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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Politics Why would Obama drop Public Transit Spending?

Posted by Chicago Fan on Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 11:28 AM

Not to be too cynical, but Erica's last post about the Obama Economic stimulus plan, and the apparent cut of billions to be spent on Public Transportation, misses some Illinois connections. Ray Lahood is now the Transportation Secretary, and this former Republican congressman is beholden for his political career to the crooked politicians of Illinois, especially Republican boss William "Big Bill" Cellini. Cellini's other nickname? The Asphalt King. Gee, I wonder why we'd be getting more roads than trains. . . For a recap on this, along with the Burris-Blagojevich angle, go to John Kass here. Money quote (in more ways than one):

Yet the big winners in the Tombstone Burris affair are William Cellini, the federally indicted Illinois Republican boss of Springfield and the head of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association, and Cellini's pal, former U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Combine), who didn't have to worry about opposition as long as Cellini backed him.

LaHood, who like Burris has not been charged with any crime, is scheduled to appear Wednesday for his Senate confirmation hearing as Obama's transportation secretary. He'll be responsible for spending $700 billion or more on road and infrastructure development. Tombstone can make speeches. Cellini can make one phone call and reach the Obama administration where it counts.

Comments (9) RSS

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Not to mention, LaHood's old district is the home of Caterpillar. No one seems to be picking up on this... have people not heard of Caterpillar? They make those big yellow backhoes and whatnot. Although I'm not sure Caterpillar equipment is particularly suited for roads as opposed to rail. Anyway, Caterpillar, people, Caterpillar.

Posted by minderbender on January 22, 2009 at 11:45 AM

Obama is a seasoned realist.

He knows what really needs to be done, and is rightly distancing himself from light rail nutters.

Posted by Mounds Bar on January 22, 2009 at 11:58 AM

I think the real nutters are the ones who will not open their eyes to the fact that Obama is, in fact, mortal. Furthermore that he is a politician. I like Obama and will give him the benefit of the doubt on most things, at least until something truly egregious in his policy comes along. This transportation bill smells and I don't think we should simply bury our heads in the sand and say "Obama will do the right thing". The nutwings did that for 8 years with Bush, let's not ape them for the next 8 years.

Posted by growing weary of the blind on January 22, 2009 at 12:11 PM

Well at least he's shown he's not a muslim by showing how fond he is of pork.

Posted by kinaidos on January 22, 2009 at 12:15 PM

@3 - The corollary to that is people who see something they don't like and then throw their hands up thinking it's all over, we've been betrayed, and it's no use ever trying to get anything out of Obama ever again. We saw a lot of these histrionics with the Rick Warren debacle (he's thrown the gays under the bus! now he's going to be doing the right-wing's bidding! gays will be sent to gulags!), and we're seeing it now with transit.

Fer chrissakes, people, Obama is mortal. He's not all-good nor is he all-bad. The important thing is that I think he's somebody we can work with. We may not always get everything we want but - as always - it's up to us to work for it.

Posted by DavidG on January 22, 2009 at 12:18 PM

@4: You win comment of the year. I'm gonna celebrate with pork chops and ribs.

Posted by Chicago Fan on January 22, 2009 at 12:18 PM

My guess is he's realizing the highest impact is actually other forms of rail - as that is used by industry and commerce, not just commuters - and is following the metrics on usage and impact.

Plus, to be frank, it's a lot quicker to build roads.

The important question is, will they be validating the workers on these projects are actually US citizens?

Posted by Will in Seattle on January 22, 2009 at 12:27 PM

@2, yeah, the experience of basically every other industrialized country in the world shows that rail can't possibly be an effective way of moving people around.

Posted by Eric F on January 22, 2009 at 1:06 PM

Can we repair our over-freighted RR tracks so passenger trains can travel at speeds over 45 m.p.h.?

Posted by Amelia on January 22, 2009 at 3:01 PM