Sunday, December 8, 2013

Walker's Snark At Illinois Masks Development He Shifted There

Scott Walker got in a few sophomoric self-serving digs at Illinois in the Chicago Tribune last week, but there has been no better friend to the Illinois economy than Walker's job-killing ideology:

*  Amtrak rail-line construction funding: Illinois receives $42.3 million of Wisconsin's Milwaukee-Madison money rejected by Walker.

*  Amtrak train manufacturing, also shut down by Walker in Milwaukee:

Locomotives capable of exceeding the 110-mph speed limit on the passenger rail corridor between Chicago and St. Louis will be bought for Illinois and four other states under a process the Illinois Department of Transportation will lead, officials said Thursday. 
The Federal Railroad Administration selected IDOT to manage the multistate procurement of at least 35 next-generation locomotives for high-speed rail corridors in Illinois, California, Michigan, Missouri and Washington state, Gov. Pat Quinn said.
*  Wind power:
As Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and other politicians in the state continue promoting a virtual wind energy ban in the Dairy State, developers are now focusing their resources on Illinois, where more friendly siting regulations make project development easier.
*  Health care: And no doubt Illinois got some of the millions of federal health care dollars ticketed for Wisconsin that will help stabilize our neighbor's economy when Walker turned down federal funds for Wisconsin Medicaid expansion and the building of a state-run health care exchange.


6 comments:

Boxer said...

What presidential campaign strategy is this? Pissing off the country. . . . one state at a time? That's a winner!

Gareth said...

When Walker and the Teahadist Governor of Ohio both turned down the high-speed rail money it went to:

California- $624B
Florida- $342B
Washington- $161B
Illinois- $42B

So Scotty succeeded in helping the economy of four states, just not Wisconsin.

Ron R said...

Remind me again, where exactly does this money come from. If you believe James this money is free. I guess you could also believe " If you like your health insurance you can keep it" also!!

Gareth said...

Correction: Dollar amounts should obviously have been expressed in millions, not billions.

Skip said...

This piece by Walker was very disappointing. Earlier this year he attended the Summit on Regional Competitiveness in Chicago and was conciliatory towards our neighbors to the south and spoke positively about cooperation.

But rather than reading about Walker helping Wisconsin companies and universities work with their counterpoints in Illinois and Indiana, we get this.

Jake formerly of the LP said...

The money was spent anyway, you dimwit. It just wasn't spent HERE. Same largely goes with the idiocy of turning down the expanded Medicaid funding and money for a state-based exchange.

Please run against Obamacare and for austerity in 2014, Ronnie. WE DARE YOU