Wait...is that little green army man levitating in the background? Am I seeing things?

I think the answer to your query re: goings on in Washington devolves to blind hatred and greed. There's a sizable chunk of the country that believes it's not getting its fair share of Federal largesse, and they hang that around the necks of their political opposites and the Federal government in general. There's not a lot of thought going into this, so I wouldn't try to find any rationale for it.

Nice job on the boxcars...not much to report here. This Sentinel Service car fell in my lap recently, a custom run for the Baltimore Packaging Company I'm guessing.