A Blue Wave Approaches

Scott Walker is Right

A Blue Wave is Coming                     

Tuesday’s election results, both local and statewide, show that a majority of voters are not happy with the current GOP leadership and policy choices and are looking for more moderate, if not progressive, leadership. The shocking local result was the “yes” vote on the City of West Bend street referendum where voters actually agreed to a modest increase in property taxes to fix too long neglected city streets. 

In a post-election tweet Tuesday night, Governor Walker tried to rally his base with a prediction of a Democratic wave swamping his ship in the Fall and a desperate plea for money after Milwaukee County Judge Rebecca Dallet beat Judge Michael Screnock by double digit numbers.  Walker campaign team staff ran Screncock’s campaign and traditional GOP backers, like the NRA and the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, contributed vast sums for TV ads, all to no avail. Screnock even lost to Dallet in his own home county. Walker’s pick for a circuit court seat in very red Waukesha County also lost. Dallet ran a liberal backed campaign against special interest money in politics and the current GOP results driven majority on the Court. She won handily in the cities and saw the red turn purple and even blue in many former GOP strongholds across the state. Those defeats sent a clear signal that voters, even in traditionally red areas, are no longer lining up for the Walker/NRA agenda.

In the other statewide race, a last minute liberal led charge saved the State Treasurer from extinction at the hands of the GOP legislative majority. Clearly, the legislative leadership wanted to be rid of their only constitutionally mandated financial watchdog so they could continue to loot the treasury and send tax windfalls to their crony supporters with no one else having a handle on the purse strings. Voters saw through the ploy and rejected the constitutional amendment that would have killed the office. Another blue defeat for the Walker led crew.

Walker’s miscalculation about calling special elections in two districts with vacant legislative seats undoubtedly helped swing voters, especially those feeling disenfranchised by GOP voter suppression tactics. When he lost legal challenges to his decision brought by former Democratic Attorney General Eric Holder, the legislature started to bring forward quickie legislation to change the special election rules only to abandon the effort when Walker caved and called the required special elections. The blatant power grab and disenfranchisement of local voters in those districts showed just how low the GOP leaders are willing to stoop in order to maintain power. 

One of the mantras of the far right ever since the famous “no new taxes” pledge took hold is that voters are sick of increasing taxes. West Bend’s alt-right Mayor and Council were so afraid to raise property taxes to fix the city’s crumbling streets, that they sought cover in the advisory referenda questions the voters answered clearly. The referenda question answers told the Mayor and Council that it would be acceptable to raise property taxes modestly, but not too much, in order to fix the streets and to try and persuade the county to help by sharing part of the county sales tax revenue with the county’s municipalities. District 7 Alderman Adam Williquette’s defeat at the hands of a candidate who ran on a “let’s fix the streets” platform should seal the deal. Time will tell.

The West Bend School Board race brought another bell weather election result. In the recent past, tea party extremists with anti-public school, anti-science agendas, have dominated the board. Last year’s school board election changed the board to a pro-public school, more teacher friendly majority and Tuesday’s election delivered a final and resounding rejection of the evangelical Christian attempt to subvert and privatize our public schools. Chris Zwagart and Kurt Rebholz ran on a pro-teacher, leave curriculum development to the experts and sound governance platform. They brought in convincing majorities against an incumbent who developed an alliance with an anti-evolution, anti-teacher zealot. It should not have been as close a result as we saw, but voters again rejected the extremist positions. One of the issues in the race is what to do about the aging elementary school in Jackson. The new majority has a mandate to fix the problem and the ability to convince majorities in the district to replace the old building with a new one. 

Our new school board majority can reject “no tax increases for schools” arguments by pointing to the 50 plus public school referenda approved by Wisconsin voters on Tuesday while only 6 failed. There is a clear mandate in those results showing property taxpayers are willing to pay more to support quality public education. They supported both operational and capital referenda, some with fairly large price tags, even after the GOP leadership passed new laws making it significantly more difficult for local school boards to raise property taxes for public schools.

Tuesday’s election results continue the momentum from the recent special elections where progressive Democrats made further inroads into previously red districts. It must not go unnoticed that our own Dennis Degenhardt, the former CEO of Glacier Hills Credit Union and Vice-Chair of the Democratic Party of Washington County carried the City of West Bend in the special election for our Assembly seat in the race against former County Board Chair, Rick Gundrum. 

I believe Scott Walker for once. A blue wave is going to swamp his ship in November.

Blue Tides Rising

Voters Speaking Up.

Cooperation and Compromise are Key

With each GOP governing blunder that comes to light, we see Democrats stepping forward to run and win in special elections across the land. The political pendulum often rebounds in off year elections as voters see first hand that one-party rule does not work so well. Between now and next November, we will see a much more pronounced pushback primarily due to the continuously outrageous conduct of our president and his cohorts.

Congressional republicans were unable to pass any significant healthcare reforms because they refused to work with Democrats to earn enough votes to secure passage of even modest changes. Tax reform, now being used as a stealth weapon to repeal Obamacare, appears headed down that same road. Republicans in the Senate can only lose two votes on their tax reform proposal and the inclusion of Obamacare repeal will most certainly cost them the support of more than two of their moderate members. Rebellion from the right and left flanks will further stall any meaningful legislative activity before the mid-term elections next fall.

Elections across the country for state legislative seats and local municipal positions are already showing clear signs of voter discontent about GOP inabilities to get anything done on the important issues like infrastructure repair, clean elections, tax inequality and government giveaways to the wealthy who need them the least.

Here in Wisconsin we are beginning to see voter push back against the backroom secret deals like Foxconn that will punish middle class taxpayers for most of the rest of their working lives. Couple the bad Foxconn deal with the bumbling leaders in the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation who cannot enforce any of their own lax rules and we will have an economic disaster that will take decades to fix. Wisconsin still lags far behind in job growth and business development even with massive corporate tax reductions and the lifting of regulatory burdens.

Wisconsin voters are also standing up for their local public schools. Over 70% of the public school referenda passed in the last cycle. These communities have had enough of GOP control from Madison telling them they cannot raise local taxes to support their schools. They are demanding return of local control to their elected school boards so they can provide the resources their educators need to prepare the next generation.

People are rejecting those who would impose outmoded religious beliefs upon their constituents through unconstitutional bathroom bills and gay discrimination laws by electing openly transgendered citizens who care more about fixing roads than which bathroom people use.  They are turning against those who would use their positions of power to sexually harass and assault those less powerful. Respect for women and protection of children are gaining political currency once more. Misogyny is on the way out.

As President Trump and his family continue to loot the treasury, his campaign staffers face federal indictments and industry insiders take control of the regulatory agencies that once kept them in check, voters are telling elected officials who support the Washington rulers that they made the wrong choice.

It is not about one’s political party; it is about the country and what America stands for around the world. With Trump supporting Putin and dictators in the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, American voters are demanding a return to measured diplomacy with our enemies and unwavering support for our friends. We cannot have a president who threatens nuclear war with North Korea in early morning tweets and cuddles up to Chinese leaders in hopes they will reign in North Korean nuclear ambitions. An America floundering about on the world stage with little apparent purpose does little to calm a jittery world already reeling from our withdrawal from climate change accords and trade pacts that stabilize international markets.

Average Americans who cannot reach out to their elected officials in any meaningful way to express their displeasure can only turn to the ballot box. In almost every one of those opportunities, we see rejection of the current status quo. Red seats are turning blue across the land. As the GOP digs in its heels and clings to it’s “my way or the highway, take no prisoners” approach to governing, the blue tide will continue to rise.

Look for leaders who will listen and ask, “what do you think?” These are the ones who can and will work across the ideas that appear to divide us to find solutions to the common problems we all face. These are the leaders and elected officials of our future, if we are to have one.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.

Just Saying No Isn't Governing

Just Saying “No” Is Not Governing

Compromise Works

Republican legislators, state and federal, are slowly learning that actual governing requires more than just saying “no” to new taxes, kowtowing to wealthy donors and sticking to talking points crafted by those whose agenda is to advance their own personal agendas and dismantle the government.

On the federal level, even with control of both houses of congress, allies in the Oval Office and a majority on the Supreme Court, the GOP cannot pass its signature piece of legislation repealing and replacing the dreaded Obamacare.

The House of Representatives’ version pushed and praised by Speaker Paul Ryan was homage to his mentor and philosophical guru, Ayn Rand. Their vision of healthcare insurance coverage is to take it away from over 22 million Americans, dismantle and underfund what might be left of Medicaid, and provide enormous tax breaks to the wealthy and health insurance companies already reaping substantial profits on the misery of the ill. Their mantra appears to be, “I’ve got mine. If you cannot afford it, you cannot have it and clearly do not deserve to have it.”

The initial version from the U. S. Senate was not much better. 22 million would still lose coverage and Medicaid remained on the chopping block. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could not corral 51 votes from his fellow republicans for his bill, even after arm-twisting from the White House and closed door deals with hold out senators.

The next version was released on Thursday with small tweaks to try to win over skeptics in the GOP ranks. There were some improvements, but the basic flaws remain. Here are the low points.

Medicaid payments would be fixed per-person amounts to the states that are guaranteed not to keep up with rising healthcare costs. These cuts will hurt the young and elderly disproportionally, especially when joined with the rollback of Medicaid expansions.

Insurance plans would no longer have to meet minimum coverage benefit standards. Sicker people would be forced into higher benefit plans, driving up the costs which would lead to higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles. This will drive up premiums. The fund created to help high premium costs is wholly insufficient.

Tax credits and health savings accounts for catastrophic health insurance plans are useless to low-income folks who lack disposable income to utilize them.

Also still gone will be the requirement for all to carry health insurance. With the young and healthy out of the pool, premiums for the remaining older and sicker will skyrocket.

McConnell’s move to keep the Obamacare taxes on the wealthy is a sly move to win senate votes, but is merely sleight of hand to cover a later, larger tax cut for the rich under the budget reconciliation rule that will only require 51 votes to pass.

Public pushback from all sectors has been substantial and will continue making it hard for some GOP senators and representatives to support the Senate bill in its current form. Without a large measure of compromise to win over enough Democratic votes, Obamacare will remain the law of the land until driven to ruin by GOP sabotage.

In Wisconsin, we are not much better off. Even with control of both houses of the legislature, the governor’s office and the Supreme Court, we cannot pass a state budget for the next two years. The state’s budget was supposed to be passed by July 1^st. We did not run out of money or close up shop like some other states without passed budgets, but we remain stalled nonetheless.

A majority of us want to put money back into public education that previous budgets stripped away. We also want decent highways and roads upon which to travel. Because our legislators are still stuck on “no new taxes,” we do not know how much state aid will flow to our public schools leaving local budgets in limbo. Similarly, we have highway construction projects around the state in limbo and no idea what may be available to fix local roads in our cities and towns. School funding appears to be contingent upon road funding.

Many conservatives no longer buy into increased borrowing to fund road construction and repair. They recognize the need for increased revenue to fix the problem.

One solution, a non-starter for the leadership, would be to increase the gas tax by five cents a gallon. The gas tax used to be indexed to inflation, but that died under GOP control so we are stuck with a 2006 tax level. Cars and truck are more fuel efficient, so we buy less gas. Gas tax revenues are down as a result.

Not finding a solution to road funding jeopardizes education funding and local budgeting. A three-month budget delay will keep the DOT from proceeding with some planned projects. A four-month delay will impact local road budgeting and a delay until August could mean loss of federal highway funds.

Maybe it is time to sit down with Democrats and find solutions that will command the votes to govern, as our government requires.

Waring Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.