But How Can We Afford That

Well-meaning people on The Left fret about the cost of infrastructure projects. And, yes, the costs of building a few miles of a light rail system (for example) are often obscene and ideally we would fix that.

Still I reject the idea that the costs of such projects are meaningfully a constraint. "We've" been fretting about the total cost of (again, for example) California HSR for decades and we just pissed away that much money in Iran in a few months.

America's big problem is that we spend too much money on "cops" and their toys. I mean the local, national, and global cops.

Starting last fall, the Department of Homeland Security spent $464 million on a no-bid contract to buy 10 used airplanes from a firm in Northern Virginia.

That was an enormous price tag, but the department said it had no time to consider other offers. The planes were needed urgently for deportation flights.

But since then, the department has barely used this new fleet — for deportations, or anything else.

That rail costs 40% more than it should is not the reason we don't have more rail.