Republicans need to look past ideology and work with Democrats to fix Wisconsin’s budget crisis.
MADISON - On Wednesday, a memo from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau indicated that, despite promises of windfalls, there will be no new revenue to salvage Walker’s sinking economy.
Despite a national growing economy nationally and significant revenue growth in neighboring Midwestern states like Minnesota, which is expecting a $2 billion surplus, Wisconsin continues to fall further behind because of extreme GOP policies. Instead, they have created a self-inflicted $2.2 billion deficit.
Instead of focusing on Wisconsin’s traditional shared values over the past five years, currently the Republicans in power have been consumed with historic slashes to education funding and denying our neighbors access to basic health services and family-supporting jobs, while at the same time widening tax loopholes for the wealthy and corporations.
On one hand, Minnesota is flush with cash and reaping the benefits because they have invested in their public schools, raised wages for families, and expanded access to affordable health care. On the other hand, Republicans in Wisconsin have been busy selling out our state to the lowest bidder.
Now is the time for a course correction. Governor Walker must put his personal ambitions on hold and Republicans in the legislature must look past their extreme ideology and work with Democrats to start investing in pro-growth policies that represent the shared values of the state and our citizens to get us out of this budget crisis.
We can do this by moving forward with accepting the federal Medicaid expansion and by pausing the costly Manufacturing and Agriculture Tax Credit.
It is time to end the regressive era in Wisconsin politics and get the state moving forward again.