Making Wisconsin Worse
Things must be going pretty well here in Wisconsin as far as the economy goes. The budget woes are just about over. Wisconsin is going to get about $9 billion in stimulus money from the federal government. Is this the fix we need? Will it prevent taxes from going up? Of course not.
It seems too bad that the two senators from Wisconsin have not done anything in almost 20 years in order to bring some federal money into this state. Our two Democratic senators and Democratic Governor have never been on the same page in order to get effective programs funded in this state. The amount of money that we get from the federal government is pathetic compared to what is being sent. Wisconsin is clearly a donor state.
Why does it have to take Barack Obama's stimulus plan to bring the money into the state? Well, to answer my own question, is because the state is now being controlled by tax-and-spend Democrats. Programs and bureaucracies were expanded and created to demonstrate how generous we are to the poor and unfortunate here in Wisconsin. But, apparently there are not enough of them because the direction of the state is to create more people who are dependent on government handouts. The stimulus bill was passed quickly and swiftly to prevent people from actually finding out what is in it until it's too late. Well, it's too late. What was kept from the public, is the part of the stimulus bill that says that money given to the states as to be for new programs and permanent programs. This means that new programs are going to be created that are expanding the reach of government and is going to result in increased costs that go on for ever.
The spending bill is supposed to be a one time deal to get the economy going quickly and get us out of this recession. What results are we getting? Every week there seems to be a new plan for new bailouts. More and more money is being added to the annual deficit. Last year we were horrified when the annual deficit reached about $500 billion. That was labeled as irresponsible. In one month, we have troubled the budget deficit for fiscal year 2009. And we still have eight months to go. We've seen results in the continuing plunging of the stock markets. Every month we received worse news when it comes to retail sales, home sales, auto sales, and jobs reports. We seem surprised when they are not as bad as we had planned. Or is it as bad as we are hoping?
The governor is going to his old standbys -- taxing smokers, blaming the rich, and expecting businesses to create higher paying jobs while taxing them more. This is always led to Wisconsin being more prosperous in the past, correct? It's getting time to revive an old phrase -- albeit paraphrased: "Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose your job. Recovery begins when Jim Doyle loses his."
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