Virginian-Pilot’s light rail editorial off track

My dad was the best auto mechanic I ever saw. I’d sit for summers watching him repair cars with no computers, no manuals, and second set of hands. I couldn’t count the number of times he could diagnose a car problem by sense of smell or sound. He could find that one thing wrong in a machine that was 99% right.

Always thought I got that talent from him, but not with cars – with arguments.

Unfortunately, my hometown newspaper has only come close to 99% right when it snowed too much for the paper to reach my house and I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

But today, they were pretty much right about Phil Shucet and HRT.

But where the Virginian-Pilot got it really wrong is here:

“Shucet has already found savings equal to more than his contract is worth, but that’s to be expected.”

Expected? It is? If it’s expected, where is the Pilot holding every other person paid by government to the same standard? Imagine if everyone paid by government simply lowered government spending by more than his salary. Budgets would be balanced in a week!

Shucet’s renegotiating and cost savings have already paid for his entire 18-month contract many, many times over in less than a month.

Why the Pilot brushes this aside is obvious to me, given their proclivity for endeavors that only expand government and spending. Actually lowering costs doesn’t impress them (as I can tell by their advertising rates. No wonder everyone’s shooting TV commercials, which as an actor I guess I should thank the Pilot for generating so much work for TV talent)

Shucet’s paying for himself and then some. That is the whole point, and it shouldn’t be pushed aside. That alone makes him a good investment. The Pilot’s political purposes are irrelevant. The only thing they’re interested in is light rail moving forward, and they sound as if Shucet accomplishes that, the costs are but a only detail in a larger story.

They have it backwards. Now, they need to hold more government types accountable to the “expected” standard of cutting spending by an amount greater than their own salaries.

Not holding my breath.

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