Inflationary Pressure Defeated Obama’s Bullet Train by “Deficit Aversion Disorder”

Obama, who has always wanted to build high-speed railways across the United States, has been having a hard time since he was elected; his bullet train plan has been vetoed after having been discussed in Florida for a while. On the grounds of the difficulty in bearing the potential cost overrun and subsidies, the Florida state government rejected the federal government’s proposal to build the first high-speed rail in the U.S. between Tampa and Orlando. In the $2.6 billion budget plan, the federal government intends to pay for the bulk of $2.4 billion; even so, the Florida state government finally refused the proposal, which was upheld by Florida’s Supreme Court.

A few days ago, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood claimed that the $2.4 billion fund can be applied by other states that attempt to build high-speed rails. By this token, Obama apparently has not given up, but in the short term, he should not have much hope in letting the bullet train run again. This plan has been hard evidence for Republicans to criticize him for overspending money.

The rail plan comes from a $787 billion economic stimulus plan put forward when Obama took office. Building infrastructure to save the economy during an economic recession is what Obama learned from Roosevelt. Thus, there was a huge amount of funding earmarked for infrastructure construction in this economic stimulus plan. However, the infrastructure investment has been used to patch the existing roads and bridges two years after the appropriation. The Obama administration worried that there would be a small amount of projects being put forward, which made it difficult for the government to report to taxpayers; therefore, they decided to apply $8 billion to laying tracks and building high-speed rails. Nevertheless, there’s only a few choices for the White House; there are only two states that are well-prepared for high-speed rail building — California and Florida. For California, the plan is to build a high-speed rail over 220 mph between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but the tantalizing plan needs a gross investment of $42 billion and will be completed in 2020 at the fastest pace. On the contrary, Florida’s plan is not as expensive; the plan to build a high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando is budgeted at $2.6 billion, and the project can be completed in 2015.

The Obama administration chose the latter. Proponents for the choice think that the first high-speed rail should mainly play the role of testing and demonstration, so the low cost, low risk, quick turnover Florida rail should be the first choice. In addition, high-speed rail is obviously more environmentally friendly and energy efficient, which should be realized as soon as possible. However, opponents of Obama have different opinions, which are mainly divided into conspiracy theory and realistic theory. The former theory holds that this is Obama’s “vanity project,” since if he manages to remain in office, he’ll still be president in 2015, when the railway is completed. More importantly, Florida is a “swing state”; people who live in Tampa and Orlando are independent voters, which means that the plan is to brazenly “buy” voters using the federal government’s money. The realist theory posits that the Florida railway is too short to have economic benefit.

The realist theory that won public support, analyzes that the two cities are too close to each other, which makes the high-speed rail less meaningful and worthy of detailed analysis. The distance between Tampa and Orlando is only 84 miles, which approximately equals the distance of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen high-speed railway in China, and it takes only 1.5 hours to drive through the railway; even though building a high-speed rail between the two cities will make it possible for cars to drive at 168 mph theoretically, they can only reach 100 mph because of several stops along the way. Thus, a high-speed rail cannot save time for the transportation between the two cities. There are also the inconveniences of high-speed railway public transportation, like the long intervals between buses, low-speed commuter rail networks, too many transfers, etc. Therefore, local people generally believed that a high-speed railway couldn’t speed up their life pace but may lose money due to lack of passengers and let taxpayers pay for the bill. The right-wing Washington Times hallooed for the bankruptcy of Florida’s high-speed rail after knowing the adjudication of Florida’s Supreme Court, rejoicing that governors of this generation speak straight and don’t let their voters “be high-speed railed.”

The Obama administration plans to appropriate $53 billion in six years, but currently the only choice for him — the California plan — can spend all the money at once. Finalizing the plan is easier said than done. Facing the tea party movement and under the pressure of high inflation, U.S. citizens obviously have a “deficit aversion disorder” and even “deficit phobia.” If this situation continues, Obama’s bullet train will be put off over and over again.