Senator Tom Coburn: Accidental Ironist

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, noted frenemy of Senator Barack Obama and one-man distant early warning system of the Coming Lesbian Panic, wrote an op-ed in yesterday's Washington Times roundly criticizing, of all things, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. In it, Coburn makes it clear that he is only recently coming to grips with the existential and entropic dilemmas posed by train stations.

Metro riders themselves are all too familiar with the system's problems. When trains are late, riders are left standing on the platform not knowing when, or if, it will ever come. Little effort is made to keep escalators working. In 2005, there were typically more than 50 broken escalators on any given day. According to Metro, it would take several months to fix an escalator, forcing people to walk up huge flights of stairs instead while they were inoperable.

One sort of wonders when Coburn visited the DC-area subway last, because A) there are displays that inform riders when late trains will be pulling into the station, B) most escalator outages are backed up by elevators and additional escalators, and C) as of this writing, only seventeen of the thirty-nine escalator outages are the result of some unscheduled problem.

But Coburn is incensed by the systems lack of perfection, and as DCist's Sommer Mathis puts it, believes that "continuing to allow WMATA to get federal subsidies only removes any incentive the agency has to provide better service." From his op-ed:

The biggest problem facing Metro may actually be too much federal funding. Like most rail systems around the country, Metro has grown accustomed to the huge subsidies it gets every year from federal taxpayers. In the last five years alone, Metro was given over $1 billion -- hardly a small amount.

The difference between Metro and other municipal transit systems, however, is that other systems are both accountable to and better supported by their local users and governments. Keeping Metro on life support primarily through ever-increasing federal subsidies will only exacerbate the problems the system already faces and insulate Metro from meaningful...reform.

Naturally, it's somewhat exciting to hear Coburn stand up for taxpayer consideration, wasteful government spending, accountability, reform, and how too much government largesse can de-incentivize systemic improvements. If only Coburn would apply this same concern for the craptastic quagmires presided over by Nouri al-Maliki.

Comments

[waynedale]

It is hard for Coburn to get around considering how full of crap he is. The METRO system works great.

[captcoyote]

I live in Oklahoma. I'd bet dollars to donuts that Coburn hasn't even been on the trains. He is just talking probably because he just received, or is going to receive, another nice little donation to his campaign from the oil companies, who want less trains and more cars. The lobbyist probably prepared his statement for him.
It hasn't been that long that I visited DC. I loved the subway. Here in Oklahoma you can't even depend on a bus to take you around to your job. Welcome to Oklahoma! Set your watch back 20 years, and be sure you have good walking shoes - and don't forget your boot straps!

[Tom95134]

Why should Coburn know anything about the DC Metro? He's getting his fat Republican ass driven around in a limo at the expense of the American people. Maybe all members of Congress should have to take public transportation. Mmm, I guess that wouldn't work because they might have to listen to the voice of the people once in a while.

[MajorKong]

The DC Metro is a heck of a lot better than sitting in traffic on the beltway for hours.

[asus389]

I love it when politicians talk all high and mighty about how railroads shouldn't get any public money and how the airlines and highways are models of unregulated capitalistic endeavors. Please... First of all, there wouldn't even be a highway system (or cars) in this country if the Feds didn't pay for the roads with tax money. Second, the airlines are subsidized at a pretty high rate. All the airports, the FAA, etc.. get federal funding. As does the coast guard.

Railroads provide a cruicial service to our country and should be supported. I'd love to see what happens if the Feds stopped funding trains and DC shut down its subway, or if Amtrak went offline in the Northeast. Millions of people would be stranded with no way to get to work, smog would increase, and I-95 would be a parking lot even more than it already is. If anything, they should be spending more money to finish the subway line out to Dulles and to expand passenger rail in highly congested metro areas.

[Tom95134]

Passenger trains are an easy target for the politicians because not many people have to ride them. There was a day in this country when you couldn't get around without passenger trains or intra-urban transit systems.

The demise of the public transportation systems started when GM (and others) bought up many of the public transit systems (mainly city bus and train systems). They cut schedules and raised fares with an eye towards making the service so bad that people would have to buy... A CAR!

Eisenhower did a great thing when he supported the Interstate Highway systems under the guise of national defense. The Federal Government pays 90% of the costs of building these roads but people forget about this when they talk about supporting public transit and rail systems.

People also forget about the high costs of maintaining airports and air traffic control systems which is mainly paid by government.

This goes on while people are so worried about $4.00+/gallon gasoline which is a bargain. Why oil/gas is so expensive? Look in the mirror. Why can't you ind public transit that works (except in a few cities) look in the mirror. Gas taxes should be raised with proceeds going towards public transit and renewable energy. Center city permits should be required for a car and they should be expensive. The only way you will ever get people out of their cars is to make it too painful to keep driving the gas guzzlers to work.

[pros54]

T. Coburn is from Muskogee and the family practically owns the town. The town has aas many as three traffic lights or may be one more. So the slightest delay in getting from one spot to the other is felt very much by him. However asking to take away from the system is absolutely insane.

I think he is a good guy despite some wacky positions of his especially on abortion seeing he should know better as a long time family practice physician.

[gevan]

If you don't like the DC Metro you could always try the Minneapolis airport.

[Mike169]

Let him shut down the fucking metro and see what happens. When no one comes to clean his house or the secretaries can't get to work or he sits for fifty hours in a traffic jam at DuPont Circle. Jesus do these guys have any brains at all? That's a rhetorical question when it comes to the senator from Okaleedokalee.

[totalliberal]

And of course cars 'never' break down. Well that is unless you are a Senator, then your driver just picks up another one from the pool. Elitists swine.

Rail traffic is 400 times more efficient than road.

[Henk]

I know that there are plenty of wing-nuts lurking here, so would one of you please explain why Republicans hate trains.

[gomonkeygo]

I've spent several weeks riding around DC on the Metro and thought it one of the best examples of public transportation this country has. Better than the El in Chicago and better than any bus system I've ever ridden. This is just propaganda spin here, the kind of anecdotal bullshit that is used to start pulling apart something good.

[Zogtastic]

A broken escalator is just a staircase... its good for public health.

[Mike169]

Coburn was actually stuck on the escalator for five hours before he was rescued.

[thundermummy]

Hee-hee. I wonder how long it will take Republicans to figure that one out.

[RGKahn]

THAT is a great line. Like the guy who locked his keys in the car and it took him half an hour to get his family out. Anyway, isn't the Federal Government responsible for the over-sight of the operations of Washington DC?