Conservatively Speaking

Where are the parts for you American car made?

This just in: Senator Chicken Little and her Droning Right Wing Echo Chamber get it wrong again.

Private employers added more jobs than expected in August, with both June and July numbers revised up, too. Overall negative job numbers are being chalked up to governments firing workers, something the Senator should be cheering for as a champion of "smaller government." Don't worry, Senator, the overlords will tell you how to spin the new numbers so that you can continue to claim doom before the fall elections.

Some parts will be assembled elsewhere and the trains will be assembled in Wisconsin. In fact, the plant here could be creating trains for other parts of the US, too. And of course there will be maintenance after the trains are completed. (You seem to be saying these are not real jobs. Really?) All the construction required for the routes, including bridges and tunnels, will be done by locals, too.

You said no jobs would be created here. You were wrong. In fact, Duke University estimates 24,000 construction and manufacturing jobs per $1 billion in capital investment spent on rail, and 41,000 operation and maintenance jobs per $1 billion in operating investment.

The US hasn't been involved in high-speed rail manufacturing in any significant way, so it's not really a surprise we have to go elsewhere for the expertise. That's what happens when you have a right-leaning government that refuses to invest in public projects such as trains and bridges and rail. Or one that gives companies tax incentives to move manufacturing overseas to avoid paying higher wages and following environmental or safety regulations.

If you're against tax dollars being spent on foreign companies, where's your protest against the billions we've handed to good old Halliburton (HQ in Dubai)? Corporations are corporations, and you are delusional if you think any multinational is actually "American" or "Spanish" or "Japanese." They are what the local laws allow them to be. I'm not opposed to large companies. I am opposed to large companies being given the rights of individuals. I am opposed to regulations that are written by the companies they are supposed to regulate.

To get back to the point, though--you said no jobs would be created here. You were wrong.

And the Senator is still tellingly silent on listing a single thing she is doing to correct the crisis the right wing talking points memo told her to bleat about today.

Vox Populi This is from Wisconsin Government website

"Aluminum alloy structural frame parts for the Talgo trains will be manufactured in Spain and then shipped to Wisconsin for assembly. Talgo will be working with Wisconsin and other U.S. vendors to supply parts for outfitting the trains".

Yes They will be assembled in Wisconsin. Spain gets the jobs for Manufacturing. Is your view so narrow that once assembled most in workers in Wisconsin will lose those assembly jobs. What will remain here is a maintainence facility. There were companies in our country who could have done the manufacturing. The taxes generated for those employees would have gone to our Government to offset some of the simulus money spent. What about the manufacturing of the rail in France? You are aganst corporations. Where does the profit go, to Talgo, a Spanish Corporation.

Taigo, the company from which Wisconsin is buying the trains, is opening a plant in Wisconsin to build them, in either Milwaukee or Janesville. This will create at least 80 new manufacturing jobs. Is the view from New Berlin so narrow that neither Wisconsin city is part of the US?

The government simulus money (our tax money) is working. High speed trains (supported by our simulus money) are resulting in the building of high speed train lines in Florida, California and Wisconsin. Florida and California are purchasing rail from a French Company SNCF. Wisconsin is purchasing trains from Spain. We are creating jobs. Too bad they are not in the United States as Obama promised.

And your solution is what, Senator? Be specific. The industries you have supported through legislation, like the telecoms, have taken your legislative gifts and used them to raise prices on hard-pressed consumers. You continue to lobby for tax loopholes for millionaires and corporations, shifting the burden for services onto families. Talk about being fiscally irresponsible!