Getting Good Value for Tax Dollars

Floor Speech

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Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, when people earn their paycheck, their wages, money off of stocks, whatever it is, they are going to spend their money on things that are a good value for them. Why isn't government, when they take their tax dollars involuntarily, getting a good value for them?

I am speaking, in California, of the high-speed rail system. I call it high-cost rail. The price has quadrupled over what the voters were sold back about 15 years ago when they were told a high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco could be built for $33 billion. The price tag is well over $125 billion, and it is many years behind as well.

They are still about $100 billion short of the funding it would take to complete this project. They don't even have the route mapped out.

Instead, why don't we invest tax dollars that are taken from the people involuntarily in things that can really benefit them, such as a water supply, a stable water supply, better communication systems, more rural broadband, things that can help people be connected in more ways besides a silly train, which is deemed the biggest boondoggle in a long time, connecting L.A. to San Francisco? Instead, it is connecting an orchard in Bakersfield to a place called Merced--not a good deal for taxpayers.

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