Opinion| President Trump has made it very clear that he wants America’s money back.
On Wednesday, the President sent out a tweet demanding that California Governor Gavin Newsom hand over $3.5 billion of federal funding after the Democrat announced his plan to “scale back the state’s obscenely expensive and incomplete high-speed rail project,” according to Conservative Tribune.
On Tuesday, during his very first State of the State address, Governor Newsom stated that he was working on finishing a 171-mile of the wall that was already being built, The Associated Press reports.
Newsom told lawmakers, “Let’s be real. The project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long … Right now, there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A. I wish there were.”
The plan was approved by voters in 2008 and was intended to finished a high-speed rail line stretching form San Fransisco to Los Angeles. It was set to be completed in 2020.
However, now Newsom had stated that there “isn’t a path” laid out in order to finish the plan.
A spokesman for the California governor told the Associated Press that Newsom is still intending on builidng the longer rail-line using even more private and federal money “as the Central Valley section demonstrates the viability of the broader project.”
Are we really shocked that it’ll cost more and take more time than we originally were told? No.
It was originally estimated that the project would cost around $33 billion.
Now it is estimated that the rail will cost upwards of $77 billion… and the Associated Press reports that it won’t likely be finished until 2033.
Following Newsom’s speech, the President stated that California should give back the money that the federal government handed over for the project.
“California has been forced to cancel the massive bullet train project after having spent and wasted many billions of dollars,” the President tweeted. “They owe the Federal Government three and a half billion dollars. We want that money back now. Whole project is a ‘green’ disaster!”
California has been forced to cancel the massive bullet train project after having spent and wasted many billions of dollars. They owe the Federal Government three and a half billion dollars. We want that money back now. Whole project is a “green” disaster!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2019
Conservative Tribune explains:
It’s fitting that Trump called California’s failed high-speed rail a “green disaster” because the project is reminiscent of proposals by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats in their Green New Deal.
Ocasio-Cortez proposed a plan to “build out highspeed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary.”
Governor Newsom answered the President’s tweet by claiming that his state was still working the rail-line, however, he did not mention that it’s still going to be more than a decade before the plan comes to fruition.
“Fake news. We’re building high-speed rail, connecting the Central Valley and beyond,” Newsom wrote in a tweet.
Fake news. We’re building high-speed rail, connecting the Central Valley and beyond.
This is CA’s money, allocated by Congress for this project. We’re not giving it back.
The train is leaving the station — better get on board!
(Also, desperately searching for some wall $$??) https://t.co/9hxEfEX8Vm
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 14, 2019