Ron Johnson's Muddied Vote

Our Republican and Tea Party Senator Ron Johnson voted "No" on the debt limit and budget-cutting plan, saying it did not go far enough.

Though John Boehner said it got him 98% of what he wanted: I guess Tea Partiers wanted 110%, or Armageddon, whichever came first.

Here's the contradiction: Note the lakeshore photo on his Senate news release webpage:

That looks like a pretty big body of Wisconsin water, perhaps Lake Superior or Lake Michigan.

Both of which require - - if you want to preserve, use and improve them - - massive amounts of federal funding through the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes Restoration plan, and through local/state/federal water treatment efforts, and through federal ballast water and invasive species' control programs to keep these waters and their watersheds clean for fishing, drinking, swimming, boating and multiple commercial, municipal and private-sector uses, projects and developments.

These are among the very domestic, non-defense "big government" programs that will be cut under a bill that "small government" Johnson says does not go far enough, and which will be trimmed again later under this bill and again and again in related state and local reductions when federal cuts rain down on state grants, too.

Would Johnson would like to come out now, as a matter of policy and Honesty In Voting, in support of dirty water, contaminated lakes, clogged rivers, out-of-control invasive species and polluted watersheds?

If this bill does not go far enough, what would satisfy Johnson, representing a state with a water-dependent economy.

Johnson has had difficulties with other aspects of the job, notes blogger Tom Foley.