Cato has a very good opinion piece about Obama’s high-speed rail plan, something that has dropped off the radar screen for many in light of the recent (and wholly artificial) H1N1 flu hysteria. Not content to leave the rail funding in only the “stimulus” bill (which has so much pork that it might as well be called sausage), there’s wasteful spending on “high-speed” rail in the 2010 budget as well. The article does a fantastic job of noting the disadvantages of rail as opposed to the interstate highway system and sums things up quite beautifully:
Interstates paid for themselves out of gas taxes, and most Americans use them almost every day. Moderate or high-speed rail would require everyone to subsidize trains that would serve only a small elite. Which symbolizes the America that Obama wants to rebuild better?