Tester Talks Trains, Budget

Every year over one hundred thousand people ride the Empire Builder, many stop in Glasgow. Those people frequent the small businesses, spending their hard-earned money and sustaining good-paying jobs for Glasgow and the surrounding areas. 

For 88 years the Empire Builder has brought folks from across the country to the Hi-Line, and under the President’s proposed budget the Empire Builder, and the economic activity that comes with it, would go away.  As the Courier reported, the President’s budget would leave 140 million Americans without access to Amtrak and leave 23 states without train service.

That is unacceptable. The urban and rural divide in this country is already too great, and the Empire Builder helps bridge that gap by connecting folks from the bustling streets of Chicago to the remarkable main streets of towns like Glasgow, creating good-paying jobs in the process.

There is no doubt, we need to get our fiscal house in order.  We need to responsibly reduce spending and decrease our debt, but we cannot do that on the back of rural America.

We need to balance our budget and invest in our future. But slashing services that bolster rural communities won’t help this country grow; it will drive folks to bigger cities and more populous states. This budget could be another nail in the coffin of rural America.

Our rural communities like Glasgow are the backbone of this great nation, and I will keep fighting to make sure their voices are heard in Washington.

Jon Tester is the senior United States Senator from Montana.