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Two Thumbs Down: John McCain on Transportation

Yesterday, we examined Senator Barack Obama’s transportation plan, and concluded that his detail-free talking points weren’t good enough for the American people.

Today we examine Senator John McCain’s transportation plan – or lack of one.

Go to his website, JohnMcCain.com, and check out his top 14 issues. Nothing about transportation other than his stupid gas tax holiday idea and a vague promise to “end policies that contribute to higher transportation and food costs.”

Go to Google, and type in “McCain Transportation.” You’ll find a gushing speech by McCain from 2006 in support of Bush’s nominee for Secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters, who is McCain’s old Arizona crony, “one of the kindest persons you’d ever want to know,” and completely incompetent. Not much else.

This is sad and unacceptable.

The federal government, which takes roughly one third of our incomes every April, has stuck its hand into the transportation cookie jar. For better or worse, it’s involved itself in how we move from here to there.

We have the Department of Transportation, a mismanaged boondoggle that blows billions of federal tax dollars on social engineering mandates like high occupancy toll lanes, bus only lanes, and variable rate parking meters, all while refusing to expand interstate capacity at the rate of population growth.

We have the Federal Aviation Administration, which seems to be doing everything in its power to increase the chance of airline “incidents” (crashes) by hiring unqualified air traffic controllers and incentivizing administrators to cover up mistakes, all while refusing to modernize and upgrade their infrastructure.

We have the Transportation Security Administration, which hires petty criminals who spend their time rifling through checked baggage and downloading naked digital images of air travelers, while senior citizens, small children, and service members are vigorously frisked in absurdly disorganized security checkpoints.

We have the federal Amtrak subsidies, which have created a bizarre half-public, half-private Frankenstein with no accountability, no competition, and perhaps the worst customer service in the history of customer service, including consistently late departures, consistently late arrivals, and consistently outrageous ticket prices.

Enter John McCain, who wants to be President of the United States of America. This means he’d be in charge of the executive branch. DOT, FAA, TSA - these agencies would all report to him. We need to know how he plans to address these issues.

Voters don’t have the time to thumb through McCain’s long career on Lexus Nexus, searching for clues as to how he would or would not handle transportation matters. He needs to put a detailed transportation plan on his website, one that we can all read at our leisure.

At least Barack Obama took a swing at the issue. McCain didn’t even show up in the dugout. What happened to the Straight Talk Express?

We should expect much, much more from Senator John McCain. The guy has been attacking Barack Obama on his lack of substance for months. Well, John, what about your lack of substance on perhaps one of the most important issues to Americans, an issue in which the federal government is deeply involved?

Two big thumbs down for Senator McCain.

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