Michael Barone delivers Washington Examiner readers some good news about the Obama administration’s high-speed rail plans.
Dead. Kaput. Through. Finished. Washed up. Gone-zo.
That, I think, is a fair description of the Obama administration’s attempt to build high-speed rail lines across America.
It hasn’t failed because of a lack of willingness to pony up money. The Obama Democrats’ February 2009 stimulus package included $8 billion for high-speed rail projects. The Democratic Congress appropriated another $2.5 billion.
But Congress is turning off the spigot. The Republican-controlled House has appropriated zero dollars for high-speed rail. The Democratic-majority Senate Appropriations Committee has appropriated $100 million in their budget recommendation.
That’s effectively “a vote of ‘no confidence’ to President Obama’s infrastructure initiative,” concludes transportation analyst Ken Orski, “a bipartisan signal that Congress has no appetite for pouring more money into a venture that many lawmakers have come to view as a poster child for wasteful spending.”
Research conducted for the John Locke Foundation earlier this year suggests this is a very good development. “A high-speed rail proposal for North Carolina would create ‘substantial’ risks for taxpayers, while doing little to nothing to reduce traffic, help the environment, cut energy use, or create jobs.”
