Friday, August 21, 2009

What Does Legal Authority Have To Do With It?

The other day, I wrote a post talking about the benefits that Milwaukee County is seeing from pursuing and attaining federal stimulus funds. In the same post, I pointed out how some other bloggers have noted that Walker is dismissing the people benefiting from these funds as not being "real people." At the end, I also pointed to a Walker apologist, who continuously tries to distort the facts in order to minimize the damage Walker keeps doing to his own campaign:
It also explains why the Walker apologists* are so desperate to twist his anti-stimulus stance around. It is just another big issue which Walker has come down on the wrong side.

*By the way, Aaron Rodriguez fails to point out that the fact that Walker did not even have the legal authority to set conditions on the stimulus funds. It is just another way that he was trying to hedge his bet when he realized what a political blunder he had made with his grandstanding.
Unbelievably, Mr. Rodriguez responded with this comment:
Chris,

I'm not sure what your point is about having or not having "legal authority." It doesn't seem relevant.
To be honest, I was stunned by this. First of all, the "conditions" that Rodriguez continues to fall back on in his defense of Walker makes it an issue. However, since Walker lacked the authority to put any conditions on it, it makes those conditions irrelevant. Walker has the right to express his opinion, but not enact his own policy regarding the funds. His job is to enforce and administer the policies set forth by the board.

As an example that Rodriguez, as well as Walker himself, obviously don't understand what Walker's job is supposed to be, I pointed out months ago, Walker had continuously been sabotaging any efforts to get the stimulus dollars, ignoring his own "conditions" on any of the funds he did agree should be pursued. This continued until the County Board got together and spelled it out to him in no uncertain terms, and strongly expressing their frustration and anger at Walker's blatant hypocrisy about the entire subject.

In other words, the arguments that Walker, both himself and through his supporters, like Rodriguez, are hypocritical, if just not out right lies. If Walker cannot handle something like this, how do they expect to trick people into thinking he could handle the job on a state level?

6 comments:

  1. Chris,

    You are such a dolt. The reason I asked the question is because I wanted you to clarify why his lack of legal authority "to set" conditions is even relevant. I don't think anyone cares if Walker has that sort of power, but he does have some power to accept or reject available stimulus funding.

    Your point would be salient if Walker didn't have the legal authority to accept or reject funding. I don't think anyone was confused about this fact. It's like saying that President Obama doesn't have the legal authority "to set" legislation. Of course he doesn't, but he has the legal authority to veto it, just like Walker.

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  2. Aaron, you call me a dolt, but you don't know of which you prattle on about.

    Whether to pursue stimulus dollars, and any stipulation put on that pursuit, is policy. Walker cannot set policy. Period.

    He overstepped his authority, and willfully sabotaged Milwaukee County in doing so. His pretense of setting conditions only demonstrates his hubris and his lack of knowledge of the law.

    Your apologizing for him shows your naivete and/or culpability.

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  3. Chris,

    Walker is not claiming to set policy. The three conditions he laid out of "no local matching, no continuing operational costs, and no new overhead" are an "acceptance" criteria, not a policy making criteria. He has the legal authority to accept or reject stimulus, but does not have the legal authority to legislate.

    Here is where you are confused. Walker is not pretending to craft stimulus bills, but rather telling them what he will and will not accept. This is certainly within his scope of power. So your posts about his legal authority "so set" policy is irrelevant.

    Understand now? Good, not post your retraction.

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  4. Aaron,

    If I were to post anything, it is that you spin and flip-flop almost as much as Walker. Acceptance criteria is policy, which he cannot set. Walker's job was to follow County policy about the stimulus.

    But just as he has repeatedly done, as with shutting down the indoor parks and creating a new tax on toddlers, he has again overstepped his authority with the stimulus.

    It is just another example why he is unfit to be governor. He can't even handle the job he has now.

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  5. Chris,

    I will expound on it this last time, then I must go.

    Walker doesn't need to create policy to accept or reject stimulus funds anymore than the president needs to create policy to veto a congressional bill.

    Walker already has the authority to veto, and he will use it how he sees fit. He has said what will determine his decisions on this matter, so if you don't like it, then tough. But don't distort the issue by introducing red herrings.

    The bottom line is that he will use his legal power to protect the taxpayer from additional expenditures, which is his job. If only our governor would have done this, we wouldn't have the worst budget deficit per capita in the nation.

    You liberals continue to cry and whine about every cost saving measure that conservatives introduce without any regard to the taxpayers who have to carry the burden during a recession. And the logical progression to this type of spending philosophy is higher taxation and less business growth.

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  6. If what you are saying was true, then the County Board wouldn't have had to prepare a lawsuit against Walker for not doing his job. It was only after public humiliation and the threat of the lawsuit that Walker reluctantly conceded to doing his job.

    And I don't see Walker being responsible to the taxpayers at all. There are literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of neglected infrastructure; people are being exposed to PCBs from the Milwaukee River, due to his negligence; the economy will suffer because of his poor management of the transit system; and let us not forget the many multimillion dollar lawsuits he has opened the county to.

    Walker has driven out more businesses from Milwaukee County than have left the state.

    Walker is only hoping to fool the people long enough to skip town before the reality of his ineptitude hits the fan. We cannot afford Walker as county executive, how the hell would we be able to afford him as governor?

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