Your Opinion: Scrap plans for island, high-speed rail

Dear Editor:

Any dollar from the federal government requires borrowing 42 cents. Obviously, Gov. Nixon, and others, didn't get the message from the 2010 elections - cut spending!

Nixon sounds like a kid who found some money on the sidewalk. The money for high-speed rail not only isn't free; it threatens job growth and our national security. Money for a high-speed rail requires borrowing money essentially from our enemies.

The government could borrow money from loan sharks and obtain a better interest rate. The top Missouri Democrat apparently has no clue about the federal debt crisis. The excuse that somebody else will spend the money requires a response that responsible parents sometimes ask their children with respect to a child's dangerous behavior. If your friend jumped off a bridge, would you also jump? Forget government-funded, high-speed rail. If it isn't profitable don't build it; if it would be profitable let private money fund it.

The Adrian's Island tunnel is another nightmare for fiscal and safety issues. We don't need to spend the money for the same aforementioned reasons and tunnels are crime magnets. If people really understood long-term planning, then move the island to the other side of the river and turn it into a peninsula.

Adrian's Island is in a horrible location and is not a long-term geologic feature. Removing the island using the force of the Missouri River and a few mankind produced divots is really cheap. Rebuilding the riverfront land mass on the other side of the river simply requires replicating the conditions that produced the island in the first place. We will have to wait for trees to grow but long-term planning occasionally means we construct things for future generations not just for ourselves.

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