In CA, billions for high-speed rail and illegal aliens, nothing for Oroville Dam
February 14, 2017
By Rick Moran
The massive evacuation of the area surrounding California's Oroville Dam would not have been necessary if state officials had heeded the warnings of experts a decade ago.
But defenders of Governor Brown claim that fixing the emergency spillway now threatening to collapse and cause catastrophic flooding was never a priority and that the massive rainfall that has led to the crisis could not have been foreseen.
That may be true. But it is also a fact that the state spent billions for the $100-billion high-speed rail system, and billions more were spent on caring for illegal aliens. A tiny fraction of that spending – $200 million – could have been used to shore up the dam and avoid what could be the most serious flooding in modern California history.
Washington Times:
(article posted which is at the beginning of this thread)
Good governance depends on making good choices. Government can't fix everything all at once, but it should be able to prioritize spending to ensure the safety of residents. Instead of coddling illegal aliens, which only encouraged more illegals to cross the border and settle in California, how much more money would have been available to spend on infrastructure projects like the Oroville Dam if the state had cooperated with federal immigration authorities in trying to get a handle on the massive influx of illegals over the last several decades?
That spending billions on a high-speed rail system to nowhere is a waste of tax dollars should go without saying. How many roads, bridges, and dams could have been fixed if those billions had been devoted to realistic and pressing infrastructure problems?
Californians, like all Americans, are getting the government they deserve. They have voted the Democrats in for years and are now reaping the rewards – and paying the price – for their choices.
Any effort to get Washington to pay for emergency repairs to the Oroville Dam should be shot down by Congress immediately. The money is there – all that's needed is the political will to make the hard choices to spend it.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...ville_dam.html