Congress, Governors Nix Obama's High-speed Trains

It's bad enough to spend money on a boondoggle when you have the money, but when you don't, it's shear insanity.

Dead. Kaput. Through. Finished. Washed up. Gone-zo.

That, I think, is a fair description of the Obama administration's attempt to build high-speed rail lines across America.

It hasn't failed because of a lack of willingness to pony up money. The Obama Democrats' February 2009 stimulus package included $8 billion for high-speed rail projects. The Democratic Congress appropriated another $2.5 billion.

But Congress is turning off the spigot. The Republican-controlled House has appropriated zero dollars for high-speed rail. The Democratic-majority Senate Appropriations Committee has appropriated $100 million in its budget recommendation.

That's effectively "a vote of 'no confidence' to President Obama's infrastructure initiative," concludes transportation analyst Ken Orski, "a bipartisan signal that Congress has no appetite for pouring more money into a venture that many lawmakers have come to view as a poster child for wasteful spending."