Rand Paul's Weird Fixation on Slashing Bike Lane and Sidewalk Funding

[n2doc]

by SARAH GOODYEAR

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky wants to fix the federal Transportation-Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill with a couple of super-important amendments.

First of all, the budget-conscious senator wants us to stop sending military money to Egypt, because, “based upon current law, which the United States is legally prohibited from providing foreign assistance to nations that experience a military coups d'état [sic].” The money saved, per his amendment, would go to repair bridges here in the United States.

Another amendment Paul is pushing to get money for bridge repair? He wants to cut all funding to the Transportation Alternatives Fund, which pays for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, environmental mitigation, safe routes to school projects, and other initiatives to make it easier for people not in cars to get around without being killed.

If Paul has his way, the $800 million in the program – roughly the federal equivalent of the change you’d find in your couch, representing just 2 percent of total federal transportation dollars – would also be redirected to fixing the nation's bridges.

What good would that do for Paul’s home state of Kentucky, to take one example? Well, as Tanya Snyder pointed out last week at Streetsblog, not a whole lot. The state receives less than $13 million in Transportation Alternatives funding, of which it can already divert half to whatever it wants. The Federal Highway Administration estimates the state needs $952 million to fix its bridge-related problems.

more

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/07/rand-pauls-weird-fixation-slashing-pedestrian-and-bicycle-funding/6368/

[hlthe2b]

1. I don't want to live in a "Rand Paul" world... One of the great pleasures of finally returning West

(from my time in Atlanta and other areas in the South), is that sidewalks and bike lanes in much of Denver and Colorado front range is the norm, not the exception.

What part of "quality of life" do these jackass moron Libertarians not understand?

[Initech]

9. They only care about what makes them lots of money.

Mass transit? Socialist.

[Thinkingabout]

2. Maybe we should not return more money to Kentucky than they pay in and he would be happier.

He must be just like his dad, add earmarks to bills he knows will pass and then votes against them. The funds should be with held from those members whose districts are receiving the benefit if the member votes against the bill.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Sidewalks and bike lanes can be used by people who can't afford cars.

Randroids don't think anything should be done to help those people or make their lives less miserable in any way. And if you bike or walk, you're not buying gasoline!

[zappaman]

4. Fuck Rand Paul!

And fuck his racist POS father, Ron Paul too!

[surrealAmerican]

5. It's a pretty good indication ...

... that he never walks or rides a bicycle.

[MisterP]

6. it's part of the Agenda 21 plot to cleanse the Northwest of humans and hand it over to

the Globalist Elites
(not kidding: that's the actual conspiracy theory--just like how Obama "did" Sandy Hook and tornadoes)

[olddots]

7. rand paul rides a bike with no seat .

n.t.

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. He's a fuckin' loon, like his crazy ass Daddy! That is all.

[Scurrilous]

10. @#$% Rand Paul!

[Pretzel_Warrior]

11. FUCK YOU RAND "ELMER GANTRY" PAUL. your fall will be quick and steep

I hate the smarmy shit stained attitude of people like Ron Paul. It is their general air of superiority even though they are subversive dipshits that makes me hate him, Edward Snowden, the jagoffs that go to Libertarian meetings and then try to force confrontations with people they deem their enemies..

Libertarians are the kind of kids that were always getting into fights in school because they couldn't get along with fucking ANYONE.

[hatrack]

12. Hippie-Punching Reigns Supreme

No solutions, no ideas, nothing.