Republicans, you have failed Wisconsin!

The Covid-19 pandemic is the system shock exposing every wrong Republican policy bragged about for the last 20 years. Wisconsin’s Scott Walker was a walking/talking checklist of right-wing clichés and truisms. We now have real world proof our gerrymanders Republican overlords were wrong about almost everything. Let’s take a look.

First, shouldn’t we start by determining the actual minimum cost to run state government, build in cost of living increases per year, and then spend surplus revenue (profit) on improvements and debt before ever cutting taxes. Not paying for health care, transportation, state parks, clean water, and education doesn’t actually save money as we’re finding out.

Tax Cut Madness: Returning money back to overtaxed Wisconsinites, saying it’s their money and not the governments sounded so ridiculous and resentful. Below I’ve listed the most recent examples of backfilling their failed policy. First, Rep. Robin Vos with the same logic that W. Bush used to take tax surplus dollars that would have balanced the US budget 15 years ago, and the reason he kinda “won” (close/supreme court):

All Failed Ideological Theories…

1. RETURNED FUNDING to STATE PARKS: Republicans cut taxpayer funding that supported our state parks, using only admission fees. Didn’t work:

Republicans approved part of Evers’ plan for restoring tax support to state parks. Republicans withdrew tax funding for parks in 2015 and began increasing fees … but some maintenance needs have gone unmet and low employee pay rates have made it tough for the state to adequately staff certain popular parks … approved a $1.2 million increase for park staffing and operations, about $700,000 less than what Evers requested.

2.  CUT UW SURPLUS/NO STATE FUNDING TO BACKFILL TUITION FREEZE: They must think running state colleges is magical. What now after the pandemic?

Plus, No estimate for the collective financial loss of its 26 campuses, some of which were grappling with multimillion-dollar deficits before the coronavirus even emerged.
Republican lawmakers vowed to freeze UW System tuition, seizing on a report that shows the system has amassed a huge $414 million surplus of tuition dollars … only about $82 million isn’t committed to a specific purpose … citing dwindling state aid and the need to recruit and retain top-tier faculty with competitive compensation packages.

3. PAID SICK LEAVE REPEALED STATEWIDE: Big government Republicans didn’t like Milwaukee’s voter approved sick leave benefit, so they passed a one-size-fits-all ban statewide. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed why that was a bad decision and why other countries have paid sick leave:

Level of Compensation Required for Paid Sick Leave. Covered employers are required to pay every employee who takes emergency paid sick leave at a rate of compensation no less than the employee’s “regular rate” of pay (as that term is defined under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

4. OPPOSITION TO UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE/MEDICARE FOR ALL: With over 26 million uninsured still, and at twice the cost of other nations, there’s nothing “fiscally conservative” or morally justifiable for not having universal health care, as recently documented here…

5. TAX CUTS, IMAGINE THE PAINFUL SPOT WE’D BE IN NOW: From an earlier post:

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a major $250 million Republican-led tax-cut package that would have used unanticipated revenues to reduce the average taxpayer’s income tax bill by $106. The veto came one year and a week after Evers’ first veto, which was of a similar income tax cut passed by Republicans.

Eh, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald plays down what was always a Bad Idea: The COVID-19 outbreak exposed the GOP again, but did they notice? Nope. Republicans don’t govern, they simply pass ideologically driven ideas, devoid of any real world connection to the consequences of their actions.

Another question is how much the coronavirus, paired with a national economic slowdown, could affect the state budget — A recession would likely erase the surplus.

“That’s definitely on our minds,” Republican Sen. Scott Fitzgerald said. “Hindsight is 20-20, but that projection could change dramatically, and as a result of that, things could be a lot tighter than where we thought they were.”

6. NO RURAL BROADBAND URGENCY: With closed schools now online, guess what, no internet or deathly slow. From an earlier blog post:

It all started when Walker turned down $23 million in stimulus money to expand broadband everywhere in the state. Like the Journal Sentinel wrote in this Feb. 18, 2011 editorial:

Walker is now spending state taxpayer money instead.

The state is turning down $23 million because state taxpayers would have been on the hook for the entire amount if the state could not meet the grant’s precise requirements, Mike Huebsch, secretary of the state Department of Administration, said in a memo to school and library associations. “This is simply not an acceptable risk,” Huebsch wrote.

Actually, it is. High-speed Internet is part of the necessary infrastructure that is vital to communities that want to grow. The state will get there anyway, but this money could have speeded up the journey.

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More to come, make suggestions…

A former liberal radio talk host who likes to ask the “follow-up question” at Democurmudgeon.blogspot.com