In late-stage talks, Obama
and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
pressed for $8 billion to construct high-speed rail lines, quadrupling the
amount in the bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday.
The Senate Conservatives Fund has more details:
This of course exposes the little game the
President is playing with the public. He tells everyone there are no earmarks
in the bill but then turns around and either (a) gives the money to the states,
which he knows will fund the earmarks, or (b) instructs his agencies to fund
the earmarks directly. It's all very clever, if not deceptive.
Reid's high-speed gambling train not only
violates the President's guiding principles for this bill, it also violates
American taxpayers.
This so-called MagLev
train (magnetic levitation) is estimated to cost $12 billion. Reid earmarked
$45 million last year for the public transportation project from
I grew up in