I wish Mica would tell us how much profit the air traffic control system makes for the government. Oops, it doesn’t.
Second verse. Same as the first. Rep. Mica Mouse, sorry Mickey, just doesn’t get it. When Amtrak was created, it got the right to operate on the freight railroads. Do you think that the freight railroads would grant permission for private railroads to operate on their property? Or, would they have to build their own right of way? By the way Mickey, I know that your father Walt loved trains!
John Mica is typical of the corrupt GOP pols so frequently found in Florida. This guy gets a lot of money from airlines for his campaigns. His ward, Dave Schuster, is a car dealer from Greensburg Pa. Mica couldn’t be trusted to handle the estate on a crib death.
Why has this clown been allowed to be on the House Transportation and Infrastucture Commitee for Sooo long? This bozo is totally counter productive. Why doesn’t he rail against the hugh subsidies that the nation’s highways and airline receive? Hopefully this Mica clown will soon leave.
I could be wrong; but it seems any modern country in this world today depends on modern passenger rail. I’d believe that most, if not all subsidize passenger rail to a great extent. The USA subsidizes trucking, airlines to mention a few.
We wouldn’t need an Amtrak if the government had stayed out of the transportation business in the 1940s. Instead, Washington poured billions into railroading’s competitors, and drove the private operators out of the business. Look at the Interstate system – virtuallty every route parallels a formerly well-patronized rail main line. But Ike managed to draw the wrong conclusion from every experience he had with transport, and instead of seeing the contributions of the U. S. rail industry, he saw the Autobahn.
Just think – no Interstates, self-supporting air travel for the few who could afford to fly, and an extensive rail system operated by the private sector. But with the air and highway interests still getting their subsidies, no one in his right mind would attempt to develop a rail system to compete.
Toronto, Canada, With all due respect to Mr John Mica he is beating a dead horse…David Gunn and Joe Boardman both know the private sector will not invest more than a small amount into Via Rail or Amtrak, so this is a non issue…Mr Mica may want to focus on helping to improve the north American rail system just look at Japan, France and Germany with there great rail systems… How much private investment do they have?
Toronto, Canada, With all due respect to Mr John Mica he is beating a dead horse…David Gunn and Joe Boardman both know the private sector will not invest more than a small amount into Via Rail or Amtrak, so this is a non issue…Mr Mica may want to focus on helping to improve the north American rail system just look at Japan, France and Germany with there great rail systems… How much private investment do they have?
Toronto, Canada, With all due respect to Mr John Mica he is beating a dead horse…David Gunn and Joe Boardman both know the private sector will not invest more than a small amount into Via Rail or Amtrak, so this is a non issue…Mr Mica may want to focus on helping to improve the north American rail system just look at Japan, France and Germany with there great rail systems… How much private investment do they have?
Toronto, Canada, With all due respect to Mr John Mica he is beating a dead horse…David Gunn and Joe Boardman both know the private sector will not invest more than a small amount into Via Rail or Amtrak, so this is a non issue…Mr Mica may want to focus on helping to improve the north American rail system just look at Japan, France and Germany with there great rail systems… How much private investment do they have?
Toronto, Canada, With all due respect to Mr John Mica he is beating a dead horse…David Gunn and Joe Boardman both know the private sector will not invest more than a small amount into Via Rail or Amtrak, so this is a non issue…Mr Mica may want to focus on helping to improve the north American rail system just look at Japan, France and Germany with there great rail systems… How much private investment do they have?
Toronto, Canada, With all due respect to Mr John Mica he is beating a dead horse…David Gunn and Joe Boardman both know the private sector will not invest more than a small amount into Via Rail or Amtrak, so this is a non issue…Mr Mica may want to focus on helping to improve the north American rail system just look at Japan, France and Germany with there great rail systems… How much private investment do they have?
Toronto, Canada, With all due respect to Mr John Mica he is beating a dead horse…David Gunn and Joe Boardman both know the private sector will not invest more than a small amount into Via Rail or Amtrak, so this is a non issue…Mr Mica may want to focus on helping to improve the north American rail system just look at Japan, France and Germany with there great rail systems… How much private investment do they have?
Toronto, Canada, With all due respect to Mr John Mica he is beating a dead horse…David Gunn and Joe Boardman both know the private sector will not invest more than a small amount into Via Rail or Amtrak, so this is a non issue…Mr Mica may want to focus on helping to improve the north American rail system just look at Japan, France and Germany with there great rail systems… How much private investment do they have?
Toronto, Canada, With all due respect to Mr John Mica he is beating a dead horse…David Gunn and Joe Boardman both know the private sector will not invest more than a small amount into Via Rail or Amtrak, so this is a non issue…Mr Mica may want to focus on helping to improve the north American rail system just look at Japan, France and Germany with there great rail systems… How much private investment do they have?
Toronto, Canada, With all due respect to Mr John Mica he is beating a dead horse…David Gunn and Joe Boardman both know the private sector will not invest more than a small amount into Via Rail or Amtrak, so this is a non issue…Mr Mica may want to focus on helping to improve the north American rail system just look at Japan, France and Germany with there great rail systems… How much private investment do they have?
Mica is not pushing a Soviet style government. He believes transportation should not be a government service and that passenger trains could make a profit in private hands. The fact is, they used to until the government started subsidizing the competition. Maybe if highway and airport user fees were increased to fully cover the cost of highways and airports, passenger trains could be returned to the private sector. This would actually be a conservative solution since if highways and airports were run by private corporations, they would raise the user fees to more than cover costs. This approach, however, would require Mica and other conservatives to recognize that fuel taxes and airport fees are user fees, not taxes. By the way, there are some conservatives who support passenger rail.
The rest of the developed world has learned this lesson: Mass, public transportation doesn’t happen without government investment. Why is it so difficult for this man to understand this?
Privatizing would cost Amtrak its “right of eminent domain” which guarantees their access to the freight railroads, which was agreed to in 1971. Most freight railroads now would be super-happy to get rid of all passenger trains. It would be a collosal mistake.
Mica is crazy if he thinks a for profit corporation will invest money in a passenger service operation.