Political Heat

States don't always produce the best ideas. Washington doesn't always produce bad ideas. Let's commit to supporting good ideas, no matter where they originate. Gov. Scott Walker is pushing for a theory of governance that suits his run for the presidency -- a “states-know-best” approach. Employing a theme often used by Republican governors eyeing the White House, Walker stressed that the best ideas often come from the states -- and implicitly, from the people with experience running them -- rather than D.C. “What I see in the states and from people in this country outside of Washington is a craving for something new, something fresh, something dynamic, instead of the top-down, government-knows-best approach that we’ve seen in Washington,” Walker said. Walker also made good use of a line that people familiar with political history in Wisconsin will recall: In a speech in Washington, D.C., Friday morning, Gov. Scott Walker took a spin on a historic political line that...

Tax cuts for the wealthy are responsible for budget deficits, not higher education Scott Walker is attacking education on several fronts. Most recently, he's attacking the University of Wisconsin. Higher education is taking a huge hit in his latest budget scheme. Walker plans to cut spending at UW campuses by $300 million -- or roughly a 13 percent drop -- over the next two years. Those cuts would be unprecedented. "[A] $300 million cut to the UW System is the single largest cut that we would sustain if it were to remain at that level," according to UW-Manitowoc Dean Charles Clark . Walker also suggested that campuses "might be able to make savings just by asking faculty and staff to consider teaching one more class a semester." "I call it Act 10 for the UW," Walker said . But that plan doesn't bode well with System President Ray Cross. "It just reflects a lack of understanding," Cross said. Indeed, Cross points out ...

Question of "owners' rights" doesn't trump right to be healthy in public setting Joel Kleefisch is opposed to expanding the smoking ban in Wisconsin to include e-cigarettes. E-cigarette smoking, or vaping, is causing quite a stir nationwide. Proponents of vaping consider it harmless , and view it as a means towards eventually kicking the habit overall, although scientific studies have yet to definitively prove such a claim . Kleefisch, a Republican Assemblyman and husband to Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, is proposing a bill protecting the rights of business owners to allow e-cigarettes in their establishments. "This new nanny state needs to stop interfering," said Kleefisch . He added: "Let the customers decide with their pocketbooks" on whether specific businesses should allow or disallow vaping. Such line of thinking is dismissive of the greater overall point: if cigarette smoke is bad, then patrons who don't want to inhale it ha...

Doyle’s deficit was the result of economic catastrophe; Walker’s deficit came during a time of national prosperity In January of 2011 Wisconsin was dealing with a $137 million budget deficit . Gov. Scott Walker considered the deficit a failure of the Jim Doyle administration, the governor who proceeded him in office. Using this deficit, Gov. Walker justified stripping public employees of their bargaining rights, and raised the amounts that they would have to contribute towards their health and pension plans. Over the course of the next four years, Walker and his Republican allies in the legislature made several other “reforms,” including significant tax breaks that mainly benefited the wealthy in the state. Oftentimes the effects of these tax cuts were exaggerated, with Walker claiming that the typical family saw significant savings. In reality they only amounted to an extra fast-food value meal per week for the average middle class family. Fast-forward to this year: toda...

The poor and middle classes are paying higher rates in excise, sales and income taxes than the top 1 percent in the state Taxes in Wisconsin. We talk about them all the time, mostly about how they’re too high and unfair. It turns out that’s only half the story. They’re too high and unfair, for sure, but only for certain people -- the poor and middle classes. The highest 1 percent of income earners in the state -- households earning more than $399,000 annually -- pay just 5.6 percent of their earnings towards excise, sales and income taxes on average. You’d expect that, in a generous society like Wisconsin’s, the poorest among us would be paying a significantly smaller portion of their income towards taxes. You’d be wrong . The poorest 20 percent of households in Wisconsin (those that earn less than $22,000 yearly) are paying, on average, 5.8 percent on those same taxes. The poor and middle class pay higher rates than the top 1% The extremely poor are paying more pr...

Wisconsin's governor makes a strong case for why he'd make a terrible foreign policy leader Gov. Scott Walker continues to rip on Hillary Clinton. While discussing her experience as Secretary of State, Walker had less than stellar opinions about the former first lady , questioning whether her time in the executive branch would be a positive attribute for her potential run for president. "Hillary Clinton had a lot of experience being the Secretary of State, but you look at most of the places where she played a direct hand, Russia, the Middle East and other places around the world, and it’s largely messed up right now." Yes, Russia and the Middle East are both "messed up" right now. Pinning that on Hillary Clinton is similarly messed up . Disregarding the 70 years of Soviet rule, nearly 50 years of the Cold War, and more than 20 years of post-communist Russian society is a huge historical error. Ignoring all of that history and placing the blame...

Much work remains to make King's Dream a reality Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. For too many of us it's simply a day off, a time to catch up on personal business and to maybe sleep in a few extra hours. Many others take this holiday much more seriously, commemorating it as a day to celebrate a great man and Civil Rights hero. Speeches and events across the nation exemplify what King stood for and why this day was created in his honor. Has America changed much since 1963, when King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, or since his assassination in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee? Codified law has certainly given people of color more equality. Outright discrimination, in employment, housing and other realms, is illegal, and rightfully so. But muted discrimination remains prevalent. In the past, racism was a clear aspect of a person's character. People were openly stating they were for segregation in schools, and that they ...

Walker tries using "divide and conquer" strategy in labeling Clinton as a career politician Gov. Scott Walker doesn’t like that Hillary Clinton has spent a considerable part of her life in Washington . “She lives in Washington. She works in Washington. She came to Washington through this president and his administration,” Walker said of Clinton, Politico’s Alex Insenstadt reported. “She was in Washington when she was a United States senator. She was in Washington when her husband was president of the United States. You look at everything that people dislike about Washington, and she embodies it.” In his soliloquy about Washington (perhaps breaking the record for how many times the capital city could be mentioned in a single breath), Walker is going back to a tried-and-true strategy of his: divide and conquer . Walker is trying to paint himself as the outsider, as someone who deserves to be a presidential contender due to his geographical distance from DC. Me...

A series of electoral defeats and party mismanagement signals it's time for a change at the DPW I first met Mike Tate in 2007 during the Democratic Leadership Institute, a workshop of sorts for young and aspiring Democratic Party operatives in the state of Wisconsin. Tate was a co-manager of the program and he did a great job organizing the event with many wonderful speakers. In the fall of 2008 I again crossed paths with Tate when I worked with Advancing Wisconsin, canvassing across several communities in the state in order to get then-candidate Barack Obama elected president, as well as several Assembly races in the areas we were walking. Tate was head of the organization at that time, and I’ll admit I took some pride in being able to say I knew who he was to several of my fellow canvassers. In 2009 Tate became the youngest state party chair of the nation, at age 30, when he won control of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. At that time I was excited about Tate’s promotio...

Evidence shows violent crime went up under years of concealed carry Earlier this week former Mayor Dave Cieslewicz came out strongly against concealed carry -- going so far as to suggest we should repeal Wisconsin’s relatively new law passed in 2011: As we move around our neighborhoods in Wisconsin or really anywhere in America these days, we have no idea who might be carrying a loaded weapon. I have no confidence that anyone who is paranoid enough to believe that doing so actually makes them safer would have the prudence and judgment to use that weapon in the extremely rare case where some threat actually exists. It's much more likely that a loaded gun in a crowded store will be used to the kind of tragic end that occurred in Idaho. I know it won't happen any time soon, but let's start a movement to repeal these dangerous laws allowing people to carry concealed weapons. Last December I took a look at the evidence on concealed carry since it was passed, demonstrating...

Science on "vaping" demonstrates that it has hazardous effects on smokers, including secondhand inhalation A recent ban on indoor e-cigarette smoking in Madison is the right path to take. The state of Wisconsin, which already has a ban on “conventional” indoor cigarette smoking, should follow suit. While many claim that smoking e-cigarettes, or “vaping,” helps to curtail smoking overall (eventually leading towards quitting completely), the evidence on the “benefits” of vaping is lacking. The science on e-cigarettes is incomplete at this point, but some early studies suggest it’s still a public health concern. In some ways, it may even be worse than conventional smoking : Electronic cigarettes, marketed as safer than regular cigarettes, deliver a cocktail of toxic chemicals including carcinogens into the lungs, new studies show. Using e-cigarettes may even make bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics , according to one study. Emphasis added. Secondhand e-c...

It could be up to the people to stop Republicans from changing the judiciary The proposed constitutional amendment by state Republican lawmakers to limit the age of sitting State Supreme Court justices to 75 is a clear political attack on Justice Shirley Abrahamson. The liberal justice, at age 81, would have to retire immediately. With her required departure, the other justices would lose their current Chief Justice  and would have to defer to the next senior member on the bench. That is, unless another constitutional amendment passes allowing justices to select their own leader. Both measures are clear attempts to limit the voices and powers of the liberal bloc of justices in the state’s highest court. If conservative lawmakers have their way, they will make the court more political in nature -- creating a “mini election” within the confines of the court that would create more instances of infighting for the justices to deal with. There’s a very real chance both amen...