(The following appeared on The Hill website on May 26, 2011.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republicans should stop comparing Amtrak to trains operated by the former Soviet Union because Russia is now building more railways than the United States, a labor union said Thursday.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) has made a habit out of calling Amtrak “a Soviet-style operation.”
But at a hearing of the committee Thursday, AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Edward Wytkind said that comparisons of the national rail service to the Soviet Union should go the way the former communist stronghold has gone.
Full story: www.thehill.com