Former Republican California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore suggested that the federal government ask California to repay them for the money spent on an abortive high-speed rail project.
Suggesting that the federal government could use those funds to build a wall along the U.S. southern border, DeVore made the comments during his Wednesday appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight”, a day after the project was canceled.
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“High speed rail is central to the Green New Deal which says that rail would replace cars,” Carlson began. “Okay. Does high-speed rail work? Has it been tried anywhere? How about our biggest state, California, which was trying to build a high-speed rail line between its two biggest cities San Francisco and L.A. Yet, yesterday, it canceled that route. Why? Because it didn’t work. The cost rose to a staggering $77 billion.”
According to recent estimates, it also would have taken more than a decade to complete.
DeVore responded:
Well, it got too expensive. The travel times were way too slow. The ticket prices were about double what you would pay for Southwest Airlines. And it became very apparent that they promised something that they couldn’t deliver. They said they were going to have this project that would have all this private money and investment. It wouldn’t have to cause taxes to go up. Look, they haven’t gotten a penny in private investment. The federal government has put $3.5 billion into it. And now they are in material breach of their agreement with the federal government. I think the federal government should ask for that money back and use it to build the wall.
“I’m just a little bit confused because it sounds like it’s not that it didn’t work in California. It sounds like it was a flaming disaster. A fireball of lies and embarrassment. And so why would you take that and make it the centerpiece of your energy policy?” Carlson asked. (RELATED: California’s Gas Tax Opponents Push A Unique Way To Pay For Road Fixes)
“Well, you had a lot of crony corporatism and big labor involved in selling this to the public. So, it narrowly passed in 2008 with Obama at the top of the ticket. Got 52.7% of the vote,” DeVore added.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to halt the construction of the rail comes as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced his intention to schedule a vote for the Green New Deal.
