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11/10/2008
Rahmlow: Doyle and Dems want to get busy
“I’m not looking for it”, was Jim Doyle’s response to reporters asking if he would join the administration of Barack Obama.
For weeks this columnist assumed that meant Doyle was either unhappy he would not be offered Attorney General, or that he expected the legislature to change parties giving the governor an opportunity to leave his mark on state politics. As it turns out, the latter seems more plausible. “I think we can have a really great Legislature that is focused on the real needs of the people,” Doyle said this week.
Former Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) rightly deserved to lose his position after “safe” Republican districts AD 57 and AD 2 went to liberal Democrats. From ignoring calls within his own ranks to enact the Kanavas-Vos income and capital gains tax cuts to going along with Jim Doyle’s deeply flawed budget proposal, Huebsch missed many opportunities to position his party in a turbulent election year.
The three Milwaukee Democrats vying for Speaker, however, will end up being bigger disasters. The frontrunners for the job have to be State Reps. Fred Kessler or Jon Richards. In March, Richards introduced Assembly Joint Resolution 118, a proposal to increase taxes and move families into a government-run health care program. He also sponsored AB 834 that will ban smoking in Wisconsin.
Kessler introduced several measures last session that included urging the federal government to pass a Constitutional Amendment on campaign finance. He also sponsored proposals to establish a state board to redraw legislative maps and encouraged the state Investment Board to cease investing in Sudanese businesses. And Milwaukee school-choice advocates have fought long and hard against Kessler’s attempts to roll back reforms.
In both men the governor will find an immediate ally, although Richard’s policy items more closely match Doyle’s agenda. Voters will quickly realize this is not the change they were looking for in Madison. Media-types have been writing stories downplaying the Democratic agenda saying budget constraints will hamper the ability of liberals to spend more money.
Unfortunately, that assertion does not hold up under scrutiny. Wisconsin has been running deficits every budget cycle for the past eight years. Today state government is spending $10 billion more on government programs than it did at the beginning of Doyle’s first term. And there is no reason to believe the incumbent governor will propose less spending in the coming biennium.
Doyle even expressed his desire this week to finally implement stalled parts of his agenda. Those agenda items include domestic partner benefits for public employees, a hospital tax that will be passed onto patients, an oil windfall tax that will be felt by consumers, mandating autism coverage which will drive up insurance costs, publicly fund Supreme Court elections, and eliminate the QEO.
It is on that last point that Doyle hopes to score his largest victory. WEAC, Doyle’s biggest cheerleader, has been lobbying the governor for a long time on that policy item. “The removal of this provision is a further example of this Legislature's lack of support for the dedicated individuals who teach our children. I remain steadfast in my commitment to end the unfair treatment of teachers and will continue to seek a repeal of this unnecessary law,” Doyle said in 2003.
This radical agenda will be enacted over the objections of Republicans, completely helpless to stop or slow these proposals.
Rahmlow is a former field director for Tim Michels 2004 U.S. Senate campaign and briefly served as Terri McCormick’s Congressional campaign manager in 2006.
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• Solberg: Healing After an Abortion
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• Does most of the public fall for this stuff?
• When you get signatures, always get a couple extra
• Blame it on the outmoded computers
• Scott Brown victory does not scuttle health bill
• 8th Congressional Candidate Forum, Jan. 25
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• Aren’t consumers taxpayers too?
• MORE taxes on investment income - dreadful and wrong
• Join the blaze orange army and say ‘Enough is Enough’
• The future of government-run health care
• Tax on banks is a really bad idea
• Roth, Savard on the stump, grassroots style
• Savard speaking in Appleton, 8 PM, Wed., Jan. 13.
• Rahmlow: Savard, Bies frontrunners for State Senate
• Burri: Failing Political Correctness 101
• School contracts and Race to the Top
• Senator Feingold worrisome and big red flags
• Psephological?
• This is really important. Contact Rep. Kagen. Now. Please.
• This is exactly what we need from Governor Doyle
• This guy is my hero
• Why am I not surprised?
• Talk health reform with Feingold (Th), Petri (today)
• Give the Mayor power over MPS - if he can break contracts
• Burri: Yup, Dems really are going to bypass a conference
• The $2.7 billion Wisconsin deficit no one told you about
• Walker launches county accountability website
• Rahmlow: Why is Van Hollen dodging the Nebraska deal?
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| 2009 |
December
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October
• The Lawton-Bader files
• Yup, it’s the TAX LEVY, not the tax RATE
• Ellis: costly automobile insurance laws must be rolled back
• If not Barrett, who?
• The subsidy game
• Burri: Bailouts, Banks, Health Care, and the Mob
• Attend Appleton Schools budget meeting tonight
• A public option WON’T increase costs? That’s delusional!
• Appleton Schools budget meeting Monday
• Wisconsin should be screaming for accountability
• Burri: If anything, we need more obstructionism around here
• WI on the leading edge - in the wrong direction
• Rep. Montgomery: Utility Customers Join State’s Crime-Fighting Efforts
• Public Conservation and Recreation Lands Total 16.5% of State
• In the crow's nest of the Titanic, shouting 'Iceberg!'
• Is Rep. Nelson a political hack?
• Health care: The road ahead will be brutal
• Kagen's pandering again
• Birthers - good stuff for you
• How much do we bend over backward for seniors?
• The trouble with health care is paying for it
• Two-parent families: The Gold Standard
• Burri: Kids... the joys and blessings
• Very, very worried about health care
• Rep. Huebsch: Wisconsin is proof government health care isn’t the answer
• School district contracts push up tax levy
• What? Obama, the Peace Prize?
• TODAY - hearing on Campaign Finance Reform
• Appleton School District tax levy up way too much
• CBO report is out - and the bill isn't even written yet?
• So, how much do YOU budget for health care?
• Burri: Copenhagen trip was amateurish
• “Sotomayor, you have blood on your hands...”
• Cap and Trade. Always follow the money
• Rep. Kagen gets (almost) free health services
• I actually agree with Rep. Kagen
• Future Wisconsin Conference for Conservatives, October 10, Wauwatosa
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| 2008 |
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• Important votes Tuesday, including Appleton Common Council
• Democrats are becoming supply siders??
• Further debunking Hillary myths
• WEAC has created an unsustainable monopoly
• From Mark Gundrum: One of the greatest honors an American can experience
• 'Operation Chaos' working?
• Joe Martin the best candidate in Appleton's 8th
• State programs to cut? - Volume II
• Oh the naivete of youth
• Not just disingenuous - flat wrong
• Steve - you will be missed
• Make cuts only AFTER you're elected....
• Getting serious: What programs can we cut?
• Rep. Steve Kagen joining me on Jerry Bader Show today
• Rep. Van Roy: Dental Care Pilot Program
• Has Dave Obey turned the corner on earmarks?
• Speaker Huebsch: Governor turns down Federal Aid?
• Mark Rahmlow: "We're Broke."
• As taxpayers, how do we know if it's a Chevy or a Lexus?
• This is trash talk - about a veteran
• Frank Lasee: Take time to get the Compact right
• 'The Gableman Ad' - is it racist?
• Roth thankful, Kagen shaking money tree
• Gov. Doyle's office not enamored with Freedom of Information
• Governor Doyle will never do it
• Leadership on smoking ban? Not Hanna
• Rep. Van Roy speaks out about smear ads
• You're threatening me about potholes?
• Losing the Hastert seat is NOT a trend and NOT curtians for the GOP
• First suggestion for 'slashing' programs
• Big money-saver for municipalities
• More one time fixes. Nuts.
• Any chances???
• I'm doing the Jerry Bader Show, today, the 11th
• Representative Frank Lasee: Final Waltz of the Season
• Guest Blog: It's not the county's business to be in the nursing home business
• Yup, Hillary won Texas and Ohio
• Gableman/Butler race featured - and it isn't pretty
• Lies from Planned Parenthood and NARAL
• He who sacrifices liberty.....
• Duh.
• The Troha sentencing, Doyle and that $200K
• Guns, passion and "originality"
• How hard is it anyway, to shut down a government program?
• Voting is a PRIVILEGE. And so are property taxes....
• Guest Blog: Governor Doyle, cancel your Ireland trip
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• Lots of ideas. No money.
• The Cigarette Tax - "Poor Policy Instrument?"
• School budget Lite?
• Frankenstein - not in the library, but in the legislature
• A librarian, a legislator, a president
• $1.25/pack - NO, NO, NO, and NO
• Kagen and Reagan in the same breath?
• Menasha: behind the 8-ball, but not biting the dust
• Any way you slice it, Wisconsin government wants (further) in on health care
• The World is Flat...what about health care?
• The PAC - too precious to fail. Day 3
• News follow-ups: Appleton West, Kagen at the White House
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail - Day 2
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail
• New Transit Tax coming your way
• Rep. Petri has his finger in the dike - I guess
• AASD Retirement Costs Burdensome
• Health care, health care, health care, health care
• Water rate increase was no slam dunk
• Education for all is just a bad dream
• New Year's resolutions from a parade snob
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