All aboard! Next stop, Fantasyland
Mainstream media have pummeled Republicans for pushing spending cuts and refusing to support tax increases…Republicans had a mandate from the voters in November 2010 to advance such policies. In contrast, it’s not at all clear that voters in November 2008 gave Obama and the Democrats a mandate to increase non-defense discretionary spending by 24 percent (84 percent if you count the stimulus package) in 2009 and 2010.
In negotiations on the debt limit, Obama has fenced off several programs from any cuts at all. One is Obamacare, even though majorities in polls continue to favor its repeal. Another is, astonishingly, the $53 billion he wants to spend on high-speed rail projects. To call high-speed rail a “boondoggle,” as does House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, is to engage in considerable understatement.
These projects include $715 million for construction of 100 miles of track between the small towns of Borden and Corcoran in California’s Central Valley. They include a train from Iowa City, Iowa, that will take longer to get to Chicago than already existing bus service
High speed rail is a one way ticket to fantasyland. In the US, population centers grow and shrink, for example but train tracks are forever. And so on and so forth. Bottom line: if you’re not willing to cut subsidies for fantasies like this, you have an agenda that’s wholly separate from fiscal discipline.