Posted by JM Ashby
Governor Rick Scott (R-Shithead) recently claimed that Florida would never accept money from the Federal Government to begin construction on high-speed rail projects, after which the Obama Administration said "fine we'll send the money somewhere else." It turns out the thought of losing $2.4 billion dollars of job-creating capital was just too much for the senate of Florida though.
A veto-proof majority of the Florida Senate rebuked Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday in a letter that urged the federal government to give the state $2.4 billion in high-speed rail money that Scott wants to reject.
“Politics should have no place in the future of Florida’s transportation, as evidenced by this letter of bipartisan support,” said the letter, signed by 26 members of the Republican-controlled Florida Senate.
“This project would create real jobs, cleaner and smarter transportation and true economic development for Floridians,” said the letter written to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
...Scott shocked legislators by unexpectedly announcing he would reject the money and then doubled-down Thursday by calling bullet train a “boondoggle.” He cited findings from the Libertarian Reason Foundation that questioned the ridership projections for the Tampa-Orlando rail line.
“Politics should have no place in the future of Florida’s transportation."
Well no shit. Politics should have no place in any infrastructure project, but Republicans have brought politics into the fold by demonizing any and all forms of government spending, unless it happens to be for bombs, tax cuts for the rich, the subsidizing of oil, or the subsidizing of the corn syrup that has made the nation fat.