Norquist: California bullet train was a solution in search of a problem

Grover Norquist
Updated
Politicians love such mega projects especially if paid for by taxpayers from other states, writes Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform

The Democrats’ “Green New Deal” calls for building “high-speed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary.” There are 5,000 airports in the USA. This is tens of thousands of miles of “bullet trains.”

California just pulled the plug on its plan to connect just two cities. From the beginning, California’s bullet train was a politician’s solution in search of a problem. California wasted 11 years and billions of state and federal taxpayer dollars trying to figure out how to transport people from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Hint: You can purchase a round-trip flight from LAX to SFO for $149 and arrive in an hour and a half.

In 2008, state authorities said this bullet train would cost “only” $33 billion with the first segment completed by 2018. By the time Gov. Gavin Newsom scrapped much of the project, estimated costs ballooned to $98 billion. No passengers have gone anywhere.

OUR VIEW: California bullet train setback shouldn't be end of the line

An elevated section of the high-speed rail under construction in Fresno, California.
An elevated section of the high-speed rail under construction in Fresno, California.

These promises followed by waste, fraud and corruption join a host of other failed promises in areas ranging from light rail to publicly funded broadband.

And yet the politicians love such mega projects. Especially if paid for by taxpayers from other states. Every single American helped pay for this California boondoggle. The project received $3.5 billion in Obama “stimulus” spending for “shovel ready” projects. Expensive shovels.

No one’s life is a complete waste. Some people serve as bad examples. Let us learn from the broken promises of California politicians and President Barack Obama.

“The Music Man” fooled the townsfolk in city after city, but eventually he was exposed in Riverdale. And the fraud ended.

Back in 2009, Obama’s Transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, optimistically predicted, “One of the legacies for this administration, for the president and the vice president, will be high-speed rail. That will be their transportation legacy.”

If we learn to avoid repeating failures, it will be a positive legacy.

Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Norquist: California bullet train was a solution in search of a problem