Let's Cut Some Spending: $2.5 billion for Amtrak

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In our Let's Cut Some Spending series, ForAmerica chronicles the many ways Washington wastes YOUR tax dollars - and as you’ll see, the list is endless.

Today’s offering: $2.5 billion for Amtrak!

The Daily Signal reports:

Amtrak received a hefty $2.5 billion in the most recent omnibus spending package. If Americans used the passenger rail service heavily, that cost might be justified. Amtrak, however, accounts for less than 0.1% of passenger miles traveled, meaning its share of transportation funding is grossly exaggerated.

This is not new. Amtrak was founded in 1971, a time when rail ridership was plummeting. More than 50 years and tens of billions of dollars in total subsidies later, rail travel is still an afterthought for most of the country.

The one exception is the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington—the only part of Amtrak that comes close to breaking even. Most of the Republicans objecting to Amtrak cuts hail from the Northeast, which partially explains their position.

So our dollars are going to subsidize a mode of transportation most Americans don't use but Northeastern elites do?

You don't even have to read between the lines there.

That $2.5 billion needs to be cut. There's no debate.

We're broke!