Pro-Publica confirms: Jindal‘s scaremongering about high-speed rail from Las Vegas to “Disneyland” has nothing to do with what is actually in the stimulus bill:

The $8 billion is for high-speed rail corridors that would connect far-flung cities. Suspicion has swirled around this provision after funding was dramatically increased from the original House and Senate bills during final negotiations. Republicans have targeted Sen. Harry Reid, R-Nev., who was in those negotiations and has advocated in the past for a high-speed rail between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The train isn’t in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but it could be one of several projects seeking a piece of the pie. Even so $8 billion isn’t enough to pay for even a single bullet train, according to The New York Times.

By the way, a train from Vegas to L.A. is actually a great idea. Think of all the DUIs it would cut back on!

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.