The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.
Only Iowahawk can come up with Recession Demolition Night. It involves the Chicago White Su…er, Sox, 90 C-17 Globemasters, and the $800 billlion in Porkulus money that has yet to be spent.
No word on whether they’re going to get Steve Dahl and Garry Meier back together for one night only.
The following just came in the comm-box from the Republican Party of Wisconsin:
RPW Chairman Reince Priebus Statement on Final State Budget Passage
MADISON – Following Legislative passage of a spending plan that increases spending by nearly $4 billion, increases taxes and fees by $2.1 billion, increases property taxes by $1.5 billion, and leaves Wisconsin with a $2.2 billion deficit, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Reince Priebus issued the following statement:
“Wisconsin’s budget mess is now a full-blown disaster. Taxes are going up, spending is going up, borrowing is going up…and Wisconsin jobs are going down as a result of it.
As he considers vetoes to this disastrous budget, the least Governor Doyle can do is stop digging Wisconsin’s budget hole deeper.
Wisconsin just can’t afford another one of Governor Doyle’s signature funding transfers as a result of the veto pen. Taxpayers have simply had enough.”
Something tells me that what comes out from under Doyle’s veto pen will be even worse.
The following just came into the comm-box:
House Passes Punitive Cap-and-Tax Bill
New energy tax “demonstrates just how distant and out of touch
Washington is from Wisconsin,” says Ryan
WASHINGTON – Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan today spoke out on behalf of the families and small businesses that would be on the receiving end of a massive new energy tax. Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2454, American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, by a vote of 219 to 212, with bipartisan opposition. Ryan voted against this legislation.
The center of the deeply flawed H.R. 2454 is a cap-and-trade scheme aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing energy costs on all Americans. The complicated cap-and-trade program would require all energy producers to purchase expensive government permits in exchange for the right to produce energy from certain natural resources or to produce certain goods like steel, aluminum, or cement. Without regard for the detrimental economic consequences, the proponents of the legislation believe this unilateral energy tax would help reduce global temperatures by a fraction of a degree by the end of the century.
Ryan’s vote against the 1,200 page bill came after only three hours of general debate, with Majority rejecting the single amendment they allowed. In addition to the job losses that would result from the smaller economy, Ryan raised concerns with the impact on the budgets of individual households. Families would face increasing costs on not only energy – but all products that require energy to make them (i.e., everything). Various nonpartisan studies have estimated that average annual household cost increases would range from $425 per household to over $4000 per household. Specifically, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimate that Wisconsin families will pay an extra $230 million in energy tax once the bill is fully implemented in 2012.
Congressman Ryan fought against this draconian energy tax and supports H.R. 2828, the American Energy Innovation Act, a commonsense alternative to promote a cleaner environment without causing further economic devastation in the middle of a painful recession.
Following today’s action of the House floor, Congressman Ryan issued the following statement:
“Today’s vote reminds me of just how distant and out of touch Washington is from Wisconsin. At a time when jobs are increasingly scarce across Southern Wisconsin, Congress passed legislation explicitly designed to shrink our economy and increase energy costs on all Americans. Wisconsin is one of the nation’s top manufacturing States. Wisconsin entrepreneurs, small businesses, and workers shouldn’t need permission from the federal government to produce, grow, and create jobs, yet that is exactly the paternalistic message sent by Congress today.
“The Majority added a 300 page amendment to the 1100 page bill at 3:09am this morning which effectively regulates the national energy sector (8% of the U.S. economy), and no member of Congress has even read it. This bill is the biggest federal power grab of the American economy this year and that’s quite a statement.”
“Should this bill become law, Wisconsin would suffer a disproportionate economic blow. As the legislation’s authors and chief advocate reside far from the Midwest, the cap-and-trade legislation wasn’t primarily concerned with cold-weather, manufacturing States that get most of their energy from coal. Families in Southern Wisconsin don’t have the luxury of turning off the heat in the winter.
“What’s worse, because we are imposing this energy tax unilaterally, the legislation will actually hinder the environmental goals we’ve set out to achieve. By making manufacturing more expensive here in America, this bill would send our manufacturing jobs overseas to our competitors like India and China. For every ton of emissions we reduce, India and China will produce several tons more. Under this bill, we will send our competitors American jobs while they are negating the minimal environmental gains made here at home.
“There is a better way forward. I was proud to support a substitute energy reform – the American Energy Act – on House floor today, which focused on an all-of-the-above approach to creating a cleaner environment and a stronger economy. Rather than lock-up domestic energy supply, we should expand our use of American-made resources as we encourage the use of renewable and alternative energy sources, including nuclear, wind, solar, and more. Environmental stewardship and economic growth are not mutually exclusive goals, and I will continue to fight for both of behalf of those I serve in Southern Wisconsin.”
I still haven’t seen a clean-text version of what just passed the Assembly 51-46, but it goes on to Gov. Jim Doyle for the biennial sign-and-hack. Democrats Bob Ziegelbauer and Peggy Krusik joined all the Republicans in opposition, while former “fiscal conservative” Jeff Wood once again betrayed his former positions and joined his Democrat friends in supporting it.
My previous summary is back here. I’ll be adding odious items to this post.
The following 8 “Republican” members of the House just enabled passage of the Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade-Tax bill:
Remember those names well, as had only 4 of them not wished for the largest and costliest intervention in manufacturing and energy production and usage in the history of this country, Henry Waxman, Ed Markey, and the interventionists would have failed as 44 Democrats saw this for what it is. Or, at least they would have forced 8 of those 44 to do what Jeff Plale did late last night in the state budget and sell out their principles.
Revisions/extensions (7:00 pm 6/26/2009) – My friends at The Heritage Foundation here’s what those 8 have done to their districts (in Castle’s case, the entire state). Nothing like dooming one’s district/state to billions of lost wages and tens of thousands of lost jobs.
In case you don’t have C-SPAN on, you might want to turn it on right now. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) is reading the entire 300-page amendment to the cap-and-tax Waxman-Markey bill that was introduced at 3:09 am this morning. He’s just over halfway through as I type.
Did you know that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made it into this amendment?
I’ve been focused on the state budget almost as much as the national presstitutes have been focused on Michael Jackson’s death, but Ed Morrissey has been keeping eyes on the larger picture. First stop – government-run health care. Our friends at ReasonTV have created a commercial on that…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPC6CqAFA4E[/youtube]
Next stop – Iran. Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami called for death to protestors. Things are going to get even bloodier.
Last, but definitely not least, is a familiar battleground, Gorebal “Warming”. The tactics employed by the Dems, including a last-second 300-page amendment to a 1200-page bill, are all-too-familiar. Just as a reminder from Ed, “This bill will lose the US 2.5% of its GDP each and every year in the years after the first decade of implementation.” (emphasis in the original)
(H/T – Charlie Sykes)
Rebecca Kleefisch, late of WISN-TV, took a camera to the state Capitol yesterday, asked various Legislators what the most wasteful thing in the budget is, and posted the results on YouTube.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNTslLxcuyU[/youtube]
She managed to get both my Assemblyman, Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee, who noted that the budget creates more government that will never go away), and my Senator, Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee, and I’ll get to his item momentarily). I personally like the item from Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) – “It starts on line one of page 1 and ends on line 7 of page 1903.”
I have a follow-up for Plale -if you thought the $10 million to create a UW system nursing school it didn’t want was wasteful, why did you vote for it?
Revisions/extensions (9:00 am 6/26/2009) – After a review of the version of the Comparative Summary of Recommendations that includes the Conference Committee version of the budget, I guess wasting $3,006,000 on advance planning for a “potential” new building for UW-Madison’s School of Nursing and mandating a school of nursing for UW-Stevens Point is, in fact, quite all right by Plale.
Revisions and extensions part 13 (7:09 pm 6/26/2009) – Since the DemoBudget has passed the Assembly 51-46, and we’re now at the final act of the biennial sign-and-hack from Gov. Jim Doyle, I’ll be updating a fresh post rather than this one.
Revisions and extensions part 4 (12:42 am 6/26/2009) – Moved up to the top (originally posted 6/25/2009 at 10:58 pm) with the 17-15 Senate passage (despite no bill text available). The most-vulnerable Dem Senator, Jim Sullivan, was again allowed to vote “no”. Start packing your bags.
R&E part 5 (12:59 am 6/26/2009) – Finally found the amendment text, which modifies the Senate version (as amended by a pair of amendments). Sorry I don’t have a clean-text version.
I have to thank Kevin Fischer, Sen. Mary Lazich’s (R-New Berlin) aide, for pointing me to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s comparison between the Assembly changes, Senate changes, and Conference Committee’s changes to the Joint Finance Committee Daughter-of-Necrobudget. This will be the version that Jim “Chainsaw” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) will take his veto pen to because under state law, it cannot be amended by the full Legislature. Of course, as of 10:47 pm, WisPolitics’ budget blog doesn’t have the full text of the final substitute to AB75 (the budget bill), but apparently the 24-hour clock started ticking about 8:15 pm.
I haven’t done a hard analysis yet, but it just keeps on getting worse. From Sen. Lazich:
In case you missed the math, the total 2-year tax increase will be $3,600,000,000. There’s also a few kickers (straight to the nuts delivered with steel-toed boots) I want to get out there tonight:
There’s a lot more, but I’m too tired to keep going.
Revisions/extensions (11:15 pm 6/25/2009) – I decided to add the major points of the KRM tax to this post.
R&E parts 2 and 3 (12:36 am 6/26/2009 and 12:37 am 6/26/2009) – Good news/bad news on the illegal alien front – the illegal-alien drivers’ licenses are out, but the illegal-alien in-state tuition is still in.
Also, despite the continued lack of the actual bill over at WisPolitics, the Senate has taken this up, mostly because Alan Lassee (R-De Pere) is absent attending to his ill wife, and thus two Dems can safely vote “no” lost track of the math.
R&E parts 6 (8:26 am 6/26/2009) and 7 (8:31 am 6/26/2009) – Jo Egelhoff (who gave me entirely too much credit) found that card-check union organizing for UW research assistants is in the budget. AFSCME and SEIU bought this government, and the Dems, specifically Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan and Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, who snuck it in in conference, are bound and determined to give them their moneys’ worth.
Meanwhile, Christian Schneider found that the chiropractors got another leg up on regular doctors. Any bets on the donation splits from them in the 2010 election cycle?
R&E part 8 (9:03 am 6/26/2009) – As noted above, the mandate for a UW-Stevens Point school of nursing and the requirement to spend just over $3 million for advance planning for a new UW-Madison school of nursing building, slated for construction in the FY2012-2013 budget, is in there. Paging East Side Plale.
R&E part 9 (2:34 pm 6/26/2009) – Brett Healy over at the MacIver Institute lists the dirty dozen items in this version of the budget. Items I haven’t listed yet:
I can only wonder just how much more will be found after the 24-hour circuit breaker the Assembly has gets reset. In fact, I’m surprised that in their rush to remake the entirety of state government into a secretive chamber of lawmakers lawgivers, the Democrats didn’t get rid of that circuit breaker.
R&E part 10 (3:22 pm 6/26/2009) – While mandatory auto insurance, first put in by the Senate, as well as the highest minimums in the country, first put in by Doyle, is part of this, Recess Supervisor found a pair of stinkers added in out of whole cloth by Decker and Sheridan at the insistence of Pedro Colon and the Legislative Black Caucus – new insurees can’t be put into a high-risk category because they never had insurance before, and insurance companies can’t assign risk based on where a vehicle is kept. That’s right, those of you upstate and in the burbs get to subsidize the accident- and theft-prone in the hearts of Milwaukee, Madison, and Racine. Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette) has more on this, including the fact that the soon-to-be-law Wisconsin ban on area-based risk will be the the only one of its kind in the nation, and that other states (like Michigan) rejected it. Once again, Michigan beats us.
R&E part 11 (yes, we are that far, and there’s still time before the Assembly rubber-stamps this, 4:58 pm 6/26/2009) – Cathy Stepp found a stinker of an item from the Assembly version that popped back in – the allowance of the Department of Commerce to promulgate the initial rules for the new construction contractor registration program as “emergency rules without the finding of an emergency”, with the rule lasting . Using the emergency rules power under s. 227.24 of the state statues means no prior consideration for small business as provided by s. 227.114, no review regarding its effect on housing as provided by s. 227.115, no economic impact report as provided by s. 227.137, no advance copies provided to the Legislative Council staff as provided by s. 227.15, no prior hearings or notice thereof as provided by s. 227.16, 227.17 and 227.18, no prior legislative review as provided by s. 227.19, and no time to prepare for its implementation between its publication in the official state newspaper (or state website as provided by other provisions in the budget) and the first day of the following month as provided by s. 227.21.
There’s more agencies that get to implement “emergency rules” without the finding of an emergency, including the Department of Revenue’s new requirement to impose a 1% tax withholding on independent contractors (originally in the Assembly version).
R&E part 12 (5:03 pm 6/26/2009) – Greg Bump, who has been the on-the-scene man, reports that, after agreeing to waive the 24-hour rule, the Assembly will begin their rubber-stamping process at 5:30. He also posted the request from the little piggies known as the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities to Doyle to use his veto pen to eliminate the 7/1/2011 sunset of the $0.75/line police/fire protection tax (formerly known as the 911 tax) and eliminate the loosening of fireworks laws. I’m shocked, SHOCKED to see the spenders squealing for the continuation of a brand-new tax.
As an aside, I will be creating a fresh post when the Assembly does rubber-stamp what Kevin Binversie has freshly deemed the DemoBudget. Very apt name, don’t you think?
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