I am writing in response to Ryan Rainey’s recent column “Obama understands, Walker disregards urbanization.” The article begins with a description of the United States economy, as if it could grow in the same way that one can grow an economy in a Sim City game. This completely ignores one of the basic facets of government spending – crowding out. 

It takes money to build roads and other forms of infrastructure, and that money could be spent on other things in the private and public sectors, such as expanding businesses or providing more education funding. I am not claiming that building infrastructure doesn’t help the economy. I am claiming that spending lots of money on infrastructure causes more productive investments to be ignored. 

For example, take the issue of high speed rail funding, which was mentioned in Rainey’s column. Is it better to use taxpayer money to fund a railroad, when there is already a bus company that provides transportation between the two cities? Or is it better to use that money to fund other government services or to simply allow Wisconsin residents to spend the money as they see fit? I would argue there are much more productive investments than the train in both the public and private sectors. 

The column also focuses on the way in which the president “casts himself as a uniter, who presides over both Democrats and Republicans.” This is how Obama casts himself, but that does not make it true. 

Obama’s signature piece of legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was passed with only Democratic votes. The government under him has not passed a budget in three years. The blame for this falls on both Republicans and Democrats, not just the president; however, if Obama is the “uniter” as Rainey claims, then why is there so much gridlock? The president has yet to show that he can work with Republicans, even a small minority of them, to pass meaningful and necessary tax and entitlement reform. He may cast himself as a “uniter,” but his track record doesn’t reflect that. 

The article argues that the absence of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, from Madison shows that they are ignoring an “urbanizing trend.” This is a ridiculous claim. 

Obama took 72.8 percent of the vote in Dane County in 2008, and Madison has been represented by Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., one of the most liberal Congresswomen in the House, since 1999. It is well known as being incredibly liberal. A Romney visit to Madison would surely result in anti-Romney protests and would not convince many voters to vote for him. These are the same reasons that Obama doesn’t visit Waukesha County or other heavily Republican areas. 

The column also claims Republicans are “ignoring the truth and dividing the nation.” This is a flawed claim. The U.S. government has run unsustainable $1 trillion deficits for the past 4 years. Republicans in the House of Representatives proposed and passed a budget with more sustainable deficits in the long term, even though it had no hope of being approved by the Senate or the president. The Democrats control the Senate with at 59 person majority, but the Senate hasn’t even proposed a budget in the past 3 years.
Both Republicans and Democrats are at fault for this gridlock, which has lasted nearly 2 years. 

Under Obama the country has not been united. During his presidency, it has become arguably more partisan than ever before in U.S. history – not to say that this is his fault. The solution to our country’s problems will not come from blaming one side – it will come from our leaders working together to solve problems. The current election gives me little faith that this will happen.

James Mashal ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in economics.