The New Scroogenian movement! Republican Budget Targets Proof of Moral Bankruptcy, in Wisconsin and Elsewhere.

Let’s begin to call it what it is, "Scroogenian." I made that up, but it's true. We can also call them Scroogists. The popular Dickens character Ebenezer Scrooge, described as “a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises all things which give people happiness,” is now the standard bearer of tough, effective, conservative economic policy.

Republicans think if the books are balanced, the human toll is of little concern. The ruthlessness of Scroogenian policy promoted by the Walker administration couldn’t be clearer.

WSJ: Gov. Scott Walker introduced his first budget — a spending plan that seems to uniformly favor Republican pets such as school vouchers, transportation and tax cuts while targeting nearly every Democratic sacred cow. 

Walker’s proposal, aimed at eliminating the state’s $3.6 billion shortfall, would cut more than $1 billion from education, knock more than 50,000 people off BadgerCare, roll back recycling and water purity requirements, and cut aid to the poor. 

Walker wants to cut legal services for the homeless, repeal environmental mandates, eliminate child care for state workers, reduce tax cuts for poor families, eliminate food stamps for migrant workers and end requirements that insurance provide coverage for contraceptives. 

It would expand the state’s school voucher program to students in higher income levels but restrict eligibility in state-subsidized health care plans to the poorest of the poor. It would scale back some mandates on local government but impose one of the toughest mandates possible — limiting the ability of cities and counties to raise taxes to make up for cuts in state aid.

The state constitution forbids the legislature from imposing such limits, which would interfere with the autonomous nature of city and county governments, but big deal. This is an economic crisis, ripe for a Scroogenian solution. 

Put another way:

“It is literally every single bad conservative idea of the last 20 years housed in a single budget document,” said Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now.