A Stitch in Haste

Could it be that President Bush's first veto could be a symbolic libertarian gesture?

President Bush's plans to close down Amtrak's money-losing long distance routes were dealt another setback Tuesday as a Senate panel approved a sizable boost to the budget for the ailing railroad. The move earned an immediate veto threat from the Bush administration.

The latest development in the struggle over Amtrak's future came as a Senate Appropriations Committee panel unanimously approved a $136 billion bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 for transportation and housing programs and Treasury Department agencies like the IRS.
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Amtrak received a $1.2 billion subsidy for the current year but the Senate measure would boost that to $1.4 billion for next year.

Given this president's manic phobia of the veto pen, I tend to doubt that he will sink a $136 billion appropriation bill over a $0.2 billion squabble with his own tax-and-spend Republican Senate.

On the other hand, perhaps there's enough additional pork in the bill such that Amtrak is merely the "poster child" for lambasting Congress' fiscal irreponsibility.

In any case, it's nice to see the very un-libertarian White House paying some nominal and symbolic lip service to what used to be a major Republican premise.