I have to confess. I am a fiscal conservative. Other than during a deep recession or national emergency, I believe that the Federal Government should not spend more money than it takes in.
Senator Ron Johnson has long claimed to be a fiscal conservative, too. However, Johnson has totally reversed himself by supporting current GOP efforts to slash federal taxes on corporations and the ultra-rich.
While we are running deficits, we have absolutely no business in drastically increasing defense spending. We should not take-on purposeless multi-billion dollar projects like the DOTUS's Great Wall. We cannot afford to waste tens of billions on political stunts like IQ45's ending of supplemental ACA payments. We cannot justify huge pay-outs to the profitable pharmaceutical and fossil-fuel industries. And most of all, we should not reduce the amount of money coming-in by enacting humongous tax cuts.
Although I reject Sen. Ron Johnson's Tea Party approach on almost every issue, I have agreed with him on one thing. I saw Johnson's budget Power Point presentation several years ago during a West Bend town hall. He made the point that the growing Federal debt is a big problem. I totally agree. I appreciate the fact that he has brought attention to this problem. However, I do not agree with his placing the blame on Social Security and Medicare. We should not gut these programs that we have paid-into in our entire working lives.
But Johnson can no longer claim to be a fiscal conservative. He is currently a big proponent of so-called tax reform. There are two things he, and all Republicans, co-mix in that term. There is tax simplification, in which many of the byzantine rules of the current tax code would be revised to make filing taxes simpler. It is hard to argue against this. Who doesn't like the idea of a tax-return the size of a postcard?
However, the GOP's main drive for "tax reform" is not simplification. That is merely a diversion. The real motivation is to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations. This fiscally destructive move is being insisted on by major Republican donors. Depending on the final details, the GOP bill will add between $1.5 and $2.2 TRILLION dollars to the national debt over the next ten years.
Anyone who is concerned about deficits should be terrified of the Republican tax plan. This isn't rocket science. If you bring-in less money than you spend, then you run deficits. If you enact policies that drastically axe the amount of money coming-in, you make those deficits even larger.
However, many of the Republican politicians touting tax reform want us to believe that multi-trillion-dollar tax cuts will fund themselves. They are feeding us the lie that we will miraculously see such incredible economic growth that the government will actually see higher revenue. Variously called trickle-down economics, or voodoo economics, or bullshit, this has been shown time after time to simply not work. It didn't work in the '80's under Reagan. It didn't work in the 00's under Bush. It isn't working at the state level in the basket-case of Kansas.
Congressional Republicans put so much faith in the myth of self-funding tax cuts that they are calling on the CBO to score their tax-giveaway using fantasy numbers. They do not want the CBO to use realistic projected economic growth numbers to determine how badly the federal debt will balloon (so-called static scoring). They want the CBO to assume much higher growth rates, so that the resultant debt will not appear so cataclysmic (so-called dynamic scoring).
Like most Republicans, Ron Johnson has totally reversed his Obama-Era position that the deficit is important. He wants to run the US into ruinous debt by giving huge tax breaks to the already wealthy and to corporations enjoying record profits. During a September interview with the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, Johnson said that the tax reform he supports will lead to "a somewhat lowering of rates. From my standpoint, not even close to enough, but it's better than nothing."
Earlier this month, Johnson confessed that he was fine with being responsible for adding trillions to America's debt, "Just agree we’re going to lose money on a static scoring basis. I’m happy to live with a $2-3 trillion static loss."
So Ron Johnson is supporting what will be the largest corporate tax give-away ever. He is supporting a Republican effort to run America into a ditch of financial ruin. He is supporting policies that mortgage our children's future to give tax breaks to the one percent. He would be happy to add $3 trillion to the national debt. Fiscal conservative, my eye !
Republicans have been steadfast in pushing a handful of important agenda items. They want to take healthcare away from Americans. They want to give huge tax breaks to the ultra-rich. They want to lower the income of working-class Americans. They want to slash the environmental and workplace regulations that keep us healthier and safer.
Wisconsin Republicans have been especially effective in achieving the latter two goals. When it comes to slashing people's wages, they succeeded in spades. Act 10, Right-to-Freeload, the end of prevailing wage, and a refusal to increase the minimum wage combined to drastically lower the salaries of Wisconsinites.
State Republicans have also been adept at slashing important regulations that make us safer. They gutted the DNR and killed crucial environmental protections. They made the workplace more dangerous. They axed consumer protections.
A bill relating to the licensing of professional workers is currently being jammed through our state legislature. In a remarkable two-fer, this bill will slash workplace safety protections at the same time that it drives down wages. It's no wonder that GOP politicians are all-in on this dream opportunity.
Senate Bill 288-Assembly Bill 369 authorizes a new, partisan Licensing Review Board charged with examining current requirements for all of the 166 professions that require a license to practice in Wisconsin. The Board will report back to the legislature on which professions they feel a license should no longer be required, and on which ones the requirements should be relaxed.
The professions affected run a broad gamut. Skilled tradesmen such as plumbers, electricians, and elevator inspectors are covered. Health professional such as nurses, radiological technicians, and doctors are covered. Business professional such as architects, accountants, and funeral directors are covered. The complete list can be found on the WI Department of Safety and Professional Services website.
Licensing requirements give us some assurance that people we hire are competent. They let us know that professionals have been trained. They let us know that workers are aware of job-related safety standards. Obtaining a license requires some basic coursework. Maintaining a license requires continuing education and on-the-job experience. Cutting or eliminating license requirements will result in increased danger to workers and consumers.
Cutting or eliminating license requirements will also lower the entry barriers to those fields. Any quack who can afford a website could claim to be an elevator inspector, an acupuncturist, or a dietician. This will both depress the quality of services that we purchase and drop the salaries of people in the affected fields.
Far-right Wisconsin politicians have jumped on the national bandwagon for lower professional licensing standards. Our legislature's bill is almost a word-for-word copy of a model bill from the right-wing ALEC organization.
The list of supporters at an August hearing on the bill reads like a Who's Who of extreme right policy groups. Testifying in support of the bill were two Bradley Foundation-funded organizations, the Wisconsin Institute for Liberty and Law, and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. The Koch-funded groups Mercatus Center, the Institute for Justice, and Americans for Prosperity all came-out in support of the bill.
There is absolutely no Democratic support on these radical bills to weaken professional licensing. The Senate bill (SB288) is sponsored by Republican Senators Kapenga, Darling, Tiffany, Nass, Stroebel, and Wanggaard. The Assembly bill (AB369) is sponsored by a cast of 21 Republicans.
A national initiative is underway to slash the licensing requirements for a broad range of professions. The far-right policy groups behind this effort are driven by a blind worship of decreased regulation and lower wages for American workers. The Wisconsin GOP has jumped on the bandwagon and has introduced SB288/AB369 to bring about this radical change in Wisconsin.
If this bill becomes law, Wisconsin residents will see poorer professional workmanship, weakened consumer and worker safety, and lower wages. For the good of the state, we cannot allow that to happen.
Righties are often inconsistent in their opinions. The latest manifestation of that inconsistency is the MAGAtts' insistence that no gun control steps could possibly be effective in slowing the epidemic of gun violence. They tell us that there is nothing that we can do to lessen the odds that innocent men, women, and children will be gunned-down in our streets.
At the same time, many of these same folks insist that Trump's wall will be extraordinarily effective in stopping determined economic refugees from entering our country. They believe that once the dotard's Great Wall is erected, we will finally be safe from those darn illegals, their drugs, and their violence.
In just about any discussion with pro-death gun nuts, we are informed that there is nothing that will end the nearly daily American mass murders. They believe that there is no reason to ban weapon enhancements such as silencers, bump stocks, micro-penis compensators, high capacity clips, gat cranks, flash suppressors, etc. After all, once these devices are made illegal, psycho killers could still easily obtain them (assuming that they have access to a metal machine shop, an industrial-grade 3-D printer, or an outlaw arms merchant).
We are weary of hearing how inventive, resourceful, or handy crazy mass-murderers are. In reality, most of these sickos have neither the patience or engineering ability to boost the lethality of their guns on their own. Experts agree that making it illegal to produce, sell, or own lethality-enhancement devices such as these will go a long way toward cutting America's death count.
We are nauseated by the pro-death crowd telling us that we shouldn't have universal background checks. That there is no reason to ban gun sales to watch-list terrorists, the mentally ill, the senile, or domestic abusers. After all, these people will find someone who will sell them a murder weapon, no questions asked. Pro-deathers believe that nobody will ever report sketchy purchasers to the authorities. They think that no responsible citizens will gladly speak-up to head-off the next Sandy Hook massacre.
We are fed-up with pro-deathers who get into a semantics morass when the topic of banning semi-automatics and assault rifles comes up. (What do you mean by an assault rifle? What really is a semi-automatic?) They get into the circular argument that we shouldn't ban the carrying of weapons of war at the local mall. After all, there are already so many of these human-killing machines on our streets that it won't do any good to outlaw their carry, manufacture, or sale. They really believe that a halt to making new rapid-fire guns and aggressive buy-back programs will do nothing to lessen the chance that one will be discharged in your direction.
Despite all of the contrary evidence from other industrial democracies, pro-deathers keep telling us that common sense weapons laws will do nothing to stop the endless violence in American schools, nightclubs, concerts, and theaters. We are told that we must simply live (or die) with the consequences of America's all-guns, all-the-time, everywhere culture.
At the same time that the MAGAtts are claiming that common sense gun control would not be effective, they are touting Trump's wall as being the solution to all of America's problems. It will end the illegal drug problem. It will stop people from entering the country illegally. It will end thousands of terrorists from swarming our streets. They think that the Wall will be extraordinarily effective.
But Trump's folly, a wall that will cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, will simply not keep people out. Smart people determined to enter the US will easily find ways to fly over the wall, tunnel under it, go around it, or burrow through it. According to the Government's specs, a successful design should resist attempts to bore through for just thirty minutes. Last Wednesday, our own Jim Sensenbrenner stated that "...the Border Patrol says that the wall will slow-down people who are attempting to enter our country illegally by anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes...". So, our mighty Wall will be able to be breached in as little as twenty minutes. After that, people could stream through the created gap.
Many MAGAtts believe that common sense gun regulations-of the kind that have been effective in other industrial democracies-will simply have no effect in curbing gun violence in America. They believe that we should do absolutely nothing to protect our children and families from being gunned-down by madmen. Many of these same people have convinced themselves that a Great Wall, costing tens of billions of dollars, will keep people from entering the United States in search of economic opportunity.
Many on the right believe that insane potential murderers could easily find ways around strong gun laws, but sane and determined migrants will not find ways through a stationary wall. They are convinced that gun laws are totally ineffective, but Trump's Wall will be extraordinarily effective. They are wrong on both counts.
