Mark Hemingway on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's flip-flop on LA-to-Las Vegas maglev
By: Mark Hemingway, OpEd Contributor
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June 18, 2009
In a move virtually unreported by the national press, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., completely abandoned one of his signature legislative projects. This unexpected move is a perfect case study for showing how pork-barrel spending is dictated by transparent political motives.
For years, Reid has been a prominent supporter of building a 300 mph, magnetic levitation (maglev) train between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Reid has leveraged is position in Congress to secure billions for the project. In June of last year, Reid earmarked $45 million for the project. Then in February, during the last-minute, closed-door "stimulus" negations, Reid succeeded in quadrupling the amount of money to a total of $8 billion.
The maglev project between the two cities was estimated to have cost some $12 billion or more. Maglev projects are also notorious for cost overruns, while the underlying technology is not known for producing reliable trains. And by supporting a taxpayer-funded maglev train, Reid was also knowingly undercutting DesertXpress, a privately-financed project to build a 150 mph high-speed, non-maglev train between the two cities.
With plenty of cheap flights in and out of Vegas, the market for the high-speed trains serving the two cities is uncertain. Martin Wachs, a Rand Corp. think tank expert told USA Today last year that the rail's success would "depend ultimately on the willingness of taxpayers to subsidize to some extent that service."
Last week, Reid told the Los Angeles Times he was no longer supporting the maglev project and was now in favor of the DesertXpress project. "We've gotten nowhere. Maglev projects have been abandoned around the world. It's time to stop talking and start doing something," he said. In other words, Reid acknowledged his critics were right to question the feasibility of the maglev train all along, but only after he had set aside billions of tax dollars for the failed project.
Why is Reid now admitting he was wrong to support it? Those more cynically inclined might look at Reid's poll numbers. Senator Reid's reelection next year looks tricky given the latest Las Vegas Review-Journal/Mason-Dixon poll. 45 percent of Nevada voters will "definitely" vote against him, and his support among independents has fallen to 30 percent.
The bottom line is that Reid promised his constituents a whiz-bang train and he needs to show them a whiz-bang train. While there isn't a start date for the maglev project in sight, DesertXpress promises to break ground next year -- before he's up for reelection.
There may be an even more craven motivation for abandoning the maglev project. In late February, shortly after the stimulus bill passed, Sig Rogich - a major player and fundraiser in the Nevada GOP - surprised the state's political observers by endorsing Reid. Rogich has since put together a group of prominent Republicans supporting Reid and is working hard for his reelection. As it happens, Rogich is one of the major backers of the DesertXpress train. While there's no clear evidence of quid pro quo, it's hard to argue that Reid doesn't sorely need Rogich's support.
Maybe Reid finally did see the light and is now honorably admitting that his pet project was a boondoggle. Regardless, the end result is that millions - if not billions - of dollars have already been wasted on a project he now admits he was wrong to support. However, the circumstances suggest taxpayers everywhere are probably right to ask themselves whether the Senate Majority Leader's plan to spend billions on a train was about anything other than getting Reid reelected.
Mark Hemingway is a writer in Washington, D.C.
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