Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, in letters to Ohio Governor-elect John Kasich and Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker, both Republicans, said the two states would simply lose funding if they choose not to participate in the rail project.
When it comes to the stimulus money, "none of those funds may be used for anything other than our high-speed rail program," wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a letter to Kasich dated November 9 and obtained by Reuters late Tuesday.
"I respect the authority of governors to make decisions for their states," LaHood said. "If, however, you choose not to participate in the program, we would like to engage in an orderly transition to wind down Ohio's involvement in the project so that we do not waste taxpayers' money."
In a similar letter to Walker that also threatened to end Wisconsin's involvement in the program, LaHood said 30 foreign rail manufacturers agreed to locate their bases of operations to the United States "so that we can restart idled manufacturing plants here at home and put our skilled workers back on the job."
Naturally, both Republican Governors say they should get to keep the money anyway to spend it on roads. Which is funny, because both states are already receiving quite a bit of road stimulus money already set aside for road projects, all 50 states did. Now they want the rail stimulus money too, they just don't think they should have to follow the Transportation Department's rules on it and actually use it for passenger rail projects.
But feel free to fork us over the cash and we'll gladly make campaign commercials about how we brought home the bacon, right?
Gotta love people who campaign specifically on killing stimulus projects, then get all pissed off when they have to give the money back. But hey, Republicans don't give a damn. Just give them the federal taxpayer money because shut up, that's why.
That's fiscal responsibility, GOP style.
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