Today, the nation's airlines continue to mothball their fleets in the face of a continued drop-off in demand...
...following the inexplicable but certainly completely coincidental and unrelated* destruction of three commercial jets at LAX, JFK, and Chicago-Midway airports... (*White House Press Office, 6/13/2012)
Leading to a crush of passenger demand on the nation's aging rail system as people return to the older form of long-distance travel.
In a dynamic and farsighted move, President Obama calls for new programs of high speed rail "to link everyone, everywhere in the nation, every hour of every day."
"Now some people say this can't be done," the President added. "Some people say it's not physically practical. Some people say it's just too darned expensive to do. But I say we can do this and still add less than seven trillion dollars to the deficit."
White house spokesman Jay Carney added on background, "the thing is, everybody knows rail just isn't competitve with the automobile and flying as transportation, and that's true. But remember the important advantage: it also costs more. So since way fewer people can afford to use it, we actually have to add way less carrying capacity than you might think, since people simply won't be moving."
Meanwhile Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that he would be calling for Congress to pass an additional 25% levy on gasoline usage on top of the GM/Onstar Mileage Tax Act "which should substantially offset a very measurable part of this expense by the second or third year of President Obama's fourth term." This comes on top of the Senate Democrats' push for a "Stuff Tax," i.e., an annual surcharge on "people's stuff." "Everybody has something worth taxing," said MA Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren.
