Legislatively Speaking
By Senator, Lena C. Taylor
Lena C. Taylor
Not one to usually pay attention to the grumblings of conservative squawker Rush Limbaugh, I missed his rant in late January when he decried the national media for ignoring what he deemed the story of Governor Scott Walker’s fiscal success.
Limbaugh bragged about how Walker had led the state to a budget surplus.
After recently completing the first Joint Committee on Finance’s executive session on Walker’s proposed 2015-17 budget, I can honestly say it is the saddest story I have seen in a long time.
Limbaugh lamented that “not a syllable of this story was discussed” on any of the networks opinion shows.
As the nation is discussing his viability as a candidate for president of the United State, if the networks have not been paying attention, then they should be now.
Walker has been widely recognized as a stringent conservative who has brought Wisconsin into the forefront of the national spotlight.
However, his claim to fame is due to a number of contentious and divisive legislative and political acts that will impact Wisconsin long after has moved on.
Whether on the campaign trail or in office, Walker looks the community dead in the eye, says one thing and does another.
Decisions are made according to the best interest of the Governor’s political career, and the rest of us will be left holding the bag.
Walker’s story reads more like cut, borrow, raid.
His repeated attempts to harm seniors through continued efforts to cut SeniorCare, refusal to take the Medicaid expansion funds from the federal government, limits to worker’s rights, and efforts to take a portion of life insurance benefits from the children of a parent who received indigent burial assistance are simply shameful.
Further attempts to disguise the more than $2 Billion in budget deficits, by acts of imitation benevolence such as the creation of the UW Authority, which would remove $300 million dollars from the state’s responsibilities.
The proposed drug testing of FoodShare, BadgerCare, and some unemployment applicants, but lack of a real treatment plan that outlines providers, funding and adequate scope of testing, seems another attempt to manage the budget by limiting the number of residents we serve.
This budget is a series of “give me the money now and I will give you a plan for how I will govern” later.
Continue to flip the pages of Walker’s story and you will find a bait and switch to women in this state.
Courting female voters during his recent gubernatorial campaign with talk of “freedom” and then flip-flopping on this issue of abortion.
He has switched his position saying that despite his prior support for comprehensive immigration reform, he is now dead-set against amnesty on immigration.
Reneging on a 2010 promise that he would “end the practice of raiding segregated state funds to pay for other programs.
If taxpayer revenue is collected for a specific purpose such as building and maintaining roads, it should be used for that purpose and that purpose only.”, Walker has used enough segregated funds to plug a hole in the titanic.
The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau has released and an analysis of Walker’s budget that shows it raises taxes and fees by $48 million and raids segregated funds by more than $300 million.
And what Walker hasn’t done on jobs, particularly in Milwaukee, is a story we all know too well.
Overall, Scott Walker has proven to be a great story teller but that’s pretty much it.