If we’re looking for spending offsets to help pay for the hurricane relief effort, then Amtrak should show up on the radar screen like a squadron of Heinkels. Unfortunately, our good representatives in Congress are too cowardly to cut its wasteful budget demands (a recent attempt to do this was overturned on a voice vote, so we don’t even know who the cowards were this time). Joe Vranich, who helped found Amtrak but has since seen the light, points out how Amtrak has come to resemble Ayn Rand’s Taggart Transcontinental Railroads in this article for Capitalism Magazine. His recommendation? “After more than $27 billion in federal subsidies to Amtrak another Congressional bailout will only perpetuate Amtrak and its deplorable management. We need to get rid of market-irrelevant routes and open remaining lines to competitive bids from private companies that specialize in contracting-out for services.” As someone who helped get rid of the national joke that was British Rail, I couldn’t agree more.