Oshkosh - Sen.-elect Ron Johnson said Wednesday that he would support the efforts of Gov.-elect Scott Walker to put a halt to the proposed high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison.

At his first news conference at his campaign headquarters since defeating U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Johnson said that he was convinced the project was a waste of money.

He said that he had doubted the line would have high ridership and would cost Wisconsin "tens of millions of dollars in terms of operational costs that I don't think we can afford."

Last weekend, state and federal administrators signed a deal to commit the state to spending all $810 million of the federal stimulus cash allocated to the Milwaukee-to-Madison route.

Asked if he felt the project could be halted, Johnson said, "I hope so."

Under federal rules, shutting the project down would require the state to repay the federal government for money already spent. Gov. Jim Doyle has said that the money would go to other states' rail projects, and not for Wisconsin roads.

Johnson said he felt his victory over Feingold, and other Republican victories nationwide, sent a strong message to Washington that Congress needed to get its fiscal house in order.

"We simply cannot continue the out of control spending, the out of control debt," Johnson said.

He said the largest applause line he got Tuesday night at his victory party was his vow to repeal the health-care law.

During the campaign, Feingold criticized Johnson for not being specific about how best to balance the budget and reduce the nation's debt load. On Wednesday, Johnson said he had a specific plan.

"They were just large plans," he said. Those plans call for a hard spending cap, a constitutional amendment that would limit spending to 20% of the Gross Domestic Product, not spending unspent stimulus money and repealing the health-care law.

"Those are pretty large proposals for long-term deficit reduction," Johnson said.

Johnson said he had spoken Wednesday morning with U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), and said he wanted to work with the state's senior senator to create more jobs for Wisconsin.