Federal cuts disrupt repairs to iconic U.S. trails

rcpt · 2025-04-06T18:46:11 1743965171

Brookings Institute has a good plot showing how much federal spending is being cut by this administration:

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/tracking-federal-expendit...

Turns out all the cuts are only a fraction of a percent of the federal budget. It's an ideological purge, nothing to do with efficiency at all.

JumpCrisscross · 2025-04-06T18:50:28 1743965428

And between legal costs and the farm bailout for the tariffs, it shouldn’t be surprising that this “efficiency” administration is blowing out our deficit by a few trillion dollars.

mikrl · 2025-04-06T19:06:06 1743966366

>it shouldn’t be surprising

The current flavour of politics is not pragmatic. It’s a luxury belief system.

The left wing excesses of the 2010s were luxury beliefs, the current thing is all just luxury beliefs too.

Basically, when people are economically comfortable and have no real problems, they’ll blow something out of proportion or just plain invent issues in order to feel something.

I have luxury beliefs of my own, many people do. We are free to hold them in North America. But there’s a cost, and that cost shouldn’t be surprising.

sorcerer-mar · 2025-04-06T19:16:34 1743966994

Don’t let internet memes like “luxury beliefs” do too much of the heavy lifting of actual thinking for ya

curiousgal · 2025-04-06T19:13:21 1743966801

> We are free to hold them in North America

You are, as long as you're not brown.

SequoiaHope · 2025-04-06T19:19:57 1743967197

Yeah and the military is a third of our budget and no one in politics ever wants to cut that. There’s so much excess spending there we could cut $300 billion a year from it and still be the world’s bully. China builds infrastructure in other countries as a carrot to insinuate themselves in global affairs but we just build military bases as a stick. Seems like the former is a little bit better even if both approaches have issues.

xnx · 2025-04-06T19:24:10 1743967450

You didn't even mention the immense new tax giveaways to the rich.

swalling · 2025-04-06T19:04:26 1743966266

These cuts are particularly nasty because federal spending on public trail maintenance is already razor thin. A ton of the Pacific Crest Trail and other scenic trails are already primarily maintained by volunteer groups doing work like log clearing, brush removal, and tread work. Trail users ourselves—hikers, mountain bikers, or trail runners—already put in hundreds of volunteer hours every season doing the basic trail work, and that's just regular seasonal maintenance. Significant work rebuilding parts of the Appalachian Trail and PCT after wildfires or hurricanes will likely not happen this year, or for years to come, unless volunteers fill in more gaps.

phyzix5761 · 2025-04-06T19:17:17 1743967037

Can we start a non profit where people can donate for things like this so we can actually get funding without relying on government?

embedded_hiker · 2025-04-06T19:31:46 1743967906

There are many local, and not-so-local, groups that do this volunteer trail maintenance, and they could definitely use some monetary donations. There is the PCTA, mentioned up-thread ( pcta.org ). I volunteer for Trailkeepers of Oregon, based in Portland, and is active in many parts of the state. trailkeepersoforegon.org . There is also the Washington trails Association, and many more.

grg0 · 2025-04-06T19:29:25 1743967765

Let's also pool some money to help the sick pay for health care, the young pay for education and those affected by layoffs tackle the transition. Heck, we could even start our own government.

SoftTalker · 2025-04-06T19:20:54 1743967254

I kind of like the idea of the people using the trails paying for them in kind.

Matheus28 · 2025-04-06T19:24:07 1743967447

Yeah, let’s make road users spend a couple days a year pouring asphalt as well. It’s only fair

IronCoder1 · 2025-04-06T19:22:12 1743967332

Automation is inevitable, but we must ensure displaced workers are retrained and supported in the transition. The government should incentivize companies to invest in upskilling employees. Short-term layoffs may be necessary, but the focus should be on adapting the workforce to new economic realities.

SequoiaHope · 2025-04-06T19:30:06 1743967806

Yeah but why do all that when those at the top could just fight over our dwindling resources.

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