When California first authorized a network of high-speed trains connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, George W. Bush was still president. More than a decade later, the bullet train has proven a nearly $100 billion failure. The state now says that the train, which was supposed to be completed by 2022, still won’t be ready for almost another decade, and rather than connecting San Fran and LA, the train will connect Merced to Bakersfield.

Evidently, President Joe Biden considers this a model. As a part of his push for (another) multitrillion-dollar spending package, this time for infrastructure, Biden mused about applying a Manifest Destiny of sorts to trains.