Posted on 02/08/2011 2:22:08 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Why not? The federal budget is now like a teetering Jenga tower that stretches into the Earth’s upper atmosphere. There’s no question that it’s going to topple pretty soon, so in the meantime, why not have fun and see how many more pieces we can stick on there before it does?
Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced an ambitious $53 billion program to build new high-speed rail networks and make existing ones faster over the next six years.
Biden, who estimated he has ridden Amtrak between Washington and his home in Wilmington, Delaware, some 7,900 times, made a strong pitch for rail transportation to enable the United States to compete and lead internationally.
“This is about seizing the future,” he said, making the announcement at Philadelphia’s busy 30th Street station with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Japan and China are already building high-speed rail, and “there’s no reason, none,” that the United States cannot do the same, Biden said.
Actually, there are reasons we can’t do the same. See this recent Michael Barone column for a primer. Our version of “high-speed” rail won’t be nearly as high-speed as theirs, making this option uncompetitive with air travel over even moderately long distances, and the property-rights culture in those countries isn’t as strong as it is here, which means all sorts of tangles for the feds in finding land to lay dedicated track. There’s also the teensy matter of our crippling leviathan deficits, which explains why GOP transportation honchos John Mica and Bill Shuster are already giving Biden the thumbs down on today’s announcement. Interestingly, as recently as a week ago, both men sounded bullish on HSR. I wonder which member of the GOP leadership was tasked with having a little chat with them about spending.
Here’s Reason TV from last March with a quick-and-painless guide to America’s latest boondoggle in the name of Progress. Note well the bit about Amtrak subsidies for a sneak preview of the sinkhole that high-speed rail will become. Serious question: Is there any federal spending initiative that Democrats won’t defend on grounds that it’ll either create jobs or (giggle) end up turning a profit “eventually”? Theoretically, there has to come a point where the budget grows so bloated that even leftists agree that pursuing risky new projects is imprudent for the time being, until we retrench fiscally and reprioritize. And yet, evidently, we haven’t yet reached that point. Where is that point, exactly?
Some Naval ship is missing a drunken sailor...
Hey, let’s not and say we did.
Joe, we’re broke and that makes it a BFD.
- Biden, who estimated he has ridden Amtrak between Washington and his home in Wilmington, Delaware, some 7,900 times
That’s about an hour?
..that should be picking up soap in the showers.
Oh, yeah, when the government is in charge, the outcome is usually far worse than anyone could predict.
“Some Naval ship is missing a drunken sailor...”
They aren’t missing him at all. Who do you think threw him over the fantail?
That’t the second place he’s been thrown out of. The first was his village.
While we’re at it lets build a 50 mile high golden tower for all the left wing elite. There is no shortage of human chattel to pound the metal with their bare bones.
Drunken sailors spend their own money.
What is it with high speed trains and liberals? They seems to have the same lust for them that Gollum had for the ring.
Before a dime is spent on a high speed train the people ought to force the government to answer a few simple questions.
1. Will this be a self sustaining business and if so, at what percent capacity is required to make a profit?
2. Where will the tracks go and who’s property will be taken through eminent domain?
3. How will the passengers get around once they reach their destination?
Bankrupt. But they have no hope of recovery in the Federal Government. Might as well let it ride to the end. I have come to the conclusion it is hopeless. It will be up to the states to call con-con to save us.
The morons here in California approved a high speed rail project in the central valley. It would only serve 5000 people a year. We’re broke and the Dems want to do this. It’s like watching someone on welfare by a new Lexus.
Next we’ll hear Biden,
“I feel stretched like bread over too much butter...”
They do seem fixated on the trains. Maybe it is just all they have left. High speed trains to save America. Yep. It has to be a mental disorder of some sort. Now days construction is done by big ole machines not peons with shovels. Obama would be better off calling for the Great Pyramid of Obama to be built in Death Valley by millions of people with stone tools.
Biden: Let’s spend $53 billion WE DON’T HAVE on high-speed rail.
Democrats think the only way to garner approval is to promise to spend more money.
SEIZE our paychecks is more like it.
Sadly, I think that you are right. Absent a real miracle it’s America RIP.
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