GOP makes Wisconsinites pay and pay again for Medicaid and all Transportation Funding

UPDATE-JUNE 7, 2019: Finally, Dems got the message...from the JS:

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach of West Point said raising the gas tax would be better than increasing fees to make sure all drivers — not just those from Wisconsin — were paying more to maintain the state's roads.

"It lets out-of-state drivers off the hook," Erpenbach said. "Registration fees aren't the fairest way to go. That's not going to get the Illinois drivers, the Iowa drivers, the Minnesota drivers."

Echoing that sentiment, Evers spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff said the measure “isn’t the long-term solution Wisconsinites are asking for,” in part because out-of-state drivers wouldn’t be required to pay more for Wisconsin’s roads.

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Are you seeing a pattern too? Sadly, I'm not sure Democrats have caught on yet. If they have, why haven't they said anything publicly, or tried to beat this thing into the ground in the media?

It's pretty simple really, Drain Wisconsin Taxpayer Revenues; Republicans have killed infrastructure and social service spending so they could fulfill their tax cut obsession, that's not a mystery. But, they can't keep progress, innovation, and upkeep from happening statewide, making reality and real world problems...a problem for Republicans. 

The Scott Walker Scheme: Walker figured tight budgets would make it easy to cut spending, so he decided to ignore federal funding and instead use Wisconsin tax dollars to pay our bills. It's crazy but true. And it's on purpose. Walker and GOP leaders artificially created tight budgets.

CASE #1: Making Wisconsinites Pay for Everything...so it Hurts: Now thanks to Sen. Fitzgerald and Rep. Robin Vos, were going to drain Wisconsin's general revenues just to pay for Medicaid, skipping our very own federal dollars. The scheme continues...:  

Republican lawmakers voted Tuesday to add $588 million in new state funding for health care programs in Wisconsin under a spending plan that won't include ... plan to expand Medicaid by tapping into $1 billion of federal funds.

Say good-bye to freeing up a massive "$324 million in state funds to spend elsewhere" and putting 82,000 more people living in low-income households on BadgerCare. 

Taxpayers Pay, so Insurance Companies can Money?: With insurance premiums going up all the time, the phony claim below is almost laughable. Oh, but it does increase hospital costs treating the uninsured. You can't make this stuff up:

Republicans have opposed Evers' plans to accept more funding through the Affordable Care Act because they believe doing so will drive up costs for those with private insurance. 

Then there's this...

Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, said the committee was "taking some of the Medicaid surplus based on the fact that our enrollments and growth in the program have gone down."

And about that supposed "surplus"...

Republicans Waste $69 Million of Taxpayer Money just to Penalize the Unemployed, hopefully Deny Them Benefits: What Walker Republicans said was urgent still hasn't been funded or implemented. $69 million is the estimated cost of job training for BadgerCare and Foodshare. And that's just for 2 years, imagine that as a reoccurring bill:   

Republicans lawmakers approved the job training programs under former Gov. Scott Walker but have not yet implemented them ... recipients can lose their benefits if they aren't working or participating in job training. Republicans must now consider earmarking funds to provide job training to BadgerCare Plus ($33 million) and FoodShare ($36 million) recipients over the next two years.

You can kick to the trashcan the myth Republicans don't like government bureaucracy and red tape: While Republicans streamline regulation for business, they're piling on a maze of regulation for people, their constituents, making their lives a living hell:

Work Requirements: Wisconsin is the fourth state to get approval for a Medicaid work requirement ... Adults under age 50 who do not have children would have to be employed 80 hours a month, undergo job training or do community service to be eligible for health care benefits ... charging premiums to low-income childless adults who are making as little as $6,070 per year, and many people in that income range do not have checking accounts or credit cards that they can use to pay monthly premiums. No other state has gotten federal approval to completely remove people below the poverty level from Medicaid because they are unable to pay premiums."

In Arkansas, thousands lost health coverage when that state implemented work requirements. Democrats in Wisconsin say the same will happen here.

CASE #2: Making Wisconsinites Pay for Everything in Transportation: This is a major pet peeve of mine, because this is so simple yet so odd: Republicans want to make taxpayers pay for road funding so out-of-state drivers don't have too??? They must know they're doing this, right? This should be the first thing blaring out of the mouths of Democratic lawmakers...but isn't. Do Democrats have a messaging problem or what? Someone, anyone?

The plan introduced by members of use (one time) state surplus funds to direct about $72 million to counties and $62 million to towns. Fitzgerald said GOP lawmakers were considering raising registration fees, title fees and heavy truck fees, but he didn’t say by how much. Tolling could also be an option.

And every once and awhile mentioned under their breath so as not to upset anyone...

Evers' transportation secretary, Craig Thompson noted under the GOP plan Wisconsin wouldn't be collecting additional sums from out-of-state visitors, as it would under Evers' plan.

"The reason we put together the package the way we put ours is we thought it would be the most affordable and the fairest to everybody. If you do it via the gas tax, we get everybody that's driving into the state that fills up to help pay for it. If we do it with registration fees, we're only charging Wisconsinites."