Sunday, March 25, 2012

Railroad Robbery





Blood pressure rising. Stupid, absolute waste of our taxpayer money to bolster the economy of Las Vegas.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46849450/ns/business/

We, the taxpayers, guarantee a loan, 4.9 Billion, to a private company, to build a high speed rail line from Victorville, CA to Sin City, to save gamblers and party animals a 190 mile, 2 hour drive.

Let us think this through. You arrive at Victorville, find a parking spot, go through TSA (you know they will have that), and zip off to Las Vegas. How much time will you really save? One small benefit; a reduction of drunks on Interstate 15. One big detriment, a loss of anonymity.

Who benefits? Oh, lots of pork to spread. Consultants, lawyers for the inevitable environmental impact suits, consultants, PR flacks, some construction jobs, dues to the unions (think it will be built without union labor?), steel orders for the Chinese, etc. Reminds me of a statement from a Seattle Mayor’s aide, “Now that we have actually built a damn West Seattle bridge, it hardly pays to be in politics.”

Similar boondoggle? The “Road Runner” Santa Fe to Albuquerque.

Worst of all, the Lightbringer’s administration is supporting this. Payoff to Harry Reid?
If all of Las Vegas shut down tomorrow, what would be the impact on the rest of the country? Sorry folks, the Hoover Dam, built with the taxpayers money, is what makes modern Las Vegas possible.

Alternatives? Two years out of date.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/14/its-not-fast-train-could-hit-rails-sooner/

Use existing infrastructure? Nah, not sexy enough and not enough potential graft.

2 comments:

Old NFO said...

Yeah, this is a payoff to Reid and Boxer and Pelosi and Feinstein... sigh...

Well Seasoned Fool said...

@ NFO I'm sure you are correct - damnit!