November 2010 Archives

Interested in saving High Speed Rail in the state of Wisconsin? Check out the following meetings hosted by Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

The meetings will run from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and will take place in the following cities over the next week:

Tuesday, Nov. 30 in La Crosse at the Best Western Riverfront Hotel, 1835 Rose St.

Wednesday, Dec. 1 in Eau Claire at the Best Western Trail Lodge Hotel, 3340 Mondovi Road

Thursday, Dec. 2 in Fond du Lac at UW-Fond du Lac (location to be determined)

Tuesday, Dec. 7 in Madison at the WisDOT Southwest Region Office, 2101 Wright Street

 

Make sure your voice is heard!

The interwebs reports that income state Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald is circulating memos to his fellow Republicans to solicit their ideas on senate committees for the upcoming legislative session.



Given the promises about job creation made by Republicans across the state as they campaign, Fitzgerald's announcement that the Jim Crow-inspired Voter ID/Voter Suppression bill would be the first bill tackled in the Senate, One Wisconsin Now is guessing that the senate's reactionary agenda might also change the chamber's standing committee structure as well.

So we got out our old Commodore 64 and ran the data. The result: after analyzing the incoming Republicans' unrealistic promises made, factored against their willingness to favor campaign contributors and filtered through the vengeful nature they've shown in the past to punish political "enemies," here is what the computer spit out as the new potential committee for the upcoming legislative session.

The new committee list in no particular order:

Illinois, North Carolina, California and New York Job Export Committee
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Agenda Committee
BadgerCare Dismantling Committee
Privatizing Public Education Committee
Higher UW Tuition Committee
Tax Unfairness Committee
Union Breaking Committee
Lower Wages for Workers Committee
Prosecuting Women's Reproductive Health Committee
Ignoring Poverty Committee
Nuke the Environment Committee
Concealed Carry/Shoot on Sight Committee
Las Vegas Loophole Committee
Voter Suppression Committee
Pave Wisconsin Committee

Note: This is a completely scientific experiment, subject to the same peer-review standards regular used by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance and the editorial board of the Wisconsin State Journal.

If you feel any of these calculations are in error, please email us at own@OneWisconsinNow.org with your suggested committees. Or use the comment tool below to add your thoughts.

So is this what Rebecca Kleefisch had in mind when she called for free market solutions for health insurance vs. a federal law guaranteeing every person health care?

The number of children covered by [employer-sponsored health insurance] plans fell by 10 percent between 2000 and 2009 while the number of adults under age 65 with such coverage fell 9 percent.

Around 645,000 Wisconsin residents have lost employee health care over the past decade. In 2000, close to 80 percent of children, workers, and people under age 65 were covered by employer-sponsored insurance. By 2009 the numbers were closer to 70 percent.

In health there are often significant disparities in the kinds of medical care rich and poor people get, and that is true when it comes to the availability of decent workplace plans, too, which has declined especially steeply among Wisconsin's lower-wage workers. Just 26 percent of workers holding poverty-wage jobs get health care insurance through their employers today compared to 65 percent of workers in better-paying jobs..." [LaCrosse Tribune]

More at GOPromisebreakers. 

Long-time GOP seat filler U.S. Rep. Tom Petri has joined Paul Ryan and Jim Sensenbrenner in calling for Wisconsin's rail money to go towards paying for 0.001 percent of extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

But turns out, he wrote a letter last year as co-chair of the Midwest Rail Caucus calling for...drum roll...high speed rail for the upper midwest.

More here at GOPromiseBreakers.com.

Latest post at GOPromiseBreakers.com...

Scott Walker is getting desperate. After being rebuffed to handover the $810 million in high speed rail funding to his donors in the road building bidness, Walker has put his tail between his legs and now is begging the feds to give Wisconsin rail money, but for existing rail projects.

Read more here.

Incoming Joint Finance Committee Co-Chair Robin Vos (R-Rochester) has offered regular, nasally diatribes against the use of "non-fiscal policy" items in state budgeting. Here's one, courtesy of the facebooks.



Turns out, now that he'll be heading the state's budget writing committee, Vos will make exceptions to the rule. Particularly when it comes to an apparent plan by the new GOP majority to reduce regulations enacted last legislative session on the PayDay Loan and Title Loan industries. Says one Sunday newspaper:

"Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), the incoming co-chairman of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, said he wants to minimize the amount of policy in the budget but would be open to considering changes to the payday loan industry through that process."

If you're going to flip-flop on your principles, there's certainly no industry more appropriate to benefit from something like that than those who prey on the poor and working families who fall behind. Not to mention, Wisconsin was one of the absolute last states not to have any regulation on these merchants of misery.

People suspected of crimes in Wisconsin would have to prove they were legally in the United States or be turned over to federal immigration authorities under a bill that will be introduced next year in the newly Republican state Legislature.

"I want Wisconsin to be recognized as a state that will be on the side of Arizona," said bill author Rep. Don Pridemore (R-Hartford).

Wow, what a response! Almost 2,500 6,000 Wisconsinites have signed our letter to Governor-elect Scott Walker urging him to reconsider his opposition to the high speed rail project.

We're going to deliver the letter to Walker with the signers this week, so if you haven't signed yet, do it now!

https://secure3.convio.net/pn/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=576

Long-time One WI Now intern and superb voice-over talent Willie Barnes put together this amazing video about the benefits high speed rail will bring to Wisconsin. The video also highlights the bigger picture -- that the Wisconsin project is just a small portion of a Midwest hub and long-term plan for an improved national transportation network.

Wisconsin needs jobs and the rail line will create them, either here or in another state. The money cannot be spent on roads, no matter how badly Walker wants to "thank" his buddies at the road builder's lobby.

Make your voice heard and help save the train. We're going to deliver all the signatures to Walker's transition office next week, so time is running out! Head over to the letter page and add your name right now. Thanks!