Rick Berg on Wisconsin's Fiscal Problems. And Other Stuff.

Friday I scanned the Wisopinion.com list of posts and came across a link to Rick Berg's Isthmus article, Wisconsin's woes are part of grand scheme of fiscal irresponsibility - From bad to worse to worser still.

OK, this ought to be interesting. I read, I read, and I read and I read some more. At word 500 of his 750 word count he finally moved from California to Washington D.C. to Wisconsin where Berg queried:

..someone by now would have asked the governor a simple question: "What did we learn in May that we didn't already know in February?"...

...Or "Why was no action taken to correct the fiscal trajectory of the state before we got in this deep?"

Good questions Rick. The answer to the first one was that the estimated revenue collections from the sales tax, and also the income tax, were far lower than originally projected. In fact, from state to state, and county to county where there is a dependence upon the sales and income tax, these revenue projections were off regardless of the party in power.

I will take issue with the original estimates - far too bullish for me - but the error is shared by Republicans and Democrats alike.

The second question is even more tantalizing. I love the word trajectory. Far more invigorating than worser.

We have been on this trajectory for close to twenty years. It was authored and created by Republicans when they controlled the governor's office and most of the legislature.

Unfortunately in heady times, more tax loopholes were created, tax refunds were issued, more tax loopholes were created, and spending increased.

Democrats, short in numbers and often intimidated by the Republican mantra of the time, played along.

As the man said, "A candid examination of right-wing policies and the Democrats who play along and the horrid liberal  right- wing policies designed to assuage the moderates WMC but end up irritating everyone. And other stuff."

Comments

[R.J.]

Tommy was guv, times were good. Jim is guv, times are bad. It must be Tommy's fault...hmmm, OK got it.
No need to put the brakes on, just blame it on pols from two decades ago.

This budget tells us everything we need to know.

[Jon]

The Voodoo Economic chickens have come home to roost. 30 years of cutting taxes on the rich and increasing spending does not, repeat NOT, balance the Federal budget. History has shown that those of us who pointed that out in 1980 were like freakin' geniuses.

[Brian]

Two things about the budget.

First, for many, many years, both parties shifted tax burdens away from the rich and corporations to the middle class and poor. We are reaping the consequences of this classism.

Second, for far too long both parties have supported the ridiculous free market policies that don't work, sending jobs away to foreign lands.

Third, working people don't have enough bargaining power to agitate for a better, fairer wage. This is the result of a politico economic system that is unfriendly to an a vital, democratic institution: unions.

None of these trends have any possibility in the near term to be halted and reversed.

Therefore, the state of affairs that we have been experiencing for more than three decades is likely to continue. And that is this. More and more people working harder and harder, for less.

[R.J.]

...so let's tax them more?

The democrat plan is to squeeze out the middle class. A few rich democrat donors and a massive state-dependent under-class. All being ordered how to live their lives by bureaucrats' dreams of Utopia.

Republicans' philosophy is centered on individual freedoms and, economically, that a rising tide raises all boats. Democrats need a growing base of needy constituents and beholden public employees.

[Jon]

R.J., when you say "the democrat plan is to squeeze out the middle class," are you referring to President Obama's plans to cut taxes for the middle class? How does that "squeeze" them out? His plan to save the homes of middle class taxpayers caught in the mortgage meltdown? Or are you just a Republican shill who has no idea what the Democrats have been pushing the last 20 years and just throw out stereotypes that may have been valid 40 years ago but have no basis in reality today?

The Republican economic philosophy is to further enrich the richest 5% of the population, and to try to convince a majority of the rest of the population to vote against their own economic interests by voting Republican for bigoted social causes ("hey, look over there! It's two gay guys who want to take hunting rifles away from students praying in public school and force them to have abortions! And Governor Doyle is letting it happen!").

[R.J.]

Gee, thanks for the $13. Now I won't complain about the meltdown of an entire economy thanks to your pals raping Fannie/Freddie.
Talk about stereotypes, you need to re-examine who the rich in this country are circa 2009...not 1955.
Judicial activism, the new bigotry.