Robin Vos and his gerrymandered Republican legislative allies
aim to decimate Gov. Evers' 2021-2023 state budget - a move that will deepen multiple levels of inequity and suffering and intentionally ignore basic human needs and contemporary problem-solving:
Republicans who control the Legislature's budget-writing committee plan to strip out nearly 300 items from Gov. Tony Evers' two-year state spending plan, including his priorities of expanding Medicaid, legalizing marijuana and freezing enrollment in private voucher schools.
The move also will remove solutions Evers called for to long-standing problems in Wisconsin: like the closure of the state's youth prison where staff and teen inmates have been physically abused and the creation of statewide standards for the amount of toxic chemicals allowed in drinking water.
It's a backward-looking and punitive approach to governing which nicely mirrors Ron Johnson's behavioral imitation of Joseph McCarthy, the 1950's version of a shame-hogging BadgerLand GOP State Senator.
Granted, McCarthy=Johnson is an imperfect comparison based more on 'style' and chronology because we know that GOP Senator Joseph McCarthy attacked Russian influence he 'saw' everywhere while Johnson is said to have been a spreader of Russian influence.
Regardless, the 'modern' Wisconsin GOP - or is it the Wisconsin subsidiary of Hawley, Miller, Don. Jr. & Boebert - seems increasingly wedded to a 1950's model that worships big business, promotes class advantages and uses government as a cudgel, not a comfort.