However, in 3-5 years the recession will hopefully be over and there won’t be any need for an aggressive public works program to stimulate the economy. Instead, such a program would be a matter of choice, of setting new political priorities and sticking with them for the long haul.

Still, this project would have to compete with many other transportation projects, many of which will sport a better cost/benefit ratio – including many in California. Politics being what it is, Congress will eventually fund what Silicon Valley wants, simply because he who pays the piper calls the tune (at least every once in a while) but BART to Silicon Valley might struggle to secure funding early on.

Your political calculation is interesting, but it’s a truly sad state of affairs when decisions regarding billions of taxpayer dollars are based not on the merit of a project but purely on counting votes in the US Senate. Besides, don’t count on any Republicans to vote for anything that could possibly be spun as a political victory for President Obama. So far, only the ladies from Maine have broken ranks and even that only on one occasion that actually mattered.