Also this weekend came the news that Walker’s administration admitted it had overbilled two Wisconsin family planning clinics by 93 percent – or at least $3.2 million. The move was so blatantly ideological that the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel said the change “raised more questions than it answered.”
Walker’s New Hampshire “Everyman” performance was widely covered in the national media. His family planning screw-up was not.
One agency, which serves rural Northeastern Wisconsin, was billed $1.169 million for overcharging the state for contraceptive costs over two years – a charge that almost equaled its entire annual operating budget of $1.2 million. That was reduced to $180,000, which the agency is still contesting. The other clinic was billed $2.35 million, now reduced to $45,000.
Of course, the agencies incurred big legal costs in challenging the state’s faulty billing, so their leaders were galled to discover the change in billing came with “no apology whatsoever,” in the words of one director.
But why would Walker apologize? His anti-family planning agenda has already forced the closure of five Wisconsin Planned Parenthood clinics.
Longtime Wisconsin progressive activist and blogger James Rowen compares Walker’s purported billing “mistake” to an episode earlier this year, in which he falsely blamed ugly changes to the state’s higher education mandate on a “drafting error” – when they were clearly ordered by his underlings.
This weekend also brought the news that the budget cuts to the University of Wisconsin system that were approved (after the language changes were reversed) will cost UW-Madison 400 jobs. That translates to 320 fewer courses offered in 2016-2017, and 9,000 students missing classes, likely resulting in students taking more time to get their degrees. So far, according to Google, that hasn’t made national news, either.
But Scott Walker continues to run for president as “Everyman,” and much of the national media is buying it.
13 thoughts on “Why is the national media buying Gov. Scott Walker’s “everyman” routine?”
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They’re buying it because he’s seen as someone who posseses vision, acts decisively on it, and doesn’t give a damn about status and material things as evidenced by the modest way he’s lived his life and raised his family. Agree or disagree with him, on a national stage this is refreshing, I suppose. And if his comments about curbing legal immigration were not a mistake that he now has to walk back to placate the billionaires and chamber of commerce, then he’s changed the game entirely. And Rand Paul, HRC, and all the rest will be forced to defend neo-liberalism, the commoditization and de-humanization of workers, the discarding of entire swathes of Americans (such as African-Americans), businesses that refuse to invest in worker education and so on. Or the goal posts will shift and everyone will be talking about improving the lives of American workers. Amazing. I can’t believe he meant it though.
Emma R.: Scott Walker is a complete and utter fraud. You must be younger because this is the old “cloth coat” gambit perfected by none other than Richard Nixon back in the 1950s. Remember what John Dean said about Walker: “more Nixonian than Nixon”. You should be old enough, however, to remember Walker’s old “brown bag lunch” and “my old Saturn” campaign lies. Since I can see the Governor’s Mansion from my house, let me assure you Walker never arrived at that structure in anything less than a brand new Cadillac SUV. As for brown bag lunches — well you got to be kiddin’ me, brown bag lunch lunches yeah sure and the bologna in them can take wing no doubt.
You should try to be less gullible.
Sure, but he’s a fraud who actually by mistake, crafty intent, or dumb luck just introduced the most pro-worker theme into the presidential campaign to date and called into question the neo-liberal consensus smothering.
Whoa – “neo-liberal consensus smothering the middle class” is what I meant to say. And btw, you should try to be less patronizing. It’s perfectly possible to see why Walker’s popularity is sky-rocketing without being a believer.
Emma, it may be as you say that “…he’s seen as someone who possesses vision…” but “they” have not peeled away any of the layers or extent of his “vision.”
I believe “they” are unaware that Walker has no vision since I define “vision” as based upon a scholarly research and extrapolating existing factors to contemplate a future result or end. Rather, Walker has a strict, uncompromising ideology which was, is, and will be his vision compromised or prioritized only to accommodate his billionaire benefactors.
Except his billionaire benefactors are very unhappy about his remarks and the Koch’s walked back their endorsement. Look Neo-liberalism should be consigned to the dustbin of history. If it’s actually Scott Walker that gets the discussion on the Right moving, then great. Doesn’t change that he’s wrong on so much else. Just means he did some good for a change.
Yes, Emma, but didn’t Walker loudly advocate he was “pro jobs” in his gubernatorial lies? And didn’t he actually mean non-union jobs? Well, that is what happened. His pro-jobs “vision” was a fraud.
Well, he genuinely believes in trickle-down. I think the more telling about-face is R2W isn’t a priority, blah, blah, blah. Still there are so few with the guts to kick at the cornerstone of neo-liberalism, I say why be dainty about who does it?
The unthinking media have been beyond embarrassing in this aspect of coverage of Walker, most exemplified by touting his boastful talking of buying a sweater for a buck at Kohl’s. Had media done any research on “Kohl’s dollars,” this could have been an opportunity to expose his lack of even the most basic understanding of economics.
TINSTAAFL, Walker. There is no such thing as a free lunch — and there is no such thing as a sweater that, owing to “Kohl’s dollars,” cost you only a dollar. You and Tonette had to spend a lot of actual dollars to earn each of those “Kohl’s dollars,” so that sweater cost you about ten bucks.
This anecdote explains Wisconsin’s dismal economy and with Walker’s current budget. Walker thinks that he is cutting back by a buck, when it actually sets us back far more. For example, for every dollar in state funding to the UW System, statewide, the return is almost $25. So, he cuts state funding to the UW — but projects that will contribute to economic growth. Before he dropped out of college, did he ever take Econ 101?
The “unthinking media,” are actually the do-as-you-are-told media, and they are frequently told what script, issued by the corporate conglomerates they represent, to report. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that media.
Agree or disagree with his politics, and the thoughts/beliefs of some of his big backers aside, I would say that he is a pretty common guy. That being said, he is a shrewd politician who knows how to cultivate the positive – probably not much different than most people who have won the job he is trying to win.
Paul, I do not equate a “pretty common guy” and “shrewd politician” with Walker. You malign pretty common guys and shrewd politicians with your comparison.
Walker is a chronic and habitual liar, incompetent, and whose immoral and/or criminal acts have caused and will continue to cause great harm to Wisconsin, our environment, and to a vast majority of its citizens.
Gov. Walker lost his first general election to Gwen Moore. He won when he moved into a more conservative district. Whether marrying his wife allowed him to make that move is unknown to me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Walker_%28politician%29#Personal_life
Gov. Walker’s Milwaukee home is in the affluent Wauwatosa Highlands. Based on his earnings history, however, now way he could afford that. Anecdotally, what I’ve always heard is that his wife comes from money. Ron Johnson married the daughter of a billionaire. “Ron Johnson’s Real Accomplishment: Marrying the Shrink-Wrap Princess” http://www.waxingamerica.com/2010/08/ron-johnsons-real-accomplishment-marrying-the-shrinkwrap-princess.html
Chris Abele is the son of a billionaire.
“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, 1965
Wisconsin Dems have failed