Obama Transportation Sec’y Ray LaHood’s high-speed rail slush fund
Porkulus: It’s what’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And oh, oh, oh is Pork King Ray LaHood — the former Illinois GOP congressman and Chicago machine crony who now heads Obama’s Transportation Department — squealing with delight!
The Obama administration’s railroad czar on Friday praised a comprehensive Midwest plan for high-speed passenger rail service during a railroad conference in Chicago. But he refused to say whether Illinois was in line for big money. The state has applied for up to $3 billion in federal grants.
Joseph Szabo, a fifth generation railroader from Illinois who heads the Federal Railroad Administration, said an announcement will be made before the end of winter on awarding $8 billion in federal stimulus funds to the states to develop high-speed rail corridors. “Certainly no tipping of the hand, but it’s quite obvious that the Illinois application, as do many others, have some significant merits,” Szabo said.
Long-term plans call for trains traveling at up to 220 mph, which would slash the trip between Chicago and St. Louis to under two hours. Chicago would serve as the rail hub for an eight-state Midwest plan providing faster trip times to cities including St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Cincinatti.
I’ve blogged before about how these projects will be massive, taxpayer-funded slush funds and union boondoggles.
Harry Reid is eying a big chunk of the money for Nevada.
Randal O’Toole at Cato notes that LaHood has now eliminated cost-efficiency rules and blown open more fiscal black holes:
LaHood’s announcement means that cost is no longer an issue. If your project promotes “livability” (which almost by definition means anything that isn’t a new road) or “economic development” (meaning it will be accompanied by subsidies to transit-oriented developments), LaHood will consider funding it, no matter how much money it wastes.
Many transit agencies are elated. Cities from Boise to Minneapolis to Houston now see that their wacko projects that defy common sense now have a chance of getting funded.
The bad news for transit agencies is that this doesn’t mean there will be any more money for transit. Instead, there will be more competition for the same pot of money. Not to worry: House Democrats plan to open the floodgates to more transit spending as soon as they can get federal transportation funding reauthorized. This means taxpayers can expect to see more of their money wasted and commuters can expect congestion to get worse as more of their gas taxes are funneled into inane rail projects.
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Bonus excerpt from Chapter 4 of Culture of Corruption on LaHood’s big-spending appetite…
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood: Earmark Man
There was much ado about President Obama’s “unprecedented” choice of Republican Congressman Ray LaHood to lead the Department of Transportation. (Er, never mind that GOP President George W. Bush tapped Democrat Norm Mineta in the previous administration.) Paeans to “reaching across the aisle” and “working together” resounded among the chattering classes. “Ray’s appointment reflects that bipartisan spirit—a spirit we need to reclaim in this country to make progress for the American people,” Obama said in cheerleading himself and his pick.
But donkeys and elephants have always come together in the spirit of expanding government, rolling logs, and barreling pork. Seven-term Congressman LaHood may have an “R” by his name, but it’s his political DNA that matters more than the partisan label. LaHood is a card-carrying member of the Chicago Political Machine. And as an Illinois congressman from 1995 to 2009, he reveled in his power as a House appropriator: He chose the assignment on the House Appropriations Committee, he told the Peoria Journal Star, because he and his fellow pork-slingers “know that it puts them in a position to know where the money is at, to know the people who are doling the money out and to be in the room when the money is being doled out.”
LaHood is an especially intimate crony of fellow Illinois king-maker and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Their public displays of affection abound. In a House floor speech last fall, Emanuel hailed his GOP colleague as “someone the framers of the Constitution would have ‘had in their mind’s eye’ when they ‘thought of a member of Congress…He is an individual who, while firm in his principles, was very flexible about his opinions.’”
“Flexibility” is easy when you have no fiscal conservative spine.
Emanuel and LaHood teamed up to push the massive expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program in 2007, funded through huge cigarette tax hikes and reaching far beyond the scope of the original plan towards the goal of universal health care. They co-hosted a series of bipartisan dinners for members of Congress to forge a consensus on spending your money. LaHood also crusaded for federal funding to pay for a $20 billion O’Hare International Airport expansion at the behest of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. And when the White House sought Republican support for the trillion-dollar stimulus bill, LaHood was the go-to guy.
Not a single House Republican voted for the stimulus, but former Republican Congressman LaHood got the last laugh. He now has $48 billion in stimulus money for the Department of Transportation to play with—including $8 billion for his pet transportation cause, high-speed rail. Next to Joe the Train Rider Biden, LaHood is the loudest Capitol Hill advocate for government-subsidized money loser Amtrak. “The subsidies need to continue,” LaHood protested in response to a 2005 Bush plan by Democrat Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta that called for reducing the feds’ role in Amtrak operations. “These subsidies are the lifeblood of Amtrak continuing the kind of service they have to the college towns and the small communities in Illinois and around the country. I don’t see us really tinkering with that.” The stimulus funds for transportation represent what’s been called the “largest wave of federal transportation spending since the Eisenhower administration launched the creation of the interstate highway system.”
LaHood is a klieg-light shining example of Obama’s anti-earmark disingenuousness. The Wall Street Journal dubbed the Transportation Secretary the “Earmark King.” But that title belongs solely to the man in the White House who pledged to “ban all earmarks” in the stimulus—and then promptly broke the pledge by rubber-stamping billions of dollars worth of earmarks. President Obama is the Earmark King. Transportation Secretary LaHood is the Earmark Courtier.
Taxpayers for Common Sense reported that in fiscal 2008, LaHood scored $62.7 million in federal earmarks for his district, either solo or with other colleagues. The Washington Post added that LaHood directed at least $9 million of that oft-hidden, last-minute pork project money to campaign donors. LaHood has a special fetish for road-building earmarks—doling out millions to home state paving companies and projects, including an unsolicited $245,000 check in December 2007 to fix roads leading to a Springfield, Illinois, cemetery where Abraham Lincoln is buried.
One of LaHood’s top back-scratching donors was Republican William Cellini Sr., an Illinois pal who shares the bipartisan Chicago spirit of pay-to-play. Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass introduces you:
Obama selected outgoing Illinois U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Combine) for the post of secretary of transportation, putting LaHood in charge of Obama’s planned trillion-dollar public works bonanza being sold as a jobs bill. “Every dollar that we spend, we want it spent on projects that are there, not because of politics, but because they’re good for the American people,” Obama said. “If we’re building a road, it better not be a road to nowhere.” Not because of politics?
What does the great reformer take us for, a bunch of chumbolones? What Obama forgot to mention is that with LaHood in charge of the roads, they’ll lead to one place: Bill Cellini.
Cellini, the Republican boss of Springfield who has been indicted in the Blagojevich scandal for allegedly shaking down the producer of the movie “Million Dollar Baby,” is a strong LaHood ally. Cellini runs Sangamon County, and LaHood has enjoyed Cellini’s political support. They also joined to help oust the last true reformer in Illinois politics, former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, the Republican who was denied an endorsement from his own state party after he brought federal prosecutors to Illinois with no connection to the bipartisan Combine that runs things here. Republican money man Cellini is not only the Chicago political connection to machine Democrats and Mayor Richard Daley’s City Hall—and a Blagojevich fundraiser—he’s also the boss of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association. They’re the guys behind the guys who pour that hot sticky stuff on the roads, but don’t get their cashmere sweaters dirty and drive black Escalades to the job site, before wheeling off for some osso bucco at Volare or other fine restaurants.
Cellini was indicted in the fall of 2008 after a criminal investigation spearheaded by Northern District U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald. The charges? Shaking down government vendors to raise money for—wait for it—disgraced Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich. Asked to explain how a lifelong Republican had insinuated himself into Blago World, Cellini once quipped before his indictment: “When we’re in, we’re in. And when you’re in, we’re in.”
The autumn 2008 indictment cited 30 charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit extortion, attempted extortion, and soliciting. A new indictment released in March 2009 dropped the bribery solicitation, but the basic pay-to-play allegations should sound eerily familiar: A financial firm called Capri Capital wanted a piece of the state government pie—control and management of $200 million worth of state teachers’ pension money. The Chicago Political Machine named its price. Cellini and others, including convicted Obama/Blago real estate mogul Tony Rezko, “agreed to demand that Thomas Rosenberg, the owner of Capri Capital, arrange to raise or donate substantial funds to Friends of Blagojevich, and to threaten that if such funds were not forthcoming, they would block” a proposed investment by the state teachers’ pension fund of $220 million with Capri Capital, according to impeached former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s criminal indictment.
These are the friends of Obama’s Transportation Secretary, an earmark-addicted influence peddler born and raised on the politics of pay-to-play. For his “disregard for the taxpayers’ money and an abundance of concern over how he will administer the Department of Transportation,” the non-partisan Citizens Against Government Waste designated LaHood its “Porker of the Month” in January 2009. “Change?” It’s all we’ll have left after Ray LaHood gets done plundering the stimulus coffers for his pet projects and pals.
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Probably cleaner than Bawney’s Frank, however…
while i fully understand gubment run things like amtrack are a money pit, but having traveled on 300mph bullet trains in japan, they work terrifically in that nation. that does not mean they will work here, because japan is a homogenous nation with everyone involved in the status quo. the nail that sticks up gets pounded down in japan. so trains leave exactly on time, and arrive exactly on time, and they are clean, orderly and comfortable.
the trains in europe are slightly less in all catagories as they are less homogenous. until we can get free from pc politics and start enforcing our laws the transportation system will always be a mess with lowest common denominator policies.
The grabby hands, I mean…
300 mph trains in Japan…..
…Obama’s handbasket travels faster than that toward hell.
Rails to Nowheres.
Sorry if you lives theres.
I love trains. And I use them whenever possible. I almost always choose trains over driving or flight when traveling in Europe. Ironically, it is next to impossible to use the trains where I have lived in South America and the Philippines.
But, trains have proven to be economically non-viable outside relatively small corridors in the USA. The Boston/New York/DC corridor is one place where they are economically viable.
I don’t know if these trains will prove to be viable in Chicago. The population density out west just isn’t that high and that makes me think it can’t work. http://www.geolytics.com/images/lf-map.gif
And if the government is running it, it will be an even bigger mess!
This is likely to be another expensive disaster…
In a country smaller than California with four times the population…
Population density is a critical factor in passenger rail viability!
Hmmm, more union jobs. That means the seats will be priced three times what they are worth to the traveling public.
I actually think high speed rail is a function of the government. Everyone can benefit and future generations can too.
I don’t know about the contracts and special deals that politicians hand out. But I think there needs to be a way for us to figure out how to upgrade our rail system to include high speed rail. 220 mph sounds low though. We should be world leaders. As it stands we are way way way behind the French and the Chinese who already have those capabilities.
Gee, Thacker, please show me the article of the constitution that bestows the power to build and run railroads on the federal government. I can’t find it in my copy…
WE – That’s affirmative. The east coast Amtrack system that has a huge population base loses boatloads of $$$ because…
BTW, in 2000 they opened a very impressive lite rail system in Manila. It was built by the Japanese who get the fare revenue for ten years.
Will the three people, who will be riding the train, please Tweet whitehouse.gov.
I have ridden on the LRT and the newer MRT in Manila. Both are essentially elevated rail subways that run north/south through the city. Unfortunately, the two lines only meet at the southern end of the lines and don’t form a complete circle around the Metro Manila region.
The MRT is air conditioned but the older LRT is not. But, still it was my preferred way of crossing the city. But you can’t beat a jeepney for short rides around the city.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Metro_Rail_Transit_System
http://www.urbanrail.net/as/mani/manila.htm
Actually, I think the high-speed rail in the east coast is profitable and those profits are used to subsidize much of AMTRAK’s other un-profitable services. At one time, I think AMTRAK considered dumping everything else but the high-speed lines when someone briefly toyed with the idea of privatizing AMTRAK.
Obama’s favorite pizza guy in St Louis could get his pizzas to Chicago while they were still hot. That’s worth billions of tax dollars right there.
In Manila, you can order food from Wendy’s and they deliver to your home. But for some reason they won’t deliver French Fries. They use the mopeds with special insulated containers to hold the food. It is quick and a real life-saver when you are dying for a burger late at night and don’t want to walk down to the local burger joint…
California is expecting the Federal government to kick in at least $20-30 billion last I heard.
Is it just me, or does Ray LaHood’s picture look like Emperor Palpatene when he’s throwing Force lightning at Luke.
Just saying…
Porkulus = Good ‘N Plenty
Once upon a time there was an engineer
Choo Choo Charlie was his name, we hear.
He had an engine and he sure had fun
He used Good & Plenty candy to make his train run.
Charlie says “Love my Good & Plenty!”
Charlie says “Really rings my bell!”
Charlie says “Love my Good & Plenty!”
Don’t know any other candy that I love so well!
That pic reminds me of the scene in My Cousin Vinny
(When FBI witness testimony states the chemical analysis results were identical)
D.A. Jim Trotter: I (claps hands at jury) dentical!
The same place that allowed them to create the Eisenhour Highway system across the nation. The same place that allows them to use federal funding for 90% of all airport construction. And, of course, the same place that allows them to use federal dollars for the school systems.
I think the best thing this government has done for the general citizen is the highway road system. In 1848 it took people months to get from coast to coast and people died on the way. Now we can do it in a couple of days. What private entity would have taken initiative to create the road system? Same thing with high speed rail.
It is something that will help the nations infrastructure by taking cars off the roads and alleviating air travel. It’s a good thing for all Americans and will be a good thing for all future Americans.
The first highways actually were privately funded. The automakers had to lobby long and hard before the money to build their roads finally came through.
And if the federal government wanted to build and maintain roads, they should have amended the constitution. According to that document, that function belongs to the states or the people.
Gee, Thacker, the fact that you “believe” and “feel” so doesn’t provide any constitutional basis for doing so.
Your definition puts you squarely in the camp of Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein. Welcome to the left-wing of the Democrat party.
Thacker/WarEagle,
Wasn’t the interstate system built under the auspices of getting the military from coast to coast quickly and efficiently thereby falling under the general defense enumerated power? I could be wrong but I believe that is correct.
The Eisenhower system was the greatest public works project in the history of this country. We still use it 50 years after it was completed. Our great great great grandkids will be using it long after we are gone. Makes a lot more sense than spending money on insurance every year.
The interstate system helps commerce for those people that don’t drive. It’s how goods get to market. . .
Let me put it in other terms. . . it is along the lines of what we do IN OTHER COUNTRIES after we blow them up with our bombs. We rebuild their infrastructure. . . so I guess that means we shouldn’t build ours unless it is in the constitution. Sort of like giving non-Americans more benefits than Americans the way they do terrorists in this country.
Public infrastructure has forever been the dominion of the state. Everyone hates Hitler, but they applaud his creation of the good roads. He championed the volkswagon (people’s car) so that people could get around.
The Romans built the aqueducts.
How about subways? Did the city of NY build theirs (government)? Trolley cars in SF were done by the city.
And again, the federal government DOES fund state road projects (where do you think the shovel ready projects were?) The ALREADY pay for the construction of new airports.
High speed rail would catch America up with the rest of the world. We are WAY behind China and France and frankly we really should be embarrassed. The government could establish a single standard of track to be used nationwide. If we relied on private industries, the tracks would be of different guages and we’d have all different kinds of trains. In short, it wouldn’t be efficient.
But OK, I’m just like Pelosi if you say so. I’d like to think I’m a lot more like Eisenhower.
Wow, this LaHood guy looks just like a political leech from central casting! And he’s playing his part well so far.
There’s nothing I’d rather do than take two kids and all of our luggage around a crowded train station. I’ll drive thanks.
We have a train between WPB and Miami that very few ride. They’d rather drive to the door than walk a little further in the heat.
I took by 1st long distance train ride last Oct. Very good trip. It would be nice if they could just get the trip times down to what they were in the 1920′s. Now it’s 5 hrs 45 min to go from Albany to Boston, which is a 200 mile trip. That’s only 35 MPH.
Even on the fastest lines, except for Acela, 79 mph is the top speed system-wide due to the signal infrastructure on the freight lines.
I know the Lake Shore Limited (Albany-Chicago) had one of the worst on-time records in the system. After CSX did major work in New York, it now is among Amtrak’s best on-time routes.
Got to “spend” that Stimulus money anyway they can. Why not just send some tractor trailers to DC, back them up to the Treasury shipping docks, load ‘em with taxpayer cash and deliver them to the players in Illinois and Nevada. That should do the trick.
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I worked with a software engineer who supported tests in Japan a few months every year. He used the “bullet trains” when possible. However, taxi / bus connections were needed at each end. And the trains actually cost more than taking the plane–and the plane was faster. This was before the “improved” security at airports caused more delays.
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The decision on whether to build “bullet trains” in the U.S. should be an economic one. If they can pay for themselves–without Amtrak style government subsidies needed so they can “compete” with airlines–then build them. But this will probably be in just a few high density “corridors” like Boston / New York City / Washington D.C., etc.
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And they will certainly become Spain and England type “terrorist magnets” with the need for airport style security to keep the Jihadis from bombing them.
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John Bibb
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It depends on the type of train. If you’re stupid and use 19th century technology (steel wheels on steel rails) then yes, your speed is limited.
If you use 20th and 21st century technology, your speed is much higher. 220 mph is about 355 kph. The MagLev trains run at 500 kph. That’s about 325 mph.
Placement is also relative. In the eastern part of the U.S., the cities are mostly vertical (NY, Boston). In the west, they are mostly horizontal (LA, Phoenix). In vertical cities, public transportation makes sense since everything is packed in close. In horizontal cities, it makes no sense because the places you want to get to are spread out. This is why no one rides the LA transit system. It goes to places that no one wants to visit.