Question: the imbalance between what California contributes vs receivers from the federal government is pretty crazy to me. I'll grant some imbalances are necessary - you will always have richer and poorer areas of the country. But when he gap is as wide as it is, and then it is turned into a tool for punishing CA due to our politics, at what point should CA seek to seriously tackle this? Firstly of course is the ver…
Why is it that progressive income taxation is so awesome for everyone else and sucks when applied to you? (FWIW, I've looked at the report that purports to back the 'CA pays more than it receives' and it isn't super accurate)
Only a small amount of that $647 million was going to Caltrain electrification. It was wrapped in a boondoggle of an omnibus transit spending bill. The real political battle here is to limit Federal spending on CA's ill-routed HSR. The Democrats are free to introduce a clean bill with just the Caltrain electrification funds. A clean bill (funding ALL of it, even) would sail through Congress.
Voters kicked radical Republicans out of Sacramento so now they're getting D.C. to their dirty work for them. Luckily many of them will lose in 2018, including Darrel Issa.
Man, you really are upset with the idea of people living in California "illegally". Have you ever speeded and gotten away with it? Does that mean you also live in California "illegally" as that would make you also a scofflaw?
I am upset about the whining. Suck it up California. You elected politicians who use your tax funds on people who are in the country illegally and then you whine because you aren't getting federal funds. Since money is fungible it simply means that you want federal funds to pay for people who live in the country illegally. If you really want funding for the rail which I agree should exist, simply elect politicians th…
Haha. The moocher states can keep mooching and whining. Noblesse oblige. We will clothe you, keep you fed, and give you jobs. And you will complain and try to bite the hand that feeds.
But our kindness is indiscriminatory. Our hearts are big. And we're ever so strong. California will take care of even the lamest of the lambs.
They're much more likely downvoting you for trying to hijack the thread with an unrelated political topic/flamefest and then complaining about getting downvoted.
But it is related. The fact is that the NYT article was complaining about the lack of federal funds, but the true fact is that if the citizens of California elected politicians who did not unwisely pay for people living here illegally, they would have the money for the electric rail. Since money if fungible, since California politicians decided that taxpayer money should go towards people living here illegally, then…
You can relate almost any topic to any topic with the insight 'money is fungible'. Using this to switch subjects to your favourite flamerant is bad, your comment was bad and you should feel bad.
Question: the imbalance between what California contributes vs receivers from the federal government is pretty crazy to me. I'll grant some imbalances are necessary - you will always have richer and poorer areas of the country. But when he gap is as wide as it is, and then it is turned into a tool for punishing CA due to our politics, at what point should CA seek to seriously tackle this? Firstly of course is the ver…
the imbalance between what California contributes vs receivers Do you have a firsthand source for that, or are you just quoting unsupported media quotes? The one study on that topic that I've seen omitted a lot of Federal spending in CA, such as transfer payments, military personnel, CA's share of defense spending, etc. Remember that CA has had a lot of power in Congress under Democrats, including two senior Senators…
Every state gets two senators and the one that's served the longest is called the "senior" senator and the other the "junior". By definition a state can't have two senior senators.
>Caltrain plans to use the money to switch to modern electric trains, from old diesel locomotives that are prone to failure. I ride the Caltrain about once a week and I haven't encountered a delay due to a locomotive failure. How often does this happen?
Happened to me once two weeks ago. I've also been on a train that had 'broken down' where it couldn't leave a station after coming to a stop.
Also accidents with cars and pedestrians happens more frequently than they should. I don't know if the upgrades to the line include raising and separating the track wherever possible.
A major flaw in your argument is the implication that undocumented individuals in CA (or the US in general) do not pay for the services they use. While in certain cases that might be true, in others they are net contributors. See social security taxes [1]. I also think you're making a fairly inflammatory argument without providing much data or grappling with the practical implications of your argument. Even if we wer…
> "A major flaw in your argument is the implication that undocumented individuals in CA" "undocumented individuals" is a euphemism that does not help the discussion and tends to minimize and obfuscate the language so as to seemingly minimize the fact that they are living in the country against the law. The correct term is illegal alien (look it up if you don't believe me). My argument is a simple one that I think mos…
I am not sure that most people would agree with you on that; at least, I personally do not agree that people who are in this country illegally do not deserve taxpayer funds. I think that's very similar to saying that someone who pays no taxes does not deserve taxpayer funds, which I also disagree with. Since most people who are living in this country illegally are paying one form of tax or another, the only difference between the two groups is the amount they've paid.
One thing that shouldn't change is the Caltrain ticketing UI. The interface is simple enough to use, and it responds to user input instantly. I can select the ticket I want with four taps in about a second, where the only slowdown is the actual payment.
That sounds amazing. My car made in 2015 has a touch screen with a 0.5-1.5s lag, it's infuriating.
> By any measure, Caltrain is the equivalent of a dated personal computer running Windows 95 way overdue for an upgrade. Rush-hour trains are so crowded that their aisles are filled with passengers. Trains break down frequently and the locomotives belch plumes of black smoke into the air — a sight more in line with the early industrial age than 21st century Silicon Valley. As a frequent commuter, I couldn't agree mor…
Most of Caltrain's locomotives date back to 1985, so they are more like Windows 2.1
Question: the imbalance between what California contributes vs receivers from the federal government is pretty crazy to me. I'll grant some imbalances are necessary - you will always have richer and poorer areas of the country. But when he gap is as wide as it is, and then it is turned into a tool for punishing CA due to our politics, at what point should CA seek to seriously tackle this? Firstly of course is the ver…
the imbalance between what California contributes vs receivers Do you have a firsthand source for that, or are you just quoting unsupported media quotes? The one study on that topic that I've seen omitted a lot of Federal spending in CA, such as transfer payments, military personnel, CA's share of defense spending, etc. Remember that CA has had a lot of power in Congress under Democrats, including two senior Senators…