Wisconsin’s loss of high speed rail funds not “political retribution”

So let’s just recap a few facts regarding the proposed high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison, a project that has now been de-funded by the federal government:

  1. Wisconsin receives $810 million in funding from federal government to fund high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison.
  2. Gov. Jim Doyle accepts the money and planning is begun on the high speed rail line.
  3. Scott Walker campaigns against the high speed rail line and vows to “kill” it if elected governor.
  4. Walker also opines that he believes said high speed rail funding can be re-purposed for road repairs.
  5. Scott Walker wins gubernatorial election and high speed rail line is in fact “killed.”
  6. High speed rail funding is not re-purposed, but is instead pulled by federal government and reallocated to states that actually want high speed rail.

However, according to Randal O’Toole, a far-right conservative policy analyst for the Cato Institute, the federal government’s decision to re-allocate the $810 million in high speed has absolutely nothing to do with Scott Walker’s opposition to the high speed rail line and is instead “political retribution” against the voters of Wisconsin.

While Randal O’Toole and the folks from the MacIver Institute believe the federal government’s decision to acquiesce to governor-elect Scott Walker’s request to kill the high speed rail line by re-allocating the $810 million set aside for that project is “political retribution,” the real reason why that money was pulled from Wisconsin is simple: Scott Walker wanted it pulled. Scott Walker and his supporters made it very clear they didn’t want a high speed rail line between Milwaukee a Madison, so I’m not exactly understanding how giving the money to folks who really want high speed rail is “political retribution.”

Then again, given the propensity of Scott Walker and his supporters to blame others for Walker’s missteps, the “political retribution” angle could be how Walker and his supporters blame others for the loss of jobs that will ensue as a result of Walker’s opposition to high speed rail, especially on the heels of news that Talgo (and the good jobs it created) will likely be leaving Wisconsin now that Wisconsin’s high speed rail money has gone to other states.

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9 thoughts on “Wisconsin’s loss of high speed rail funds not “political retribution”

  1. The Los Angeles Times and Californians were ecstatic about the stupidity of the WI cheeseheads giving away $624 million to help fund their high speed rail project.
    http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-trains-0101211%2C0%2C7552797.story
    http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-high-speed-money-20101210,0,2705399.story

    You don’t have to be an economic genius to understand that money spent in the state has a multiplier effect and that once Talgo pulls their train assembly plant out of Milwaukee there are even more jobs lost.

    The other part of the story on high speed rail is that the state would never have received the $810 million if it hadn’t been for the preparatory work of former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson. If the GOP hadn’t been so stupid and Walker so obtuse we’d be bringing in this money, bringing in more jobs, bringing in more tourists and further connecting the two major economic engines of the state to each other and to Chicago and Minneapolis.

    No Rail. Walker Fail.
    No Trains. No Brains.

  2. Wisconsin’s leftwing is too stupid to realize the flow of money for this Madistan train would never end. The tracks north of Madistan are as bad as the Watertown-Madistan section. That’s another $1B+. Then the whole shebang updated again to true high speed rail. What, another $2B? No thank you.

    Do you rumdums think Walker is going to lose support from Dane Cty voters? If Walker relented, you would accuse him of not keeping campaign promises.

    Lick your wounds and shed your crocodile tears. The crying of the lefties is just starting–wait until January 3rd, 2011.

    No rail. Lefties wail.
    No train. Lefty pain.

    1. Wait til Walker screws up the state as bad as he screwed up Milwaukee County, and the Republicans are out once again. Then you’ll have the crocodile tears, whatever those are, and I’ll be writing stupid rhymes about you.

      1. I don’t think it’s any use to comment to him. He’s from a place where if you can imagine that Martha Stewart and the Stasi got to create their fantasy world.

  3. There are three things that keep getting forgotten in this whole little odyssey of idiocy…it’s not a high speed train, it’s a kinda fast train. second, it’s not a Milwaukee to Madison train it would have been a Chicago to Madison train, the Milwaukee to Madison would have just been an extension (like the often promised extension to Minneapolis making it a Chicago to Minneapolis train)…and the $810 million is federal money, part of which is mine…and it’s still gonna get spent but none of it is making it’s way back into my pocket nor any of my neighbor’s pockets.

  4. If memory serves, there are streches of that track where 15 mph could be considered high speed. Is the conservative thing to let it get worse?

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