Late last month, Transportation For America’s map of planned fare hikes and service cuts got the full CNN treatment, including some polished-looking graphics and the inexplicable use of three television monitors (surprisingly, the high-tech network didn’t roll out the hologram it used on election night).

But the polish ends once anchor John King starts interviewing the residents affected by transit cuts. King focuses on the broad cuts to the St. Louis transit system, where 2,300 bus stops have been closed. In human terms, this means a loss of mobility for a disabled couple, a single mother who won’t be able to get to work, transit worker layoffs, and more.

“It’s about jobs,” St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley says. “If you don’t have public transportation, how do you create jobs? How do you attract businesses to move to St. Louis?” Dooley said he asked whether federal stimulus money could be used to close the cuts, but stimulus money can only be spent on capital spending.

Transportation advocates have said before that if the federal government wants to stimulate the economy, it makes no sense to “hire a construction worker and fire a bus driver.”