It's hardly a coincidence that the State of Wisconsin - - "The Dairy State" which also once had decent roads it could afford - - finds itself simultaneously with a surplus of milk it stimulated that farmers can't sell and a glut of half-finished highways connecting to crumbling local streets it can't repair.
Wisconsin is supposedly being run like a business by the fake GOP conservative Governor Scott Walker who has been for years throwing borrowed billions at every major highway expansion his road-building allies have demanded while also green-lighting dairy farm expansion through groundwater permits and larger herds for every big ag applicant that fills in a permit application at Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality' Department of Natural Resources.
See the pattern? Corporate power make its demands and the rest of us feel the pain.
Walker and his GOP allies in the Legislature and in the courts have been saying 'yes' and 'what do you want' to every special interest and trade association and well-heeled advocacy group that has been willing to help keep Republicans in office and further Walker's decades-long dream of running for President regardless of the in-state consequences.
Much of Walker's management, now-mismanagement, of environmental, business, tax and spending policy has been tailored since the beginning to gain him greater publicity, guaranteed incumbency and promotion to higher office.
His creation and initial chairmanship of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation by until repetitive scandals unmasked the fraudulent Walker/savvy/business persona was always a Walker PR stunt to showcase for donors and national audiences the 250,000 new private sector jobs he promised, but spectacularly failed to create, in his first four years as Governor.
It was all going to come together for him in the Iowa caucuses and launch him like a rocket - - Team Walker long loved the metaphor - - across the Presidential landscape.
He thought he had grassroots, evangelical vote Iowa covered with his preacher's son identity, childhood years there, personal faith, anti-abortion politics.
He'd begun riding his motorcycle in Iowa, wrapping himself in Harley-Davidson leather; touting all all the new jobs his private-sector aligned WEDC would be cranking out border-to-border back home alongside legacy employers like Harley-Davidson would move the Iowa faithful to Team Walker.
Then on to New Hampshire (think traditional Republicans) and Florida (think Wisconsin retirees)...
But then Donald Trump happened. He told Walker to go back home and fix his budget problems, which, despite Walker's protestations sure looks prescient.
And after just 71, debt-ridden campaigning days, Walker's Iowa campaign collapsed, just like the promise of 250,000 new jobs.
Today, Walker is still running.
Running for a third-term.
Still running 60,000-some jobs behind that 250,000 new jobs promise after six years, not four.
Still running deficits:
Wisconsin needs fundamental political and leadership change.
None of this is rocket science - - and speaking of rockets, do not forget this promise - - or unattainable. We all know what the problems are.
* Aggressively clean up the water, whether in Lake Michigan's dead zone, or near overbuilt dairy feedlots, or in Madison schools' drinking fountains and Milwaukee's antiquated pipes that connect homes to the conduits under the streets.
* Fix the roads we have, expand the transit we need and then work on the Interstates if honest traffic counts, safety studies and neighbors' concerns prove there is a need (that's another way of saying I-94 North/South is an absolutely last-place priority, I-39-90 is a no-starter, and I-94 East-West cannot be allowed to overwhelm three cemeteries and the Story Hill neighborhood).
* Pull the plug on the WEDC. So little is expected of that failed agency and concept that when a business in the Fox Cities announced it was closing last week, there was hardly a peep about it repaying $800,000 in job-creating tax credits WEDC had shoveled its way.
As it had to other businesses who took the money, sent jobs overseas or failed to keep their end of the bargain.
* Re-establish honest, fair government.
* Embrace the Wisconsin Idea of public service for the people rather than deleting it from government's mission so special interests can be served.
* Bring science and working relationships with the UW system back to the Department of Natural Resources.
Running government like a business has failed in Wisconsin.
It's time that government get back in the people business.
Wisconsin is supposedly being run like a business by the fake GOP conservative Governor Scott Walker who has been for years throwing borrowed billions at every major highway expansion his road-building allies have demanded while also green-lighting dairy farm expansion through groundwater permits and larger herds for every big ag applicant that fills in a permit application at Walker's 'chamber of commerce mentality' Department of Natural Resources.
See the pattern? Corporate power make its demands and the rest of us feel the pain.
Walker and his GOP allies in the Legislature and in the courts have been saying 'yes' and 'what do you want' to every special interest and trade association and well-heeled advocacy group that has been willing to help keep Republicans in office and further Walker's decades-long dream of running for President regardless of the in-state consequences.
Much of Walker's management, now-mismanagement, of environmental, business, tax and spending policy has been tailored since the beginning to gain him greater publicity, guaranteed incumbency and promotion to higher office.
His creation and initial chairmanship of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation by until repetitive scandals unmasked the fraudulent Walker/savvy/business persona was always a Walker PR stunt to showcase for donors and national audiences the 250,000 new private sector jobs he promised, but spectacularly failed to create, in his first four years as Governor.
It was all going to come together for him in the Iowa caucuses and launch him like a rocket - - Team Walker long loved the metaphor - - across the Presidential landscape.
He thought he had grassroots, evangelical vote Iowa covered with his preacher's son identity, childhood years there, personal faith, anti-abortion politics.
He'd begun riding his motorcycle in Iowa, wrapping himself in Harley-Davidson leather; touting all all the new jobs his private-sector aligned WEDC would be cranking out border-to-border back home alongside legacy employers like Harley-Davidson would move the Iowa faithful to Team Walker.
Then on to New Hampshire (think traditional Republicans) and Florida (think Wisconsin retirees)...
But then Donald Trump happened. He told Walker to go back home and fix his budget problems, which, despite Walker's protestations sure looks prescient.
And after just 71, debt-ridden campaigning days, Walker's Iowa campaign collapsed, just like the promise of 250,000 new jobs.
Today, Walker is still running.
Running for a third-term.
Still running 60,000-some jobs behind that 250,000 new jobs promise after six years, not four.
Still running deficits:
Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal for the state’s next budget creates a larger structural deficit than previously thought, nearly $1.1 billion, in the ensuing budget cycle beginning in 2019, the state’s nonpartisan fiscal office said...While the manure runs into state waters because the DNR has been allowed to run from its clean water, environmental stewardship mission.
Wisconsin needs fundamental political and leadership change.
None of this is rocket science - - and speaking of rockets, do not forget this promise - - or unattainable. We all know what the problems are.
* Aggressively clean up the water, whether in Lake Michigan's dead zone, or near overbuilt dairy feedlots, or in Madison schools' drinking fountains and Milwaukee's antiquated pipes that connect homes to the conduits under the streets.
* Fix the roads we have, expand the transit we need and then work on the Interstates if honest traffic counts, safety studies and neighbors' concerns prove there is a need (that's another way of saying I-94 North/South is an absolutely last-place priority, I-39-90 is a no-starter, and I-94 East-West cannot be allowed to overwhelm three cemeteries and the Story Hill neighborhood).
* Pull the plug on the WEDC. So little is expected of that failed agency and concept that when a business in the Fox Cities announced it was closing last week, there was hardly a peep about it repaying $800,000 in job-creating tax credits WEDC had shoveled its way.
As it had to other businesses who took the money, sent jobs overseas or failed to keep their end of the bargain.
* Re-establish honest, fair government.
* Embrace the Wisconsin Idea of public service for the people rather than deleting it from government's mission so special interests can be served.
* Bring science and working relationships with the UW system back to the Department of Natural Resources.
Running government like a business has failed in Wisconsin.
It's time that government get back in the people business.
