I’ll admit I appreciate Republican State Rep. Rob Brooks’ honesty in discussing how awful the state budget proposed by Republicans really is.
“We may have a crap budget, but we’re going to make it better,” state Rep. Rob Brooks (R-Saukville) said on the Assembly floor Wednesday.
While Rep. Brooks thinks the Republican-proposed state budget is “crap,” I’m inclined to agree with Democratic State Rep. Andy Jorgensen’s assessment of the budget as a dumpster fire.
Walker’s budget is worse than either “crap” or a “dumpster fire.” It is a multiple or serial killer of the human endeavor and spirit, the public’s voice as well as life, economic and actual, itself and Wisconsin as we knew it.
Walker’s budget is killing the primary education of our children at all levels by a cancerous corruption known as privatization serving Walker’s supporters and their for-profit greed AKA Pope Francis’ “unfettered Capitalism.”; it is killing our natural resources, clean air and water;through mining favoritism; it is killing our highways and the safe transportation of Wisconsin citizens and other users with deliberate delay; it is killing the health care of mothers, seniors, children, and the needy by neglect or denial to satisfy a political ideology; it is killing our recreation on state lands with underfunding and or privatization; it is killing human jobs and income by rewarding corporate swindles through WEDC; it is killing our State colleges and higher education by underfunding or other devices; it denies or usurps or ignores the state constitutional authority of an elected educational official. Excuse me if I have overlooked anything.
Except for a few voices and the minority, the Wisconsin legislature under the goose stepping Fitzgeralds have been and are complicit or enabling in these crimes against Wisconsin humanity.
Needless to say, it will be killing Wisconsin citizens financially for years to come in the form of increased local taxes to compensate for or reverse Walkers’s killer budgeting.
As a supplement to my previous comment, the following are critical items identified by Senator Vinehout at a “listening session” I attended this week on the budget.
“University of Wisconsin Funding Cuts
Independent University Wisconsin Authority
Elimination of WI-MN Tuition Reciprocity
Elimination of Wisconsin Public Radio & Television
No Funding Increase for Public Schools
Statewide Private School Vouchers
New Independent Board to Approve Charter Schools and 500 additional students
Elimination of Local Property Insurance Fund
A Quarter of Transportation Budget going to pay Debt
New Refundable Tax Credits for Business
Changes to Income Tax
Changes to Family Care, IRIS & ADRCs
Required Medicare Part D in place of SeniorCare
Drug Testing for BadgerCare and FoodShare
Self-Funding of State Parks
Cutting Scientist and Educator Positions at DNR
No New Stewardship Purchases”
At the completion of Senator Vinehout’s very thorough oral and visual presentation accompanied by a distributed guide or outline including documentation and ramifications, she took questions and comments.
I suggested that the usurpation or encroachment of the State Superintendent of schools’ authority and office by Walker and the Legislature is a violation of the Wisconsin Constitution.
I also commented that Walker’s budget placed me “between being severely depressed and being really pissed off.”
Hopefully, the Legislature will react favorably to the citizens’ outrage at this “killer” budget.
It is somewhat encouraging that at least one GOP member, such as Rep. Brooks, has recognized the inequality and unfairness of Walker’s budget which serves ideology, things, and business to the detriment of humanity or people.. But too many of the opposition either deny their conscience or have a false “immaculate perception” of Walker’s machinations, budgetary and otherwise. In theological terms, it may be said that the extremes of Walker’s budget denying vital human needs are immoral. The income disparity continues and Wisconsin economics and job creation lag behind that of surrounding states.
As one writer observes: “In Wisconsin recently, basic fairness and a level playing field are political concepts , as the saying goes, that have left the playing field.” http://host.madison.com/news/local/writers/paul_fanlund/paul-fanlund-how-progressives-must-thread-the-needle-on-income/article_a1d21762-696e-575b-af19-032c480e7956.html#utm_source=host.madison&utm_campaign=/email/captimes_news/&utm_medium=email&utm_content=featured_headline
When you read about Brooks in my post below, you won’t be so impressed with him. I really don’t think he was trying to be forthright with his ideals, I think was more of a screw up from a freshman lawmaker – a Freudian slip, if you will. I agree with you though Duane The budget is a disgrace.
That’s the type of potty mouth talk you’d expect to hear on the floor from a person who makes his living in the private sector by owning a tavern. More inside information on this Brooks character here:
https://youtu.be/Ea0PJMzonfk
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea0PJMzonfk&w=560&h=315%5D