THIS IS A STUPID JERK
In my previous blog post about the recent tragic AMTRAK railroad crash near Philadelphia last week that killed 8 innocent victims (CLICK HERE) I wrote about a current technology known as Positive Train Control System, that would have prevented this horrible train crash.
This system also known as PTC automatically slows down a train that's moving too fast by sensing the train speed and if necessary, it will override the Engineers ability to speed above the designated limit on any part of the railroad track.
This Positive Train Control System has been installed on parts of the AMTRAK railroad but oddly, it has not yet been installed in this particular corridor which is the busiest in the United States.
Amtrak officials promised to have PTC in place on the entire Northeast corridor by the end of the year, but it's a complex and expensive problem, and Congress hasn't given Amtrak any extra money to do it.
In fact, the House Appropriations Committee voted this week to cut Amtrak's $1.4 billion budget. Republican Congressman John Mica of Florida told CNN today that the railroad gets too much public money as it is.
These eight dead victims and countless others, including their families, who are killed, maimed, injured every day throughout the United States due to our crumbling infrastructure, are ignored by the very politicians who are supposed to be serving the public by using the taxpayer money of we the people, to keep us safe.
Instead they are literally telling us "to drop dead".
We the people of the United States are never the priority when it comes to the actions of politicians.
It never seems to be the right time for Congress to have money available when it comes to fixing our country, to fund basic systems that we pay our taxes to supposedly support our communities.
If you're a middle class taxpayer, it means you have a job. And if you have a job, you're a commuter. And if you're a commuter you know the sorry state of the roads and transit systems in much of this country.
Taxpayers are the engine of the economy, and yet they have to run a gauntlet of traffic jams equipment, automobile, airplane, rail, bus, etc. breakdowns and delays, just to get to work every day.
And that is, in part, because Congress has been unable to pass a long-term transportation budget since 2005.
It never seems to be the right time. They just can't find the money.
The results are very different when it comes to raising the politicians salaries, dispensing foreign aid to countries that hate us, corruption, meaningless projects, worthless studies, government waste, fighting wars that we have no reason to be involved in, then billions of dollars needed, magically always appear.
Congress has spoken again and says there is so little money that a House committee went ahead with a vote to cut Amtrak's budget the day after the AMTRAK Pennsylvania crash.
And when a reporter brought it up the other day (See Video Above) at House Speaker John Boehner's regular Thursday news conference, he would hear none of it.
"Are you really gonna ask that? That is a stupid question," Boehner said. "Listen, they started this yesterday, "It's all about funding, it's all about funding. Well, obviously it's not about funding; the train was going twice the speed limit."
He meant that you don't make policy because of one accident that was caused by an engineer who messed up.
Missing the entire point, Boehner has neglected to understand the accountability that he has to ensure the safety of our Citizens and to prioritize the necessary funding to accomplish these objectives.
Missing the entire point, Boehner has neglected to understand the accountability that he has to ensure the safety of our Citizens and to prioritize the necessary funding to accomplish these objectives.
So he belittles the question, insults the value of American human lives, and deflects any real answer by blaming the question as being stupid.
Like so many politicians, their stupidity, and total lack of concern about us, ends up in a perverted blame game that never involves the depravity of their corruption, greed, empty brains as being the cause of our problems as a Country.
But if now isn't the time to spend money on our safety, just when will that time be?
Everybody who commutes and sees that commute getting slower and slower has to be asking themselves, since it's commuters like me who pay for this operation that we call the United States of America, why should I have to fight my way to work every day?
Or is that also a stupid question?
