Amtrak vs. Madagascar

Recent news is that Amtrak in Montana will be gone unless Montana somehow finds money to pay half the railroad expense.

This ridiculous proposal apparently will leave Amtrak serving only the Washington, D.C., to Boston northeast area. Gov. Schweitzer and all of our Congressional delegation apparently presented vociferous objections to this attempt to close Amtrak down.

In contrast, last week's news was that the feds proposed to give Madagascar $100 million of taxpayer's money. This is only part of a four-year program, and it's in addition to other aid money we provide, and 16 other countries are already qualified to receive similar taxpayer gifts.

We pretty much bankroll the World Bank, which is giving additional taxpayer money to this far-away island and to the other countries as well.

Many of us don't even know where Madagascar is or why it deserves taxpayer money, or why it's more important than keeping Amtrak running.

Why do we make these generous taxpayer gifts to foreign countries, but we are supposed to believe that Amtrak isn't deserving of federal funds?

Robert Hurly

Glasgow