California Voters Might Just Be Too Far Gone to Be Helped

A new poll makes one thing perfectly clear: California voters want corruption and waste to keep rolling—and they’ve elected a governor eager to oblige. For some reason, more than six in ten residents still back Gavin Newsom pouring money into the high-speed rail project that hasn’t laid a single mile of usable track in 17 years—even though most of them know they’ll never actually see it run.

The project, originally promised to be finished by 2020 with a price tag of $33 billion, has since been bumped to a 2033 partial opening with a staggering $128 billion price tag—nearly four times the initial estimate. Yet the voters, particularly Democrats, stubbornly cling to hope, funneling state money into what can only be described as an unending black hole of government waste.

Here’s more from Politico:

Nearly two-thirds — 62 percent — of voters say that California should continue bankrolling the planned rail line from the Bay Area to Los Angeles after the Trump administration clawed back $4 billion in federal grants last month, according to an exclusive POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab poll.

The poll revealed a clear partisan divide among the more than 1,400 registered voters surveyed, as just 21 percent of Democrats said it's time to pull the plug, compared to 45 percent of independents and 62 percent of Republicans. But that doesn't mean liberal Californians believe it's any more likely that they'll be able to ride from Southern California to San Francisco in their lifetime.

Just 27 percent of Democrats said there's a high likelihood the project will be completed, roughly matching the 23 percent of their conservative counterparts who believe California officials can finish the first high-speed rail line in North America.

How can voters back a boondoggle they openly doubt will ever materialize? What is wrong with them? And only 62% of Republicans want to pull the plug on this boondoggle? Seriously?

"Newsom and high-speed rail backers, including powerful labor unions, have countered the Republican crackdown with a proposal to guarantee $1 billion in funding annually through the state’s cap-and-trade program," reports Politico. "Democratic voters’ continued support for state funding could bolster their argument as negotiations over how to divvy up revenue generated by cap-and-trade auctions heat up with less than a month before the end of the legislative session."

Gee, big shock. Who could have guessed that the powerful labor unions still back the project? Unions don’t care if a public project never ends—they care if it keeps their members working and the money flowing. An on time, on budget project would cost jobs, hours, and influence. For them, it’s simple: don’t kill the job, even if the project is a disaster.

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This is California at its absolute worst: a fiscal disaster fueled by union power and political delusion. The high-speed rail isn’t just a failing project—it’s a symbol of a state that keeps choosing hope over honesty and symbolism over results. Voters may still cheer for it, but everyone knows there will be more delays and an even bigger price tag than we’re being quoted today.

And California voters are too far gone to care.

California’s high-speed rail project stands as a monument to political delusion and union greed—$128 billion wasted and counting. PJ Media reveals what the left’s media won’t: voters keep funding failure. Join PJ Media VIP with promo code FIGHT for 60% off. Support fearless journalism that holds power accountable. Act now.