The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board weighs in on the House Republican plan to reauthorize the transportation bill. If it's possible, the Times sounds even less impressed with the Republicans efforts to eliminate Safe Routes to Schools funding, decimate transit funding, eliminate programs for bicycle and pedestrian funding and pay for an expanded highway program by increasing opportunities to drill for oil.
On Tuesday, the House Republican leadership unveiled its version of the five-year bill. It isn't just that this bill is so thoroughly partisan that it has no chance of being approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate; it's that it is less a serious policy document than a wish list for oil lobbyists, and its funding proposals are so radical that they have been decried even by such conservative watchdogs as the Reason Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute andTaxpayers for Common Sense.
If you're feeling angry about the state of transportation politics, reading the Times editorial is a good way to blow off some steam. But don't stop there, both Move L.A. and the Bus Riders Union have action alerts to help turn that anger into a little lobbying effort in advance of today's hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee on transportation bill.
