Delaware Senator Tom Carper does the unthinkable and talks about the vital importance of rail and transit to building a coherent national energy policy. Good for him!
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Good for Carper
08 May 2008 09:09 am
Comments (12)
Augie:
Bingo!! Either that or he realizes the DLC is on its last legs.
At the peak median home prices were 5 times median family income. Never ever have they sustained anything over 3X. History thus says 2Xsomething is affordable. Achieving affordability thus means prices have to fall 40+% from the peak. That's assuming incomes don't fall further. Don't bet on that.
This picture of medians paints an especially grim picture going forward for the lower 50% of the income scale. They are going to get less and less of the income going forward so the median numbers will end up at historic norms a smaller percentage of people are going to be able to afford homes.
On the bright side home ownership is over rated.
I think this is more a matter of constituent service and paying attention to Delaware business, though it has the advantage of hewing to policies with which I agree as well. A great many Delaware residents commute to cities, like Philadelphia and Washington DC. Making passenger rail more convenient would only make living in Delaware easier and, given the cost of living in DC or Philly, that's not an insubstantial benefit.
Businesses as well in Delaware might well benefit from advanced freight rail systems.
There is an argument to be made that environmental policy could easily be structured as a business investment or an economic stimulus rather than a philosophy of limits. I am not sure how far I am prepared to support that viewpoint or even vigorously defend it but, at least here, it seems that there is a convergence of interests worth supporting.
A Senator from Delaware pushes for more rail subsidies? Wow, that really is "unthinkable". Maybe Joe Biden should get on that bandwagon.
/snark
Delaware has a stronger relationship to Amtrak than basically any other state -- its halfway between NY and DC, and most of the business travel in the state is done on that train.
What Al said.
For a Delaware pol, this is a dog bites man story.
Well, Wilmington is.
I think one could get Obama on board with this. He's an urbanite, remember. And this would be a very good thing.
Anyone notice the new MTA cards that tout New York subway rider's carbon footprints being 1/3 that of the average American?
Delaware has a stronger relationship to Amtrak than basically any other state -- its halfway between NY and DC, and most of the business travel in the state is done on that train.
Not to mention that New Castle County is basically a Philly suburb. Delaware falls under the Septa umbrella for a reason.
Well that means if I know anything about Carper, and I do, its time to look at his recent campaign contributors. Carper is the type of Senator who only advocates policies that benefit some kind of special interest.
Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, for all the bitching about how Delaware's representatives in Congress support MBNA and other financial firms because of the campaign contributions, it's a lot more reasonable to understand that they're doing it because that's what their constituents want, because many of their constituents are employed by these businesses. They're part of the Delaware culture.
Do some harmful policies get support from them because of this? Yes. But at least they have a reason for it. What's the excuse for the rest of the Democratic caucus that went along with the bankruptcy bill and other boondoggles?
I'm not quite sure why it is, but I never see half as much hand-wringing and assumed poor ulterior motives over the support for egregious farm policies out of Iowa/Dakota Democrats or awful auto policies out of Michigan Democrats; people seem to accept their reasons for pushing this crap, but out of Delaware's delegation, it's unthinkable. Look, we get it, they support some bad financial stuff because that's a requirement to getting elected in Delaware -- would you rather have [zombie] Bill Roth back? Get the rest of the caucus in line on this stuff first.
Hmm, Senator with Executive experience? sounds like a nice VP candidate
jbryan,
Struck a nerve there huh? You really don't hear other libs/Dem complain about egregious farm policies or Michigan auto policy support? Really? What rock are you living under? I would say carping about those issues are 100x more salient than complaining about Delaware support for the credit industry. I guess I understand why Carper and Biden "need" to take these positions but it doesn't mean we need to follow them down that rabbit hole. Nor should they be celebrated for doing so.
Plus, as a NYer, I am more than happy to criticize Clinton and Schumer for their similar Wall Street pandering. And no, neither of these candidates need to toe this line to get re-elected. It helps, but it defeats the purposes of holding office - if you know, your purpose is to enact sound policy. Of course, a lot of the PSCI literature suggests sound policy is not an individual legislator's ultimate goal but I prefer to remain naively optimistic.
And there is no doubt that the Senators from DELAWARE can toe the DEM line a bit more closely than they have. It's a bit dishonest to suggest otherwise.
You really don't hear other libs/Dem complain about egregious farm policies or Michigan auto policy support? Really? What rock are you living under?
I didn't say that no one complains about those. What I said is that there isn't this presumption of bad faith on the part of those congressman because of the support. Most people recognize that it's there because that's what is called for by the constituencies because that's the source of much of the employment in those states. However, with Delaware and the financial services industry, there is this idea that it has nothing to do with that -- it's just because of campaign cash.
I guess I understand why Carper and Biden "need" to take these positions but it doesn't mean we need to follow them down that rabbit hole. Nor should they be celebrated for doing so. Plus, as a NYer, I am more than happy to criticize Clinton and Schumer for their similar Wall Street pandering.
Good. I have no problems criticizing Schumer or Clinton for their Wall Street support, and I'm fine criticizing Biden and Carper for their financial service support. I'm also not suggesting following them down the rabbit hole (whatever that literary metaphor is meant to mean in this context). But at the same time I recognize that it's pretty damned essential in Delaware, and there's a reason for their support. If you go to Wilmington or the suburbs you see what a huge impact those companies are in the area.
I'm not excusing their occasional support of poor legislation, but I understand where it's coming from. My larger point was that there are a lot more members of the Democratic caucus with a lot less reason to back such bad legislation -- take aim at them first. If the rest of the caucus could get its house in order, it wouldn't be necessary for fixing bad farm policies to depend on the support of Tom Harkin or for killing bad bankruptcy legislation to rest on Carper or Biden.
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Heads in the Sand
Well that means if I know anything about Carper, and I do, its time to look at his recent campaign contributors. Carper is the type of Senator who only advocates policies that benefit some kind of special interest. I mean, I suppose its nice that these contributors will be advocating "good" policies that I mostly agree, but mostly they will be laden with tax breaks or subsidies that benefit business, not people or the environment.
Posted by Augie | May 8, 2008 10:08 AM