Everyone is told to look at all the jobs created week to week, real or imagined, as a way to hide the chaotic mess of deregulation and wealthfare. If you've noticed, the Walker agenda doesn't mesh with the quality of life and the needs of Wisconsinites. Business is happy, except for wind and high speed rail manufacturers. And now, at a time when money is short, campaign slogans killed federal funding for our disintegrating rail system.
Walker actually lost $225.3 million for Hiawatha train upgrade and track maintenance. This isn't governing, this conservative dreaming. The Cap Times’ Mike Ivey wrote this;
Wisconsin had actually applied for $225.3 million in federal money to upgrade the Amtrak Hiawatha service between Milwaukee and Chicago -- not $150 million as has been widely reported. Meanwhile, rail backers from around the nation are expressing their regrets about Wisconsin -- which has gone from an Amtrak boosting state under former Gov. Tommy Thompson to a black hole on the Midwest's expanding high speed train network.
"I am very sorry for the loss of potential jobs, mobility, tourism, etc. that Governor Walker has cost the good people of Wisconsin," says Jim Churchill of the National Association of Rail Passengers in an email to Biz Beat. Churchill lives in Alexandria, Virginia and offered these additional thoughts.
"I have visited Wisconsin, have friends from there and it was almost criminal to throw all that away on some strange quirk of ideology. In the long run, besides the much-needed complement to roads and air, this loss could run to many billions and that's even if gas prices stay in the $4 range not to speak of supply issues around the corner."
Finally, check this editorial from the New York Times which notes the foolishness of "Refusenik Republicans" who turn down needed projects under the guise of reducing the national debt.
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