Scott Walker’s “foxes in the henhouse” cabinet choices

Governor-elect Scott Walker named his cabinet appointees yesterday, and putting aside his “everything old is new again” approach in choosing three cabinet secretaries straight out of the Tommy Thompson era, Walker adopted a “foxes in the henhouse” approach by appointing home builder Cathy Stepp as head of the Department of Natural Resources. As if to further emphasize the new, anti-conservation approach the DNR will be taking under Walker and Stepp, Matt Moroney, who previously worked as Executive Director of the Metropolitan Builders Association of Greater Milwaukee, was named Deputy Secretary of the DNR.

Clearly the DNR under the direction of Cathy Stepp and Matt Moroney will be less concerned about protecting and preserving Wisconsin’s natural resources, instead focusing on how those natural resources can be exploited by developers.

In addition to the foxes that are now in the DNR henhouse, Walker’s appointment of George W. Bush administration official Dennis Smith as Secretary of the Department of Health could mean bad news for Wisconsin’s seniors, as Smith helped try to end Wisconsin’s SeniorCare program during his time in the Bush administration.

Oh hey….did I mention the new Secretary of the Department of Financial Institutions is a banker? Peter Bildsten, who will be in charge of oversight for Wisconsin’s financial institutions, is a thirty year veteran of the financial services industry, most recently serving as the CEO of troubled Maritime Savings Bank.

So let’s recap….developers in charge of the Department of Natural Resources, a health care opponent in charge of administering Wisconsin’s health insurance programs, and a banker in charge of oversight and regulation of financial institutions. Foxes in henhouses indeed…

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7 thoughts on “Scott Walker’s “foxes in the henhouse” cabinet choices

  1. One thing is for sure…Cathy is not qualified to watch over OUR natural resources…so everyone who cares about OUR natural resources better keep a close eye on what she is doing. Remember she works for us!

  2. The people coming in can do no worse than those that are leaving.Bildsten inherited the mess at the bank. Frank had on the job training,and made things worse for the people in the field. Its going to take alot of work to clean up that mess. Its going to take many years to clean up Doyles mess

  3. A mess? Really? Sounds awfully vague and general, as though it was a toss away phrase to describe something not liked by the partisan crowd. When talking about “messes”, can we please be specific?

  4. Forget the DNR appointments, this Dennis Smith guy is BAD NEWS.

    First he threatens Wisconsin Seniors 4 years ago, then he goes on what amounts to an academic tirade on medical insurance programs, attacking programs like seniorcare and badgercare relentlessly (two incredibly popular and populist programs in our state).

    You throw that on top of a legislature that has 30 new members who ran on cutting funding for medical assistance some going as far as saying we should cut it up to 20 to 30 percent.

    These are real threats and real people, the only way to fight them is to get the word out and FORCE the press to cover it.

    1. DJ, it’s no secret Scott Walker and Republicans in the legislature are going to go after seniors and children by taking away their health care coverage.

      1. Yes, but the more we remind everyone in the world that that’s happening. Every vote, every move, the more people will have to pay attention.

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