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10/21/2008
Burri: So what will Dems in control mean?
I, for one, intend to congratulate our new Democrat overlords. Welcome them with open arms and a sincere, inoffensive smile.
At least, I probably should. That's what's coming, you know: Democrats are taking over. Big time. They might even pull off a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate – 60 or more seats – which will make them as close to all-powerful as it's possible for humans to get.
They're looking to take over in Wisconsin, too – all they need is two more Assembly seats, and the state is all theirs.
And they're gonna want to get even with you conservatives, so, y'know, you should start getting on board. Welcome, Democrats! Please take our money!
Okay, so let’s remember: Election Day isn’t here yet. No matter how much liberals and Democrats and various media powers-that-be might like us to think otherwise, we don't become serfs until after the votes are counted.
Still. I can’t help speculating on that worst-case scenario. What's it going to mean?
At the federal level, a vast expansion of government-run health care. Harsh contraction of America’s military umbrella. Capitulation to the United Nations, European Union, and “world opinion.”
We’ll continue to ignore our own energy resources in favor of paying other countries for theirs: no more drilling, but increased mandates for more expensive alternate sources.
Higher taxes – that’s for sure. Obama promises no direct middle class tax increase, but: the “windfall tax” on oil and drug companies; environmental taxes on corporations; higher capital gains taxes and death taxes; President Bush’s tax cuts allowed to expire.
Oh, right, that is a direct tax increase on the middle class. Never mind.
Closer to home, more of the same. I said this before, but it can’t be emphasized enough: if Democrats gain a net of two seats – just two seats – in the Assembly, they’ll have complete control over Wisconsin’s government.
Complete. Control.
That’ll mean the so-called “Healthy Wisconsin,” which shrewdly combines record tax increases with bureaucratic control over prices and profits.
It’ll mean higher sales taxes, higher corporate taxes, higher gas taxes and higher payroll taxes. It’ll mean no limits on property taxes. Taxes on garbage, taxes on internet, taxes on filing your taxes.
Wisconsin as a sanctuary state, where police can't even ask about citizenship. A liberal re-legislation of gun rights. Doubling, tripling, quadrupling of Stewardship Fund land purchases with no legislative oversight, and no public right to use that land.
Those are just a few of the treats in store for us. Ironically, an Obama administration with 60-plus in the Senate could be the only thing stopping Wisconsin Democrats. There’s no point in passing "Healthy Wisconsin," after all, when the Feds are doing it nationwide.
But even that isn’t the worst of it. As the Wall Street Journal put it:
A liberal supermajority would move quickly to impose procedural advantages that could cement Democratic rule for years to come. They're talking about Congress, but it holds true at the state level, too. With Democrats in complete control, they’ll be able to redistrict – re-draw Wisconsin’s legislative districts – right away.
Usually, that only happens in years ending in a zero. But if Democrats gain complete control, there’s little doubt: they won’t wait. They’ll move right away: re-draw the state’s legislative districts to cement their majorities, no matter how ridiculous their lines have to be.
They’ll do whatever they can, whatever they have to, to hang onto their power. That’ll be dirty. It’ll be cheap. It’ll be no fair. But it will be legal, or they’ll make it legal.
And I, for one, congratulate them. Hey, it's only safe.
Lance Burri is a contributor to the Badger Blog Alliance and occasionally blogs at his own site as well.
COMMENTS
Don't blame me, Marge. I'm voting for Kodos... DailyScoff.com
J. Gravelle (Tue Oct 21 08:01:13 2008)
Well Lance, ”you conservatives” deserve exactly what you are about to get. And don’t get me wrong, I voted early and for McCain-Palin. But the right-wingers had their chance and blew it. They deserve to lose it.
What you (conservatives) have allowed to happen is a complete takeover of our political system by the moneyed interests, so to some extent you shouldn’t worry. The money-folks aren’t running for office and they won’t be ousted. They’ll control Democrats as they did Republicans, so you won’t lose your megaphone.
Government-run health care? Wow, that’s bad! Is that anything like government-run banks? You know, the rich getting into trouble and the middle class bailing them out?
I’m sure you must be well-fixed for health care, but the only people winning under the current system are the insurance executives. A true Medicare-for-all system would be the best thing that could happen to America’s economy. See
http://moneyedpoliticians.wordpress.com/medicare-for-all
And please, Healthy Wisconsin taxes corporations $15B but eliminates $17B in health care premiums. You should know better: that’s a $2B corporate savings. But that savings comes from the elimination of the insurance industry and the R’s don’t like that a bit.
More corporate taxes? Yeah, and that’s unfortunate. They just get passed on to the consumer, at least by those companies that stay in the US. We need ZERO corporate taxes and a more progressive tax on wages, but the right wingers won’t have anything to do with that.
Isn’t politics fun?
Jack Lohman
http://MoneyedPoliticians.net
.
Jack Lohman (Tue Oct 21 08:13:58 2008)
I am truly amused. Had the author been asked to predict what would happen with a Republican President and a Republican Congress in 2000, he would likely have predicted a budget surplus, a strong military, no nation building and a strong market. He would have suggested that conservative practices and policies would have positioned the country for a solid start to the new millenium. But, alas after the Republicans had their way with the country we find ourselves in a never ending war and a conflict in Afghanistan, the world on the brink of economic collapse, the military degraded and spread thin, a divided nation and the likelihood of a Demacratic sweep. I think he should take a break form predictions and figure out a way to bring civility, decency and leadership back to a nation that has been demoralized to the point of emotional and spiritual depression.
I would pray for that next generation of leadership that they have the wisdon to restore confidence in government and the ability to extract us from our current predicament.
billie (Tue Oct 21 08:30:49 2008)
Indeed, I may have predicted much of that back in 2000. If I had, the Republican congressional majority would have proven me very, very wrong.
I suppose I could hope that the Democrat majority will prove me just as wrong, but - having learned that lesson now - I'd prefer to keep our government balanced out, at least by a 45-seat Senate minority, and a majority in the state Assembly.
Lance Burri (Tue Oct 21 09:33:36 2008)
Good points Billie, and please excuse Lance. He'd be totally happy with more of the same.
Jack Lohman
MoneyedPoliticians.net
Jack Lohman (Tue Oct 21 09:48:05 2008)
I covered the Wisconsin Assembly from very shortly after the Democrats won a majority there in 1971 until 1996.
I have to search my mind to come up with anything revolutionary happening.
Oh yes, Pat Lucey managed to merge the UW with the old state university system, with the help of a key Republican vote in the then-GOP-controlled Senate. We might have saved a few bucks as a result of the merger, but I haven't seen any numbers.
There must be something else revolutionary that happened in those years of a Democratic majority, but nothing immediately comes to mind.
I remember John Shabaz when he was GOP minority leader talking about some Democratic bill and reluctantly conceding that even a blind squirrel sometime finds a nut. This was John's idea of bipartisanship, a notion that he could appreciate because he was in the majority for three sessions, then in the minority until he was appointed federal judge.
But that was then. And this is now. I don't know if "take control" is exactly the right word to use in describing any change of partisan ratios. What will the Democrats take control of if they win the Assembly?
A state government with a $3 billion budget shortfall? A state that is being whipsawed by a national economy that is suicidal at worst and schizophrenic at best?
The same goes for a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate. Would you want to take control of a national government with a $9 trillion debt?
But hand wringing and partisan bickering will advance this country no further than finger pointing.
The politics of distrust won't help either. And neither will a holier-than-thou attitude toward one political party's track record over the other's.
There's enough blame to go around on both sides of the aisle, and it won't do anybody any good to spread it around further. Wallowing in bitterness isn't going to help swallow the bitter pill that the doctor seems to have ordered.
What may do some good is a small dose of open mindedness and a willingness to recognize that government does have a job to do and doesn't deserve to be drowned in the bathtub.
Throw in a willingness to work together and you might be able to relieve some of the pain that is surely coming.
Rich Eggleston (Tue Oct 21 12:49:51 2008)
Yeah, there is enough blame to spread around, but the R's have controlled congress since the Gingrich takeover in 1994, and it has lasted until even today with the famed filibuster power of Mitch McConnell. I'm ready to see what the D's can do with a filibuster-proof majority.
Jack Lohman (Tue Oct 21 18:25:44 2008)
The "complete takeover" of the political system happened in the early 1900s. Watch the online video, "America:Freedom to Fascism", or "Big Sugar".
All the giant corporations have lobbyists that pound on EITHER a Dem's or Rep's door.
emily matthews (Thu Oct 23 14:55:13 2008)
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