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> Newsom said the state will complete a 110-mile (177 km) high-speed rail link between Merced and Bakersfield. > ... > “Abandoning high-speed rail entirely mean

> Newsom said the state will complete a 110-mile (177 km) high-speed rail link between Merced and Bakersfield. > ... > “Abandoning high-speed rail entirely means we will have wasted billions of dollars with nothing but broken promises and lawsuits to show for it,” he said. “And by the way, I am not interested in sending $3.5 billion in federal funding that was allocated to this project back to Donald Trump.” It's hard to overstate how bad this argument is. First, it's the very embodiment of the sunk cost fallacy. We don't want to feel bad that we wasted a lot of money, so we're going to waste even more on a scaled-down project that will almost certainly never be financially viable. Second, what does this have to do with Donald Trump? The fact that we would need to refund FTA their contributions has nothing to do with Trump. He won't be able to appropriate the money. It will just go to the Treasury.

drak0n1c 8y ago
Newsom should be more gracious. That is tax money from all other states that the federal government decided to provide to California. Sad to see him be so entitled and speak so dismissively about the funding for the sake of local political optics.
- kevin_b_er 8y ago
  No, its just tax money California got back from itself. Unlike many states, California's citizens put more money toward the federal government than the federal government provides to California. California is estimated anywhere from $0.87 up to $0.99 inward per $1 outward. https://www.politifact.com/california/article/2017/feb/14/does-california-give-more-it-gets-dc/ https://www.politifact.com/california/article/2017/feb/14/do...
  - kodablah 8y ago
    What a poor way to look at it. There are more recent studies that disagree[0], but that doesn't matter. Wasting money matters, and you can't pretend the federal dollars earmarked for this transportation initiative are the equivalent of all in state dollars or that they wouldn't have been put to better use elsewhere. 0 - https://rockinst.org/issue-areas/fiscal-analysis/balance-of-payments-portal/ https://rockinst.org/issue-areas/fiscal-analysis/balance-of-...
- deleted 8y ago
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- iscrewyou 8y ago
  Gracious? Entitled? I don’t see California asking for more money for Coal Plants or Chinese Factories. California pays plenty of its share to those other states you refer to as well. It’s disingenuous to say california took other states’ money. I can say California just took back the money it paid in taxes to the federal government. In terms on numbers and being ambiguous, it’s correct. You seem to be insinuating a political argument. There’s plenty of blame to go around for many states when we are talking about “taking money” from the federal government. I took his line of argument as: we have federal money, we are going to add more from our funds and finish the Valley section.

drak0n1c 8y ago

Newsom should be more gracious. That is tax money from all other states that the federal government decided to provide to California. Sad to see him be so entitled and speak so dismissively about the funding for the sake of local political optics.

kevin_b_er 8y ago
No, its just tax money California got back from itself. Unlike many states, California's citizens put more money toward the federal government than the federal government provides to California. California is estimated anywhere from $0.87 up to $0.99 inward per $1 outward. https://www.politifact.com/california/article/2017/feb/14/does-california-give-more-it-gets-dc/ https://www.politifact.com/california/article/2017/feb/14/do...
- kodablah 8y ago
  What a poor way to look at it. There are more recent studies that disagree[0], but that doesn't matter. Wasting money matters, and you can't pretend the federal dollars earmarked for this transportation initiative are the equivalent of all in state dollars or that they wouldn't have been put to better use elsewhere. 0 - https://rockinst.org/issue-areas/fiscal-analysis/balance-of-payments-portal/ https://rockinst.org/issue-areas/fiscal-analysis/balance-of-...
deleted 8y ago
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iscrewyou 8y ago
Gracious? Entitled? I don’t see California asking for more money for Coal Plants or Chinese Factories. California pays plenty of its share to those other states you refer to as well. It’s disingenuous to say california took other states’ money. I can say California just took back the money it paid in taxes to the federal government. In terms on numbers and being ambiguous, it’s correct. You seem to be insinuating a political argument. There’s plenty of blame to go around for many states when we are talking about “taking money” from the federal government. I took his line of argument as: we have federal money, we are going to add more from our funds and finish the Valley section.