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DEL.ICIO.USAnother trip across the aisle for Isakson, this time for high-speed passenger rail
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It would be incorrect to call Johnny Isakson a reckless adventurer, a seeker of confrontation and controversy.
But he is by no means shy.
Already the Republican senator has taken flak for engaging — along with colleague Saxby Chambliss — in a bipartisan attempt at an energy bill. Election season is not the time for kumbaya measures, the Rush Limbaughs of America have screamed.
Undeterred, Isakson is about to reach across the aisle again, this time to John Kerry, the Democrat from Boston. The purpose: A revival of this country’s rail system, which — with luck — could give birth to a high-speed passenger train that would careen from Birmingham, through Atlanta, to Washington.
For Isakson, energy is again a motivating force. It takes less of the stuff to push a load of people sideways than to raise them to 35,000 feet — and then push them sideways. Also, high-speed trains can be powered by electricity that’s generated by coal, natural gas, or — if one prefers — nuclear energy.
Oil be damned.
This is no small thing, however. We’re talking the largest reshaping of American infrastructure since Dwight Eisenhower ordered up a duplicate of the German autobahn.
Fiscal conservatives, and Republicans in particular, have wrinkled their noses at passenger rail. Amtrak, the current system, is a corporation wholly owned by the federal government. Operating deficits are picked up by you and me. And there are always operating deficits.
“The funding mechanism is broken. It’s a totally subsidized mess,” Isakson said.
Kerry’s office would not offer any details of the bill that the Massachusetts senator intends to drop sometime this month. But at least one draft is already floating around Atlanta business circles.
Isakson said the bill would fundamentally alter our method of capitalizing rail transportation, putting it on a footing similar to the way we fund airports, freeways and seaports. Governments, a combination of state and federal, would acquire the right-of-way and build tracks. User fees would pay for upkeep, levied by private rail corporations that would live or die on their own performance.
By some accounts, the Kerry legislation also permits the raising of $200 billion via bonds to finance a limited number of high-speed rail lines across the country.
Isakson said he intends to sign on as a co-sponsor to the Kerry measure. It fits neatly with his advocacy of high-speed rail in the South, which stretches back to his days in the U.S. House. He has long envisioned a line from Birmingham to Atlanta through the Carolinas to Richmond, thence to Washington.
“You’ve got to have a spine that’s the backbone,” Isakson said. Lines to places like Chattanooga and Savannah would be the ribs.
Last year, Isakson pushed through a $2 million allocation — matched by state cash — to determine the economic viability of such a line. The study isn’t yet finished.
The Georgia business community is high on the idea. The missing ingredient in any discussion of rail has been political will. But that is changing, fueled by this summer’s waltz with $4-a-gallon gasoline. Gov. Sonny Perdue recently signed on to the concept of commuter rail in the direction of Macon.
The Republican platform approved in St. Paul last week calls for a resolution to America’s dependence on foreign oil “not by changing our lifestyles but by putting the free market to work.”
The wording is inartful at best. Weaning ourselves off the Middle East will require fundamental changes in our lifestyles. In the way we heat our homes, power our television sets and computers and blenders, but most particularly in the way we move from Point A to Point B.
“We’ll never see $2 -a-gallon gasoline again,” Isakson said.
Photo credits: Rick McKay/Cox Washington Bureau, Associated Press
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Comments
By John
September 7, 2008 5:06 PM | Link to this
Once again Isakson not only preaches but practices what he preaches and does what’s best for his country not just his political party. His job as a senator is to work with the members of the senate to alter public policy in a positive manner despite their political party. He never seems to have trouble doing this.
By Ga Values
September 7, 2008 5:27 PM | Link to this
John
Strange I thought a Senator was there to wisely spend our money.. Johnny has become a big spending, big government RINO. He worse than Teddy Kennedy.
By Fat Guy With a Little Horn
September 7, 2008 5:37 PM | Link to this
High Def Low Def Seems to me he is trying to solve problems maybe he’s a a* but I will think the better of him and u until u or him prove otherwise that is what solves issues trust and belief i the goodness of mankind
By Craig
September 7, 2008 5:41 PM | Link to this
A positive manner? What to create larger government and spend tax dollars on means that 98% of Americans would not use and cannot afford to use? Sounds like he’s on the Biden train of creating another means for HIM to get to work. Again, the means to benefit the majority of America on energy when the economy is suffering is shoved to the side. Go Johnny go and take Saxby with you!
By Tom Ga Hunter Values
September 7, 2008 5:48 PM | Link to this
I think I hate Johnny and much as I hate Saxby. I wonder if I need to double the dosage?
By Buckhead Biff
September 7, 2008 6:18 PM | Link to this
Bar food is atrocious today. What has happened to the hamburger, steak@cheese pulleaze somethings gotta give who will fight for the corndog, I will reporting for duty Buckhead Biff 4oe’sho’
By Bartkowski Bloviator
September 7, 2008 6:43 PM | Link to this
Runneth my athletic cup over send Captain Kirk right over hip to the hop to the growth on Joe Rogan sloppy like your momma’s home mad sloppy joe
By SouthPeach
September 7, 2008 9:41 PM | Link to this
You people kill me….the legislators, Democrat or Republican are damned if they do and damned if they don’t!!! We’ve got to do something to stop the hemmoraging of oil coming from foreign countries. Plus, the airline companies need some competition. Anything suggested by either side…you find something wrong with the idea. This is the reason gas has been at $4.00 a gallon. We just keep bickering and the Eastern countries just keep getting richer. They love America.
By Janis
September 7, 2008 10:15 PM | Link to this
Isackson, or however you spell his name is useless. Pandering to the local military industrial neocons. He sold out to the big business interests a long time ago. Send him packing in the next election. He probably thinks the wicked witch of the North, palin, is a good thing for the US.
By Ga Values
September 8, 2008 6:06 AM | Link to this
Tom Ga Hunter Values / Churchil
You big spending LIBERALS are destroying our country. If Johnny is going to back McCain he needs to cut out throwing away the taxpayer’s moneys, I know your man OBAMA is a tax & spender but a GEORGIA Senator should act like a Republican not a Democrat.
By The Snark
September 8, 2008 9:03 AM | Link to this
Long term planning? Sound governance? Working with the other side to advance the nation’s interest?
BORING.
Let’s let the problems fester, call people names on talk radio, and blame “liberals”! Its more fun, and so much easier than actually learning enough about complex issues to have a worthwhile opinion!
By Ga Values
September 8, 2008 9:12 AM | Link to this
The Snark
Wasting money is wasting money, it is Congress’s job to get value for our taxes, this is simply Johnny putting money in the pocket of some of his friends. If this were worth while privite industry would do it.
By Tom
September 8, 2008 9:39 AM | Link to this
Yes, if it were worthwhile, private industry would do it - just like private industry built the interstate highway system.
By DD
September 8, 2008 9:51 AM | Link to this
You think private industry didn’t build the railroads?
The scary thing is always when you marry government subsidies together with private capital. The taxpayers get the shaft.
By DCS
September 8, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this
Your last paragraph is pregnant with implications for the way we Americans view life and living. Will we be sufficiently wise, self-disciplined, and resolute to retain all our cultural aspects which make us worthy to lead a free world? Only time and our history will tell.
By Junk
September 8, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this
That’s right. It is wasting money to have trains instead of letting oil companies drill wherever they want.
McCain is a maveric who is different. He is not a RINO at all. This is why Republicans are so anxious to vote for him.
and the “Liberal” media just sacked Kieth Olberman’s position as anchor on MSNBC. Let’s see. O’riely still has his position as do the ‘anchors’ at Fox News. But the media is liberal.
Sarah Palin shoots wolves from helicopters.
By Sarah Palin
September 8, 2008 10:54 AM | Link to this
Oh look, Palin is having an ‘interview’ on ABC.
She can dish it out to reporters, but she can’t take it.
Let’s see her in a real press conference where people can ask her REAL questions.
Even PUTIN has press conferences.
And she likes to shoot wolves from helicopters.
By beachmom
September 8, 2008 11:39 AM | Link to this
This is excellent. It seems that even GOP senators down here are facing the reality that we can’t travel by cars and planes alone. I would love to see a high speed rail here and am thrilled that Senator Kerry will be introducing the bill, and that Isakson is planning on signing on. This will be money well spent.
By BPJ
September 8, 2008 11:39 AM | Link to this
Let’s keep the comments on track (couldn’t resist). We are the only advanced country with a third-world passenger train network. It is appropriate for the federal government to build transportation infrastructure, as the framers of the Constitution provided.
Please don’t tell us that road construction & maintenance “pays for itself” through gas taxes, because: (a) it isn’t true now, and (b) as cars become more fuel efficient, gas taxes will provide less and less.
Rail travel benefits everyone by taking cars off the road (even much-maligned MARTA rail takes over 100,000 cars off the road everyday). Passenger rail makes sense for middle-distance trips, which are a bit far to drive but not so far that flying is more sensible. Examples from & to Atlanta would be Birmingham, Chattanooga, Savannah, Charlotte, etc. Current Amtrak takes longer than driving; available technology widely used elsewhere would be faster than driving.
If you think it’s expensive, consider the cost of building a new airport, or even another runway! Take some of those short-range flights off the runways every day, and we won’t need a new runway.
Senator Isakson got significantly more votes in Ga. than Pres. Bush did in 2004; i.e., some people who voted for John Kerry for Pres. also voted for Isakson for Senator. Isakson is not just the Senator for the most right-wing, government-is-evil branch of the Republican party, and most Georgians are thankful.
By beachmom
September 8, 2008 11:44 AM | Link to this
This is excellent. It seems that even GOP senators down here are facing the reality that we can’t travel by cars and planes alone. I would love to see a high speed rail here and am thrilled that Senator Kerry will be introducing the bill, and that Isakson is planning on signing on. This will be money well spent.
By BillW
September 8, 2008 11:55 AM | Link to this
Investors no longer willing to invest in treasury bonds and state and local bonds would constitute governmental insolvency/bankrupcy. Then what? Let’s see if we can finance pork barrel projects on a barter economy.
By Jim bo
September 8, 2008 1:33 PM | Link to this
Johnny is kniffing McCain in the back again,, Big spending PORK project with NO RETURN except for his connected Buddies. Johnny & Kerry what a pair, Johnny should officially change parties, He acts like a borrow & spend DEMOCRAT not a conservative Republican like we thought we were electing.
By Mableton Mom
September 8, 2008 1:39 PM | Link to this
I have known Johnny for over 30 years. All I can say is that Senator Isakson is not the same person we sent to Washington 4 years ago. Another good Georgia boy who has been lost to the Lobbyist of Washington.
By Aaron Burr V. Morph
September 8, 2008 3:43 PM | Link to this
Amen and Hallejuiah!
The Redumblican party is all better now! Its reformed I tell ya!
Isaakson is a ‘big liberal spender’ cause he wants you know, something besides ‘Drill Fer Oil!’ like Yosimitee Sam, and all of those OTHER Redumblican leaders, they’re all better now.
Vote for them. Cause the party is changed. McCain will fix things! He’s a MAVERIC!
He’s Crazy! He’s insane!
Well he must be because he chose a V.P. who likes to shoot wolves out of helicopters and watch them die for days on end.
Shows you how much better a McCain cabinet is gonna be than Bush’s…
Oh lightyears of difference.
By WAW
September 9, 2008 5:00 AM | Link to this
Republicans just slay me… all this President Palen junk about reform and change… VP McCain (the front man) since he is the only one who has reached… period… I just look forward to the day that Johnny is our Senior Senator! He’s a statesman.