Railing Against Job Creation

When Ohio and Wisconsin voters are still asking "Where are the jobs" two and four years from now, I can safely answer "They were killed by the Republican governors you elected."

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.”

Hey, so lump them in with Chris Christie and other Republican governors who are screaming about jobs but doing everything they can to kill job-creating projects.  Kasich for sure is going to be in real trouble in 2014, because Ohio Republicans now control both the state's House and Senate and are going to use their power to go after Democrats in the state rather than create jobs.

I guess these projects will go to blue states with smarter Governors who will take the money and create jobs there.