Posted on 02/22/2019 11:55:33 PM PST by John Semmens
In the wake of Gov. Gavin Newsome's decision to scale down California's bullet train, the Trump Administration is demanding that federal grants awarded for the larger original project be returned. Originally, the train was to connect San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Francisco. The scaled down version will connect Bakersfield and Merced.
"The federal aid for this train was predicated on the promise of a much bigger system," Trump said. "Since they aren't going to build the bigger system, they're not entitled to the money. It's like a contractor promising to build a mansion, but delivering a shack. California has no legal right to keep the money intended for the larger project."
Stanford law professor David Engstrom bypassed the legalities and observed that "the practice of recovering money for breach of contract is not something that is ordinarily done in the public sector. Squandering federal aid is expected. Bureaucrats at the federal level repeatedly overlook this waste out of solidarity with state and local bureaucrats. The basic procedure is to keep the money flowing to ensure that all participants get paid regardless of whether the projects are successful."
Newsome bristled at "Trump's naive belief that contracts must be enforced. Other presidents haven't enforced contracts. President Obama granted California wide leeway when it came to budgets and delivery dates. All of the agreed upon budgets ran over. None of the agreed upon deadlines were met. Yet, the federal money kept flowing. This created an expectation that California need not fulfill its obligations in order to receive the federal money. Breaching our expectation breaks long-standing traditions in how federal aid is handled."
if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at...
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Opinion/256611-2019-02-23-semi-news-semi-satire-february-24-2019-edition.htm
ping
Bakersfield to Merced?
For what? So pickers can go from one field to another?
A train from Frisco to L.A. with a side rail to Las Vegas and maybe then you’d have something.
But from Bakersfield and Merced?
Ya gots NOTHING.
Gov Nuisance considers this like our Defense Department having a contract for heavy duty rifles and only receiving bb guns and nothing to be done about the error.
Truther than non fiction!
The truth has become satire!
Missed you the last couple of weeks, glad to see you back.
Who knows why they are keeping that stretch of track from smallville to tinytown. Probably because some influential people own the land, and to justify an attempt to keep the $3.5 billion in federal grants.
A private company is expected to complete high-speed rail from Victorville to Vegas - before even this tiny stretch of California rail gets finished (and CA has had an 11 year head start!). Time will tell if that gets done but it surely is an allegory for government ineptitude and waste if they do complete it.
As I wrote on the thread about Newsome scrapping the project, I am a fan of trains personally but high-speed rail no longer makes no sense. We already have self-driving automobiles running on electricity. Whether it be 5 years or 20 years, this will eventually become ubiquitous. The cars will be highly intelligent and communicate with each other to allow for higher speeds, denser patterns, greater efficiency and utility; and they will be alert to road and traffic conditions etc. Each car will know when to speed up, slow down, merge, exit, allow another car to pass/merge etc. I can imagine that the government might even charge cars based on priority (payment/fee) - want to get from LA to SF faster than everyone else, slide your credit card and your car speeds up and the other cars move out of your way. And self-driving autos are point-to-point, not hub-and-spoke like trains.
So the entire notion of a singular track shuttling people to a singular destination (or series of fixed locations) is basically already obsolete. The whole thing should be scrapped.
Yes BUT.
As the cost and delay continue to spiral more and more, one has to understand that this is a big gub mint shakedown.
A through audit would show corruption, graft etc beyond belief.
Who and what is the monies going to?
Also there is NOTHING between Victorville and Vegas cept sand making purchase of the land much easier.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.