Show your support for Rail in WI

[JJJJ]

This is sorta beyond the discussion of high speed rail in Wisconsin, but Walker is at the center of a huge dispute involving public employee unions in Wisconsin and there have been massive demonstration in Madison over the past few days. There have been some brief interviews with Walker on the local news here in the Chicago area and I must say he comes across as quite a doofus. How in the world did he get elected governor? I mean, I know it's a whole state full of Packers fans, but wow.

The union thing is relevant.

Walker isnt just governing on a "lets save money" platform (removing bargaining rights saves a grand total of zero), hes governing on a "whatever-obama-likes-i-hate" platform.

Obama like HSR, so he kills it.

Obama likes transit....guess whos next in line to be destroyed

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/columnists/article_faecd4c7-5ebf-5e66-8a80-5f142f26ea01.html

Obama likes high speed internet....so walker returns federal monies that will increase broadband penetration

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/116208059.html

I mean seriously? High speed internet is now a party issue because Obama stuck it into his state of the union!?!

And remember, one of his very first moves as governor was to slash taxes...taking a surplus left by the last guy, and immediately turning it into a deficit.

Heres an interesting graph concerning the federal level. Im sure youve all heard the "we're broke, we keep spending more and more and we cant afford it!" line.

Turns out, as a percentage of GDP, the only real comparison that matters....we're spending less.

http://i56.tinypic.com/293c3dw.png

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/02/americas_deficit

 

[Ryan]

Don't go confusing the issues with all those facts and numbers, those are for those liberal elitist types.

 

[Trogdor]

Just to keep things factual, Wisconsin was not running a surplus prior to Walker's arrival. Wisconsin's been in financial trouble (like everyone else) for a while. Perhaps not as bad as some other states, but let's not pretend that WI was floating in cash in December, only to have it all sucked out in January.