Federal budget hurts CTA more than Kruesi

CTA Director Frank Kuresi is getting pounded for being less than transparent with the possibility that there would not be enough money to keep all the Brown Line stations open during reconstruction. But let's not lose sight of the bigger picture. An extra $22 million would keep those stations open. And in a $530 million project, the feds are only kicking in $246 million. That's less than half. If this were a highway project, the feds would kick in 80 percent of the cost. That's why we keep building highways and then more housing out on farmland which requires more oil to drive ever-farther and that keeps the terrorists well-funded. The Brown Line runs on electricity, not oil. Our federal transportation budget should line up with our foreign policy goals to defund the terrorists by using less oil. So don't just blame the CTA for our current woes. Blame people who vote Republican! And for those federal Dems who favor highways over transit. By the way, this means we in the city should be zoning and building high-density, moderate-income housing to take full advantage of our transit instead of more big luxury homes with garages in very dense neighborhoods (thanks to a commenter for that reminder).