“Where’s the beef?” asked a 1980s Wendy’s commercial, suggesting its burgers offered more hamburger than those of its fast-food rivals. The well-traveled phrase popped up during an April 4 hearing in the Legislature on the finances of the state’s high-speed rail project.

“We want to see a strategy, like, how are we going to get from here to there,” said state Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “I’d like to see more beef,” he told executives of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is building the project.

“I think ‘Where’s the beef?’ is a good comment,” added state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, chairwoman of the Senate’s Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy and Transportation. Bakersfield Now reported that Sen. Wolk “praised the plan to build north first, but said major questions remain.”

In February, the authority’s Draft 2016 Business Plan for the 400-plus-mile system shifted Phase 1 to the Bay Area, from Southern California. The projected cost of the whole project also was cut a bit, to $64 billion from $68 billion. And expectations persisted of more federal funding.

But the $64 billion question remains: Where will the money come from? Where’s the beef?

So far, there are only three sources: The $9.95 billion in seed money from Proposition 1A in 2008, $3.5 billion from President Obama’s 2009 stimulus plan and $500 million a year from state carbon cap-and-trade revenue, from the 2016-17 budget proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown, a key bullet-train backer.

Prop. 1A’s summary in the pamphlet sent to voters solemnly promised, “private and public matching funds required, including, but not limited to, federal funds, funds from revenue bonds and local funds.” But no private investments have been forthcoming. And even if anti-rail Republicans lose control of Congress, it’s doubtful enough Democrats in other states would pony up more money for a California project.

Except for part of Phase I under construction in the Central Valley, there just isn’t enough money to build what has become the state’s biggest boondoggle, benefiting only politically connected contractors and construction unions. Instead of “Where’s the beef?” it’s more apt to point at the project and proclaim, “There’s the pork.”