Rail Money Pulled
Good.
Wisconsin can keep only a fraction of the $810 million it won in federal high-speed rail money, while the rest will help fund train lines in California, Florida, Illinois and other states, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Tuesday.
Governor-elect Scott Walker had vowed to kill the planned 110-mph Milwaukee-to-Madison passenger train route that was to be funded with Wisconsin’s share. Ohio Governor-elect John Kasich had issued a similar promise for a planned 79-mph line connecting his state’s three largest cities, funded by $400 million in federal cash.
Now, almost all of the $1.2 billion from the two projects will be divided among other states. California is the big winner, with up to $624 million, followed by Florida, up to $342.3 million; Washington, up to $161.5 million; and Illinois, up to $42.3 million. Smaller amounts will go to nine other states.
The announcement from U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood held out some hope that Wisconsin may not be on the hook for all of the $9 million or so it has already spent on the project, plus another $5.25 million in cancellation fees and other contractual commitments. Ohio was allowed to keep $15 million that had been committed for preliminary work, and the Federal Railroad Administration “will work with these states to determine whether they have already spent money under their contracts that should be reimbursed,” the announcement said.
While it is regrettable that the money will go to other states instead of being saved, it is better than having Wisconsin be on the hook for millions of dollars just to secure federal money.
“While it is regrettable that the money will go to other states instead of being saved, it is better than having Wisconsin be on the hook for millions of dollars just to secure federal money.”
Just wanted to point out that this sentence is kinda stupid, and that you will all be poorer because of this decision. Carry on.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1538 hrs
Poorer? How?
As I see it, I will not have to spend money in perpetuity for a train I will not use. Sounds like money in my pocket to me.
Posted by Owen on December 09, 2010 at 1540 hrs
While Walker vowed to kill it, the fact remains that Doyle killed it. Carry on, train huggers.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1546 hrs
you will all be poorer because of this decision
Hopefully, we’ll be poorer like that in lots of other cases.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1548 hrs
Because the decision was not whether or not to spend the money, only where to spend it, and while trains generally are bad investments, they do offer something. The amount Wisconsin would have had to pay annually is peanuts. The expensive part was already done. Plus my understanding is you lost a train company with something like 300 employees. And the construction jobs. Which is also not nothing.
And if air travel continues to get even more annoying it might not even be that bad of an idea.
Basically, you’re still paying (Federal taxes) but not getting any benefit. I’m in Illinois, so thanks for that.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1551 hrs
Paul,
You’re welcome. Frankly, as it is set up, we Wisconsinites would pay our share of the $810 million plus operating expenses infinitum. By sending it somewhere else, we still pay our share of the $810 million, but don’t have to spend anything else. Thus… it’s a cost savings for us.
The only question is whether or not the benefit would outweigh the ongoing expense. IMHO, it would not. I see no evidence whatsoever that it would, so I’m happy to saddle you with the ongoing expenses of this boondoggle.
Posted by Owen on December 09, 2010 at 1554 hrs
But it woulda been pretty rad to be able to go to Badger games really fast and get bombed on the way, right?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1559 hrs
“rad”
lol. Haven’t heard that for a while
Posted by Owen on December 09, 2010 at 1600 hrs
Wisconsin will now have to come up with the $100 million to upgrade their share of the Milwaukee - Chicago line and whatever the charges are for pulling contracts.
The Feds had committed to an operating subsidy and had a plan for extending this line to Minneapolis. The subsidy cost claims were unsupported by Walker. This decision is likely to increase the cost of developing the Midwest passenger rail network.
Talgo is leaving the state.
Doyle did what Walker asked to help avoid even more expenses in killing the project.
I’m open to any actual numbers from the anti-rail folks. I’m not seeing how Wisconsin benefits.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1607 hrs
“I see no evidence whatsoever that it would, so I’m happy to saddle you with the ongoing expenses of this boondoggle.”
No evidence? It would become much easier to get from Chicago to Milwaukee (and through to Minneapolis), provide competition for air travel and lower prices, offer more air travel connections by allowing easy access to other airports, spur development around stops on the train line, provide in-state jobs (which are now leaving) in both the private and public sector, plus that money will still be spent elsewhere?
And my understanding (and please, correct me if I’m wrong) is that operating costs were going to be somewhere between 7.5 mil (with no fares counted) and 2.8 mil (accounting for a probably inflated fare estimate), and that the Feds (aka, still you) are going to pick up 80-90% of that, so your yearly spend will be between 1.5 million and 560,000 for the thing? I would have gladly covered your 25 cents.
If you’d like to get some of your guys in Federal Government to stop this altogether, fine by me. But try not to shoot yourselves in the foot in the meantime.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1611 hrs
Wait… I can’t go to Badger games really fast and get bombed on the way anymore?
I blame Scott Walker
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1617 hrs
Notice the states that will get these funds are the ones holding the biggest debt, teetering on bankruptcy. California will still be 15 billion dollars short of cash, how long will these tracks lay idle before enough funding is found to complete them. Why even start the project.
I dont think any states will get this money, its all political banter right now, all this funding will be cut to feed other federal programs, rail is dead nation wide.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1625 hrs
“The only question is whether or not the benefit would outweigh the ongoing expense.”
If only this handy principle was applied on unfeasible spending and tax cut ideas across the board.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1626 hrs
Another big loser in this is Mitchell Field. I have no idea if or when the Milwaukee - Chicago leg will now be upgraded, but fairly fast trains from Chicago to Mitchell would have made it even easier for North Suburban Chicagoland to have considered Mitchell first. Given the prices at Dane County Regional Airport, a fast train to Mitchell would have been popular for Madisonians who wanted to save money and time.
But Walker doesn’t care about any fallout. All he cares is that his poorly considered promise is now being fulfilled. What will the cost be?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1630 hrs
Wait… I can’t go to Badger games really fast and get bombed on the way anymore?
You still can. http://www.badgerbus.com/
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1630 hrs
Bottom line, whether it is Amtrak, commuter rail, or the Chicago system, none is sustainable on it’s own without public subsidies. We don’t have the money to pay for it!! People using light rail, high speed rail etc. for transportation is pure fantasy. Rail is only used in urban areas where it has been part of the infrastructure for years. We live in a mobile/ portable society. We use cars, trucks and planes that can go to many locations and are not limited to predetermined stops. Thanks Scott, way to keep your biggest promise!!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1721 hrs
Bottom line, whether it is Amtrak, commuter rail, or the Chicago system, none is sustainable on it’s own without public subsidies.
In your world did the highways fall from the skies and pave themselves?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1823 hrs
From what I can tell in that article, it sounds like Wisconsin will not owe any money here. Walker did a masterful job in pulling this off.
As for the Chicago-Milwaukee route, that is politically popular. The GOP congress will allocate money there if needed in the future. Right now though, I see now reason that “train shed” needs to be built. The existing Hiawatha facilities are fine.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 1824 hrs
While it is regrettable that the money will go to other states instead of being saved, it is better than having Wisconsin be on the hook for millions of dollars just to secure federal money.
It will be very interestimg to see if this approach is applied to other federally funded programs. Like the state’s major highway program for example
As long as we are at it.
I would fully expect that Scotty and his GOP legislature, will reduce their salaries, benefits and staffing to reflect the adjustments that they would like to apply to the rest of state govt. expenses.
This should be fun?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 2000 hrs
“The amount Wisconsin would have had to pay annually is peanuts.”
Hey Paul, if you want to “shell out” more of your peanuts, go right ahead. But many of us are struggling to hang on the peanuts we currently have.
Hmm…there’s a dirty joke in there somewhere….
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 2014 hrs
Hmm…there’s a dirty joke in there somewhere….
Pants. Your per per capita cost would have been a fraction of the cost of a a table dance.
And the train ride would have lasted for at least an hour.
If you are getting better than that at a club, please share the llocation?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 2047 hrs
Several years ago at a party in an another state an executive learned that I was from Wisconsin. The executive was rather dismissive of our state on several levels, no of which had anything to do with our business climate or taxes. He called Wisconsin the “Alabama of the North.” Politely disagreeing I refused to argue with him, remembering the advice not to argue with a fool. Now I believe the executive may well have been complimenting our state. Lookout Mississippi, the Walker transformation has begun, here comes Wisconsin.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 09, 2010 at 2248 hrs
Kay: I heed your advice and will not argue with you.
foo: Umm…what??
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 0028 hrs
Free Lunch: As it stands right now folks in Chicago can take the Hi from Chicago to Mitchell Field. And folks in Madison can take the bus to Mitchell Field. In both cases it would cost less than the car-speed train.
If those folks can’t budget their time to take the Hi or the bus, then why should we finance their inability to plan?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 0850 hrs
In todays MJS I have to admit to being surprised that the paper finally recognized that this train thing was not widely approved by the folks in Wisconsin. The advocates for the train never sold it to the public—they instead tried to ram it down our throats. Remember Ray LaHood? “You can’t stop this train!” Perhaps if, instead if ridiculing folks who opposed this train, they had tried to sell it to us and work with us, it might not have been such a divisive issue. But instead in typical liberal fashion we were told to just shut up, cough up the bucks, and listen to our betters.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 0854 hrs
And if air travel continues to get even more annoying it might not even be that bad of an idea.
Finally something I can agree with in this discussion. I fear the groping and nuggie machines will not disappear, however, until we get adults back in both Congressional majorities and in the White House.
As for the train company’s, “...something like 300 employees…,” I have to go back to the old illustration of dipping water out of the deep end of the pool and pouring it into the shallow end. While we’re stopping at the water fountain (or bubbler if you prefer) on the way to the shallow end to top off the bucket, we’re still going to subsidize the operation and continuing maintenance of the train basically forever with state taxes. Those tax dollars come out of our pockets and are no longer available to business and industry that employs people to make products we, and the rest of the consuming world, uses. We need to get others to bring their buckets over to our pool in order to keep it full.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 0858 hrs
you realize that the maintenance costs that would have been used in Wisconsin were going to be heavily subsidized, right? Now those maintenance costs will be diverted to other states’ projects, which means Wisconsin taxpayers will still be contributing their taxes to maintenance—-just for someone else.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 0927 hrs
Duke brings to mind something that has gnawed on me during this whole debate: The $810 million dollars is not “federal money” it is “taxpayer’s money”. It makes no difference if it comes from Washington DC or Madison. It got there by being extracted from the taxpayer’s wallet. To be sure, it is more likely Chinese money right now. But our grandkids and great-grandkids will be paying for this boondoggle. There is no such thing as “federal money”. It is ALL taxpayer money.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 0929 hrs
Jim—the time to argue about whether that money should have been allocated in the first place is in the past. the fact of the matter is it’s allocated and wisconsin had the choice to use it in its own backyard. now its taxpayers will miss out on getting any return on their investment, and to make it worse, they’ll still be paying for other states to use the money.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 0934 hrs
the time to argue about whether that money should have been allocated in the first place is in the past
It’s exactly this kind of thinking that got us into the mess we’re in today. It is never too late to stop wasting money, and it’s about time someone finally had the nads to say “NO” for a change.
Too bad there aren’t more politicians like Scott Walker and John Kasich out there - maybe we’d finally stop spending our grandchildren’s money.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 0945 hrs
“It’s exactly this kind of thinking that got us into the mess we’re in today. It is never too late to stop wasting money, and it’s about time someone finally had the nads to say “NO” for a change.
Too bad there aren’t more politicians like Scott Walker and John Kasich out there - maybe we’d finally stop spending our grandchildren’s money. “
Normally I leave capital letters to rubes, but once again…IT WAS ALREADY SPENT. THE ONLY QUESTION WAS WHERE IT WOULD BE SPENT.
Sorry to yell, but you are too late for that argument. I actually agree with that argument, but you fiscally conservative types already lost on that. Sending that money and that project away is cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1003 hrs
It’s exactly this kind of thinking that got us into the mess we’re in today. It is never too late to stop wasting money, and it’s about time someone finally had the nads to say “NO” for a change.
Not quite sure what you mean. The money is allocated, it’s going to be spent. The Republicans won the House, but they did not win the Senate, so if you’re banking on the Republican majority in the House to overturn this spending, it might be as wishful thinking as Walker’s using the money for roads.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1014 hrs
jpc: Since when has any funding matter been final? Countless times they have reversed themselves on spending matters. New ships and planes for defense have had their orders curtailed or cut back. Several years back Amtrak had full funding for car upgrades to be done at its Beech Grove shops. Suddenly that all changed and the funding evaporated. And that is what makes folks so leery of this project. Who was going to pay for the inevitable cost over runs? What was going to happen if the feds had a change of policy towards this and chopped the funding for the operating costs?
In order for we fiscal conservatives to swallow this project, governmental capriciousness would have had to disappear forever. That wasn’t going to happen.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1022 hrs
Ok, Jim. Well good luck. Awful big chance to take given the consequences if you’re wrong.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1026 hrs
Why anyone would want to turn down an upgrade of infrastructure that would have benefited freight transit lowering the cost transporting goods?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1039 hrs
Even if the Feds might cut the project (which they won’t), it’s still better to have them cut it from your state, rather than someone else’s, just in case it does not get cut.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1104 hrs
Yes, Jim the Fireman, people can get to Mitchell now. That has nothing to do with what I said.
The planned upgrades would have helped Mitchell. Now they will not. Walker’s decision is not saving the state money, because he only looked at one part of the equation and forgot the rest. He ignored the offsetting benefits because they did not fit with his dogmatic claims.
You may not care if state employees either have to pay more when flying from Madison or spend added time getting to Mitchell when they are travelling on state business, after all, they don’t fly too often. You may not care that people from the northern suburbs of Chicago decide on O’Hare or Midway because Mitchell isn’t sufficiently convenient for them, but Milwaukee County will lose money because of this. I guess that doesn’t matter to Walker since he isn’t running it any more.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1104 hrs
But none of the amounts spent are anywhere near what the total cost of all the started projects are going to be. The California system is currently estimated at $81 billion. The $5 billion or so they are currently building are 50 miles or so in the middle of no-where. “The Train to Nowhere”. California also has a $15 billion hole in it’s current budget. How much bailout is that state expecting?
Obama wants a 12800 mile high speed train line with an estimated cost > $1 trillion. What kind of rider subsidies would be necessary on that?
Also, they are not building a Metra like system that stops in every town in a star pattern like Chicago. Although there are a number of lines, there are still large parts of the suburbs that you can’t get to by train. And how is that RTA bus service between Aurora and Schaumberg working out? How long would that trip take?
I know. “But the highways receive all kinds of subsidies” Stated in a high pitched, whiny voice. But every person in the state benefits from those subsidies. There is nothing in the state that doesn’t count on the highway/road system for it’s consumption. “But that industry uses rail for it’s deliveries” And their workers get to the job by the highway. Their food travels over the road. The junk they buy at Walmart is delivered via truck.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1104 hrs
Why anyone would want to turn down an upgrade of infrastructure that would have benefited freight transit lowering the cost transporting goods?
“Penny wise, pound foolish” appears to describe our governor-elect quite well.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1107 hrs
IT WAS ALREADY SPENT. THE ONLY QUESTION WAS WHERE IT WOULD BE SPENT.
Good grief, are your really that naive? The money isn’t spent until the work is done. It hasn’t been spent yet, and it might not ever get spent if we actually decide to return to fiscal sanity. And fiscal sanity starts by saying “NO” to the federal candy now and then.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1108 hrs
I am amazed at how many people think that the money will actually won’t be used. This explains why so many believed Walker’s hope that the money could be used for law.
It’s allocated and the opponents of using it do not control enough of the government to reverse it. Wisconsin loses because our taxpayers are going to pay for it and they won’t get any return on it. Let that sink in.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1113 hrs
This explains why so many believed Walker’s hope that the money could be used for law.
oops, i mean roads.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1116 hrs
“Good grief, are your really that naive? The money isn’t spent until the work is done. It hasn’t been spent yet, and it might not ever get spent if we actually decide to return to fiscal sanity. And fiscal sanity starts by saying “NO” to the federal candy now and then.”
OK, fine, but you rejecting that money does not increase the chance that is will not be spent. Not at all. Not with states out there (including my current state, and again ,I thiank you for that) that are willing to spend it.
All you did was guaranty that it would not be spent in your state. That is all you did. You’re still arguing against a non-existent scenario.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1121 hrs
39.Why anyone would want to turn down an upgrade of infrastructure that would have benefited freight transit lowering the cost transporting goods?
“Penny wise, pound foolish” appears to describe our governor-elect quite well
1) Since when is this a freight train? How many freight cars are on the Amtrak Hiawatha? Well, it passes through Franksville WI every day and I have yet to see any freight attached to it.
2) A minimum $50 round trip just to Madison, plus cab to and from the destination station or about $12-15 for gas(my car)...Who will ever make the decision to use it…twice?
3) The fact is that the road system is already developed and paid for(Yes maintenance is high and neverending, but that is heavily subsidized too. It is a pipe dream that subsidized maintenance will cost us only a million and a half annually)4) I hear about a lot of talk to connecting with Minnesota. If there were a place that I might use the train it would be to go to Minneapolis(assuming the fare were at all reasonable, unlike the hiawatha). However, where was the money going to come from to build across the dead part of the state of WI to connect. Maybe the current money promised (not allocated) will be spent, but if Guv doesn’t build it no private business in their right mind would entertain building track across the western half of Wisconsin. Not to mention the maintenance on that longer section with virtually no money coming in to support it.
5) This decision will save Wisconsinites significant money in the future. The ‘pound foolish’ is believing anything else.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1301 hrs
OK, fine, but you rejecting that money does not increase the chance that is will not be spent.
Of course it increases the chance it won’t be spent. Citizens are starting to note that BHO is running up our children’s tab with the Chinese.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1321 hrs
Citizens are starting to note that BHO is running up our children’s tab with the Chinese.
Particularly when he makes deals with the Republicans to increase deficits for tax cuts.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1333 hrs
Particularly when he makes deals with the Republicans to increase deficits for tax cuts
, if you believe the money one earns is inherently the property of government. Thankfully BHO has come to realize that tax cuts promote growth.
We have a spending problem.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1342 hrs
Free Lunch: Getting our state bureaucrats to and from Milwaukee/Chicago/MinnStp in comfort and ease is the least of my concerns and I’d venture to say the least of most Wisconsinites concern. Perhaps if they had to travel like the rest of us they’d realize how poorly maintained our hi8ghways are. Besides, the bus run from Madison to Milwaukee numerous times a day. Are our bureaucrats too exalted to ride the bus with the hoi polloi? The whole train thing should never have been set up as a way to get from Milwaukee to Madison. Milwaukee to Chicago would have been a better sell. The Milwaukee to Madison route would have been the “Bureaucrat Express” allowing fancy lawyers and ‘crats to avoid mingling with the masses. It had “elitist” written all over it.
Besides, the need for ‘crats to travel in this day of Skype and teleconferencing is getting less and less. To be sure, our bureaucrats will always rationalize a reason why they absolutely must travel to that conference in Paris in the Spring, or Jamaica in the Winter and of course do it at taxpayer expense. In those cases I see no reason why we should have to make it any easier for them to do so.
Finally, as I said this is taxpayer money and not federal or state money. As such, with this project being a government enterprise from start to finish including its operation, does anyone honestly believe that it will be run in an efficient and economical manner? I pity the taxpayers in California and Illinois (to be sure, us too) who will be stuck with this thing. The first thing that will happen is that anyone who lives and breathes anywhere near this train will have to be unionized with all of the bizarre and inefficient work rules that goes with that. Not to mention a general strike every few years. Cost overruns,plus huge and ever-growing subsidies by both federal and state taxpayer money and stagnant passenger counts will be the legacy of this thing. The least that we can be thankful for is that we opted out of this scam and our taxpayer’s exposure will be minimal compared to California and Illinois.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1356 hrs
There are no “tax cuts” especially for the “rich”. The only thing that is happening is that the tax rates are being kept at the same level as in 2003. The “rich” will be paying at the same tax rate for 2010 that they paid at in 2009. Only in the liberal world is that a “tax cut”.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1358 hrs
This train talk reminds me of something P.J O’Rouke wrote in his latest book, “Don’t Vote - It Just Encourages the Bastards”.
He states that “Bad ideas can also happen in democratic societies where the full range of freedoms, including the freedom to fail, are presumed to exist”
Later on, as an example, he states:
So it went with the Internet bubble, and so it had gone before with the railroads. Trains are another example of a visionary innovation that suffered a valuable fizzle. Railroad building was vital to America’s business expansion. But speculation in railroad stock offerings in the 1870s led to a dot-com of a crash. Good as railroads are, what if every proposed railroad had succeeded? Do we want a railbed in every driveway? Would it be convenient to take the train into the McDonalds drive-through lane? It’s probably no coincidence that, shortly after the railroad bust, the automobile was invented.
Right now, I haven’t seen or heard any evidence that “high-speed” rail to Madison is any more practical than running railroad tracks through the McDonalds drive-through. And in this case, the it is government money that is being speculated.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1455 hrs
Word as it that Walker wants the train set under the Christmas tree in the Capitol to do its choo-chooing for the last time.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 1930 hrs
sigh ... no one would have ridden the damn thing. Therefore there was no reason to spend the money building it,regardless of the source of the funds, unless the point was just to spend money on something, just to spend it.
If you follow the logic of the people supporting it then you could justifyy building ANYTHING so long as government funds it, because hell ... people will be employed to build it. I’ll remember that the next time you people supporting this stupid train balk at a new Sports Stadium being renovated or built on the taxpayer dime.
I can’t do anything about the feds spending the money somewhere else .... but if in voting for Scott Walker I helped keep tax payer funds from being used on a useless boondoggle here, I will be able to sleep very soundly at night. You people in Illinois enjoy your half-assed, empty train as well as the paying for its operation in perpetuity.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 10, 2010 at 2201 hrs
Just as a reminder:
The US taxpayer now subsidizes Amtrak to the tune of $40.00/ride.
Every ride.
Paul Noonan (and others) may not understand that money pissed away is money pissed away. I can’t help that. We do notice that NONE of them have offered to capitalize and operate the train themselves, though.
More important is this: Walker and Kasich, along with Christie, Perry, and Brewer, are exercising leadership. It’s not the leadership that Gummint teat-suckers want to see; but it is of the style and substance of the Founders, who simply told King George to stuff his Redcoats and King’s Colonies status where the sun never shines. It meant that the USA would be fair game for other world powers—if they had had the money, time, and inclination.
Others will follow.
Oh, by the way: the budgets will be written by Republicans next year in DC.
Posted by dad29 on December 11, 2010 at 0930 hrs
I rode down to Chicago and back yesterday for $44. I saved ~$20 on parking and the hassle of driving out of the loop at 17:00 on a Friday.
I’d be nuts to pay $66 to go to Madison and back. Absolutely nuts given the shorter distance and relative ease of parking in downtown Madison.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 11, 2010 at 1047 hrs
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