{"id":188222,"date":"2010-11-09T19:44:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-10T00:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/11\/09\/finally-someone-in-the-obama-administration-with-guts\/"},"modified":"2010-11-09T19:44:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-10T00:44:00","slug":"finally-someone-in-the-obama-administration-with-guts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/11\/09\/finally-someone-in-the-obama-administration-with-guts\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally, Someone In the Obama Administration With Guts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, it’s just Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Obama administration is urging Wisconsin’s incoming Republican governor, Scott Walker, to reconsider his opposition to high-speed rail in his state and threatened to rescind $810 million in federal stimulus grants for the project if the venture is killed.<\/p>\n

In a letter (pdf) to Walker yesterday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood discussed what he called a “difference of opinion about the value of a Midwest high-speed rail network” between the Obama administration and the incoming governor, emphasizing economic benefits that high-speed rail could bring to the region.<\/p>\n

Walker, who is currently the county executive of Milwaukee County, campaigned heavily against a proposed high-speed line to link Milwaukee and Madison that would eventually be part of a Midwest network. Decrying the project as a waste of tax dollars, he has called for the cash to be redistributed to highway and bridge repairs in his state.<\/p>\n

But LaHood said the stimulus grants must be spent on rail projects<\/strong>. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Additionally, LaHood is demanding $271 million back from New Jersey Transit for Governor Christie’s cancellation of the rail tunnel under the Hudson<\/a>, and there are indications that the Feds will be demanding money back from Ohio when the new Republican governor there cancels their rail program.<\/p>\n

Even more amusing is that Illinois is already applying for the money that the ‘Phant governors don’t want<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Good for Secretary LaHood, but I expect Obama to overrule him and give the money to Wisconsin, Ohio, and New Jersey anyway, because he wants these loony tunes to like him.<\/p>\n

It is interesting that the only one in Obama’s administration to do the right thing because it is the right thing is a Republican.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, it’s just Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood: The Obama administration is urging Wisconsin’s incoming Republican governor, Scott Walker, to reconsider his opposition to high-speed rail in his state and threatened to rescind $810 million in federal stimulus grants for the project if the venture is killed. In a letter (pdf) to Walker yesterday, Transportation Secretary …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1038,978,1019,1035,1173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-budget","category-politics","category-schadenfreude","category-transportation","category-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}