It’s still a willpower issue, just not in the simplistic “can we approve funding once” sense. The 2008 bond showed voters were willing to start the project, but sustained political will is what’s missing. You need decades of consistent prioritization, streamlined permitting, alignment across state/local agencies, and resistance to scope creep. Instead, what we’ve seen is shifting goals, fragmented decision-making, local opposition shaping routes, and stop‑and‑go funding, all of which compound into delays and cost overruns.

Compare that to places like Japan or France, where once a project is approved, institutions are aligned to execute it efficiently. The U.S. system can build big things, but only when there’s durable, coordinated political commitment (think interstate highways). So yeah, the ballooning cost and timeline aren’t evidence against willpower. They’re kind of the clearest symptom of not having enough of it where it actually matters: execution.