The Ideal Republican Candidate for Wisconsin Governor: Self Serving at the Public's Expense

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is one of those Republican ideologs who thinks running a business like county government means never having to spend money on it’s upkeep. Despite the fact that everyone else in the state of Wisconsin has seen their own bills go up dramatically, Walker and fellow conservatives are under the impression that government is different and uneffected. Costs can only go down, despite the fact that energy and health insurance cost have gone sky high.

Walker ticked off local and state officials when he said he will not ask for stimulus money for county projects because he opposes increased deficit spending and favors tax cuts. State Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, said it was self-serving. “To not even apply is just a huge mistake,” Richards said. “That’s something that’s going to cost us jobs that will go somewhere else.”

According to the Jsonline: Walker ordered county staff not to cooperate in drafting any new project lists to be forwarded to Gov. Doyle. Walker's stance has brought criticism: Allies of Walker, like Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. said, "I can't say I don't want any of that stimulus money based on my own ideology." Clarke said… it would make it difficult for him to later seek county taxpayer funding for some of the same needs.

Columnist Eugene Kane writes: It doesn't seem like a stance made entirely on principle. In Walker's case, his desire to be governor seems to be clouding his judgment regarding what's best for county taxpayers.

Walker is a sly one. With the limitations listed below, Walker is basically turning down the Federal money to help Milwaukee County.

No local match is required by the federal government. No long-term commitments mandated by the federal government. No future operating or maintenance expenses.

Think about it; having no match by local officials lets them off the hook when it comes to oversight. Can you say “no money down mortgage?” And with no maintenance expenses, that would exclude BUILDING ANYTHING, like roads, schools…etc.

Walker, like most Republicans, don’t like the prospect of oversight and actually working for their salaries. If they can’t turn it over to the private sector, they pull out the old “government is to big” rhetoric. But this isn’t the first time Walker has been exposed as a self serving conservative ideologue. He’s gamed the system before, while avoiding tough decisions and bankrupty Milwaukee County. For instance:

Capital Times Contrubutor Joel McNally wrote:

When “Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker refuses to submit a budget with a tax increase to pay what it costs to run the county, he has essentially made his role as county executive irrelevant. The County Board passes its own budget every year to run the county. Walker criticizes the board for raising taxes. Then, the next year, Walker adopts the county board's budget from the previous year as his baseline and says he won't raise taxes beyond that.

An obvious political scam. But there’s more.

The state Elections Board wants Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker to pay a $5,000 fine because he failed to tell voters who paid for some of the phone calls he made last fall urging them to support his budget proposal. Walker's campaign gave inconsistent explanations of how the mistake happened. They insisted the governor, a Democrat, was behind the complaint.

The blame somebody else PARTY OF ACCOUNTABILITY. More still:

As a Republican gubernatorial candidate, Scott Walker said he would consider cutting state-funded medical care for the poor, elderly and disabled in order to reduce state taxes if he's elected governor next year. Walker said that all of the biggest state programs - including Medicaid, the University of Wisconsin System, state aids to local governments, and the state prison system - could be subject to cuts. Walker said he did not know how much all of the proposed tax cuts would cost.

There’s still more;

The Milwaukee County Board passed a resolution that supports efforts by the state Legislature "to enact legislation that will regulate the sale of handguns, rifles, shotguns and machine guns to convicted felons and minors." BUT, County Executive Scott Walker vetoed the resolution, saying it would be too burdensome for law-abiding gun owners and the county should focus instead on getting people off the streets who commit gun crimes The County Board overrode Walker's veto - and unanimously.

You can’t forget Voter fraud:

Wisconsin Republicans donated $73,000 to the African American Coalition for Empowerment (ACE) on behalf of then Governor Scott McCallum and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. Yesterday eight ACE workers were charged with 92 felony counts for forgery, perjury, election fraud and other election related crimes. These indictments come two days after the Republican Party of Wisconsin decried voter fraud in Milwaukee and enlisted the help of so-called "Clean and Fair Elections" volunteers in a Milwaukee County election.

I can't think of a better poster child of the failed Republican Party than Scott Walker.