15.) Budgetary Deficits/Tax Cuts (continued)
I have done some more research on the Wisconsin budgetary deficit under Governor Scott Walker and have found some items that further illuminate the situation. In the November 21, 2014 Wisconsin State Journal, a article is entitled "State faces $2.2 billion deficit heading into 2015-17 budget cycle." The deficit is thirteen times higher than the $171.4 million deficit projected for the 2013-15 budget in November 2012. The great difference in projected deficits illustrates the deeply flawed accounting methods used in the Walker administration. The Journal accounts for part of the large discrepancy in projected deficits by reporting that "spending in the current fiscal year is expected to exceed revenues by about $650 million." The Journal also points out that the projections for the next biennium call for a five percent increase in revenues but in the first quarter the rate is 2.3 percent below projections.
A big dispute in Wisconsin is how to fund a $1.3 billion transit .plan. Governor Walker wants to fund it though borrowing the money. The GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has called this scheme to load up on debt: "Irresponsible."
In my recent research I also ran across an account of the devious lengths Governor Walker is willing to go to misstate the state's budgetary position to achieve desired policy goals. The 2010 federal health care law requires a state to maintain health coverage levels and not drop people from coverage .programs for the needy unless the state can show it has a budget deficit. By declaring a deficit, the state of Wisconsin could drop about 53,000 people from health care coverage. Thus, while the Walker administration was telling the federal government that Wisconsin had a $3 billion deficit, it was telling Walker's donors and residents of Wisconsin that he had balanced the budget. On December 29, 2012, the state administrative secretary wrote a letter advising the Department of Health and Human Services that Wisconsin would be running a deficit from January 1, 2013 through June 2013.
16.) Stand Your Ground
Governor Walker has boasted that he brought the Castle Doctrine to Wisconsin. The Castle Doctrine is based on the proposition that "my home is my castle" and a homeowner has an obligation to defend that castle. The Castle Doctrine has been legislatively renamed Stand Your Ground and extends self-defense claims beyond the home.
The American Bar Association says thirty-three states have enacted Stand Your Ground in the last decade. The Tampa Bay Times newspaper has reviewed 235 Stand Your Ground cases since the law was enacted in Florida in 2005. Nearly seventy percent of the cases did not result in any punishment. Charges were more likely to be avoided if the victims were black.
Researchers at Texas A&M found that homicide rates went up eight percent in Stand Your Ground states. The American Bar Association has translated this eight percent increase into 600 additional homicides per year. Moreover, the increase in homicides in states like Florida, was larger than any relative increase in the last forty years, nor was the increase attributable to other causes.
The ABA's National Task Force on Stand Your Ground Laws advised states with the laws to repeal them if they "desire to reduce their overall homicide rates," or "desire to reduce or eliminate racial disparities in the criminal justice system."
The upshot of the above is that by bringing Stand Your Ground to Wisconsin, Governor Walker has saddled the state with additional homicides that wouldn't have happened without having a hard-to-disprove self-defense claim for killing another person. Juries and judges have been given the difficult task of trying to read the mind of someone who has killed and is making a self-defense claim in a trial.
17.) The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
After Donald Trump proposed to repeal the birthright citizenship in the 14th Amendment, Scott Walker quickly voiced his agreement with Trump. Nearly a week after Walker said he wanted to end birthright citizenship and he would not say whether he agrees with the 14th Amendment, Walker told "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos that he would not try to alter the 14th Amendment. Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed Walker: "You're not seeking to repeal or alter the 14th Amendment?" "No," Walker answered. "I point out in any discussion that goes beyond securing the border and enforcing laws are things that should be a red flag to voters out there who for years have heard lip service from politicians and are understandably angry." The day after the "This Week" interview, Walker said he supports birthright citizenship but then later in the day he said that the problem cold be addressed by enforcing other laws. The next day Walker told a donor, Stanley S. Hubbard, a conservative billionaire who owns a radio station in Minnesota, that he would not do away with birthright citizenship On Friday of the very confusing week, Walker said he didn't have a position on the issue.
18.) Same-Sex Marriage
On June 7, 2015, Governor Walker told ABC News that he supports amending the U.S. Constitution to allow individual states to decide the legality of same-sex marriage. Given the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage and polling that shows a clear majority of Americans support same-sex marriage, Walker's position can only be described as quixotic.
19.) Gambling
While a state representative in 1999, Scott Walker favored a ban on political contributions from the gambling industry, because it would bring corruption to Wisconsin. Since that time, Walker has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, from gambling owners and CEOs.
20.) Job Creation/Fact Checks
When asked during the first GOP debate among presidential contenders why Wisconsin had created only a little more than one-half of the 250,000 additional jobs he initially promised, Governor Walker gave a convoluted answer about a reduction in unemployment claims. In the 2012 campaign to recall Governor Walker, he took a beating on the job numbers. He produced a higher set of numbers, calling them "the final job numbers." The fact-checking site, Politifact, rated the numbers claim as a "pants-on-fire" lie.
Politifact did almost 150 fact checks on Walker's assertions, and rated forty-nine percent as "false," "mostly false," or "pants-on-fire" lies.
21.) Consultations With Legislative Leaders
As illustrated above in some instances, Governor Scott Walker will even lie about matters that are not of major policy consequence, Walker lied about his consultations with legislative leaders since he started running for president. On July 22, 2015, Walker told Steve Cochran of WGN AM 720 that he has met with "all the legislative leadership in both chambers and both parties every week." The Democratic minority leaders in both chambers say that Walker has met with them a total of six times and three meetings were cancelled.
22.) Walker's Favorable and Policy Ratings
The University of Marquette Law School has periodically rated Governor Walker on favorable. The polling has never found his rating to be over fifty-one percent. The most recent rating was forty-one percent. and fifty-five percent disapproved of how he is handling his job.
Th most recent polling has found that seventy-eight disapprove of his cutting aid to public schools and seventy percent disapprove of his cutting $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System. Walker has recently told reporters that he expected to prevent the cut to public schools and reduce the cut to the University of Wisconsin. On extending vouchers to schools, thirty-seven favor and fifty-four percent oppose. On right-to-work, forty-four approve and fifty percent oppose.
Governor Walker has made a big thing about winning three elections for governor in a blue state. In the first place, the fact that one of the U.S. senators, the governor and both houses of the state legislature are held by Republicans, make it a stretch to call Wisconsin a blue state. Walker ran as a moderate in his 2010 run for governor, hiding, for instance, his plan to cripple collective bargaining rights. Once more, 2010 was a year of big Republican gains throughout the United States. In his recall election in 2012, Walker spent about seven times a much as his opposition, also, many Wisconsinites were against trying to recall a sitting governor --a factor that probably alone saved Walker from defeat. In the 2014 campaign for governor, Walker outspent his opponent, Mary Burke, by about $12 million. Although Mary Burke had been the state's commerce secretary and was the president of a bicycle company, she had far less name recognition than Walker. Finally, the 2014 election was a national runaway for the Republican Party.
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