GOP sidetracks Obama's rail plans

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

President Barack Obama calls it investing in the future. And the budget he presented this week puts actual dollars behind what he is talking about — spending more on education, clean-energy research and broadband and other infrastructure — even as he cuts many government programs to reduce the deficit.

But Obama’s commitment to the infrastructure of tomorrow and the politics of today may be about to collide — and nowhere is that more apparent than in his push to develop high-speed rail.

Just last week, Vice President Joe Biden joined Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in promoting a $53 billion plan to upgrade the nation’s railroad transportation, and the administration’s proposed budget allotted $8 billion as a start. But congressional Republicans immediately targeted the plan for elimination, then on Wednesday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott pulled the plug on what had been designated by the Obama administration as its signature demonstration project: an 84-mile high-speed line between Orlando and Tampa.

Scott’s decision to return $2.4 billion in federal funds, citing the project’s unrealistic projections for job creation, combined with the withdrawal of Ohio and Wisconsin from the program after the November elections, left Obama’s proposal with little political constituency and huge questions about what comes next.

“Everything is upside down,” said Rob Puentes, a transportation expert at the Brookings Institution.
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There seem to be a lot of John Galts in Congress nowadays...