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On That ‘Sin Express’ to Nowhere…
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Feb 25, 2009 07:39pm |
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| Category | General |
| News Date | Thursday, February 26, 2009 01:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By Michael Cooper
It is the Republican talking point that won’t die, even though it has little if any basis in reality: what they claim is an earmark in the federal stimulus package for a high-speed train from Disneyland to Las Vegas.
Ever since Democrats added $8 billion for high-speed rail projects into the final stimulus bill, Republicans have cast it as pork that will give the Senate’s Democratic majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, a magnetic levitation train project that he has supported in the past that could go from Anaheim, Cal., to Las Vegas in 86 minutes.
The latest to cite the project was Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who, in his Republican response Tuesday night to President Obama’s address to Congress, complained that the stimulus included wasteful spending like “$8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a magnetic levitation line from Las Vegas to Disneyland.”
There are just a few problems with this. Nothing in the law talks authorizes a train from Las Vegas to California. The provision authorizing $8 billion for high-speed rail spending directs the federal Transportation Department to develop guidelines about who can apply for it, and then to decide how the money will be spent.
The Las Vegas line is not even one of the nation’s 11 officially-designated high-speed rail corridors, several of which will likely split the money (though a federal transportation official said that some lines not in the corridor could apply). And even if one project got all the money, it would not be enough to build a bullet train. |
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