Uppity Wisconsin

As the Republicans in Washington gear up to appease Tea Party extremists and vote to repeal health care reform for Americans who need it, Senator Chuck Schumer is calling the GOP on their hypocrisy, and calling on them to give up their government-sponsored health care.

"It was a central value to us when we passed health care, and a central value to the American people, that members of Congress should get the same health care as everyone else. It seems unfair that House Republicans want to deprive middle-class Americans of the same health care as members of Congress but to keep it for themselves, he said."

Will every Republican who is going to be for repeal agree to not take government health care themselves and to drop their existing health care?

Let's localize that. Will Scott Walker, who's given Atty. Gen. J. B.

If Gov. Walker goes ahead with his reported plan to knife back on Medicaid coverage, the result may another set of real (as opposed to putative) death panels. In Arizona, controversial Republican Gov. Jan Brewer did cut back Medicaid, and the Associated Press has been tracking the results. The latest:

> PHOENIX (AP) -- A second person denied transplant coverage by Arizona under a state budget cut has died, with this death "most likely" resulting from the coverage reduction, a hospital spokeswoman said Wednesday.

> University Medical Center spokeswoman Jo Marie Gellerman said the patient died Dec. 28 at another medical facility after earlier being removed from UMC's list for a liver transplant needed because of hepatitis C... .

> Arizona reduced Medicaid coverage for transplants on Oct. 1 under cuts included to help close a shortfall in the state budget enacted last spring.

Please consider that you are not running just any agency. You may serve at the pleasure of Gov. Walker, but you are being entrusted with the health of land trod upon by John Muir, Increase Lapham, Aldo Leopold, Fran Hammerstrom and Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson. You owe an allegiance to them as well.

I don't expect you to compare to any of those people. But don't let it be said, whenever you leave office, that you ran the department like a chamber of commerce. You are charged with protecting extremely valuable natural resources that belong to the people of this state.

-- Open letter to DNRSecretary Cathy Stepp from Appleton Post Crescent nature columnist David Horst.

For all practical purposes, marijuana use is legal in Dane county, especially so in Madison and especially on Madison's near East side.

After reading this morning's lengthy opus in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about Gov. Walker's plan to privatize the economic development functions of the state Commerce Dept., I pledged to myself I'd help fellow readers avoid having to wade through the details. And so I've created this helpful summary, so we can cut to the chase of what this all really means.

Walker proposes to create a Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., modeled after a 2005 venture created by his Republican counterpart in Indiana. To do it, Walker would spin off a large chunk of the state Commerce Department, meaning some of that agency's 340 employees would be affected. And here's how:

* The employees would be dumped from their jobs. Bloomberg.com summed up this part of the strategy in a headline: "Wis. gov doesn't want state workers at new agency" -- because, as we all are expected to know, public employees are just no damned good and they're [shudder!] unionized.

Scott Walker pulls a bait and switch. The Journal Sentinel reports:

Gov. Scott Walker is proceeding with a campaign promise of passing a tax cut for small businesses but in the process substantially reducing the size of businesses that would be able to claim it.

Walker and aides Wednesday released details of the draft legislation for the first time, saying that businesses with gross sales of less than $500,000 a year and an income tax liability could qualify for the proposed tax credit.

We have been following the story of Betsie Gallardo lately, she being the woman that, due to a medical decision, was being starved to death in a Florida prison. She has inoperable cancer, her death is imminent, and her mother was working hard to make it possible for Betsie to die at home with some dignity.

As we reported just a couple days ago, half the battle was already won, as the Florida Department of Corrections had agreed to place her in a hospital so that she could again go back on nutritional support.

On January 5th, the Florida Parole Commission voted to allow her to end her life at home—and that means you spoke out, made a difference, and achieved a complete victory for the effort.

But even as we celebrate that victory, I think we should take a moment to realize that there is a bigger lesson here: the lesson that the fights over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), benefits for 9/11 first responders (the Zadroga Bill), and Betsie Gallardo’s imminent release are all actually pointing us to a political strategy that works, over and over, if we are willing to understand the wisdom that’s been laid before us.

And the trend continues:

Gov. Scott Walker has named Ted Nickel as commissioner of insurance and Dan Schwartzer as deputy commissioner. Nickel has spent nearly his entire career in the insurance industry, working primarily in the property/casualty insurance business. For almost 18 years, Nickel has worked in a variety of roles, including director of governmental and regulatory affairs for Church Mutual, where he engaged in regulatory and advocacy work, and also augmented Church Mutual’s compliance function.

Prior to working at Church Mutual, Nickel worked in former Gov. Tommy Thompson’s administration.

The Daily Show looks at candidates for Republican National Committee chair, and Jon Stewart has a special place in his heart for Wisconsin's Reince Priebus.

Hilarious.

See it here.

The general presumption is that the big Republican majority in both houses of the legislature means Scott Walker will get whatever he wants.

But just two days into the new term, there are signs of life among the leggies, who seem less than enthusiastic about Walker's moves to centralize power in the governor's office.

WisPolitics reports that State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, "was cautious in talking about the potential shift of power" under Walker's proposal to give the governor final approval on administrative rules changes.

"We should be always concerned with that. There's got to be a separation of powers there. ... We'll see what members have to say about that," he said.

Not exactly rolling over and playing dead. There may be trouble brewing in the Assembly, too.

State Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, co-chair of Joint Finance, "said he was personally concerned with the Commerce changes because the original proposal called for the new entity to map out its new direction without input from lawmakers," WisPolitics said. Fitzgerald also had mentioned the Commerce changes as something the legislature wants to weigh in on.