No, that's not a typo. It's from the cross-tabs of the WPRI post-election poll (page 43 in the cross tabs)-- you know, the one that showed 52 % of Wisconsinites opposed the Madison-Milwaukee line (itself a misnomer, but all's fair in a talk-radio driven disinformation campaign).
Weird thing is, more Wisconsinites -- including 40% of Republicans and 70% of independents -- favor increasing taxes on higher income earners as a means of alleviating the deficit than opposed the train*. But WPRI failed to mention that in its release -- shocking, given a think tank is all about the free pursuit of ideas, right? -- and the media failed to pick up on it.
Which is a pity. The train is dead in Wisconsin, the federal dollars that would have built it resurrected in other states. But the state still faces a more than $3 billion deficit, so you would think the public's desire to increase taxes on the rich to address that would be in the public discussion. But strangely it's not. Instead, the only discussion seems to be around how much public employees can be bled.
Patrick McIlheran made the case that the poll results showed that the train should be killed. As did Sykes.
Surely they will call for taxes to be increased on the rich (and please, let's not kid ourselves that tax cuts for the rich= jobs, the anemic job growth of the Bush Administration is proof positive they don't) with equal vehemence. Right?
* A whopping 1% said killing the train was a top priority.
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