HR 2577 - Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriation: No.
HR 2577 - Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriation: No. Although this appropriation fits within the overall architecture of the budget, it is so stuffed with wasteful spending that I cannot vote for it. Federal interstate highways, railways, airways and harbors that link the nation together are vital and legitimate federal responsibilities that should be – and once were – paid by the users of these facilities. Instead, this bill offers a grab-bag of taxpayer-funded subsidies – billions of dollars for Amtrak's money losing operations and for local streets and roads that ought to be funded locally. Worse, it continues to lavishly fund such outlandishly wasteful programs as the widely ridiculed "Essential Air Services" (that pays for near-empty flights from small rural airports that are often just an hour's drive from regional hubs) and the Community Development Block Grant Program (that funds such travesties as "Doggie Day Care" and sidewalk decorations). Worst of all, it continues the practice of raiding desperately needed highway construction dollars to prop up failing mass transit programs.