Obama’s decision to give California’s controversial High Speed Rail project a $2.25 billion boost could also be called Cash For Clunkers, Part Deux. Although barely a fraction of the $80 billion ultimately needed for completion it is unfortunate that the High Speed Rail Authority was given a wad of walking around money to fool around with. High on the list will be hiring more P.R. hacks to push the viability of the project in light of the embarrassingly inept "business plan" recently released and roundly criticized from just about every point on the political spectrum.
The truly bad news is that the Authority will undoubtedly use the funds to start digging holes up and down the state to get as much momentum as possible so that reversal of the decision to even build the project will be very difficult. Californians ought to be asking themselves a simple question. How many transportation projects that are actually needed could we have funded for $2.25 billion?