President Biden, Ignore Jerry Brown's bad advice

Russ Cohen

 Joe Garofoli in today's SF Chronicle:

Jerry Brown has lasted five decades in public life by following his “canoe theory” of politics: Paddle a little left, then paddle a little right to maintain a mostly centrist course — or in his case, center-left. Brown is offering the same advice to President-elect Joe Biden, who is hearing the first complaints from progressives that he isn’t paddling left as hard as he should.

This split-the-difference approach to public policy may work on some issues, like budget negotiations. Otherwise, it's useless. It reminds me of a basketball coach I had in high school. When we missed a shot high, he told us to shoot lower; when we missed a shot low, he told us to shoot higher.

Brown wants President Biden to invest "tens of billions" in high-speed rail nationwide. As governor Brown pushed a high-speed rail project so dumb and potentially ruinous financially it will mar whatever positive legacy he will have in California:

“We need a New Deal program of investment and yes, I want the president to put tens of billions in high-speed rail in California,” said Brown, who served four terms as California’s governor...that money into high-speed rail in California and elsewhere will deliver “quite a jobs program and you’d run it 100% on renewable energy,” Brown said. “So, what’s not to like about that?”

Even California is a long way from producing "100% renewable energy." Yes, the California high-speed rail project produces jobs, since even dumb projects can create jobs (see also this: Boxed in on homes: City, unions at odds) 

And of course labor unions are an important part of the Democratic Party's political base, but all the unions care about is jobs for their members.

Garofoli pushes back:

The price tag, for starters. Originally intended to be a San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route when voters approved a $9 billion bond in 2008, it has been scaled down for its first phase to a 171-mile run between Bakersfield and Merced that is supposed to start carrying passengers by 2028. And even that date is in jeopardy, as the state has limited funds to complete the project and continues to have trouble obtaining land. The current cost is around $80 billion.

It's not widely understood how costly this project could be. Just the annual interest on the $9.95 billion in bonds authorized in 2008 by state voters will be $647 million a year.

See also "Like watching the Titanic sink in slow motion over and over again" and The "costliest infrastructure project in history." and Democrats are dumb on high-speed rail.