Midterm elections rarely benefit the party in power and this Nov. 2 was no different. Dozens of Democratic incumbents on the state and federal level lost their seats, with power in the House of Representatives swinging back to the Republicans for the first time in four years.

Poll after poll showed that voters' top priority was jobs, and with unemployment still hovering near 10 percent, it was inevitable that the Democrats would take much of the blame for the state of the economy.

But if the GOP thinks this election was a mandate for them to kill jobs, slash working peoples' benefits and play partisan politics with our economic future, their majority will be short lived.

The newly-elected GOP governors of Wisconsin and Ohio have already decided to prioritize ideological purity over common sense by announcing, only days after winning office, that they would kill $1.2 billion in funding for high-speed rail in their states.

The projects were expected to create thousands of good jobs in two states hit hard by the recession, revamping an aging transportation infrastructure in American's Heartland. Jeanine Powell, a third-year apprentice out of Milwaukee Local 494 was one of the many unemployed IBEW members who were counting on the new rail work to keep them off the bench.

Tax breaks for the top 1 percent, or more giveaways to outsourcing corporations, won't create good jobs or get our members back to work. And killing projects like high-speed rail only adds to the unemployment rolls and stifles the economic growth necessary to pull us out of the slump.

Also: Hill: Understanding Recovery Agreements