Tuesday, May 6, 2014

GOP Legislator Claims 'War For Milwaukee'

Brookfield Republican State Rep. Dale Kooyenga's op-ed alleging GOP love for Milwaukee is too much about trickle-down taxation-and-spending. and not enough about social and political engineering his party aims at Milwaukeeans, including Voter ID, cuts in voting hours, intentional diminution of public education, cuts to transit for low-income students, elderly and workers, neglect of Milwaukee's tourism realities, and inflammatory comments and proposals by legislative colleagues like Glenn Grothman.

Grothman - - whom Kooyenga's party just endorsed for US Congress.

Voter ID - - which Kooyenga's party still wants to revive despite a sound spanking and schooling on constitutionality by the US District Court.

Kooyenga's op-ed and argument would have had real power if he'd disassociated himself Grothman, the punitice aspects of GOP hegemony and especially from Scott Walker's true-colors/political red meat tossed out to a Waukesha County audience in 2012 that people should vote against Tom Barrett for Governor so Wisconsin wouldn't become "another Milwaukee."

And the GOP, of course, endorsed Walker for re-election at the same convention where delegates said they wanted Grothman promoted to Congress.

Milwaukee doesn't need a war from friends like these.

It needs a peace treaty.




3 comments:

Jake formerly of the LP said...

"Work makes you free!" Just like Walker's Medicaid plan.

Of course, they're not going to do anything that helps Milwaukeeans get better-paying jobs or health care. They just think it'll cone as easy as it did to their privileged white selves.

Koo-Koo is in the Paul Ruan level of "guys who really deserve to have life smash them in the face."

BigWheel said...

This is campaign rhetoric, designed to keep the suburban Milwaukee County voters checking the GOP side of the ticket for elections. I love the line implying that only after the PSC decision did Barrett revised the costs, when in fact there is a long history of cost reductions in the plan starting shortly after the utility relocation story hit the news. Also, the estimates prodived that conservatives latched onto were already wildly speculative to start out with, as the City of Milwaukee highlighted in 2012 http://www.themilwaukeestreetcar.com/pdf/Milwaukee-PSC-Response-Brief-July-2012.pdf see pg 24.

Anonymous said...

Dale Kooyenga's arguments about anything would have real power if he'd disassociate himself from ALEC. He tours local schools talking about how bills become law, but I'll bet he leaves out the part about how ALEC drafts model legislation which its members introduce as bills in their state legislatures.