Amtrak crash shows the high cost of ignoring infrastructure

Market Watch ^ | May 13, 2015 | By Rex Nutting

[Oldeconomybuyer]

America is crumbling before our eyes. Once, the U.S. was the envy of the world with its modern roads, airports, railroad bridges and other infrastructure.

Everything was first-class.

Now, it’s third-rate.

An Amtrak passenger train derailed Tuesday in Philadelphia, killing at least seven passengers.

The investigation into the crash is only beginning, and it’s too early to say what caused it. But it’s not too early to say that Amtrak’s crumbling infrastructure didn’t help matters.

“It’s an extremely heavily used stretch of track,” transportation analyst Matthew L. Wald told CNN, referring to the area where the train derailed Tuesday night. “They have trouble keeping it in a state of good repair.”

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[2banana]

Wow - so a train going 100 mph when it should have been going 50 mph is the fault of the infrastructure?

Never let a crisis go to waste...

[KC_Lion]

(Sigh)

What is your Take on this Publius?

[Dilbert San Diego]

Wasn’t porkukus supposed to go to infrastructure???

[Morpheus2009]

But I thought that they dumped countless billions into renewing infrastructure, must have done a $(&;& job for all that money.

[DoughtyOne]

Yes, but no other nation on earth hands out more payola to it’s citizens for votes.

[kevslisababy]

It was just reported that it is believed that this crash was caused by human error.

Plus, remember about 4-5 years ago.....all those “shovel ready” jobs and the supposed spending on infrastructure? I think it was called the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. What happened to all that money that was to go to our “crumbling infrastructure and jump starting our economy”?

[Yosemitest]

The DemocRATS have embezzled all the funds that was suppose to go for infrastructure and given it to their criminals.

Only idiots and the evil voted for Obama, or ANY of the Democrats.
They've lied to us, constantly, and really are "Collapsing the System".
And now, these "Useful IDIOTS" who voted for them, are buying the lies that "Obamacare was designed to work." ?
It was designed to fail from the start.
THEN ... THEY GO TO THE "SINGLE-PAYER SYSTEM".

Flashback: Obama's Campaign to Transition to Single Payer Health Care (VIDEO)


obama master plan on health careover the years in his own words--SINGLE PAYER!!! ( 3:38 )

They've been sucking our wallets dry for over four years now on the "Obamacare" LIE.
AND NOW THEY WANT MORE TAXES ?
Our Founding Fathers would have hung them already!

Lets review:

Who was it that cut future funding for Medicare by $575 billion?

...the president and the Democratic Party successfully bamboozle voters... The 2012 election could turn on this falsehood.
The truth is that the Obama health law reduces future funding for Medicare by $575 billion over the next 10 years ...

Mr. Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius frequently make that false claim.
Indeed, even Medicare's mailings to seniors repeat the claim that reducing spending on Medicare will make it more financially secure for future years.
The fact is that Mr. Obama's law raids Medicare.

Who was it that moved Medicare Trust Funds out of the "trust box" and into the General Revenue, replacing them with Government I.O.U.s?
"In early 1968 President Lyndon Johnson [DEMOCRAT] made a change in the budget presentation by including Social Security and all other trust funds in a"unified budget." "

Who was it that expanded Medicare and Medicaid to cover many, many more people than it was originally designed to cover?

The History of Medicare

In 1965, the Social Security Act established both Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare was a responsibility of the Social Security Administration (SSA), while Federal assistance to the State Medicaid programs was administered by the Social and Rehabilitation Service (SRS). SSA and SRS were agencies in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). In 1977, the Health Care Financing Administration was created under HEW to effectively coordinate Medicare and Medicaid. In 1980 HEW was divided into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The first U.S. President to propose a prepaid health insurance plan was Harry S. Truman [DEMOCRAT]. On November 19, 1945, in a special message to Congress, President Truman outlined a comprehensive, prepaid medical insurance plan for all people through the Social Security system. The plan included doctors and hospitals, and nursing, laboratory, and dental services; it was dubbed "National Health Insurance." Furthermore, medical insurance benefits for needy people were to be financed from Federal revenues.

Over the years, lawmakers narrowed the field of health insurance recipients largely to social security beneficiaries. A national survey found that only 56 percent of those 65 years of age or older had health insurance. President John F. Kennedy [DEMOCRAT] pressed legislators for health insurance for the aged. However, it wasn't until 1965 that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed H.R. 6675 (The Social Security Act of 1965; PL 89-97) to provide health insurance for the elderly and the poor.

On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed the Medicare and Medicaid Bill (Title XVIII and Title XIX of the Social Security Act) in Independence, Missouri in the presence of former President Truman, who received the first Medicare card at the ceremony; Lady Bird Johnson, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, and Mrs. Truman also were present. President Johnson remarked: "We marvel not simply at the passage of this Bill but that it took so many years to pass it."

Medicare extended health coverage to almost all Americans aged 65 or older. About 19 million beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare in the first year of the program. Medicaid provided access to health care services for certain low-income persons and expanded the existing Federal-State welfare structure that assisted the poor.

The 1972 Social Security Amendments expanded Medicare to provide coverage to two additional high risk groups disabled persons receiving cash benefits for 24 months under the social security program and persons suffering from end-stage renal disease.

...(continued at link)

So Democrats,

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE
FOR INSURING THE FAILURE
OF THE MEDICARE/MEDICAID PROGRAM,
and now YOU DEMOCRATS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INTENTIONAL DESTRUCTION OF THE U.S.A. ECONOMY!!!

So DEMOCRATS ... SHUT UP!!!

You have no integrity!!!

Sen Mark Kirk's statement Thursday, Dec 1, 2011 ...

"There are 55 million Social Security beneficiaries that will see little or no extra cash from this 2012 tax holiday; instead, the dedicated payroll contributions meant to pay for future benefits are being diverted from the Trust Fund
and replaced with Treasury debt that does not even have a AAA credit rating.
Social Security was designed to be independent and free from the danger of Congressional manipulation,
and maintaining the firewall between the Social Security Trust Fund and general government funding is the best way to maintain the solvency of this important program.
Neither bill protects the Social Security Trust Fund
so I voted no. "

It's not our fault that DEMOCRATS raided the Social Security Trust Fund.
Let's remember ...

Not ALL are to blame for the empty lock box.

It's the Democrats Communists.

Let's take a deeper look.

Obama: "I Don't Want the Folks who Created the Mess to do a lot of Talking" "

Okay, then the DEMOCRATS need to shut up!!!

[Responsibility2nd]

Where’s Chet99 when we need him?

HE would tell us what went wrong.

[Herodes]

Who remembers the “Pork-u-los” bill? Over $800 Billion was given to Obama to distribute to America’s infrastructure. Bridges, roads, railways...shovel ready jobs.

Joe Biden was tasked with tracking every dollar that was spent.

Where did the $800 Billion go?????

[DoughtyOne]

I wonder if half a trillion dollars per year would go very far in helping to repair and replace crumbling infrastructure.

I wonder if the spending of those funds on something tangible, and hiring some of the people on welfare to do part of the work would make at least some sense?

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

LMAO! Like clockwork.

[DoughtyOne]

Very good question.

[nikos1121]

Yeah... infrastructure. Forget the fact the train was going too fast. Do we know why? Engineer drunk? Give the private sector the opportunity to run some of these routes and let’s see what happens. Maybe the Post Office too. The federal gov’t does nothing very well except our military.

[nikos1121]

Unions...

[DemforBush]

Well, we see another Democratic 2016 wedge issue coming to light...

[xrmusn]

For those that raise the question of countless BO bucks going (or supposedly) going to ‘infrastructure’, I will remind all of the trillions spent on the levees, dams etc in New Orleans so if a Hurricane hit there would be no problem.

We know how that worked...even if a ‘fools mission’ the fact remains trillions went to the project.

Like Libs and the Great Society etc etc etc...

Like it was said of New Orleans...God must have a sense of humor— building a city 5 feet below sea level and filling it full of Liberals - in a hurricane zone...

[dead]

"We don't know why the train crashed. What we do know is that government should spend more money that they don't have to fix the problem."

Always the same.

[Iron Munro]

The Democrats gave Obama almost $900 billion dollars to fix the country's infrastructure but he pee'd it away on windmills, elctric cars and handouts to his pals.

Remember "Shovel Ready Jobs"?

[Starboard]

“no other nation on earth hands out more payola to it’s citizens for votes”

**************
Citizens and non-citizens alike.