Scott Walker and his Teapublican allies have a long history of committing fiscal violence against the people of Wisconsin.
It started when Walker dropped his Act 10 bomb on the state. And like a bomb, it caused and
continues to cause a lot of damage to the people of the state, taking money out of their pockets and giving it away to wealthy campaign contributors and cronies.
Their fiscal violence continued with their maleficent manipulations to the unemployment compensation insurance and similar services.
However, the favored target for their fiscal bullying are the poor and the minorities. This can be seen in their cuts of $56.2 million to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Homestead Tax Credit, used by low income families.
It was also evidenced by Walker's refusal to accept federal funding to expand BadgerCare. Not only did Walker's foolish decision cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars but kept 87,000 people out of the program.
But there's more. There's always more.
It is now being reported that Walker's decision was
much more harmful than it first appeared to be:
Wisconsin taxpayers would have saved $206 million over two years — 73% more than previously estimated — if officials had fully expanded its main health care program for the poor under the federal Affordable Care Act, a new nonpartisan report shows.
If officials decide to change course and expand the program in the next state budget, state taxpayers would save another $261 million to $315 million through June 2017, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The bureau serves the Legislature and is widely respected by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
In all, the state could have saved more than $500 million over 31/2 years, the report shows. That would have allowed Gov. Scott Walker and legislators to put more money toward schools or roads or cut taxes more deeply than they did over the last year.
In addition to saving state funds, the full expansion would have served an estimated 87,000 more adults each month under BadgerCare Plus, according to the fiscal bureau.
The program provides better coverage for people with low incomes — and at a lower cost — than the subsidized health plans sold on the federal marketplaces set up under the Affordable Care Act.
By accepting the federal funding that was offered to the state, Walker could have brought in another $500 million to the state, helped nearly 100,000 people get the health care they need and created hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs. And we're talking about real jobs that could be created right away - not the imaginary jobs that might or might not develop in ten years (as in the false promises of the Penokee mine)
While the taxpayers are surely going to take a big hit if Walker is allowed to keep up with his folly, the real victims of his decision are the poor people of the state, many of whom are minorities.
Most of us are keeping our eyes on the events occurring in Ferguson, Missouri, where people have been holding a week of protests stemming from yet another police shooting of an unarmed black man.
Obviously, Walker is not shooting people, but his acts of fiscal violence towards the poor and minorities are no less disturbing or egregious.
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