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View Full Version : Obama spends $600 million on rail projects that benefit private companies




CaseyJones
12-02-2013, 02:21 PM
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/12/02/210101/obama-spends-600-million-on-rail.html


The railroad industry brags in its national publicity campaign that it spends billions of dollars improving its infrastructure “so taxpayers don’t have to.”

But the ads don’t tell everything. The nation’s freight rail network has been the quiet recipient of more than $600 million in federal investment during the Obama administration.

According to Federal Railroad Administration numbers, at least half that amount has gone to projects that benefit the nation’s four largest railroads, the same companies at the heart of the industry’s ubiquitous “Freight Rail Works” campaign.

That doesn’t even include tens of millions more that states have contributed for additional investment in ports and high-speed passenger trains that’s boosted the nation’s freight railroads.

thoughtomator
12-02-2013, 02:23 PM
Not at all connected to mega-Obama-supporter/donor Warren Buffett buying Burlington Northern railroad at the very beginning of the Obama administration, I'm sure.

Zippyjuan
12-02-2013, 02:26 PM
Congress controls spending- not Presidents. They write all spending bills. He only signs them. Most of the US railroads are run by those four groups so it would not be surprising that they got most of the money if it was allocated by their relative sizes. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ba1227d4-ccd8-11e0-88fe-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2mFteOMq3