Ernst Gives Biden ‘Squeal Award’ for Sending Billions in Federal Tax Dollars to California Rail Projects

Hold on to your wallets, folks! Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is back with her latest Squeal Award, and this time it’s for the Biden Boondoggle Express. That’s right, billions of your hard-earned tax dollars are being wasted on costly California commuter rail projects, and Ernst is not happy about it.

In a statement provided to The Epoch Times, Ernst called out President Biden’s “reverse Midas touch,” where everything he touches increases in cost faster than the price of gold. And these Golden State gravy trains are no exception, with guaranteed golden tickets aboard Biden’s Boondoggle Express.

Ernst’s Squeal Awards have made her the Senate’s most outspoken opponent of waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending since the retirement of Sen. Tom “Dr. No” Coburn (R-Okla.) in 2013. And she’s not afraid to call out the Biden administration for its multibillion-dollar budget increases on two major California commuter rail projects—the California High-Speed Rail and the San Francisco Central Subway Extension.

Despite both projects’ long records of over-budget expenditures and construction delays, Biden has given them the green light and restored funding that was previously stopped by President Trump. The California High-Speed Rail, promised to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco for $33 billion, is now estimated to cost $128 billion and won’t be completed for another decade. And the San Francisco Central Subway Extension, promised for nearly $4.7 billion, is now delayed for a decade and has doubled in cost to more than $9.3 billion.

But that’s not all. There’s yet another California rail project on the horizon, with a price tag of $5.15 billion per mile. The 1.3-mile extension of San Francisco’s rail service, the Caltrain, is on track to be one of the costliest transit projects in the world, and planners are expecting Biden to bankroll half of the costs.

Ernst is introducing two measures to put an end to such federal spending, and we can only hope they’ll be successful. In the meantime, hold on tight to your wallets and keep an eye on the Biden Boondoggle Express.