Walker's Surreal Idea of Success sets the bar Lower every Year!

While I have other more civilian duties as a family guy, here are a few stories I wish I had more time to detail and beat to death.

Walker Ignores Transportation, Promises more if Reelected? This was covered well at Jakes Wisconsin Funhouse, but here's a brief and scorching taste. Having driven through a number of southern states on my weeklong vacation, I can now see what Walker aspires to:

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation reports that total funding across all state transportation programs has fallen since Gov. Scott Walker took office in 2011, despite statements Walker has made insisting he has made historic investments ... spending has fallen across every road program, including major highway development, local road aid and assistance and southeast Wisconsin freeways, which saw the most dramatic decline.

1. From fiscal year 2011-2012, funding for major highway development decreased by 31.2 percent, highway improvement funding fell by 23.8 percent and local road funding fell 13.4 percent in constant 2017 dollars. Funding for southeast freeways dropped by 51.1 percent.

2. Debt service on transportation borrowing has increased 66.9 percent since fiscal year 20121-12, according to the report.

 In short:

Since @GovWalker took office:

⬇️Funding for major highway development decreased by 31.2%
⬇️Highway improvement funding fell by 23.8%
⬇️Local road funding fell by 13.4%
⬆️Debt service on transportation borrowing has increased by 66.9%https://t.co/C9Psaxi2rD

— Gordon Hintz (@GordonHintz) August 29, 2018

Does lying make it better, or politicizing transportation funding?

Walker has maintained that he has put $3 billion more into the state's transportation system than his Democratic predecessor, Jim Doyle, investing $24 billion over eight years. That statement has been rated "mostly false" by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for failing to consider inflation and for counting the amount of money that was borrowed, then spent on transportation twice, once when the money was first borrowed, and again when payments were made on the debt.

Walker's former transportation secretary, Mark Gottlieb, said, "Debt service has increased 85 percent in the last eight years, to the point where we now spend five dollars on debt service for every three dollars we spend on the maintenance of state highways. Gottlieb is the third former Walker secretary to criticize his former boss, alleging that during Gottlieb's six years at the helm of the state's transportation agency, Walker increasingly politicized transportation issues.

Wisconsinites Barely Surviving, Falling Behind...After $8 billion in Walker Tax Cuts? Gee, I wonder who got those tax cuts? Not the poor and middle class. For audio coverage, check out this interview on WPR:

The 2018 Wisconsin ALICE report looks at household need beyond the federal poverty level to better understand where people who are living paycheck-to-paycheck struggle most. ALICE is an acronym for the criteria that bring this group of Americans together — Asset limited. Income constrained. Employed.

1. 37.5 percent of Wisconsinites had income levels that do not meet the true cost of living, a new study by United Way found. Between 2010 and 2016, the number increased five percent, compared to the total increase in the state's number of households (two percent).

2. People who fall under the ALICE threshold struggle to make ends meet, often despite working more than one job ... And with almost 1 in 3 people in the state making less than what United Way researchers determined as Wisconsin's "Household Survival Budget" ($19,848 for a single adult and $61,620 for a family of four), it's unlikely that ALICE has an unfamiliar face.

And you can blame some of this on the lack of healthcare, again. In Walker's world, things like below don't happen. Universal nationwide insurance would put an end to this:

36-year-old LaWanda McCullough was a "success story" in the Wisconsin Works (W-2) job training program — that is, until she got sick. Two years ago, she was working, her children thriving in school. Seven months ago, she came home from work and blacked out … several issues including diabetes and sarcoidosis … wore a heart rate monitor. At her doctor's recommendation, she went down to working part time. She was denied disability assistance. McCullough said, " no matter what I do, I can't get ahead."

AG Brad Schimel Politicized Justice Department:  Like politicizing the Transportation Department, Walker has done the same to AG's office thanks to his willing dupe, the incompetent Brad Schimel:

45 former assistant Wisconsin attorneys general have signed on to a letter criticizing current Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel: Schimel's Democratic opponent Josh Kaul contends the GOP incumbent has "blatantly politicized the office, dropped the ball on his role as the lead crime fighter in Wisconsin, and abdicated the AG’s traditional role as 'the people’s lawyer' representing Wisconsin citizens’ interests in criminal and civil matters alike."

One of the letter's authors denies partisan intent. "Nothing like this has ever happened before," said Dan Stier, who served as an assistant attorney general from 1979-89. "We've all been around a long, long time. We've seen lots of attorney generals come and go, and no one has ever been motivated to do anything like this until now." 

Only 10 of those who signed the letter have worked directly for Schimel, but Stier said knowledge of the attorneys general's policies, including overseeing staffing cuts in the state Department of Justice's Environmental Protection Unit and choice not to sign on to a lawsuit challenging for-profit colleges, are evidence of political motivation. Schimel's campaign dismissed the letter as a statement from "partisan activists."

Poverty Rate Down slightly, thanks to Safety Net Programs...soon to get the GOP Axe!!!

I'm fascinated by how the Walker administration wants to use the success of our social safety net programs to justify killing off these same programs.

The fact that we have the fastest declining middle class in the U.S. is troubling enough. And yet officially, we saw a small drop in the poverty rate...but only if you're willing to count our safety net programs as INCOME. I've highlighted the important parts of a new study that are now being ignored by Republicans:

The Wisconsin Poverty Report showed that the drop in the poverty rate. Timothy Smeeding, an economist at the LaFollette School of Public Affairs said, "The labor market is leading the way. Social safety net programs are still helping and we're making progress." Unlike the federal government's official poverty measure — which is based on pretax cash income — the WPM accounts for family income and government benefits.

Killing Safety Nets for Capitalism: The phony "fellows" at the MacIver Institute couldn't help but brag up Mr. Government himself, career politician and capitalists lackey, Scott Walker:

“This is confirmation of what fiscal conservatives have been saying all along – by far the best way to lift a person out of poverty is capitalism..."

See, supply side works? Forget about stagnant wage growth and a decreasing middle class.

Great Recession Politics: Poverty is the lowest it's been since...9 years ago ? right after the Great Recession, a free market capitalist gift from our Republican friends?!! How hard was that? You gotta almost laugh if they weren't so serious. According to the report:

"The Wisconsin Poverty Measure (WPM), (fell) to 9.7 percent, the lowest rate recorded in our nine years of writing this report.”

Ignoring our safety nets, MacIver heaped every conservative idea they could think of to make their flimsy case:

MacIver Institute President Brett Healy: “Governor Walker and the Legislature should be commended for their historic reforms – Act 10, massive tax cuts, tort reform, simplification of the tax code, regulatory reform – that have led to a growing economy. 

With our "social safety net programs" on the chopping block, capitalism has defeated liberalism for good:

Brett Healy: "I hope my friends on the far left will remember this lesson – if we truly want to help our fellow citizens in need, we need to rein in government, not expand it. We need to unleash the awesome power of capitalism to make long-lasting and meaningful change that actually helps people.” by far the best way to lift a person out of poverty is capitalism and a growing economy, not another new government program.”

Guess when Republican Presidents were in power and set the national agenda...

The chart shows us what it's like under supply side economics and "deficits don't matter" spending:

Poverty spiked under Reagan and Bush, reached an amazing low point under Clinton.

Obama didn't reach either of the highest levels under Republican presidents shown in the graph, even after the global economic crash from the Great Recession.

Republicans refuse to lift students out of poverty, blame educators and safety nets programs.

WKOW's Greg Neumann featured Edgewood College’s Dean Tim Slekar and Percy Brown, the dean of students at Middleton High School. They talked about the real problem with education; economic status and poverty. 

When Republicans see a problem, they go after the victims. They start at the back end instead of the front. For example:

Tort Reform: Instead of preventing medical errors that result in malpractice lawsuits, they penalize the victims and their families.

Safety Nets: Instead of solving, and encouraging higher pay, job training and education, Republicans penalize the victims of poverty by kicking them off support programs. 

Poverty Hurts Education: The same is true for education, where poverty weighs heavily on desperate hungry students. Instead solving the root cause of low scoring students, Republicans decided to go after teachers; that was easier and helps speedup the move to privatize schools. 

Through out the interview both guest make it very clear Common Core and testing aren't to blame, it's our lazy politicians. They're are deliberately sidetracking the public with scary stories about CC, instead of doing the job they were elected to do; write laws that try to lift people out of poverty: 

The Wisconsin Soap Box did a great article on this show, check it out here.

What's next for GOP? Right to shoot the poor who pose threat...to Wealthy Elite?

Republicans couldn't be more obvious this time:

The House of Representatives voted to change a tax credit in a way that would add $115 billion to the deficit and hurt poorer parents while aiding the well-to-do.

Not surprising is it? The GOP desensitizing scheme continues. Huffington Post:

The House decided to make permanent the child tax credit and expand it to families earning up to $205,000 a year. The credit, which is worth up to $1,000 for each child in a family, would also be indexed to rise with inflation, as would the eligibility thresholds.

The same week Paul Ryan took another shot at cutting aid to the poor with the Orwellian "Opportunity Act," his fellow pirates introduced the jaw dropping "Child Tax Credit Improvement Act" that does away with the tax credit for poor children and their families:

But the new measure fails to extend the part of the credit that was passed in 2009 to help impoverished families and that currently allows parents with annual earnings as low as $3,000 to claim some of the break. That element expires in 2017. Without it, a family would have to earn at least $15,000 to qualify for the credit.

An example worth noting:

According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, that means a mom working full time at a minimum wage job would receive no help from the credit -- because she would be earning only $14,500. Indeed, that mom would lose $1,725 under the new bill, while a family of four earning $150,000 would gain $2,200, according to the center's analysis. About 12 million people, including 6 million children, would be pushed further into poverty if the measure became law.

I don't even know how to describe the following. Here’s the down-the-rabbit-hole argument put forth by the GOP:

Republicans argued that Democrats were raising a phony issue in pointing to the failure to extend the lower-income part of the credit. They said there was plenty of time to consider that later.

Plenty of time? How about right now?

The bill also includes a provision that would bar … immigrants … somewhere around 80 percent of the children of undocumented immigrants are believed to be U.S. citizens … some 5 million children, about 4 million of whom are citizens, would be cut off from the credit's aid.

 And why not take a few war veterans down with them?

"Its net effect is to push 12 million people, including 6 million children, right into poverty or deeper into it," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas). "That includes 400,000 veterans and armed forces families who would lose all or part of their child tax credit."

Debt, what debt?

The measure would add $115 billion to the deficit over 10 years because the House did not find any way to offset the lost revenue. So far during this session of Congress, the House has passed permanent tax cuts that would add some $721 billion to the deficit over the next decade.

New Study Proves GOP Wrong to target War on Poverty Programs.

Public Television had a series illustrating how stress greatly increased your chances of bad health and early death. Poverty and economic stress were the culprits. "Unnatural Death:" 

The series took a look at the epidemic of premature "aging" and death among the poor … explores the question, "Is there something deadly in the American experience of urban poverty itself?" An overview of research on the negative effects of racial inequity on physical health. Studies show that exposure to discrimination causes increases in blood pressure and heart rate, but new research from around the world goes further, using advanced methods to examine how repeated experiences with racism are linked to more severe conditions such as coronary blockages and chronically elevated stress hormone levels. 

Overcoming Obstacles to Health: Report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Commission to Build a Healthier America (PDF): This report, written in conjunction with the launch of the foundation’s new Commission to Build a Healthier America, describes in stark detail the scope of health disparities in America – how the poor and middle class are so much less healthy than those above them on the economic ladder, the factors in our society and communities that contribute to such disparities, and the areas that hold promise for improving the health of this country.

I never understood why this series was never brought up as a reason for universal health care prior to putting together the Affordable Care Act.

Now we’re finding out poverty adversely affects the brains development early in life.

The new findings below don’t just contradict the notion that safety net programs are a disincentive to get people out of poverty, they’re an actual benefit that only begins to help the next generation.

If the research below doesn't change the way politicians like Paul Ryan think about getting people to work and lifting folks out of poverty, than we’re in big trouble 20 to 30 years from now, IF they do away with our safety net programs.    

jsonline: A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has shown that chronic stress of poverty, neglect and physical abuse in early life may shrink the parts of a child's developing brain responsible for memory, learning and processing emotion.

While early-life stress already has been linked to depression, anxiety, heart disease, cancer and a lack of educational and employment success, researchers have long been seeking to understand what part of the brain is affected by stress to help guide interventions.

The research may inform social policy and interventions to help vulnerable children, the study's lead author and recent UW PhD graduate Jamie Hanson said.  

Not everyone who experiences chronic early stress has negative outcomes, Hanson noted. "We can think about lots of people who overcome adversity," he said. "I look at our research as showing a probability. You may have a greater risk, but it's not 100%."

Dumb Ron Johnson wrong again in a Big Way.

Big Failure? What else doesn't he know?

Rubio takes the War on Poverty back to a time before the War on Poverty.

Will tea party hardliners be okay with their tax dollars going to the poor? No. But that's the idea presented by Marco Rubio. 

What would be easier, raising the minimum wage or devising a system that sends, every month, a taxpayer supported check to millions of low wage workers? A no brainer...you would think: 

…I am developing legislation to replace the earned income tax credit with a federal wage enhancement for qualifying low-wage jobs. This would allow an unemployed individual to take a job that pays, say, $18,000 a year – which on its own is not enough to make ends meet – but then receive a federal enhancement to make the job a more enticing alternative to collecting unemployment insurance.  And it’s a better way of supporting low-income workers than simply raising the minimum wage.

"...simply raising the minimum wage" is the dead giveaway, and the real answer to poverty. Republicans are lousy at math and economics, they proved that with the Great Recession.

GOP War on Poverty? Are you Kidding? If what Marco Rubio also offered the other day is the official new Republican offensive of the war on poverty, we're not just in big trouble, but really dumb. During a recession, states would be on their own, no help...nothing. Food stamps and unemployment as seen on the chart below adjust. But the block granted program Temporary Assistance, stays the same, no matter how bad it gets.

According to Jared Bernstein: 

Sen. Rubio gave a much touted speech on poverty policy wherein he proposed to turn the federal safety net programs over to the states in the form of “revenue neutral” block grants.  This is not a new idea folks.  It’s rehashed Ryan, if not Reagan.  What it really means is the safety net will be unable to expand in recessions … states will be unable to tap the Feds for unemployment benefits, nutritional assistance, and all the other functions that must expand to meet need when the market fails.  This would essentially enshrine poverty-inducing austerity, in place of literally decades of policy advancements to meet demand contractions with temporary spending expansions.

In the figure below, note the flat-line response by TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) in the great recession–it was block-granted in the 1990s–compared to SNAP or Unemployment Insurance (UI).  That gives you the flavor of what happens when you follow where Sen. Rubio is trying to lead here.

The Republicans War on the War on Poverty bamboozling News Media.

The media idiots are buying into it again, like this from Yahoo News:

“After years of emphasizing austerity, Republicans are leaping to discuss ways the government can help alleviate poverty. The apparent shift…”

Shift, really, Republicans want to “alleviate poverty?” By cutting food stamps by $40 billion? Ending unemployment? Throwing taxpayer dollars at failing private voucher schools?

What was I thinking, that’ll end poverty.

It’s almost laughable how Republicans are simply repackaging the same old stuff to "end poverty." My ass. Example, inefficient block grants that just invite abuse and kick people off assistance locally:

Democrats intend to bludgeon them as out of touch and uncompassionate. Republicans know this is coming … So they're going on the offensive. House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor argued for giving state and local governments more control over education dollars; and Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio called for dismantling federal programs aimed at reducing poverty by turning money over to states. But it will be difficult for them to change their image overnight. In many ways, the party remains haunted by the still-lingering shadow of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Haunted? Wrong word. The GOP's current agenda, where they tried shutting down the government at a cost of $25 billion, not renewing extended unemployment, trying to cut $40 billion in food stamps, reducing state Earned Income Tax Credits and trying to take health care away is alive and well, and is still their goal!!!  

Softer/kinder Repackaging of Commodifying Kids: Gee, how can we make a profit off our kids with market tested uplifting program names?

Cantor promoted school choice programs and went as far as to call on the Senate to adopt a bill called the “Student Success Act … The bill is part of a larger "Making Life Work" initiative … “School choice is the surest way to break this vicious cycle of poverty, and we must act fast before it is too late for too many,” Cantor said.

Yes, before another day of lost profit is realized?

Dr. Seuss would be proud of this Bizarre Lunacy. See if you can follow this logic without falling down the rabbit hole:

During his speech, Rubio criticized proposals to raise the minimum wage as not addressing the root causes of poverty. “Our current government programs at best offer only a partial solution. They help people deal with poverty, but they do not help people emerge from poverty,” Rubio said.

So by their logic, more pay doesn't help people emerge from poverty? Remember, the whole point of the Republican Party is to turn every job into a low paying job, so a higher minimum wage would defeat everything they’re working for.

What we need to do is ignore the poor and help the rich get richer, because who knows, someday a rich person might hire someone out the goodness of their heart instead of waiting for consumer demand to pick up. One final laugh, check out the first three words below:

Despite these efforts, Democrats clearly still feel confident enough that Republicans will struggle when discussing these issues…

Rep. Honadel's Lies: Family Bread winners don't work for minimum wages, and Higher Minimum Wages result in lost jobs. So Wrong!

The sad fact is “19 states have their minimum wages set higher than the federal mandate. Wisconsin isn't one of them.” We’re eating the other state's dust on converting to green energy, health care reform, mass transportation, gay marriage, legalized pot, and now the minimum wage.

Bubble right wing politics has a lock on Wisconsin, where think tank myths and failed theories of the marketplace abound, and real world advances continue to benefit other states. It's Scott Walker's playground now, and a blueprint for the entire country.

Republicans seem to have missed the U.S. conversion from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. Remember that giant sucking sound? It happened guys. 

  

The false premise #1: Families don’t rely on minimum wage jobs. Fox 6:

“…we look at the minimum wage not as a family-supporting wage, just as an entry-level wage for young people to get their foot in the door for a job in high school,” Rep. Mark Honadel said.

These aren't “entry-level” jobs anymore, but family supporting jobs. 

Honadel’s supporters should ask him why he isn't telling them the truth about our dominant service industry jobs.

The truth is, Honadel’s job so much harder if he faced the truth…like raising the minimum wage. Simple.

False premise #2: High wages kills jobs:

Rep. Mark Honadel (R – South Milwaukee) is a former small business owner. He has studied the impact on businesses and hiring. “I got my hands on some data from Washington, that shows one very, very important fact: every time minimum wage goes up, everybody in the central cities, Hispanics, African-Americans lose jobs.”

He’s doing it for…minorities? Wow, what a compassionate conservative, keeping wages low so people have central city jobs.

The truth contradicts Honadel's mysteriously sourced “data:”

Bloomberg News, April 2012: "[A] wave of new economic research is disproving those arguments about job losses and youth employment. Previous studies tended not to control for regional economic trends that were already affecting employment levels, such as a manufacturing-dependent state that was shedding jobs. The new research looks at micro-level employment patterns for a more accurate employment picture. The studies find minimum-wage increases even provide an economic boost, albeit a small one, as strapped workers immediately spend their raises.” (Source)

Reality Defying Republicanism would devastate U.S., increase poverty!

When the more sensationalized news cycle slows, the more interesting details rise to the surface that not only highlight our problems, but showcase our successes and solutions.

But these solutions, opposed by Republicans for ideological reasons, are given short shrift by the media.  Media assumes conservative suggestions to turn the economy around are just as relevant as the real solutions, which by historical standards have already proven themselves out.

Charts Galore: I found these amazing graphs that trashes all the Republicans "solutions" to our economic woes. Even common sense Americans oppose the GOP agenda, all the while supporting and voting these goofballs into office.

"Entitlement" Programs Very Successful vs GOP Lies:

As for public's view of "entitlements," big surprise, they believe in them. Yet Republican still win elections: