California Greenlights It's $68 Billion Boondoggle....

Ahh, It Looks So Nice... That Pretty Blue Train Zipping Right Past the Palm Trees - But You Just Paid $3.2 Billion For This Waste of a Project...


      Whenever we think of California, we think of the line form that song
'They took Paradise and put up a parking lot'... For all of the beautiful weather and landscape, people have managed to run that state into the ground - and they're all set to do it again..  This time, with the mirage that building high speed rail will save them.  Ignorance truly is bliss, but it's expensive - VERY expensive.....



      Yep, yesterday, the California legislature - which has a budget deficit in the $40 Billion range - authorized the first leg of their high speed rail project from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Las Vegas eventually.  They OK'd the sale of $4.5 billion in bonds (aka debt) of which $2.6 will go towards the building of the first leg of the line between the metropolises of Madera and Bakersfield.  The remaining $1.9 Billion will be used to improve regional rail lines (aka, more realistic rail usage) across the state.  The rush was on for Cali, because they now became eligible for an additional $3.2 billion in Federal funds, thanks mostly to other fiscally responsible states, like Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin, turning down federal money. California doesn't think that way...



     No, the Golden State is a bastion of Democratic, Keynesian economic thought, where the government is the engine that stokes the fire - the straw that stirs the drink.  While we are all for public works projects, the smart use of them is the key, and High Speed Rail is a huge miss... It's used a lot in Europe and Japan - where reliable vehicles are as rare as unannoying American tourists.  They use mass transit more, because they do not live in their cars, and are more centric in where they live and work.  Getting between cities by car is tough...


     California doesn't have that problem.  There are plenty of highways to travel by, and rail is slower than flying and takes much longer - even high speed rail.  If you're expecting to hop on a train at the Golden Gate Bridge, get right on and end up on Sunset Boulevard, think again.  The main Los Angeles are station is in Victorville - and hour away.  Getting high speed rail to travel through downtown LA is impossible... So, you have to drive outside of town, get on the train, then travel, end up at the other station, get off - then either take a cab or rent a car into town.  That is unless you happen to have business in Victorville.


    And in that hassle is the main beef with High Speed Rail: it's not functional or useful enough to merit the expense - and it's your money they're wasting.  The money they will waste on what will eventually be a $68 Billion project - $3.2 billion - could be used to repair every single unsafe bridge and road in South Carolina.  Unfortunately, it's not a project that you can name after your local Congressman.  Think about all the airports, new roads and bridges to nowhere that are a waste of your tax money.  But, it makes for a great photo op, and it gives the mirage that your are changing things. Too bad it's for the worse......


    High Speed Rail is that theory on Steroids... Yes, people will be hired to build this - just like the Pyramids and the Eiffel Tower. Actually, slaves made the Pyramids, but we digress... Our question is how many people worked at the Pyramids afterwards? More importantly, how many people used or paid to use them after?  We rest our case... California just blew $3.2 billion of your money - and it's just the start.   That's how liberals do it - spending your way out of the hole, and it'll all be fine.  But when the governemnt cash dries up, who's there to support it? Not the private sector, and there won't be enough riders to maintain it.  It's shiny and new now, but we can see 15-20 years down the road when it's a relic - a $68 Billion relic.


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