Government-hating wingnuts complained about inadequate public transportation in DC

[ProSense]

Tea Baggers Who Feel They’re ‘Taxed Enough Already’ Gripe About Inadequate Service In…Public Transit

Last weekend, tens of thousands of right-wing protesters invaded Washington, DC for the 912 March. Not only were they rallying against President Obama’s plans for health care reform, but more generally against “socialism,” government-run services, and too much taxation.

A large number of the tea party protesters relied on DC’s transit system to get around the city. The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA) reported that on Sept. 12, metrorail ridership was double compared to an average Saturday. The Washington metro, of course, is public transit — in other words, it’s run by big government. Nevertheless, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) has written a letter to WMATA complaining that the service wasn’t good enough for the tea baggers:

“These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration,” Brady wrote. “These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation’s capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them.”

A spokesman for Brady says that “there weren’t enough cars and there weren’t enough trains.” Brady tweeted as much from the Saturday march. “METRO did not prepare for Tea Party March! More stories. People couldn’t get on, missed start of march. I will demand answers from Metro,” he wrote on Twitter.

In his letter, Brady also complained that overcrowding on the metro trains “forced an 80-year-old woman and elderly veterans in wheelchairs to pay for cabs” — in other words, to rely on the non-government-run transportation system, which tea party protesters would presumably want to support.

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As for Brady…John Cole points out that when a bill containing $150 million for emergency maintenance funding for the DC metro system came up this summer, Brady voted against it.

[Cant trust em]

1. Republican hypocrisy at its finest.

I'm really happy that you posted this.

[RoccoR5955]

2. Why the heck didn't they call a cab, if they are all anti-socialist?

Oh, that's right, a lot of cab drivers are not lily-white. They might have gotten offended if they had to step into a car and one of "them" was driving.

[liberal N proud]

3. Classic hypocrisy

[ProSense]

5. Classic. n/t

[WePurrsevere]

4. They really don't get what they're actually saying do they?

:crazy:

Oh.. and about the reporters figures.. from comments and links provided by "Harpo" HERE it looks like the data the reporter used to show "doubled" may not be correct. :shrug:

Harpro
11:06AM Sep 17th 2009
Saturday ridership on the Metro one year before the 9/12 rallies = 362,773(9/13/08). Don't know where the author came up with the 202,000 number, mine is from the D.C. Metro Authority(link follows). 437000-362000 equals an attendence figure consistent with what the D.C. Fire dept. and MSM estimates of crowd size. Certainly some paid protesters arrived by bus and hog truck which doesn't invalidate the numbers, there were other events attended by citizens going on in D.C. on the same day and many of those people took the Metro too.
http://www.wmata.com/rail/disruption_reports/viewReportArchive.cfm?Archive_Date=92008
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Harpro
11:20AM Sep 17th 2009
Looking again at my link, I see where the author came up with the 202,000 ridership figure. He used the holiday weekend ridership number, when more stores and busineses are closed and more peoople are out of town, instead of the more honest and realistic number from a week later which would coincide with the Saturday a year later. They will do anything to cover up the fact they are failures.

[liberal N proud]

6. Not a clue

If you try to point their hypocrisy out to them, they will just argue with you until you are blue in the face.