Posted by
Playful Walrus on Tuesday, December 08, 2009 6:05:53 PM
The Associated Press reports about another proposed expansion of federal government.
The Obama administration asked Congress today to give the federal government power to oversee the safety of subways, light rail and other urban train systems.
This might be okay in instances where the system is interstate, but I don't see a desperate need for it.
Currently there are no nationwide minimum standards for rail transit safety, only voluntary standards produced by industry groups.
States and municipalities can set standards.
LaHood also announced the formation of an advisory committee to help develop new safety regulations. The bill would allow states to receive federal transit assistance to staff and train safety inspectors to enforce regulations.
Great - so people who live in states without these systems will be paying taxes to 1) sustain a new federal bureaucracy, and 2) maintain as system they'll never use.
State agencies conducting oversight would be required to be fully financially independent from the transit systems they oversee. At some transit agencies, safety inspectors rely on the systems they oversee for their salaries.
So you'll be paying in your taxes for the oversight, instead of just the people who actually use the system.
The bill would also give the secretary of transportation the option to establish a safety program for public bus systems.
Safety for local buses? How about keeping illegal alien gangsters off of them?
Transit systems carry 14 million passengers daily. That's more than airlines or long-distance passenger railroads, which both get federal safety oversight.
Yes, because those are interstate systems.
Nine people were killed and 70 injured in a subway accident in Washington in June. There have also been recent high-profile accidents on rail transit systems in San Francisco, Boston and Chicago.
There are accidents under federal oversight, too.
One concern is the more than $50-billion maintenance and repair backlog at the nation's seven largest systems, which carry over 80% of rail transit passengers.
So again, let's pay for it by taking it from our neighbors and grandchildren.
Rogoff held up a fist-sized, 65-year-old screw that he said was common in Chicago's transit system, forcing trains to travel no more than 6 mph in some locations or risk an accident.
Hmmm, who do we know from Chicago, that beacon of municipal integrity? Yes, I'm sure this is the result of the sales tax being too low in Chicago.
Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) warned against “a tombstone mentality.” He said that if the government doesn't act until “people die, then it's too late.”
I think we need federal oversight of ACORN. Sure, it hasn't killed anyone (that we know of), but if we wait until people die, then it is too late.
Babies die in abortion clinics every day. Where is the federal oversight?
People die in gang-infested areas every day. There's a better case for federal oversight to deal with that than to regulate buses what should be a private enterprise in the first place.