While California suffers through a nation-high 9.8 percent unemployment rate, a state budget debt of $34 billion, and $766 billion in unfunded liabilities, Democrat-appointed officials have okayed borrowing another $8.6 billion to begin work on the state’s vaunted high-speed rail. The rail will supposedly cost $68 billion, but some estimates have placed the cost at above $100 billion. The state has not yet bought the land on which the rail is supposed to lie.

By selling $8.6 billion in debt, California hopes to raise private funding as well. The first leg of the high speed rail is supposed to run from scenic Merced to beautiful Fresno.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).