Monday, April 29, 2013

The Poverty Of Ideology

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's refusal to accept federal health care funding because it comes as Obamacare dollars is about to cost the state a fortune. Not to mention disrupting the lives of thousands of low-income Wisconsin residents whose lives are tough enough already.

The Capital Times explains that even some GOP legislators and establishment medical professionals want Walker to change his mind - - for good reason, says the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau:

According to a Feb. 15 Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo, accepting the federal money would save the state more than $100 million in the 2013-2015 budget and nearly $550 million in general purpose revenue through 2020.
But changing his mind? And conceding that there's something of merit out of the Obama administration?

That's not how an ideologue with his eye on the 2016 GOP presidential nomination and his hand in far-right campaign treasuries makes decisions.

Noted previously:
It appears I was on the right track last week when suggesting here that when Gov. Walker dealt with a looming deadline about Medicaid expansion it would be first as a way to separate from Obama-Who-Can-Never-Be-Give-Any-Credit, and then secondarily, after the strategic and political considerations, as a substantive policy issue:
An editorial in the La Crosse Tribune explains all the policy and people reasons why Gov. Walker should take additional federal funding available under Obamacare to expand Medicaid in Wisconsin.

Problem is, this is Scott Walker we're talking about - - a 100% partisan and strategy obsessive who will see the decision as he did with the federally-funded Amtrak expansion: a self-interested method of dissing public services and distancing himself from President Obama. 

In other words, as a political opportunity to cozy up to the right fringe that listens to talk radio, votes in primaries and likes its party tea as strong as possible.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of the things people will do to appease the gods of their own ideology, I came to your blog today specifically expecting some "point proving" snark from you which enlists the home-invasion situation in Lafayette Co this past weekend. I expected some kind of self-satisfied musings that turn the people of the area into sock puppets on your partisan stage. I hadn't any clear expectation of how you manipulate the situation to prove some anti-gun point, but from experience I knew enough that it would be unlikely you would let the "teachable moment" pass by. As much as I enjoy and appreciate your writing on environmental issues, I was really in dread, you're capable of behaving quite badly while your Bros cheer you on. I see you haven't said anything (yet). I'm gonna ask you not to. And when I say "ask" I really mean STFU. No I'm not related to the Thoresons but there's not a lot of people in Wiota/Browntown/Gratiot/Darlington. Extended families tend to stick around and own neighboring farms etc, so....yeah.
It pissed me off just to realize that I was sort of waiting for the smelly old ideological blog-shoe to drop and you to start your gun "commentary" using a bunch of people who DO NOT deserve that. Then I realized what utter crap that is and I decided to say something before you (possibly) do.
Ideology is never good. It isn't just "not good" when Scott Walker does it, it's also not good when YOU do it. It gets between your own eyeballs and the people you are looking at and you never see them at all. Or worse, it actively adds to misery and struggle while ironically the Ideologue self-congratulates that he is working hard for The Greater Good, and "giving back to the community".
So try to have some respect, admit you've never been on Cisserville Rd and never will be, don't know a thing about the people who live there, and that they are alive and real and not just opportune political elements to be used in writing, and that sitting home reading headlines and then churning out a bunch of hyper-partisan judgements might not really be all that saintly after all.

James Rowen said...

I post nearly every comment I get, but this really take the cake for off the subject - - which is about medicaid funding.

All I know about this tragedy is what I read in the elsewhere and never gave a moment's thought about offering a comment.