Free Republic

Boondoggles: How can we tell if Congress is serious about reining in spending? A clear-cut, permanent defunding of high-speed rail would be one sign. But the pipe dream won't quite die. Sometime soon — or so we'd like to think — the fast-train fad will fizzle out, the victim of fiscal sanity and critical thinking. Just this week, a Senate Appropriations subcommittee controlled by Democrats actually voted to give high-speed rail nothing at all in the new fiscal year. That got our hopes up. Then the full Appropriations Committee mixed the message by approving $100 million for the program, which...

It's a formula many officials at all levels of government hope to see repeated across the country. On Monday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Peter Rogoff, lead administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, joined Gov. Mark Dayton at the Union Depot to tout President Barack Obama's $447 billion jobs bill, which is moving through a divided Congress. The bill, they said, would invest heavily in infrastructure projects such as roads, rail and bridges, putting more unemployed Americans back to work, if only for a few months to a few years at a time. At its heart, a key question:...

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During construction of the Hiawatha Line, the joint venture in charge of the light-rail project told federal authorities that minority and disadvantaged subcontractors were being included. Now it has agreed to pay the government $4.6 million to resolve allegations that those claims were false. According to the Justice Department, Minnesota Transit Constructors Inc. violated the federal false claims act by telling federal transportation officials that it hired companies qualified as Disadvantaged Business Enterprises to work on the light rail. The program helps businesses owned by minorities, women and other disadvantaged individuals obtain work on federal construction projects.

The federal government may have staved off the imminent threat of default Tuesday when President Barack Obama signed a bitterly fought budget deal, but the woes and uncertainty for states have just begun. In California, some of the most likely cuts include nutritional programs for low-income women and children, the federal portion of the controversial high-speed rail project, clean drinking water programs, and subsidies for farmers. Also potentially at risk are federally funded university research projects and military bases, policy-watchers said Tuesday after hastily reviewing the plan to cut national spending by $2.1 trillion over 10 years. None of the...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood turned loose $77 million in federal tax dollars to help build the much-contested SunRail commuter train during a sun-baked ceremony Monday near one of the system's future depots. LaHood signed a fake document before a crowd of more than 300 people. But the stroke of the pen that counted occurred in an air-conditioned tent a few moments later. That opened the way for the first 31 miles of the $1.2 billion train to be up and running by May 2014. "When you get your act together, unbelievable things can happen. … And look what's happening:...

DETROIT — The federal government on Monday awarded Michigan roughly $200 million toward a high-speed rail project that within three years is expected to shave 30 minutes off of a trip from Detroit to Chicago. The grant was part of a 15-state, $2 billion disbursal that ties into President Barack Obama’s broader goal of connecting 80 percent of Americans to high-speed rail in 25 years. The majority of Michigan’s funding will go to the development of a 135-mile, high-speed stretch between Dearborn and Kalamazoo, part of the federally designated “high-speed corridor” between Detroit and Chicago. Maximum speeds on the stretch...

California's chronic inability to govern itself has made it an international laughingstock with a blistering article in the Economist, a highbrow British magazine, only the latest manifestation of that unfortunate status. The state now has another opportunity to either cement its image as a civic buffoon or begin acting like an adult. It is the disaster-in-waiting known as the high-speed rail project. On a whim, politicians and voters decided a few years ago that a bullet train connecting the northern and southern halves of the state would be a jim-dandy thing to have, even though nobody knew how much it...

Last Tuesday, March 22nd, saw two Obama high speed rail shills, hapless Illinois Governor Quinn and the loyal, ebullient, camera centric Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, shamelessly announcing with pride, the next phase of the so called Chicago to St Louis High Speed Rail project. The new $1.2 billion phase is to run from Bloomington, IL to Dwight IL, a distance of 58.5 miles of what could only be described as the "Billion Dollar Train to Nowhere." Folks, that amounts to a mere $20,618,556 per mile, with an estimated heart stopping speed of 110 mph. Google Map estimates driving between these...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is meeting with Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle to discuss the city's planned $5.5 billion commuter rail line. LaHood, Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and other officials were to join Carlisle at a briefing Wednesday on the rail transit project. LaHood oversees the Federal Transit Administration, which has pledged to sign an agreement providing at least $1.5 billion for the rail. LaHood plans to tour the port and talk with people about how to "rev up this economy in Hawaii." This is LaHood's first visit to the state since being appointed by President Barack Obama....

Gov. Rick Scott turned down $2.4 billion taxpayer (or borrowed from foreign countries) dollars the US Dept. of Transportation offered Florida. The money would’ve helped to create a high speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando. Supporters also want future lines between Orlando and Miami and maybe one day Orlando and Jacksonville. The Florida Times-Union ran a story on Saturday suggesting US senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) might go after the money despite Scott’s concerns. The header to the story in the print edition was “Nelson fighting to get back rail money.” The header to the online story read “Florida loses...

Californians have a reputation for questioning authority. And increasingly, they appear to be questioning the High-Speed Rail Authority, which voters empowered in 2008 to issue $9.95 billion in bonds and build the nation’s largest such system. Opposition hasn’t reached critical mass — not yet. But it is broad, and it includes Republicans, some Democrats, community groups, local governments, fiscal conservatives, and neighborhood preservationists. Reports from respectable engineering and financial teams, including state agencies, paint a far gloomier picture than the happy-talk done deal that’s been portrayed in the national media. Lawsuits further complicate the picture. The more money California sponges...

"U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Friday that $2.4 billion in high-speed rail funding intended for Florida will be sent to other states after the state Supreme Court upheld Gov. Rick Scott's decision to reject the money..." Why was the federal government trying to force this boondoggle on the Sunshine State? ... Who is John Galt? ... "Atlas Shrugged" is a lengthy parable about individualism and freedom. Set in the not-too-distant future, it depicts an America whose economy is falling apart under the weight of an overweening government run entirely by people with approximately the integrity, cognitive ability and humility...

State lawmakers in Florida are threatening to sue GOP Gov. Rick Scott over his refusal to take $2.4 billion in high-speed rail money. The fight in Florida comes amid a renewed push by President Obama on high-speed rail, which the White House has identified as a key investment in the nation’s future. Scott describes the $2.4 billion the federal government has offered his state a “federal boondoggle” and has refused to accept the money to build a high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando. Republicans in Washington have also criticized Obama’s proposal to spend on high-speed rail at a time...

The federal government already has more than $10 billion in stimulus and other money set aside for high speed rail projects. To date, it has made commitments to spend $4.5 billion of that. Obama has made infrastructure a centerpiece of his presidency, calling for $53 billion in additional funds for high speed rail in his budget proposal this week. California: The state has captured the lion's share of these funds... Chicago-St. Louis: This route, which passes through Springfield and Bloomington, Ill., received $1.1 billion ... Orlando-Tampa: ... Vermont: The state was one of the first to win federal money, and...

Gov. Rick Scott of Florida on Wednesday rejected plans for a high speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando, in the process turning down $2 billion in federal funds and a key piece of President Obama’s goal of building a national high-speed rail network. Florida is the third state with a newly elected Republican governor to turn down a portion of the administration’s high-speed rail project, joining John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

HELENA, Mont. -- An unruly passenger who was removed from an Amtrak train later made a threat that led to the train’s evacuation, an Amtrak official said Tuesday. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said Hussein Abdi Hassan, 24, was removed from the train in Browning shortly before 8:30 p.m. Monday. While being interviewed by authorities, the Minnesota man “somehow threatened the safety of the train," he said. Nothing dangerous was found. The train was stopped between Browning and East Glacier. Passengers were taken to a middle school in Browning, where they were set up with sleeping bags and air mattresses.

Speaking about the need for high-speed rail, Vice President Joe Biden commented that, "If we don't get a grip, folks, they'll not only be teaching us, they're gonna own our kids." What? If I'd known that all it required to own someone's kids was to discourage him from supporting high-speed rail, I would be beating Angelina Jolie right now in the people's-kids-owning-game. Leaving aside the numerous objections to high-speed rail, this seems like an odd thing to say under any circumstances. I understand that this makes it characteristic of Joe Biden. I think the most impossible quiz in the world...

Last night in his State of the Union address, President Obama urged Americans and Congress to embrace this generation's "Sputnik" moment and spend more on technology and innovation to spur economic growth. America is losing its edge to nations like China, Mr. Obama suggested, because we have failed to commit to a long-term vision to be competitive in this digital age. "China is building faster trains and newer airports," the president said. "Meanwhile, when our own engineers graded our nation's infrastructure, they gave us a 'D.'" "Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80% of Americans access to high-speed...

As Barack Obama was exiting the House Chamber at the conclusion of last night’s State of the Union address, a very interesting exchange was captured on camera between the President and Republican John Mica (FL-7), Chairman of the Transportation Committee. Mica can be seen in the middle of a group of Democrat lawmakers clamoring for Obama’s autograph, standing next to Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA20), a huge high speed rail supporter who’s lobbying hard for the project in California. As Obama approaches Mica, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to Obama’s immediate right and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) directly behind him,...