A Sweet Deal only Found in Government

What a concept! Take a government monopoly — in this case I’m talking about America’s taxpayer-funded national passenger railroad known as Amtrak — and allocate a portion of the money appropriated to you by Congress every year to fund a group to lobby for more funds for you. These practices are not entirely uncommon in the federal government, but at least there is usually a middleman, say the public employee unions, that does the lobbying. In this case there is no pretext, Amtrak simply gives the National Associtation of Railroad Passengers — one of Amtrak’s most dedicated backers — money to lobby on its behalf, theoretically as a citizen-backed organization.