Republicans want Las Vegas high-speed rail spiked

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Republicans want Las Vegas high-speed rail spiked
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD | Associated Press • Published March 11, 2013

LOS ANGELES – Top congressional Republicans want the Obama administration to reject a $5.5 billion loan being sought by a private Nevada company to build a high-speed train from the edge of California's Mojave Desert to Las Vegas, officials said Monday.

The proposed line known as XpressWest is a dicey bet for taxpayers, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Sen. Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said in a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

"We are deeply troubled by the prospects of subsidizing another costly, wasteful and risky high-speed rail project, particularly when our nation is facing a debt crisis," they wrote in the letter dated March 6.

In a response to the lawmakers Monday, XpressWest CEO Anthony Marnell II defended the project that would connect Las Vegas with the small city of Victorville, Calif. He called it a jobs-engine that would ease congested freeways and jump-start a new generation of speedy trains.

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2013/03/11/2457523/republicans-want-las-vegas-high.html#storylink=cpy

[MrSlayer]

1. Of course they do.

It goes against their paymasters' interests. I'll bet it gets killed with "bipartisan" support.

[msongs]

2. vegas makes the money, let vegas pay for it. its not like a multipurpose rail that benefits many

different groups and areas, just the casinos.

[Journeyman]

3. Precisely. Let the casinos float the loan. Once they show the idea works. . .

more people in California (and the Nation) will support the effort.

Here's a great idea for it, too: A train that never stops (so every town between LA and the LV can have a station if they choose).

[ErikJ]

5. That's brilliant!

[brush]

8. It's not about Vegas and the casinos

It's about jump starting the upgrading and repair of our pitiful infrastructure . . . the poor condition of our roads, bridges, power lines, and lack of broadband in many rural areas is a national disgrace. We should be building green energy projects. We should have high-speed rail between all the main east-west and north-south population centers. It's a total no-brainer, should have been done already. President Eisenhower built not just the interstate highway system in the '50s but the longest sustained period of prosperity in the country with all the decades of job creation that came from that. We need to do the next generation of that infrastructure-build now. It's so ridiculous that every time there is a big storm hundreds of thousands go without power for days, even weeks. There should be a concerted effort to put those lines underground like in other modern societies. We still are utilizing wooden power poles that are so vulnerable to weather . . . talk about outdated technology . . . they predate even the 20th century. The repugs of course are against this because they know it will get the economy roaring with hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs so they're pitching austerity instead to pay down the deficit (which is a fools errand, just ask Spain) so they can win the next election. It didn't work in the President's first term but still they try. The smart repugs know but won't admit, just as economists and most people with any sense do that the best way to pay down the deficit is to get people working on good jobs that pay FICA taxes which equates to government REVENUE, REVENUE, REVENUE! The hell with that the repugs say though, they're in it to win elections so damn the economy.

[CBHagman]

16. Of late I'm running into multiple specifically GOP objections to high-speed rail...

...and as for infrastructure maintenance and repair, there wasn't a single reference to infrastructure on the Romney campaign site, though whoever put it together did find time to mention cutting cultural spending.

Besides, the Republicans are the ones who didn't want to provide relief to the Northeast following Superstorm Sandy's devastation, their rationale being that the debt wouldn't allow the country to do so.

[brush]

18. Exactly right

Their "logic" is not logical. What's needed, and certainly was demonstrated in the Roosevelt and Eisenhower admins, is intelligent, targeted spending on jobs programs like infrastructure that will spur the economy with hundreds of thousands more people working and contributing to government revenue. Cultural and social program cuts that the repugs advocate are pitances compared to the huge elephant in the room that they won't even consider cutting — the military budget. Their Friedman-style agenda will lead the majority to lower and lower standards of living (see Spain and the many South American economies that followed these policies), but I guess this is what they and their one-percenter paymasters want.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. Sure you Republican chickenhawks.

Let's go to war for more oil instead.

[Moostache]

6. Anything that Paul Ryan hates can't be that bad...

Seriously, has there ever been someone this demonstrably wrong for this long that still retains an ounce of credibility???

The guy is either a maniacal ideologue or dangerously deluded and neither one is a trait that the Republicans are in short supply of...do some people out there REALLY think he is that good looking to get people to utterly forget that everything he says is either wrong or a fabrication?

If Rudy G was "9-11, a noun and a verb", Paul Ryan is certainly "Ayn Rand-ism, a noun and a verb" by now! Some how I just see him on his own Fox News show sooner than later and I welcome it! Fox News has done wonders for the political fortunes of Palin, Hucklebee, Gingrich et al. May he swiftly join them on the scrap heap of failed village idiots!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. blame the media.

his "popularity" comes solely from the MSM. if he received the same publicity as 98% of the 435, he would sink back into oblivion.

Like the tea party, these wing nuts and bolts are only there because of excessive, and unwarranted, undeserved attention that they receive from media corporations. It is artificial, it does not reflect today's electorate, and it will eventually fade away, much like Sarah . . . . Sarah . . . . Sarah . . . . what the hell was her name?

[Firebrand Gary]

7. In the tone of Jules Winnfield, Republicans can go f*ck themselves....

XpressWest is the future of Las Vegas, meaning the future of Nevada...

[JohnnyRingo]

9. Here in Ohio, Kasich turned down a free high speed rail.

It was granted through the stimulus with no matching funds, and Kasich told Obama to shove it up his ass. It would have linked Cinci, Columbus, and Cleveland as the 3C commuter and would have averaged 60mph with scheduled stops. The idiots used that as a reason to defer, pretending they didn't understand the word average. They complained it would be too slow.

He had the nerve to ask for the cash instead, in the ultimate spit in the eye. I believe it went to San Fran. State Republicans spent the week patting Kasich on such a job well done. The next month Kasich tore down the roadside signs posted at stimulus highway projects for "safety reasons".

Are they insane or stupid?

Democrats here begged Kasich not to do this, pointing out that the rail system could be expanded with routes East & West from Youngstown to Toledo and destinations beyond.

[Kolesar]

15. The Ohio train would have been paid for by developers at the train stations

...through some cost sharing designed into the project. The project would have cost Ohioans about nothing if "ridership" was as predicted.

[JohnnyRingo]

22. That isn't how it was explained to me.

I'll take your word for it, but that doesn't explain how it was a part of the stimulus spending. It also makes me wonder how Kasich could ask for cash that wasn't from the fed. I distinctly remember reading that the those billions would go elsewhere.

Perhaps you're talking about short term operating expenses.

[olddots]

10. I'll never run out of hatred for these tape worms

Even if we come up with a stupid idea (which we do too frequently ) they won't budge their ugly butts .

[jybarz]

11. GOPs are against any job creation bill or program

GOPs are against any job creation bill or program the country so badly needs since W destroyed it. These American Talibans are still hanging on to their false premise or fantasy about their rich heroes as job creators and their trickle down economics. When will GOP stop being such morons and start doing something good for the country? This project will create lots of jobs and therefore will be against GOP's sordid and evil plans for destroying the country.

[allinthegame]

12. If I read this correctly

I would have to drive through hours of Southern california traffic to get to the wide open spaces of highway BEFORE I can get on a train to Las Vegas? The congestion arises way before you get to the desert.
Loath to say, Ryan is right...that can be taken all ways.

[brush]

20. The train from Victorville is only the first step

The next phase of the project would be to connect the line to LA. Don't fall for Lyin' Ryan's bs. I live in Vegas and most people here are in favor of it and know that the first phase of the plan is to connect Vegas and Victorville (thousands of jobs by the way), then when that's done, on to LA, a no-brainer really, unless you're a repug who wants the economy to stay stagnant so they can maybe win the next election. And that's a big"maybe" because most people are getting hip to their obstructionism and foot-dragging on helping spur the economy with jobs programs.

I guess you can't fault their "logic" though, their obstructionism during the President's first term worked out so well.

Oh, wait, it didn't. They lost in November. What's that phrase . . . "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

Time to wake up, repugs and repug leaners.

[nebenaube]

23. Sorry...

The desert spaces may be wide open but the highway there is usually a parking lot.

[jeff47]

25. You appear to have never actually done that drive

Those "wide open spaces of highway" aren't so wide. Nor open. The highway isn't terribly wide and is usually quite congested.

[rucky]

13. As long as there's a scheduled stop in front of the Mad Greek

I'm for the rail.

[liberal N proud]

14. Working for the oil company they are required to do fight any project that might take away business.

[modrepub]

17. Perspective

NJ is spending $900M to straighten out a stretch of I295 west of Philadelphia. It's probably less than 2 miles of road and they're willing to spend almost $1B to do it.


http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130312_N__J__officials_open__900_million_project_for_I-295_snarl.html

[Earth_First]

19. No money for infrastructre, just the means to destroy infrastructure...

The Pentagon needs and will likely get TWICE this amount to fund an ailing fighter jet program.

[John2]

21. High Speed Rail was turned down

in Florida,Ohio and Wisconsin by Republican Governors. People made the same excuses some on here are making supporting the Republicans for doing so. I think there should be High Speed Rail across the whole country like in Europe. When I was stationed in Germany, I enjoyed riding it a lot. It was a lot cheaper than flying and comfortable. It allowed me to see a lot of Germany. The representatives against the OK of this seems to be a republican representative from Wisconsin and one from Alabama but not the representatives of Nevada. I would'nt listen to anything they had to say, especially Paul Ryan. I would give more weight to the representatives of Nevada and California, screw Ryan and Sessions.

[One_Life_To_Give]

24. Private Profits, Public Losses

If the project succeeds Anthony Marnell II becomes an even richer man. If not then he has a few years of bonus's anyway and congress can just cut 5.5Billion someplace like WIC right?

Don't much care for this new Capitalism where Profits are Private and Losses are Public. Mr. Marnell if your project fails can we collect down to your last pair of Cufflinks?

[lark]

27. Funny how this std. doesn't apply to oil subsidies

Those are not just backward and unaffordable but also increase pollution and medical costs that results from that. They are also being given to some of the richest companies, so have no need at all behind them. Why not spend that money instead of something that will reduce pollution and is forward looking rather than regressive?

[Nye Bevan]

28. Sounds like a big waste of money to me.

I've never even heard of Victorville. Seems like this is the high-speed train to nowhere. I also thought the Tampa to Orlando train was a dumb idea, as you need a car to get around either of those cities, and almost nobody is going to rent a car and take the train when they could just drive their rental car further.

I am not a train hater, however. I would love to see a high speed NY to Chicago train. And the Washington to Boston corridor absolutely should be updated.