Sunday, February 8, 2015

Walker follow-up needed; If I were a senior Journal Sentinel editor...

[Updated, 3:50 p.m.] I'd assign a followup to this recent page one story...
Scott Walker learned early lessons at father's Iowa church
That squares its theme...
His religious upbringing set a course for the governor's later life...
With this account of Walker's new food stamp, health insurance and unemployment program cuts...
...require welfare recipients to undergo drug testing, as well as reduce the length of time they can receive benefits from five to four years...Drug testing would be required for all food stamp and public health care applicants. Those applying for unemployment benefits would go through a selective testing process. 
And with this story documenting three Walker tax increases in his first, 'no-tax-increase-budget' that raised $49.4 million from poor and low-income Wisconsinites to off-set other tax cuts.

And squares also with this report about a separate, flat $20 cut Walker aimed, as I disclosed nearly four years ago, at low-income W-2 workers in their monthly checks to achieve, as the faceless budget-bureaucrats put it:
"To further encourage W-2 recipients to recognize that the goal of W-2 is for participants to secure unsubsidized employment, reduce the monthly benefit check by $20."  
And this story, too:
Walker wants to push some recipients out of SeniorCare program
And this editorial documenting that thousands of low-income Wisconsinites lost their health insurance coverage because Walker decided to refuse federal Medicaid funding:

State must find 38,000 who lost insurance: Our View


Not to mention that had Walker taken the federal funding, Wisconsin taxpayers would have saved millions of dollars:
Medicaid expansion would have saved state $206 million, fiscal bureau says
More background, here. 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pretty sure I'd also be pointing out that during the campaign he claimed we were starting the budget cycle with a $535 million surplus, but now we have a huge deficit... so was he lying during the campaign? What gives? But I won't be holding my breath

Anonymous said...

The Walker budget cuts make victims of people, programs and agencies who had done nothing wrong. Lost in the media coverage of the cuts are the facts that these cuts would have been unnecessary if Walker had not chosen to give tax cuts solely for personal political gain. Walker drove Wisconsin's fiscal well being over the cliff and that's why these cuts are occurring and the media should be demanding that Walker acknowledge that it was his foolishness not professors not teaching enough nor DNR scientists not doing their jobs! The people of Wisconsin need the media to point out the folly of Walker's actions and that every future tax dollar collected now requires that 25 cents be used to pay for his borrowing.

Betsy said...

To Anonymous @ 8:43: The Walker budget cuts make victims of people, programs and agencies who had done nothing wrong. A beautiful and simple explanation of our wrong-way governor!

Mortified West Allis Resident said...

Mark 12:40...