TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott announced this morning that he's taking a pass on $2.4 billion in federal stimulus money President Obama's administration had earmarked for a high-speed train connecting Orlando and Tampa.
Scott made the announcement in a hastily called news conference where he denounced Obama's budget.
"You don't have to be an economic expert to know when you spend more money than you take in you will fail," Scott said.
The move likely means those dollars would be headed to California and other states investing in high-speed rail.
Scott had previously said he didn't want the state spending any money on the rail line, which requires $280 million in matching funds. But backers of the project have said that the consortiums of companies set to bid on the line had indicated willingness to put up their own money in return for a contract.
So these companies were willing to invest in Florida and put up their own funding and not stick taxpayers with the bill. Rick Scott killed the project anyway at a time when Florida's unemployment rate is 11.6% and the underemployment rate is approaching 20% plus. Again, this was all about Florida businesses that wanted to invest in infrastructure.
But infrastructure is evil. Can't have President Obama taking credit, you see. So Florida loses out on thousands of jobs. Same thing happened in Ohio and Wisconsin.
The only job these Republican governors care about is their own. The rest of you can go to hell if it means Obama might not look like the Antichrist.
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Maybe the Tea Party Express people will set up their own bus routes to make up for the short fall? They had some busses, and it's not like they're using them now... or at least using them for anything GOOD, that is.
So these companies were willing to invest in Florida and put up their own funding and not stick taxpayers with the bill.
Bull. The whole thing is a pipe dream. It's another train that not enough people are going to ride. Except for maybe Biden. The companies that say they will keep up with the funding will go bankrupt to avoid further funding when they start losing big time money. Then the taxpayers will be stuck with it. Amtrak 2.0.
As long as the Obama administration is looking to keep 19th Century technology alive, they'd be better off funding the building of horse-and-buggy trails; they are a lot cheaper and the vehicles don't burn oil.
Boy, you must hate the Eisenhower Interstate System then.
Boy, you must hate the Eisenhower Interstate System then.
You really don't get it, do you? Urban public transportation systems, which move way more people than high-speed rail ever would, can't keep up with their costs without heavy subsidies from various levels of government. Why? Because if they charged the correct amount of money to its customers to sustain costs, instead of relying on those subsidies, nobody would use them. Do you actually think, as the idiots promoting Florida's HSR do, private companies will bleed money to keep rider costs down? There isn't a chance in hell that will happen. And there won't be enough riders to repay the investment and maintenance, unless the riders were charged an exorbitant amount, in which case they'll drive or fly. This is a single-purpose project, one that can't sustain itself; that's why it's a boondoggle.
So you do hate interstate highways, the "boondoggles" that they are but not as much as trains.
No, Event Horizon. Zandar's question was stupid and pointless. Very much like the Florida HSR he supports but wouldn't pay for or ride.
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