Unbelievable

The following information published by the CAGW is truly unbelievable. How the rest of the Senate could let this go through is outrageous. Based on the information presented, D,M&E does not even have enough gross revenue to make the note payment.

It does not take a financial genius to realize that this is simply theft of the American taxpayer. We are the ones that will be paying this off. Below is what the CAGW published about this atrocity:

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) Porker of the Month for helping to secure a record $2.3 billion loan from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for the Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern Railroad (DM&E). DM&E paid Thune $220,000 in 2003 and 2004 to lobby for the loan before his election to the Senate, where in apparent anticipation of the loan in 2005, Sen. Thune was instrumental in increasing the FRA’s loan guarantee authority a whopping 10-fold, from $3.5 billion to $35 billion. The loan would require an annual payment of $246 million, more than DM&E’s current annual revenue of $200 million -- making it a poor credit risk to taxpayers, who will be forced to foot the bill if the company defaults. What’s more, two other railroads already serve the coal fields of Wyoming, where DM&;E plans to use the loan to expand and improve a rail line for transporting coal to Minnesota. For championing a loan guarantee that puts taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars, circumvents public debate, skews market incentives, and rewards his former employer, CAGW names Sen. John Thune its' Porker of the Month for November 2006.