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I question the original vision because

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my first reaction when I heard about the

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project is okay a high-speed train from

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San Francisco to Los Angeles that's not

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my problem

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I don't have a problem getting to San

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Francisco I get there quite easily and

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quite cheaply and quite quickly on

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Southwest Airlines my problem is getting

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to work so let's kind of start in the

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beginning the original vision of this

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what problem wasn't really solving uh

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Californians who vacation in Europe and

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when they're in Europe they take a

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bullet train and I think oh this is cool

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I would like to have this in California

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and really I it sounds amazing but I was

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talking with a Democratic Club a couple

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years ago and I asked how many people

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support how many people have been to

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Europe or Japan and ridden you're the

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wind of all training and like half the

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hands went out I said how many of you

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voted for it because you'd like to see

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that here and they all went all the

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hands went up at the same time so I

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think that people who are tourists in

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Europe which clearly not the working

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class middle class people in California

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went there and saw and they they thought

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this is something we should have here

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and the offer was what we could get

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between San Francisco and LA in two

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hours and 20 minutes that was the

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requirement and the bond Act and I don't

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know that anybody really did enough

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analysis of over how hard that would be

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he could you know financially to achieve

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um technically socially politically

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legally all those things were became

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much more difficult because of that

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speed requirement

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mm-hmm so the concern over large

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governments large government projects

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has kind of borne out to be correct

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because this project is turned to turned

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out to go figuratively off the rails

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with the explosion of the cost estimates

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and the fact that it doesn't even look

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like the high-speed is going to be able

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to be achieved it's gone off the rails

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because the cost is spiraled off so you

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have to ask well has the cost I rolled

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up because they underestimated what it

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was gonna cost in any case or had they

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mismanaged it over the last half dozen

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years and I think clearly they

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underestimated it at the very outset

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just one or two examples if you would

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like to know originally they estimated

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the land acquisitions in the Central

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Valley would cost three hundred thirty

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million dollars roughly today it's

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budgeted is at 1.5 billion they

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originally estimated the environmental

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clearances for the entire project from

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LA to San Francisco would run a few

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hundred million two hundred to three

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hundred it's now over a billion so those

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are just two good examples of um how

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they didn't mismanage anything they just

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blew it on estimating what an acre of

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the richest farmland the most

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technologically advanced farmland in the

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world would cost and then the federal

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government jumped on board and provided

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additional funds how many billion has

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the federal government provided the

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Obama administration provided two grants

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for a total of 3.5 billion and is that

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it or is there more coming federally no

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that's it so you know that's the other

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question is what analysis did the

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federal government do

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before writing those checks well clearly

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not enough the federal government the

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Department of Transportation and within

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it the Federal Railroad Administration

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we're advocating for high-speed rail in

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the country and their work programs in

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Texas in Florida that receive grants and

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and as those two states looked more

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closely at the project they backed out

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and they gave the money back they said

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we don't want it we're not gonna go

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forward with it and the Obama

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administration redirected some of that

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money to California so it got a little

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bonus from Texas and Florida yeah these

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were the so-called shovel-ready projects

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that were gonna help get us out of the

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recession correct that's right

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yeah and I think the Florida train was

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gonna go from Tampa to Orlando that's

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right

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and Florida analyzed it and said thank

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you federal government but we're not

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interested in the money interesting only

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enough there is a fully privatized

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medium speed rail that's being built and

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partially operating between Miami and

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Orlando and that's being developed with

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no state or federal money it's been

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operated about 110 miles an hour they

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decided that speed was adequate to draw

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people off the road if they keep the

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fares low if you wanted to get from LA

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to San Francisco by train right now can

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you do it

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yeah with great little difficulty that's

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one of the problems I mean clearly we

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could have better passenger rail in this

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state because people some percentage of

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people would rather ride the rails right

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now it would take you somewhere north of

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8 hours to get from LA to the Bay Area

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you'd have to take a bus from Union

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Station to Bakersfield over the

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Mountains and then you might have to do

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another bus link at some point um so

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it's uncompetitive nobody wants to spend

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eight hours to get to San Francisco so

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perhaps one of the most questionable

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decisions was to begin work on this

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without the whole thing without all the

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land being acquired without having the

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full plan so exactly how they're gonna

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implement the whole thing they began

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building what a couple years ago you

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know one of the miss management's

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remember we talked about things that

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they just underestimated at the outset

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they didn't have to mismanage anything

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but one of the things they did mismanage

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was issuing the initial contract for

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constructing 29 miles of rail before

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they had a single acre a single half

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acre or a single foot square foot of

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land in hand so that contract was issued

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and then the contractor of course began

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acquiring heavy-duty equipment and

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offices and he just said idle for years

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and that became a a very big source of

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delay claims for them who is that

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contractor that's a team led by Tudor

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Perini and where are those guys out of

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zomom Sylmar yes so they're in

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California yes and this is a company

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that's built high speed rail before no

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they've built highways structures and

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tunnels and public infrastructure you

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know what they're building isn't won't

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have a rail on it they're building

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bridges and viaducts and grade and

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trenches which is you know pretty

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typical of transportation infrastructure

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a later contractor will come in and

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install track and signals and

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electrification

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that's the plan anyways in am i right

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that that got approved that initial

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twenty seven mile stretch because they

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needed to commence construction

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by a certain deadline to get the federal

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money that's what they said correct they

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said we need were pressed to get the

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contract issued so that we can meet the

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requirements of the grants well but the

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grants re are only three and a half

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million three and half billion yes and I

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say only but it's a lot of money but the

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total project cost at this point is 77

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billion and there were a number of

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senators including Democrats who said in

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the long run this three billion will not

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be a reason to jump ahead on this

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project the way we are let's let's

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proceed with the project and the

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planning in a rational way and not try

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to rush this because we want three

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billion in in the long run that won't

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matter and that was exactly right and

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then I also go back to the federal

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government though and you just wonder

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what kind of checks the federal

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government has why didn't they see right

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through this to see wait a minute you

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guys aren't ready to begin building this

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thing we're not going to give you this

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three and a half billion dollars I don't

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know who it is in the federal government

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that makes that the head of the

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department transportation yeah there was

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actually a Republican who was a head of

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the Department of Transportation he was

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formerly a member of Congress them and

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he backed it and the Federal Railroad

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Administration officials were Democratic

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appointees backed it and there was you

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can second-guess that and say well

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obviously they didn't do the homework to

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look and see how ready the state was but

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it it is a big state and we do build a

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lot of infrastructure here and we have

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them successful in them in the distant

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past so is it fair to say that

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California was embarking on the most

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expensive transportation project in the

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history of American transportation

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projects well if you call it one project

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yes it clearly wasn't as expensive as

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the interstate freeway system that's

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more than one project right certainly

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more expensive

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than anything I can think of as clearly

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the most expensive infrastructure

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project of any kind in the state's

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history it's far bigger than the state