Posted on 07/16/2005 3:08:50 PM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats accused President Bush and his fellow Republicans in Congress on Saturday of failing to do enough to prevent London-type bombing strikes on the nation's mass-transit system.
They argued that while the government has dug deep into its financial pockets to bolster airline security since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, relatively little has been done to better protect trains and buses.
"In the past four years, the federal government has spent about $9 per flying passenger, but only 1 cent per transit passenger," Rep. Robert Menendez (news, bio, voting record) of New Jersey said in delivering his Democratic Party's weekly radio address.
"While the money we spend on aviation security is absolutely necessary, we cannot afford to forsake public transportation security," said Menendez.
"The president's refusal to acknowledge this reality in his budget is putting the lives of Americans needlessly at risk," Menendez said.
Menendez's aggressive tone underscored the increased political squabbling in the war on terrorism, and came a month after White House adviser Karl Rove riled Democrats by charging that liberals responded weakly to the Sept. 11 attacks.
This week, the Republican-led U.S. Senate approved $31 billion for airport, border and other domestic security -- after defeating efforts to significantly increase spending for protection for mass transit in the wake of last week's London bombings.
Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), a New York Democrat, blasted Bush's secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, for saying states and localities had to bear the brunt of safeguarding mass transit.
Other critics noted that American mass transit systems carry 16 times more passengers each day than aviation, and argued the federal government needs to spend more to shield them.
Menendez, in the radio address, said, "The subway and bus bombings in London once again caught the world's attention, but were unfortunately just another reminder that public transportation is a favorite target for terrorists."
"We have been fortunate so far in this country that we have not been hit by terrorist attacks on our buses or trains," Menendez said. "But as world events keep reminding us, we can not afford to be complacent."
But they have no problem with him maintaining a porous southern border that is an open door to any and all muslims terrorists who want to kill innocent Americans.
OK lets beef up security on planes,trains and automobiles so long as profiling IS part of the package.
Really, whats new? Surprise, surprise.
And if we increase the security they will whine that we are living in a police state
They criticize with fingers crossed behind their backs .... hoping for a train bombing....just not close to them or their property.
They can go pound sand!!!
How about a radical solution; shut most of them down.
They would be up in arms if he did
Pork, Pork, Pork.
They would be up in arms if he did anything. See the Patriot Act for details.
If the islamofascists had blown up a roller coaster, the Dems would be screaming the President hasn't done enough about amusement park and circus security. They have truly gone insane.
Exactly. No matter what the president does, it's never good enough for them
I wonder how many of those democrats voted against hiring more border patrol agents yesterday.
Let 'em do it. Bush is teflon when it comes to the terror issue. They'll just look even more stupid, if such a thing is possible. This from a party who would handle terror, from the Janet Reno Justice Department.
"Democrats hit Bush on security of buses, trains"
Why didn't they hit him on border security?
Maybe if cities weren't spending homeland security money for things such as garbage trucks, they might be able to devote more to mass transit... Outside of calls for more federal spending, I seem to have missed any substantive suggestions by the whining Democrats quoted in the article. Oh, sorry, what a foolish idea to actually think that Democrats such as Schumer or Menendez could possibly make substantive suggestions...
Right on
We will never be able to secure public transportation 100% (I am afraid to put an actual % guess). We need to stop the terrorists well before they step on the bus wearing their backpacks!!!!!
That's simple to fix. We just spend Nine dollars per bus passenger, and add a nine dollar "security surcharge" to the ticket price. For the added peace of mind, I'm sure everyone will gladly pay nine dollars extra every time they ride a bus.
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