New GOP Governors Kill $1.2 Billion In High-Speed Rail Jobs

[ProSense]

New GOP Governors Kill $1.2 Billion In High-Speed Rail Jobs

Govs. elect John Kasich (R-OH) and Scott Walker (R-WI).Republicans who were elected on Tuesday are beginning to deliver on their campaign promises to kill America’s future. Within hours of declaring victory, the incoming tea-party governors of Wisconsin and Ohio stood fast on pledges to kill $1.2 billion in funding for high-speed rail in their states. The funding, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will revert to the federal government for investment in other states — unless Republicans in Congress are able to kill that, too. Walker warned he would fight President Obama to keep the Milwaukee-Madison link killed “if he tries to force this down the throats of the taxpayers.” Kasich — who called the high-speed rail project linking Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati “one of the dumbest ideas” he’s ever heard — used his victory speech to announce, “That train is dead“:

Scott Walker, the incoming governor of Wisconsin, for instance, vowed on Wednesday to carry out a campaign pledge to kill a proposed high-speed rail link between Milwaukee and Madison, part of a larger project to create a high-speed rail corridor across the upper Midwest, from Minneapolis to Chicago. The project was to be fully paid for with $810 million in federal stimulus funds. Mr. Walker said he wanted the money spent on roads, although under the terms of the grants, such a use of the funds is prohibited.

The newly elected Republican governor of Ohio, John Kasich, who ousted Ted Strickland, a Democrat, has also reiterated a campaign pledge to kill a $400 million stimulus-funded rail project in his state. “Passenger rail is not in Ohio’s future,” Mr. Kasich said at his first news conference after the election. “That train is dead.”

In addition to their ideological opposition to creating new jobs through government investment, both Walker and Kasich question the reality of climate science, like other new Republican governors threatening clean energy projects across the nation.

Republicans: Screw infrastructure spending!

For Republicans, climate science is a fraud.

[WCGreen]

1. Ohiosucks, that's my pearl of wisdom for today...

[Kolesar]

7. You know we can fucking flatten the gops among the garden club & birders set in the Chagrin Valley

I don't know how this asshole slipped into office this week, but their climate denial is a big liability. There are billionaires in the Chagrin Valley who sponsor the Nature Conservancy. TNC is on the milquetoast end of activist spectrum, but still....

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Heard that Cuomo, of NY, will be trying to get some of that money....

[Clio the Leo]

3. Let's just walk everywhere as God intended huh? nt

[flamingdem]

4. Let the Democratic states take the $ nt

[Phx_Dem]

5. They don't call Cleveland the armpit of America for nothing.

[subterranean]

19. Don't blame Cleveland for this. It's the most Democratic part of Ohio.

Blame Cincinnati instead.

[CitizenLeft]

37. thank you.

Jesus.

[Peacetrain]

6. Stupid people.. NT

[jpak]

8. What dumbasses

:rofl:

[barbtries]

9. how could anybody

vote for these assholes?! i don't get it.

[denimgirly]

10. At least it Saves us Money ... They will beg for ti when Gov is ousted for No Jobs

[karynnj]

11. They are so ideological that they are cutting off their noses to spite their faces

I wonder though if that could mean that they will move faster on the NY/NE plan, which sounds really good.

Kerry was right they are the new Knownothing party.

[Jennicut]

42. Yes, give us the money. We will actually use it.

[RBInMaine]

12. I hope the Ohio and Wisconsin voters are happy. They get what they deserve.

[gater]

14. Ummm, Cleveland and the surrounding area voted very blue...

as did Columbus, and the really poor places down by the river (except the Cinci region) all were blue. It's the rest of the state that wants to be in the confederacy!

[RBInMaine]

20. Of course. I didn't mean everyone. Same in Maine. R's took over the whole state, but there were

some blue scores as well. But still, Mainers will have to deal what they voted for. Sadly, the good people will have to suffer too.

[catgirl]

31. Add the non-voters to that

Stupid lazy idiots who couldn't bother to go to the polls have screwed themselves, their friends and their families.
And our country.

[LiberalEsto]

13. Back to horse and buggy days nt

[and-justice-for-all]

15. Fucking pieces of shit!

I am looking forward to my trip to Europe where I can take a high speed train across multiple countries, which I will be doing. Flying into Amsterdam and taking the Deutsche Bahn http://www.bahn.com/i/view/index.shtml

[woolldog]

16. I'm strangely ok with that.....

if they want to stay in the dark ages, let them. Let the money go to states with more enlightened democratic governors and populaces, like California, Connecticut.

[ccinamon]

17. LMAO, Kasich/Walker - y'all ought to talk to the city of Arlington, TX!

They decided/voted against being part of the light rail between Dallas and Fort Worth. The rail was built and bypassed Arlington.

The expansion was complete/almost complete, Arlington got the Dallas Cowboy new stadium gig, and then Arlington city council wanted to be a part of the light rail system....at the same cost as if they had joined in years ago.

TRE (Trinity Rail Express -light rail system), said of course, no...costs had risen and they would now have to buy up land that was more expensive than it was a few years ago.

SOOOO, Arlington has a Ball Park and Football stadium practically next door to each other, limited parking, the traffic is horrendous...takes hours to get in and out of the new football stadium AND no light rail to help bring people in to help pay for the stadium that Jim Jones could have afforded all on his own!

So, Ohioans and Wisconsinites, don't be so friggin' short sighted!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

18. These people make me want to tear my hair out!

How fucking stupid can you get?

:banghead:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. FOOLISH IDIOTS! We are way behind China

[mainer]

22. What's happening with the California rail system?

Is it full speed ahead?

[4lbs]

33. It's going ahead, and may actually get a sizeable chunk of that $1.2 billion that the GOPpers don't

want for their states:

http://www.cahsrblog.com/


<snip>
But what does John Mica’s stance mean for California HSR? Over at the Transport Politic, Yonah Freemark argues Mica will probably support our project:

California’s proposed fast train system, which would allow passengers to journey between the huge San Francisco and Los Angeles metropolitan regions in just 2h40, seems more up Mr. Mica’s alley. Thus the federal government’s decision to grant that state billions of dollars for the Central Valley segment of the network, where trains will reach 220 mph, likely won’t be put in question by Mr. Mica. One could even imagine him asking the Federal Railroad Administration to reallocate the more than $1.2 billion in federal dollars planned for Ohio and Wisconsin to California — or the Northeast.

<snip>

The main fly in the ointment will be if the new Republican controlled House will try to block all the HSR funding nationwide.

[Divine Discontent]

23. oh yeah KA-SUCK, that's a stupid ideal, connecting the 3 main cities in Ohio! and providing jobs for

years to thousands, which spurs spending!

[Nancy Waterman]

24. So give it to Democratic states for high speed rail

And let the Republican states see what they lost in jobs and effectiveness in the future by electing idiots.

[WinkyDink]

25. I hope their voters appreciate the death of JOBS.

[denem]

26. And Exxon gives thanks.

[impik]

27. Good. People get what they deserve

[RZM]

36. Don't think we all deserve that

Maybe the 49 percent of the voters who picked Kasich . . . and hell, I'll throw in the non-voters of all stripes too. But I cast my vote for Strickland. I don't think I 'deserve' anything because 2 percent more of the electorate picked the other guy. I'll accept that I have to live with it, but I don't think I necessarily deserve it. I, like everyone else who (essentially) cast a vote in favor of public transportation, deserve access to it.

[CitizenLeft]

39. I most definitely don't deserve it.

The blue parts of Ohio, especially where I live, voted. We did our part, as always. Always.

[ProSense]

28. "Typical, really. Vote Republican, kill jobs. Just like the Bush years."

Republicans win office, kill jobs immediately

<...>

Typical, really. Vote Republican, kill jobs. Just like the Bush years.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

29. write letters to the editor of newspapers in his state about this fool

[firedupdem]

30. It's amazing to me that people actually vote for these idiots. n/t

[FrenchieCat]

32. Going backwards already I see......

[donheld]

34. Maybe Governor Hickenlooper can persuade Obama

to give some of that money instead to Colorado's Fastracks.

[golfguru]

35. If there is no budget surplus

will this project be paid by more debt to China?
And will the contracts be given to foreign outfits
since we lag behind in this technology?

If answers are yes to both above, may be my kids are
better off not owing more debt to China, which will
last for ever since we have no surplus to pay off
the principal.

[Danmel]

38. Mass transit is for sissies

Sayeth the Cheney .

[Botany]

40. Kasich also want to kill off public education too

Gotta run them schools as a business. :grr:

BTW I know John Kasich too .... he has always been nice to me but his
ideas are terrible for Ohio.

[glinda]

41. They did this for the oil industry.

[Jennicut]

43. I feel for the good people of Ohio and Wisconsin that voted against these idiots but CT will

gladly take that money and put it to good use. Idiots.

[opihimoimoi]

44. What are they Smoking/Drinking??? Are they nuts??