Posted by admin on February 4, 2010 under Congress, Supreme Court | Comments are off for this article
Since the majority of the Supreme Court decided the problem with American democracy was not enough corporate influence, much has been written about so called corporate person-hood. But now, finally one brave corporation has decided to take it to the next level:
And we thought the legislative branch was broken before this decision? I, for one, can hardly wait for the new bought and paid for congress.
Buried in the $800 Billion stimulus package is $8 Billion for high speed rail in the United States. It’s the most serious investment in commuter rail service in the nations history.
Additionally President Obama intends to ask for a further $1 Billion a year for high speed rail in his budget request to congress, starting with the 2010 budget.
High speed rail was one of Obama’s campaign pledges, speaking in Indiana during the campaign he said:
“The time is right now for us to start thinking about high-speed rail as an alternative to air transportation connecting all these cities. And think about what a great project that would be in terms of rebuilding America.”(Source)
Despite this campaign pledge apparently Congressional Republicans apparently overlooked the importance of High Speed Rail to the president as they tried to stymie all the major projects that the President was looking for such as building new schools, or modernizing the energy grid.
Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine and Specter of Pennsylvania, Republican moderates who had criticized Obama’s school construction program were more accepting of the rail funds, since the Northeast corridor is a major beneficiary of rail improvements.
Rahm Emanuel said of the rail provision, “the president wanted to have a signature issue in the bill, his commitment for the future.” (Source)
Comments are off for this article 
