MANCHESTER, New Hampshire – Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH) was slammed Friday by the Union Leader’s editorial board and past New Hampshire congressional candidate Matt Mowers over supporting the $760 billion publicly-funded passenger trains to Boston as part of Democrats’ “infrastructure” plan.
“With many roads and bridges in definite need of repair, wasting any of these dollars on heavily-subsidized commuter rail offers a particularly lousy bang for the citizen’s buck,” the paper said, citing a study that Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) commissioned to measure what long-range impacts the pandemic would have in his state.
The study suggests “commuter traffic, particularly commuter rail traffic, may fall from 15 to 50 percent,” the paper explained. “That’s because fewer people and their companies are going to travel to their offices on a daily basis. Instead, they will telecommute.”
“The study also said more people are likely to look for work closer to home as well. That could benefit New Hampshire, which is hungry for workers and finds a lot of them currently work for Mass. firms,” the publication printed. “With the Bay State intent on taxing them no matter where they reside, many may find working closer to home is beneficial in several ways. That would mean even fewer riders for the Pappas Express.”
Democrat Pappas previous opponent in 2020, Matt Mowers, who may run again in 2022 amid New Hampshire’s favorable redistricting for Republican candidates, told Breitbart News the passenger trains to Boston would be an irresponsible “financial boondoggle”:
At a time when Washington is spending money we don’t have, businesses can’t find staff to stay open and the long arm of Massachusetts is hitting Granite Staters with an unjust income tax, the Pappas Express would be a financial boondoggle and leave New Hampshire taxpayers on the hook for Washington’s fiscal irresponsibility – while sending more of our much needed work force to Massachusetts.
“Let’s focus on growing New Hampshire businesses, repairing our roads and bridges and putting an end to the wasteful spending coming out of the swamp,” Mowers suggested.
Criticism of Pappas’ passenger trains to Boston comes as Democrats are attempting to a $3.5 trillion trojan horse “infrastructure” bill, which includes expanding medicare, amnesty, global warming initiatives, and suburb displacement with low-income housing, subsidized housing, subsidized childcare, and subsidized racial equity and environmental justice.
The trojan horse initiative is being written by self-designated socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). More temperate Democrat Senators are still undecided if they will ultimately vote for the package due to the expense of the bill and increasing inflation.