Understanding that high-speed rail (HSR) could provide millions of Americans with a cleaner, more efficient way to travel, President Barack Obama allocated $13 billion to its development over the next five years as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed in February.

But Obama’s high-speed rail initiative has gotten off to a sluggish start, while a much bigger, $300 billion plan to create the world’s largest and most sophisticated high-speed rail network is already rapidly unfolding in China.

“Railroads were always the pride of America, and stitched us together. Now Japan, China, all of Europe have high-speed rail systems that put ours to shame,” Obama said in April.

In a proposal called “A  Vision  for  High-Speed  Rail  in  America” Obama and the Federal Railroad Administration outlined a plan to develop 10 “potential” 100-600 mile corridors in the United States, “similar to how interstate

People of good intentions and progressive predilection are scratching their heads wondering just how President Barack Obama managed to turn himself into George W. Bush Lite with sugar-on-top just twelve weeks after that fateful walk down the US Capitol’s east stairway to the waiting helicopter. I’m hardly the first observer to note that Mr. Obama’s actions in the face of an epochal finance fiasco and economic collapse are a mere extension of the pre-January-20 policies, carried out by much the same cast of characters.

The assumption up until now was something about the reassuring value of continuity — if we could just prop up an ailing set of banks for a little while, the US public could resume a revolving credit way-of-life within an economy dedicated to building more suburban houses and selling all the needed accessories from supersized “family” cars to cappuccino machines. This would keep everyone employed at the