Here in Wisconsin: Scott Walker Man of Limited to No Vision

As is well known, Walker angrily rejected 810 million dollars for high speed rail, which led to a burgeoning train industrial base decamping Milwaukee for parts governed by the less blinkered. In the paper today we find that he wants 150 million to upgrade the Milwaukee to Chicago tracks. Well and good. We should be spending more on rail but why, one wonders, is this set of tracks different from high speed rail? It's not in the online article but in the print version Walker argues that

[y]ou've got a proven commodity here, and we're making it better.

For years, Republicans and Conservatives more generally have been trying to destroy Amtrak and yet in those areas where it receives almost sufficient investment it does really well. Most thinking people would conclude that the answer is more investment and new sensible rail lines would lead to increased ridership and, as with the decamped train builder, new industrial sectors which could sell trains at home and abroad. But no, says Walker, instead we have to fire people, cut their wages, and see to it that no uppity university professors dare to criticize ALEC for trying return us to the thrilling days of 1890 when robber barons roamed the earth.