Disagree. Lobby not party is the driving power here. You should really dig in to understand who’s sponsoring and what the hard issues are vs the soft issues.

Disagree. Lobby not party is the driving power here. You should really dig in to understand who’s sponsoring and what the hard issues are vs the soft issues. The bill has moved away from automation improvements and the original bearing failures from the out-of-service hot box monitor that caused the accident in the first place (which would have prevented the accident, there were three engineers on the train and plenty of staff to handle — they just didn’t know there was a problem until too late) and towards staffing improvements and handouts to the railroads vs handouts to railroad unions which is why it’s languishing. It’s very clear that two lobbies are at work here, as the stalemates on the bill have little to do with safety and everything to do with huge costs vs labor wants split right down party lines and exactly aligning to their respective donor interests. When you see the donors interests operate like a zipper on a jacket to split bills, it’s wise to recognize the influence of lobby and not pay too much creed to the color of the jacket, because the jacket pockets full of money are the point. And then add in the historical contexts of the railroad safety program hills of the pst and you can clearly see the outline of the conflict that’s presented is not what it’s about. The biggest biggest divide now is not between the Republicans and the Democrats: it's between the insane and the insufferable. Lubricating pockets makes further rail disasters an almost certainty, and those that hide in partisan politics (which is everyone involved in both parties on this one) are to blame.