by Rebecca Cole
In a continuing push to promote positive news about the economy, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden today touted the success of their $787-billion economic stimulus package in jump-starting transportation projects.
"Just eight weeks into this, we're already seeing, beginning to see, exactly how the Recovery Act and the Department of Transportation are building the economy of the future and making life better for communities everywhere," Biden said.
"Folks, the road to recovery must quite literally be repaved," he added.
Nine hundred jobs will be created as a result of one highway project in Michigan, Obama said, citing the 2,000th stimulus project approved by the administration. "This government effort is coming in ahead of schedule and under budget," he said.
Yet, while the president said "it's safe to say that this plan is beginning to work," he made no mention of the progress in developing high-speed rail lines, on which a record $8 billion was inserted into the economic stimulus package.
The problem -- and its lack of press today -- may be that the funding is a drop in the bucket compared to what is actually needed to get just one high-speed train moving down the track -- even with another $5 billion in funding over the next five years included in Obama's proposed 2010 budget.
California is the only state with a working plan to build a high-speed rail line, to connect Los Angeles with San Francisco. Transportation officials estimate that project alone requires a whopping $42 billion to complete it, more than five times the amount designated in the stimulus act.
In 2008, after rejecting it twice, Californians approved a $10-billion bond issue to build the rail project, but it's hardly shovel-ready. The line is not expected to open for business until at least 2018 -- nearly a decade from now.
Last month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on NBC News' Meet the Press that he "is a big fan of high-speed rail" and that "the important thing is there's a willingness to pay for it."
In the coming years, Schwarzenegger's successor may find that untrue, judging by the example of other states, including California, that have tried and failed to get a high-speed train up and running over the past two decades.
In 1982, the California legislature passed a measure approving $2 billion for a high speed rail line connecting Los Angeles and San Diego. But amid "NIMBY" -- Not in My Back Yard -- protests and environmental worries, the project never got off the ground.
In Florida, voters in 2000 approved construction of a high speed rail line between Tampa, St. Petersburg and Orlando.
Four years later, they repealed it over concerns about escalating costs -- estimated as high as $25 billion -- and impacts to adjacent communities. A similar result occurred in Texas in the 1990s, where funding was approved by voters only to have it yanked once costs appeared to spiral out of control.
A signature plank in Obama's campaign promise to "rebuild America," the development of a series of high-speed rail corridors offers the promise of new infrastructure jobs, a more environmentally-friendly method of travel and a way to untangle the gridlock of the country's highways and airports.
Yet stimulus funds for it were almost an afterthought, as Politico reported in February, and no funds were included for high-speed rail when the House Appropriations Committee drafted the bill in January. Only last-minute arm-twisting by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel ensured that the funds were inserted.
Compared to Europe and Japan, high-speed rail in this country, if built, would be something of an oxymoron: the U.S. government defines "high speed" as 90 mph. Japan's Shinkansen trains average 180 mph while France's TGV averages about 130 mph.
The fastest U.S. train is Amtrack's Acela, which runs between Washington, New York and Boston. Yet, with twisting tracks and in having to share the line with slow-moving freight cars, speeds along the route average only 80 mph.
Comments
Pres Obama and the Dems are slowly starting to turn the economy around. It was really stupid of the Republican "leadership" to have bet against Pres Obama and the American people.
If the Repubs continue running their party like they're a Mafia outfit they're going to be out of power for at least 20-30 years.
Posted by: former Republican | April 13, 2009 2:04 PM
That's funny, I don't see any plans for high-speed rail to go from Disneyland to Las Vegas like the Republicans were all in a lather about.
Posted by: Quippy | April 13, 2009 2:46 PM
Yeah, but the Republican teabagging parties are still running over budget. Let's see ... there was a no-bid contract to Blackwater to supply tea-bags, to Halliburton for security, Brownie is running logistics, Cheney is running publicity, GWB is running communications ...
This news is enough to make a Republican strategist tear their hair out. But still, the worst part of the story for the Repugs?
.
The bill's projects are coming in under budget.
Oh NOES! This is going to make Republican leaders Druggy Rush and Joe the Plunger very very ANGRY!
Posted by: DrainYou | April 13, 2009 4:03 PM
That silly Republican Party, of the WMD, could have promoted reconstruction of America' s infrastructure, but, instead, those sillies, chose, but never succeeding, to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure !! Unfortunately, President Obama has to clean up their mess, over in Iraq, that battered and decimated nation and their mess over here, in America !! I figure, it will take them 20-25 years to find and get rid the WMD and to get rid of the incompetent and haters of the American principles, of Liberty and Justice for ALL, that so heavily populate that disappointing Party!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, America | April 13, 2009 5:55 PM
The economy is turning before any of BO's policies have taken effect. We all know the MSM will gice him all the credit
Posted by: Terry | April 13, 2009 7:20 PM
Clueless Biden thinks eight weeks of spendulus, which hasn't hit the economy yet is the cuase for the turnaround. What world does he live in?
Posted by: Terry | April 13, 2009 7:53 PM
Hmmmmm, don't road construction jobs always pick up in the spring and summer? Only about a third of the so-called stimulus package was actually designed to stimulate. Sure, a few jobs will be created, but the way to turn around the economy is for private business to add jobs. Even after all the public works jobs initiated by Roosevelt in the 1930s did not lead the U.S. out of the Depression. Unemployment was still sky high in 1940. Even before Obama took office, just about all economists said there would be a pickup in the 3rd and 4th quarters. We'll see. The real trick will be what happens in 2010 and 2011 and what happens when and if hyperinflation begins because of all the money being printed to cover these trillion-dollar deficits.
Posted by: John D | April 13, 2009 8:27 PM
The economy is turning before any of BO's policies have taken effect. We all know the MSM will gice him all the credit
Posted by: Terry | April 13, 2009 7:20 PM
.
TrickledOn Boy,
The continued success of Pres Obama and the Democratic party is just killing you, isn't it?
I bet your swollen head is killing you with pain from trying to come up with new pro-Repug talking points every night on the economy.
Posted by: you | April 13, 2009 8:41 PM
Keep saying it Terry, and maybe you'll actually believe it after awhile. Lots of new jobs being created, eh?
Posted by: gladys | April 13, 2009 11:03 PM
Frank You,
.
BO is just getting creidt for the success.
.
Anyway, I thought BO wasn't going to give preferential treatment to Illinois
.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=33663&seenIt=1
.
Mr. Obama said. “I am proud to utter the two rarest phrases in the English language: Projects are being approved ahead of schedule, and they are coming in under budget.”
.
How are the projects ahead of schedule and under budget when they haven't started? Must be community organizer lingo, since it sure isn't business woirld lingo.
Posted by: Terry | April 14, 2009 6:51 AM
Road projects can continue in the south during the winter and if they don't I am baffled as to why not. There is good reason why they do not lay concrete in the winter in the northern area of the country. Road projects have to continue so people who drive Suburban Attack Vehicles (SUVs) and their Hummers have some way to get to the mall. I'll believe high speed rail when I see it. As Bush said, Americans are addicted to oil. They won't give up their cars.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | April 14, 2009 7:01 AM
From some of the posts....it seems that those who have wished for failure for America certainly are begining to realize they shouldn't have put their money against the American people.
Posted by: bill r. | April 14, 2009 7:47 AM
Billy,
.
You might be getting it - it is the American people that will pull us from the recession, not the federal gov't - especially the executive office and Congress.
Posted by: Terry | April 14, 2009 9:48 PM