Falling off the cliff with Republican voters: The biggest in-your-face election wedge issue mistake will cost me my hard earned money.

Looks like the media is going to give Gov. Scott Walker the “Teflon Republican” name, by not pointing out his first bad decision, and an harbinger of blunders to come. 

During the election debate, I pointed out the train maintenance issue no one wanted to talk about. It was no secret. But like my conservative friend reminded me when defending ramming everything and anything down our throats in less than six months: Elections have consequences.

jsonline: After being turned down for federal high-speed rail funds, state officials are now pondering how to pay for millions of dollars of work needed to keep the existing Amtrak service running between Milwaukee and Chicago.

Elections have consequences.

Last week, the federal government rejected the state's request for more than $150 million for new locomotives, passenger cars and a maintenance base to upgrade the Hiawatha line. Also rejected was a bid for nearly $60 million in related track, signal and engineering work.

Elections have consequences.

That decision followed Gov. Scott Walker's refusal to build a 110-mph extension of the Hiawatha to Madison, as part of a larger plan to connect Chicago to the Twin Cities and other Midwestern destinations … the state is faced with at least $209.1 million in potential costs for the existing service. But only $69.5 million in state and federal funds has been committed to those expenses, leaving a gap of $139.6 million.

Elections have consequences, like…

Some of that gap could be filled by borrowing. 

Elections have these kinds of consequences for those who backed Walker's opposition:

"I don't know where we're going to find the money, but we're going to keep pushing, because it's a corridor that's very important to the business community," added Pete Beitzel, a vice president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

Elections have consequences, like these ignored facts:

Not funded: The latest grant applications sought $106.2 million to buy eight locomotives and two 14-car train sets. The same number of locomotives and train sets would have been funded by the $810 million. 

Not funded: A rejected grant application sought $48.1 million in federal funds, to be matched by $12 million in state funds, to convert the Talgo plant into a maintenance base for the state-owned trains. Amtrak-owned trains are serviced in Chicago. The $810 million would have paid for a new maintenance base in Madison. 

Not funded: an additional $6.6 million to improve signals and switches at the depot. The $6.6 million would have been covered by the $810 million grant. 

Not funded: $10 million  for the train shed. The $810 million would have covered the train shed's full cost. 

Not funded: The rejected grant applications included $24.9 million for engineering, design and project management services for the trains, maintenance base and track work. Much of those costs would have been covered by the $810 million.

Governor Walker, if we assume even a trace of fiscal competency, would have known all of these details. Instead, opposing the train brought out the cliff diving conservative voters who mindlessly chose the same fiscal insanity that crashed the global economy.