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Kevin McCarthy, Standing Athwart Jerry Brown
In the final clip from my recent conversation with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy for Uncommon Knowledge, we turn to California politics — specifically to the future of the Golden State’s high-speed rail project, a topic on which McCarthy has become a thorn in the side of Governor Jerry Brown:
Published in General
I appreciate what Mr. McCarthy is saying (that it is not really high speed) but the project should be opposed even if it was high speed. High speed rail is another big-government program. In other countries, they are all subsidized. France has a large network and is now forced to eliminate many routes because of mounting losses (see Economist article). The UK, where many train routes were privatized, has a tiny high-speed network and its economy is doing fine. Here in the Northeast, the allegedly high-speed Acela (Boston-New York-Washington) is mainly for business people. No one else would pay hundreds of dollars for a single ticket when it costs $50 to just drive a whole family.