'll admit that if I had a hundred billion to spend on anything I wanted to, the California HSR project probably wouldn't top the list. But I get a bit confused by liberals fretting over whether it suddenly costs to much or whatever. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars on completely horrible stupid shit all of the time. I wouldn't have spent that much money on the fucking wars, either, but we manage to blow through that much every few months or so.

My point is, on the rare occasion that the government is considering giving us some nice things, we should probably just stand up and applaud, even if we can imagine even nicer things that the government should give us but won't. The choice isn't between HSR in California and What Atrios Wants To Spend Money On, the choice is between HSR and, you know, more high tech killing machines, money for war contractors, and tax cuts for rich people.

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2012/06/we-spend-so-much-money-on-horrible.html