Train Jobs Fall Victim To Walker's Crony Capitalism

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Obviously, I did not vote for Scott Walker. I chose not to vote for Walker for many reasons, among them because he promised, "no trains." Although I would like to see the $810 million hi-speed link between Madison and Milwaukee, I still however insist that Gov-elect Walker keep all of his campaign promises.

He also stated government doesn't create jobs and said we shouldn't spend money we don't have. He won the election because many more Wisconsin voters believed in those statements. Fair enough. So when I read that Walker asked train maker Talgo to remain open here and that his decision to stop a proposed Madison-to-Milwaukee passenger rail line is "not final." I thought he might be reneging on his promises. I hope not.

JS Online Excerpt:
Pat Goss, executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, and Joseph Strohl, a lobbyist for the union that represents heavy equipment operators, said they knew of no major effort to try to persuade Walker to change his mind on stopping the train. "I think Scott was very clear where he stood on this, and he's also been very clear on how he stands on other transportation infrastructure," Goss said. "He's following through on the promise he made."

Nothing speaks crony capitalism louder than a politician keeping his promise to use his new government position to strong arm a federal subsidy away from one business sector to leverage another. This is just another reason why I did not vote for Walker.

Despite a brown bag full of campaign slogans and statements to the contrary, Walker really was okay all along with the stimulus spending and the spending of money we don't have. But now, New York Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo intends on eating Walker's lunch. He's made a pitch for the federal train money that Scott Walker wanted to shift to his byzantine road-building campaign contributors. Uh-oh. That means if Walker sticks to his promise of "no trains" he'll also have to stick to his promise of no stimulus spending of money we don't have. Got that? Can Walker keep two election promises at the same time?

On top of that trainwreck, in order for Walker to stand by his unambiguous ideological opposition to creating new jobs through government investment, that government doesn't create jobs, he must also reject the the Navy contract Sen. Herb Kohl and Jim Doyle reined in that will jumpstart another 5,000 jobs.

My point is Walker should not be allowed to break his campaign promises. So where is the outcry against spending money we don't have, or against the government contract to create jobs from the folks who voted for him? Were those actual promises, or were they the usual hollow campaign slogans made by another run-of-the-mill career politician?

The sad thing is, is Scott Walker, Ron Johnson and Paul Ryan all campaigned on the same set of phony principles and impossible promises - and won.