Obama's High Speed Rail System Will Be a Burden on Taxpayers

How Much Will Obama’s High-Speed Rail Cost You?

February 17, 2011

National Review Online - Fox News has a handy tax calculator up so you can see how many of your tax dollars will go to this $53 billion boondoggle. For example, if your income is $100,000, then $654.60 goes for the high-speed choo-choo.

To put this $654.60 in perspective, it’s 85 miles between Tampa and Orlando, the high-speed route that Gov. Scott of Florida just refused Federal funds to develop. With a car getting 20 mpg burning $4 a gallon gas, the trip would cost roughly $17 if you drove. So it would take 40 trips between Tampa and Orlando to equal the tax burden in our example — and that doesn’t include the cost of the rail ticket.

What’s more, the $53 billion doesn’t finish ANY rail project, it just gets the country pregnant with high-speed rail. The faster high-speed rail heads to the ash heap of history, the better.

High Speed Rail - Another Obama Liberal Fantasy Designed to Fleece the Taxpayers Over a Long-long Time!

Last week, Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) rejected $2.4 billion in federal funding for a proposed high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando. The governor’s decision was based upon the likelihood of an up to $3 billion cost overrun, the likelihood of operating subsidies, and the requirement that the federal grant would have to be repaid if trains were not operating frequently enough, even if they were nearly empty. Proponents are working overtime to convince the public that there is no taxpayer obligation and that a private consortium that would build and operate the system would pay for it. Anyone familiar with projects of this sort knows that no private consortium could sustain the potentially huge cost overruns and operating subsidies. All parties agree that neither state nor local taxpayers must be liable for cost increases, operating subsidies or the potential return of money to the federal government. The reality, however, is that federal policy requires the state or local government receiving the federal funding to assume these liabilities. When the costs exceed the limited resources of the private consortium, only the taxpayers will be left. - Wendell Cox, The Tampa to Orlando High-Speed Rail Line: Protecting Taxpayers, The Foundry, February 22, 2011

February 21, 2011

PonteVedraMan's Blog - Here's a suggestion Obama; use all that Harvard, Yale and Chicago mob brilliance to make Amtrak profitable! Then if you can do that, let's talk about other rail projects. And you know, I bet if you kicked the unions out of the railroad business, even Amtrak could be profitable - but that's another story for another day.

The only way liberals can even make high speed rail a necessity in any respect is to position it as a moral issue, as in, we need to do it for the people. The economics do not, nor will they ever work in any respect.

Oh yes, we hear all the buzz words and talking points of Obama about this wonderful product. The imagery of bullet trains whizzing across the country at 220 mph. They mention things like creating jobs, "green" development, sustainability and transit-oriented-development. Believe me, this is all smoke and mirrors as is most things Obama and the Chicago Mafia come up with to use our taxpayer money to create boondoggles.

Economic facts to warrant high speed rail do not exist! But then facts have never been necessary for liberals to spend taxpayer money, it is their inalienable right to do so on whatever silly program they come up with. Andy Kunz, CEO of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, when pressed for economic facts to warrant the investment (remember, it is no longer spending, it is investment) in high speed rail, admitted there weren't any!

The facts are that for every job created by high speed rail, it is estimated it will cost a subsidy of $1.2 million. Pretty much in line with the "green revolution" in Obama's beloved Spain, where each "green job" now cost the taxpayers approximately $1 million in subsidy, and for every "green job" created 3 traditional jobs are lost. And of course Spain has 24% unemployment in their wonderful "green revolution".

Liberals are great at solving a problem that doesn't exist, with taxpayer money that doesn't belong to them, and money the government borrows from countries like China. Liberal arrogance is all it takes, and Gene Skoropowski, who works for infrastructure development company HNTB, recently told ABC News that he didn't care about the economic arguments of high speed rail. He argued that is as a moral imperative that people should have more choices for travel.

Current California high speed rail projects originally estimated to cost $33 billion are now going to cost in the neighborhood of $65 billion. Taxpayers have already paid a $9 billion down-payment and are on the hook for the rest. And get this, riders of this rail system will have a higher than average income, so based on the tax system, it is a subsidy from the poor to the rich." Imagine that; the poor subsidizing the rich! But what do you expect from liberals who never consider the unintended consequences of anything they propose.

If you are getting the picture that Obama is only signing states up for projects that the states and taxpayers will later have to pay for with ever higher unforeseen costs, you are right. There is very little substance to these high speed rail projects which is why several brave governors are saying NO, NO, AND NO!

SMOKE AND MIRRORS IS THE BYWORD OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AND HIGH SPEED RAIL IS JUST ANOTHER FANTASY HE WANTS TO PAWN OFF ON THE TAXPAYERS!

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