Tuesday, February 22, 2011

O Hypocrisy, Scott Walker Be Thy Name!

Gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker wouldn't like Governor Scott Walker very much.  Everything that Candidate Walker stood for is exactly the opposite of what Governor Walker is proposing to do in his so-called "Budget Repair Bill."

Candidate Walker said that he opposed President Obama's health care reform because it was a government run system.  He would often ask who would want a bureaucrat making their health care decisions:
We must make quality, affordable health care available to hardworking families through market-based solutions like competition, transparency, and tax incentives - not Canadian style programs that put bureaucrats in charge of personal health care decisions. You should be able to choose your doctor, not have government make that decision for you.
However, Governor Walker wants to take complete control of Medicare, Family Care, Senior Care and Badger Care and have the authority to make unilateral decisions on who gets coverage and who doesn't and how much coverage they get if they are deem worthy.  Governor Walker doesn't just want a bureaucrat to make people's medical choices for them, he wants to be THE bureaucrat that makes those choices.

While running for governor, Candidate Walker blasted Governor Jim Doyle for signing a no-bid contract with Talgo to come to Wisconsin and build and maintain the high speed rail.  But within weeks of taking his vow of office, Governor Scott Walker introduced his Budget Repair Bill, he included a part about selling all of the state-owned power plants in a no-bid contract..

As a candidate, Scott Walker sang praises of the free market system, saying that he would remove a lot of the regulations to help businesses thrive in such a system.  However, Governor Walker said that he would put artificial government controls on the system by limiting public employees to only be able to negotiate their salaries, and then have it capped at the rate of interest.  Governor Walker never has explained how limiting how much money a person can earn is in accordance to free market principles.

Candidate Scott Walker was Milwaukee County Executive while campaigning.  As county executive, he structured his last two budgets with the goal of making himself look as good as possible regardless of  who might get hurt in the process.  In his 2011 County Budget, he created a "saving" of $6.8 million by wiping out a payment to the State of Wisconsin which was required for Badger Care Plus program.  He said that it was no longer owed.  But Governor Walker, in his proposal, included sending $6.8 million dollars to Milwaukee County to whittle down the massive deficit he wrote into the budget.  Apparently it was required after all.

Candidate Walker made one of the themes of his brown bag gimmick the line that "Smaller government is better government."  He also criticized Governor Doyle for not downsizing the number of state workers.  Something changed from then to now, because apparently there is the absolutely perfect number of state, county and municipal employees, because (or so he claims), he doesn't really want to lay anyone off (emphasis mine):
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," the Republican governor said 5,000 to 6,000 state employees and 5,000 to 6,000 local government staff could lose their jobs if they resist changes in their benefits plans. 
"I don't want a single person laid off in the public nor in the private sector, and that's why this is a much better alternative than losing jobs," he said.
And last, but not least, Candidate Walker said that he would create 250,000 jobs as governor.  Unfortunately, Governor Walker has not only failed to carry through with that promise, he's actually been driving the jobs we do have to other states, most notably to Illinois.                      

However, in the sake of fairness, there is one commonality between Candidate Walker and Governor Walker.  That would be that every move they've made is to be of the greatest benefit to his benefactors, the Koch Brothers.                                                                                                                                        

2 comments:

  1. Hi! I am now following your fantastic blog, and stole an image to use on my short article covering the dissidence in Wisconsin. I grew up in Milwaukee, WI, and currently live in the center of the state. Thank you so much for your coverage of current events, and keep up the great and inspiring work!!
    http://babeinarmor.blogspot.com/2011/02/wisconsin-uprising.html

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  2. Welcome, Josephine!

    What part of central WI do you live in. I have a cottage up that way.

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