A Minnesota Rep in Congress Wants to Kill Amtrak

One of Minnesota’s elected members of Congress, Republican Michelle Bachmann, is an idiot.

I am perfectly willing to treat with consideration and respect thoughtful politicians with whom I have an honest difference of opinion.

But not Michelle Bachmann. Because she is an idiot. The litany of irrational and just-plain-crazy statements this woman has made is almost endless. Lest you have any doubt, look her up and peruse her record at any responsible non-partisan source.

And now Bachmann has submitted an amendment to a funding bill that would eliminate Amtrak‘s capital and debt service grant for next year. Translation: It would kill Amtrak within a matter of months.

In a letter to Congress, Amtrak’s president, Joe Boardman, says Bachmann’s amendment “would deny intercity passenger rail service to 29 million people in over 500 communities in 46 states.”

Ross Capon, President and CEO of NARP, the National Association of Railroad Passengers, says Bachmann’s amendment would mean that Amtrak could not make it’s debt service payments and that “would enable lenders to repossess about 3/4 of Amtrak’s rolling stock.”

Capon adds, “Elimination of the capital budget would set the railroad on a quick death spiral.”

Bachmann is one of the “leaders” of the Tea Party movement.

She is an idiot.

Postscript: By an ironic coincidence, one of the better manufacturers of model train sets is — are you ready? — Bachmann Trains! No relation, I would guess.