First, this looks like a Texas deal. What does the President have to do with it? Or is this a case of "it's all Bush's fault?"
What exactly is giving you the most grief? You don't like roads? You don't like TOLL roads? Or you don't like foreign owenership? Because it is the last on the list, the solution is easy. An all American consortium needs only to come up with the cash and the deal's theirs.
Finally, who are you that you think a businees deal needs your (or even my) consent?
You're absolutely right.
The United States of America and everything and everyone in it is "FOR SALE"
to the highest bidder.
Always has been, always will be. Amen.
Two words: Eminent Domain.
President Reagan observed in his farewell address to the nation:
Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: "We the people." "We the people" tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. "We the people" are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the people" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the people" are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I've tried to do these past eight years.That is fundamentally opposed by what W and the globaloney despots are up to. They are fundamentally opposed to "We the People." Reagan never was. He also led a great tradition, unlike W, and now you... of stopping runaway governments that get too big for their britches...as he said in that same speech:..............
But back in the 1960s, when I began, it seemed to me that we'd begun reversing the order of things — that through more and more rules and regulations and confiscatory taxes, the government was taking more of our money, more of our options, and more of our freedom. I went into politics in part to put up my hand and say, "Stop." I was a citizen politician, and it seemed the right thing for a citizen to do.I don't think we need to belabor that W totally rejects this classical Founders formulation of governance and liberty. His Big Govermentism...and his "One Family" North American Unionism trumps all other concerns.I think we have stopped a lot of what needed stopping. And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.
And this isn't just Texas. Bush has had extensive talks with Fox and the Canadian Presidents on this...and has given millions of Federal Money to subsidize planning the Texas Corridor Project.
The Texas Republican Party has explicitly rejected it, the whole concept...with extreme prejudice, Republican platform calls for scuttling Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor Delegates back border barrier:
Texas Republicans wrapped up their two-day convention in the Alamo City on Saturday by adopting a party platform demanding that a "physical barrier" be built along the Rio Grande.
And they blamed the federal government, which has been under full Republican control since the 2002 elections, for neglecting border security.
...In the state GOP platform... Republicans also called for scuttling Gov. Rick Perry's chief transportation initiative, the Trans-Texas Corridor.
The platform now says the mammoth system of highways, tollways and rail lines would infringe on private-property rights.
Sounds like the REAL TEXANS have already made up their mind against this.
What does the President have to do with it?
As to the scope of the Federal involvement, it sounds like it has already hit $500 million committed. And the likelihood of Eminent Domain abuse for this project is extremely high based on how it has already been pushed ahead:
The TTC was specifically excluded from the recently adopted law that otherwise prohibits the use of eminent domain for economic development purposes. TxDOT can and will use eminent domain to acquire property for the TTC which will be operated as a commercial for-profit enterprise. The concessionaires are private businesses that will use the TTC to generate a profit. It appears from the limited information made available to the public that Cintra Zachry will have a monopoly on at least the toll road portion of the TTC. Providers of service facilities located within the TTC must negotiate with a single entity. The result is monopoly that will drive provider location costs well above the real market value. This is not unlike other turnpikes, airports or sports stadiums. The result is also equally common, highest bidder gets the location and the consumer with limited options pays a premium for goods and services. When was the last time you went to the ballpark for dinner?
Contrast this with the existing Interstate 35 highway up to Duluth. Free the whole way, well-maintained, and yeah, no monopoly on service providers up and down the length. I will take the status quo over this TTC abomination.
I think many idiots do not understand that we are still a federal system and that States can do many things without the interference or approval of the Feds or the President.