House version of stimulus bill had $100+ million for underground rail project

According to a report on Fox Business, the House version of a coronavirus stimulus bill includes over $100 million for some underground rail project in Silicon Valley. It's a project that has been years in the making, but never even broke ground yet. To provide some fair and balanced look at things, here's CNN's list of what's in the latest House stimulus plan proposals. Keep in mind things might be updated as they go, because things might change in real time and the article may not reflect the latest updates.

But as of now, we're focusing on the Fox Business story and what they've revealed.

I'm still trying to make sense of this, but I'm not doing a very good job of it. I'm not sure how building that has anything to do with providing relief to Americans, but for some reason, these politicians keep putting so many unrelated items in their stimulus bills and guess who the big losers are? Let me tell ya, it ain't them.

It's us. All this wasted time on unrelated projects is delaying the relief that many Americans have been waiting and hoping for as the 'rona shuts things down. Hopefully, we're out of that soon and we can get 100% back to normal.

In the meantime, we have six-figure politicians stuffing relief bills with pet projects and I am pretty sure we have the absolute dumbest group of people in politics right now. Dumber than any generation before us. This government, right now, is literally the worst. They are addicted to social media and they waste time and effort on pet projects when they've got constituents in need.

I should run for office one day, but they wouldn't want me. I'd be that guy in the back saying "WTF DOES A RAIL ROAD HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?"

Here's what Fox Business wrote in a more professional manner:

The funding for the project, phase two of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) expansion, was tucked into the House Transportation Committee's section of the bill under a funding provision for "all projects under section 3005(b) of Public Law 114-94 that received allocations for fiscal year 2019 and 2020" except "projects open for revenue service."

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Oh, it was a tuckjob. I see what they did there.

But there is only one such project that fits that definition -- the BART phase 2 extension, documents reviewed by Fox Business reveal.

Under the distribution formula of that section of the bill, documents reviewed by Fox Business indicate that the BART project would get approximately $112 million.

The BART phase 2 extension would use one of the largest boring machines ever built to drill a tunnel for rail transit underneath San Jose, Calif., according to The Mercury News. The paper has reported that the project has seen its cost estimates increase repeatedly and has caused outrage among local Bay area officials over the disproportionate amount of local sales tax funds that are going to the project. There are also worries that the ambitious nature of the tunnel increases the risk of problems and the chances the project could go further over budget or see major delays.

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Apparently they want money for a project they never even started. How cool is that. Americans are sick, unemployed, and just want to get back to normal, so Democrats are tucking a rail project into the relief/stimulus proposals. That's so kind of them.

It "sucks all the air out of the room for 10 years," Saratoga Mayor Howard Miller said of the project's effect on tax funds meant to maintain roads, and ease traffic, according to The Mercury News.

The project was estimated to cost $4.69 billion in 2018. But estimates have already skyrocketed to $6.9 billion. It's currently scheduled to be complete in approximately 2030.

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How about we worry about the stimulus bill for NOW, and they can figure out funding for their little project later?

And check this out. Here's Steve Kelly coming through with the big common sense statement:

"An earmark to help cover the cost of Big Tech’s subway construction costs has nothing to do with combatting COVID-19," Steve Kelly, a spokesperson for the Senate Banking Committee Republicans, said of the money for the BART project. The Senate Banking Committee has jurisdiction over mass transit projects in the Senate.

He added: "It doesn’t help one person get the vaccine or boost testing capabilities. This is just further proof that congressional Democrats view the reconciliation process as a means to push through their wish list – which includes forcing taxpayers to pay even more for an over budget and delayed construction project in one of the wealthiest regions in the country."

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EXACTLY!!! WHAT DOES THIS PROJECT DO TO HELP ANYONE RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW?

F*cking Democrats, man.