scramble to find alternative routes to work. hundreds of trains that run through new york city are being delayed or diverted this summer, as amtrak makes long overdue repairs to tracks at penn station. the busiest rail hub in north america. derailments are now common and new york city subway breakdowns almost a daily occurrence. but the mess is just a sign of things to come, as officials make plans to repair the 107-year-old tunnel under the hudson river, which was badly damaged by hurricane sandy in 2012. wall street journal editorial page writer alicia finley joins us with more on this ongoing saga and condolences to brother freeman who commutes from new jersey [laughter] so alicia, what is behind this mess? look, as you mentioned, there are nearly daily breakdowns. that is because they have not invested the money into repairing the system over the past 20, 30 years.
joe rago and james freeman. james, let s take a step back here, for a second, as they approach the august recess, 7 months, almost 8, into this i guess it s seven into the presidency. typically a time when a new congress, a new government with the same party running both sides of pennsylvania avenue, gets a lot done. what do they have to show for it so far? by the traditional measures maybe not much. we think of pelosi and reid putting a huge stimulus on barack obama s desk within a month, that hasn t really happened here. but if you are a trump voter reflecting on your choice, you can say there s a great supreme court addition in neil gorsuch. you can talk about a burgeoning rollback of federal regulation, congressional review act bills, a lot of them have gone to the president s desk. how many, 13 i think, is that it? 13. these are basically rescinding rules from the obama era.
joe rago and james freeman. james, let s take a step back here, for a second, as they approach the august recess, 7 months, almost 8, into this i guess it s seven into the presidency. typically a time when a new congress, a new government with the same party running both sides of pennsylvania avenue, gets a lot done. what do they have to show for it so far? by the traditional measures maybe not much. we think of pelosi and reid putting a huge stimulus on barack obama s desk within a month, that hasn t really happened here. but if you are a trump voter reflecting on your choice, you can say there s a great supreme court addition in neil gorsuch. you can talk about a burgeoning rollback of federal regulation, congressional review act bills, a lot of them have gone to the president s desk. how many, 13 i think, is that it? 13. these are basically rescinding
scramble to find alternative routes to work. hundreds of trains that run through new york city are being delayed or diverted this summer, as amtrak makes long overdue repairs to tracks at penn station. the busiest rail hub in north america. derailments are now common and new york city subway breakdowns almost a daily occurrence. but the mess is just a sign of things to come, as officials make plans to repair the 107-year-old tunnel under the hudson river, which was badly damaged by hurricane sandy in 2012. wall street journal editorial page writer alicia finley joins us with more on this ongoing saga and condolences to brother freeman who commutes from new jersey [laughter] so alicia, what is behind this mess? look, as you mentioned, there are nearly daily breakdowns. that is because they have not invested the money into repairing the system over the past 20, 30 years.
the room saying, gee, prices are really high, well, i got an idea, let s subsidize consumption? this obviously is going to push prices higher. and i think that s you mean tuition in this case for schools, yeah, because the schools take the loans and capitalize them into the tuition because they know the students will be able to borrow whatever they need. right, and they have no incentive to try to hold down costs. off lot of american high school students who don t go to college. and what ends up happening is they are subsidizing these losses. and also the kids who don t go to school, don t go to college or don t go to yale, brother freeman, they are the ones who end up subsidizing through their tax dollars. finally, this stifles up innovation. many are trying to push prices down, but where is the incentive to do any of that innovation if the government can provide this?