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Looking for some much-needed goodwill, the Biden Administration dumped half a million dollars last week into feasibility studies for high-speed rail between Atlanta and Charlotte. I may have an unpopular opinion here, but I’m not wrong… 

Proponents of these high-speed rail projects tout the jobs to be created, as if it’s government’s role to confiscate money from you to create jobs for other people, even if the work to be done will have no measurable impact on our economy.

They tout “advances to our infrastructure” as if there isn’t already existing rail and interstate roadways between these two cities. Oh, not to mention more than 12 commercial flights daily both ways between ATL-CLT, 9 weekday nonstop flights both ways between GSP-ATL, and 6 between GSP-CLT.

They tout “drive time savings” as if the 2.5-hour drive from the Upstate to either Atlanta or Charlotte is too much for the average person to tolerate. 

They tout “low-cost travel” but will not talk about return on investment, because nobody knows. All we know is that the operational costs for these trains will require massive ongoing government subsidies.

Here’s the bottom line:

Our nation is $34 trillion in debt, and the federal government is now running a deficit of more than $380 billion every single month.

Show me where this money is coming from! Some projections place the total cost of a high-speed rail between Charlotte and Atlanta around $8 billion, but those estimates are deliberately low. Comically so.

The reality is this would be a multi decade, 30+ billion-dollar endeavor. All for what, so we can save a few minutes travel between South Carolina and our two neighboring states?

Yes, the concept of high-speed rail is intriguing, but this is simply not something we can afford. Sadly, our children and grandchildren will never know prosperity because of the massive amount of debt we are piling on top of them, particularly for projects just like this.

Read more about this project here.