It’s time to tear apart some of these Republican myths, and in just one paragraph of Bobby Jindal’s speech we saw many:
While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a "magnetic levitation" line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called "volcano monitoring." Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.
So let’s start at the top.
$300 million to buy new cars for the government.
Are these some sort of magical cars that grow from the Cadillac tree? Just following the news that Detroit is in trouble says that this is good news. And will these new cars be more fuel efficient than the current fleet? If so then that will also save the government and us money in the long run. So we will be putting people to work, or keeping them in work, and maybe saving the government from the wasteful spending that goes with gas guzzling vehicles. And saving on that gas guzzling also helps wean us from foreign oil. Isn’t that something Bush pushed for?
$8 Billion For High Speed Rails
Yes that is in the bill, but it does not state that any or all of the money goes for this line from Vegas to Disneyland. That is something the Republicans are pushing in order to making jabs at Harry Reid. There is people who want that rail, including Harry, but there are people who want other rails – including the former Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.
