Abraham Lincoln worked to build transcontinental railroad that modern Republicans would call "pork"

[ddeclue]

Republicans are apparently now calling such government economic recovery projects as a high speed rail link between Los Angeles and Los Vegas "pork"????

I'm sure Abraham Lincoln must be rolling his eyes at his modern day counterparts somewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_the_United_States

Authorized by the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 and heavily backed by the federal government, it was the culmination of a decades-long movement to build such a line and was one of the crowning achievements of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, completed four years after his death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railway_Act

The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 (12 Statutes at Large, 489)<1>, as enacted by the United States Congress, was approved and signed into law by the President, Abraham Lincoln, on July 1, 1862. Officially entitled "AN ACT to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes," some provisions of the original Act were subsequently modified

I am sure that we could solve our energy problems by harnessing Abraham Lincoln's spinning corpse to a generator for no doubt he must be spinning pretty fast over what has happened to his Republican Party in the last 144 years.

:eyes:

[Vinca]

1. Eisenhower - Interstate Highway System - Pork, Pork, Pork.

[ShadowLiberal]

7. No no, you don't get it, it's only pork when a democratic president does it!

[pinto]

2. Great point.

There were a number of goals he was supporting in the Congressional bill, yet it was fundamentally an economic boon to the West/Mid West.

[Thothmes]

8. It was paid for not by money from the treasury

but by giving the railroads title to every other section (one square mile)along their right of ways. This also included mineral rights and timber rights. This land grant made the railroads some of the wealthiest businesses in the United States. OBTW, the Lakotas, Cheyennes, Crow, Blackfoot and dozens of other Native American tribes were not party to this arrangement, even though it was there land that the U.S. Government was giving to the railroad barons.

[Thothmes]

9. On edit, Lincoln probably would not be in favor of the Federal

Government footing the bill for LA to Vegas railroad.

[ddeclue]

10. a subsidy is a subsidy whether it's a land grant or cash.

[Thothmes]

14. Except the Federal Government

had to evict all of the Native Americans living along those right of ways. There are those on this forum that would not see that as a very progressive project. Considering the Govenment set it up so that a few railroad men made hundred of millions of dollars in the process.

[ddeclue]

15. That's NOT my point...

of course it benefitted the railroad barons but it also benefitted the country as a whole (excepting Native Americans of course..)

[Thothmes]

18. Would you accept a deal like that today?

[ddeclue]

11. a subsidy is a subsidy whether it's a land grant or cash.

[sarge43]

3. Lincoln also sponsored the Land Grant College System (Morrill Acts)

Inexpensive higher education in the technical disciples. More pork. The man sure threw money around.

[ddeclue]

4. Apparently Lincoln was a Commie Bastard!

:rofl:

How dare he spend government money like that..

:rofl:

[sarge43]

5. A socialist at least.

Inexpensive college for the working class. Horrors!

[ddeclue]

6. OK: Abe you socialist bastard...

:rofl:

[Thothmes]

12. He didnt.

those railroads were privately financed. The railroads received ownership to millions of acres land along the right of ways. Land which at the time the Native Americans somehow believed belonged to them.

[ddeclue]

16. Lincoln made it possible sorry but you're wrong.

Doug D.

[Thothmes]

17. Show me where one red cent of federal money

was spent to build the transcontinetnal rail road. It was paid for by land that had to be taken away from the Native Americans that had lived on it for thousands of years. Show me where He introduced the legislation that became the finished legislation.

[JayMusgrove]

13. I needed a thread like this. Good humor and invective! Thanks n/t