If you are arguing something, you have to support your ideas.....

Plan to Expand Rail Service Imperiled at State Level

Republicans running for governor in a handful of states could block, or significantly delay, one of President Obama’s signature initiatives: his plan to expand the passenger rail system and to develop the nation’s first bullet-train service. In his State of the Union address this year, the president called for building high-speed rail, and backed up his words with $8 billion in stimulus money, distributed to various states, for rail projects.But Republican candidates for governor in some of the states that won the biggest stimulus rail awards are reaching for the emergency brake. In Wisconsin, which got more than $810 million in federal stimulus money to build a train line between Milwaukee and Madison, Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County executive and Republican candidate for governor, has made his opposition to the project central to his campaign. Mr. Walker, who worries that the state could be required to spend $7 million to $10 million a year to operate the trains once the line is built, started a Web site, www.NoTrain.com, and has run a television advertisement in which he calls the rail project a boondoggle.

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If there is one thing I'll say for just about any Republican candidate I have reviewed it is: 1) Common talking points; 2) Very limited analysis of the issues; and 3) No specific and concrete proposals.
Okay so why oppose high-speed rail? It works very well in Japan and throughout Europe. China is investing heavily in high-speed rail. Since I have to pay taxes anyway, I'd be very happy to have my dollars go to infrastructure that 1) could use our own natural resources (gas or coal) to provide the electricity; 2) moves a ton of freight 100 miles on a gallon of fuel; and 3) requires several million dollars per year to maintain. How much does the existing highway based infrastructure in Wisconson cost to maintain? How much do individual automobiles cost to maintain? How much of our military and strategic policy is based on maintaining access to oil from the Middle East? Where is the analysis from our supposed political leadership.