Trump Axes Obama NY/NJ Amtrak Deal, Saves Taxpayers Billions
While he was in office, former President Barack Obama worked out a $13 billion rail tunnel for two deep-blue Democrat states in which U.S. taxpayers would be paying for half of the bill. Luckily for the American people, President Donald Trump is in office now to put a stop to this overpriced project.
According to Fox News, the plan was supposed to renovate Amtrak tunnels and tracks between New York state and New Jersey that have fallen into disrepair.
Amtrak contends that these tracks and tunnels are so bad that they “could fail within 10 to 15 years, threatening daily rail transportation in the Northeast.”
However, the issue isn’t whether the repairs should be made. The issue is with who will pay for them.
Under the original plan, the costs would be split up three ways between New York state, New Jersey, and the federal government.
That would have been a pretty good deal for New York and New Jersey by itself — getting a sizable chunk of the project paid for by the federal government when they are the states that benefit the most.
Being liberals, though, that evidently wasn’t good enough.
According to Fox, the two states have started to back out of their end of the deal. They now want to make up their payments using loans from the federal government. In other words, pay nothing at all for themselves up front, while the rest of the country picks up the tab for improvements to a transportation system overwhelmingly used by residents of New York, New Jersey and other Northeastern states.
As a result, according to Fox, K. Jane Williams — deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration — sent New York and New Jersey a letter stating “that the Obama-era deal was now ‘non-existent’ because the states recently requested that their portions be covered by loans from the federal government — meaning Washington would supply all of the initial funding for what the Trump White House is calling ‘a local project.'”
Of course, not everyone is happy about Williams’ letter — especially the Democrat states that were trying to get a deal from the taxpayers in the rest of the country.
According to Fox, Gateway Development Corp., the project overseer composed of representatives of New York, New Jersey and Amtrak called the federal letter “posturing” and said “we are confident that the Trump Administration will engage with us as the President turns to infrastructure in 2018.”
Social media users, though, questioned the reasoning of why other U.S. taxpayers should pay for something overwhelmingly benefits only two states.
Why should taxpayers in South Dakota or South Carolina have to chip in for a rail tunnel for Jersey commuters who work in New York? Pay for the damn project out of the fare box or forget it. https://t.co/KkUWq4iwzI
— Scott St. Clair (@PiperScott1949) December 31, 2017
Later this month, Trump is expected to unveil his 2018 $1 trillion national infrastructure plan.
This letter, though, leaves some doubt that these repairs will be part of it.
The states just need to pony up the money and help fix their own infrastructure. The federal government can help, but it’s time these liberal states pull their share of the load as well instead of putting the financial burden on the rest of the American taxpayers.
H/T BizPac Review
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