Obama vs. McCain On Mass Transit

Mass transit will be one of the major issues confronting America in the next few decades. As anyone who follows such issues knows, no city or state can begin a major mass transit project without considerable assistance from the federal government. There is nothing wrong with this -- most highway money comes from the feds as well.

So it will be interesting to look at the competing stances of Obama and McCain on this issue. From what we see so far, Obama is a big fan of mass transit. McCain, not so much:

Then there's John McCain. Well, Sen. McCain doesn't have too much to say when it comes to national transit objectives (we suppose it's a case of 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all'). But if there's one thing that we do know, it's that McCain hates Amtrak - at least in its current state. The Arizona Senator has been attempting for years to dissolve Amtrak and create small, privately owned rail companies. In fact, McCain has sworn that if elected, the shuttering of Amtrak would be a "a non-negotiable issue."

We'd also imagine that if McCain were to be elected president, current Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters would either remain at her post or handpick a successor. While Peters does favor congestion pricing, she also shows no signs of wanting to change the ratio of mass transit and highway spending from current levels.

If you are happy paying gas prices that will only continue to escalate, McCain is your man. Like Bush, his foreign policy will drive up oil prices while his corporate-first mentality will prevent him from pushing any alternatives. Gas prices will go up under either candidate, but at least under Obama we will start to have a choice.