Crush Liberalism

FL Governor Rick Scott to Joe Biden: Shove your high speed rail, pal!

I’m pretty sure he said that.  Or something like that.  I’m paraphrasing, natch.  Details:

Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday became the third newly elected Republican governor to reject the Obama administration’s $53 billion plan to build a nationwide high-speed rail network.
…
In declining more than $2 billion in federal funds for the proposed Orlando-to-Tampa line, Scott said federal government’s ridership and revenue estimates are too optimistic, meaning that Florida taxpayers would have to subsidize the line. He also suggested that cost overruns could leave Florida taxpayers having to foot a $3 billion bill.

“The truth is that this project would be far too costly to taxpayers, and I believe the risk far outweighs the benefits,” Scott said.

Kudos to Governor Scott for not being swayed by the lure of “free” federal money, which as he observes, only puts us Floridians on the hook if there are tax overruns.  I know, I know, since when has the federal government totally blown it on guesstimations of costs?  Oh, I dunno…

At its start, in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost only about $ 12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation). This was a supposedly “conservative” estimate. But in 1990 Medicare actually cost $107 billion.

February 17, 2011 Posted by crushliberalism | Florida, pork, Rick Scott | 4 Comments