15 yrs later, $BILLIONS over budget, not a single mile of track: a Democrat dream

In 2008 the corrupt Democrats who totally rule California conned voters into approving a massive $9 billion bond to start building the nation’s first high-speed rail project.  They promised you'd be able to go from LA to San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes, and that it would be finished in 12 years.

(For the math-challenged, 12 years from 2008 would have been 2020.  And sure enough, there it is!  Just kidding.)

It was easy for the Dems ruling the state to convince voters to vote yes on the huge bond issue, because voters had no idea what something like that should cost.  If the Democrats' "experts" said $9 Billion (quietly hiding the fact that this was just a "starter cost"), why would voters question the "experts," eh?

I mean, Democrat politicians have never lied to voters before, right?

Now, 15 years later, all the money has been spent (actually twice the original amount).  And I know you'll be surprised to learn that not a single mile of track exists.

Oh, but it gets way better: the Democrat "experts" who got rich from the first $9 Billion say completing the project will now cost "between $88 billion and $128 billion.

And if you believe an extra $128 Billion will do it, I've got a bridge I can sell ya, cheap.

The "experts" blame the huge increase in the cost on "inflation."  "Global warming."  "Trump."  "Russian interference."  Anything but their own graft and incompetence.

The guy who has all the numbers is Brian Kelly, CEO of a wondrous graft machine called the "California High-Speed Rail Authority."  He'll pop up later.

This boondoggle got started years ago.  Then after voters elected the former mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, as governor, Newsom scaled the project back a bit:  from 500 miles to a 171-mile "starter segment" in the Central Valley that his "experts" said would be finished in  2030, at a cost of $22.8 billion.

At the time, Gavin was Nancy Pelosi's nephew, so insiders knew if their "expert" cost figures were a bit off, they'd get all the federal cash needed from the corrupt Speaker of the House.

But relax, citizen!  Cuz "progress has been made on the project."  In California’s central valley, [insert random number here] of miles are under construction.  And CEO Kelly proudly announced that the project just celebrated its 10,000th construction worker on the job.  And that everyone is using preferred pronouns, so there's that.

The "infrastructure design work is complete," which is probably good since they'd already started construction on [insert random number here] miles of super-faabulous elevated concrete roadway.

And Kelly says 422 out of 500 miles have been "environmentally cleared," which is a monumental task in California.  Kelly says the "environmental clearance" alone cost $1.3 billion.  

One of the most expensive parts of this super-cool project is the tunneling required outside of LA.  So to make the most visible progress, the experts started construction in 2015 in the nice, flat, mostly agricultural central valley, since it's obviously cheaper to build there.

With classic understatement, Kelly explains that the project "got into construction before they were ready to get into construction.”  But now "I’m very confident about the future of this project.“

He says the goal is to have the section between Bakersfield and Merced operational between 2030 and 2033.

So the original target of "finished by 2020 is now "2030 to 2033 for just a 171-mile section between Bakersfield and Merced.

And at that point they'll have spent SO much public money on the damn thing that the "experts" and griftmasters will bleat that they just HAVE to finish it, eh?  And "just" another $150 billion will do it!

The grift is so thorough that when a report was released in March that the project had actually spent $10 Billion more than the original $9 Billion bond, very few people even noticed.

But wait!  It gets worse!  The rail authority now estimates that building just the much shorter 171-mile initial segment will now cost $35 billion.

So the cost of that far shorter, go-nowhere spur is now more than the original $33 billion estimate for the entire 500-mile Los Angeles to San Francisco system when voters approved the original bond in 2008.

This should be a lesson for Americans.  Of course it won't be, because the Media won't publicize the story.  Even local papers in LA, San Fran and Sacramento ignore it, because it's such a strong, striking lesson in stupidity, graft and corruption.

Wheeeee!  Thanks, Democrats!

Source.

https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/05/19/15-yrs-billions-not-a-mile-of-track-running-out-of-money-what-am-i-n552059