and keeping us dependent on foreign oil.

Another part of this PROGRESS Act is that it it will "create a bipartisan National Energy Security Commission to develop consensus national goals on energy". Excuse me while I laugh. When Liberal Democrats start talking about a consensus the only thing I can think of is Al Gore and his "consensus" on global warming which, as each day passes, is shown to be a big lie. There is no consensus on the man-made global warming except by the environmentalists that have a political agenda to control the throttle of the United States economy and put us back in the dark ages.

If the Democrats really want to help public transit as they always claim, they'd find a way to fund it properly, including the extremely expensive but completely unfunded mandates they've slapped on the public transit systems over the years which is driving up the cost to provide service.

They won't though. All politicians, especially the transit loving Democrats, are nothing but lip service. They're great at sounding concerned when it comes to transit service but they've done everything they can to drive up the cost of providing that service.

Steny Hoyer, you earned a Lance. While you meant well, your bill just doesn't cut it. Good intentions is not going to improve anything. Your bill is nothing but another feel good measure that will do nothing beside further strain the transit systems while you get to feel powerful for introducing it.

3 comments:

JDAntos said...

There is no consensus on the man-made global warming except by the environmentalists...

An interesting post, as usual, but I think you're absolutely wrong on this point. The latest IPCC report, which concludes that anthropogenic GHGs are causing warming with "very high confidence." This is not a group of environmentalists, this is a UN panel of hundreds of the world's leading climatologists.

RDC said...

The consensus by the UN panel was made by politicial delegates based on a report that hadn't been produced by the scientists as of that time. Then the UN stated that they "would change the science to reflect the consensus of the panel if needed". Change the science to reflect the wishes of the panel??? That that tells me a lot.

In addition, many of the scientists behind the IPCC report are now denouncing the report since the final report cherry picked the information rather than present a full and clear picture of the situation.

Climate change is occurring, I agree, but natural events are not being considered in the rush to blame man for the problem. There is clear evidence that solar cycles play a major part in climate change yet that was completely glossed over. A simple and well documented fact is that CO2 levels follow a solar cycle climate change, not trigger it as the cherry picked report tries to contend.

I remember the "Global Cooling" scare of the 70's and the switchover to Global Warming. We were literally forbidden in class to bring up anything about the old scare to question the new scare unless you wanted to fail the class (which I did because I questioned the flip-flop constantly). It is much the same in the scientific community where billions of government dollars are dependent on pushing the scare. Without the scare, many of these scientists would be out of work and the government money wouldn't be there for them.

With all due respect, take an hour and watch this video that was aired on the BBC. It's in 9 parts now due to YouTube restrictions but it gives a good counter to the so called consensus on Global Warming.
Part 1 - The Great Global Warming Swindle Once up, the other 8 parts are available from the menu.

RDC said...

Climate Momentum Shifting: Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming - Now Skeptics