Stealing From Malpractice Victims
Somehow I missed this story last week, and if it was reported on other Wisconsin blogs I missed that also.
Anyone who reads the Wisconsin blogs regularly knows that our governor Jim Doyle has a habbit of robbing every fund he can get his hands on. Last week Doyle tried unsuccessfully to steal $180 million from the Patients' Compensation Fund (PCF), but was defeated on a bipartisan basis. Republican candidate for governor Scott Walker has the story on his blog.
Jim Doyle's raid on this fund was irresponsible and most likely illegal, and the Finance Committee was 100% right in rejecting it. If the Governor had his way, the raid of this fund would have weakened our health care system and made health care more expensive and less affordable for all our families. Or course, that didn't stop one of Doyle's leading supporters, the SEIU from leaping to their patron’s defense and attacking the common-sense move by the committee. This is a scenario that has been played and replayed too many times — Doyle proposes a bad idea at the request of one of the many special interest groups he's beholden too, Republicans step forward to reject the idea and try to put Wisconsin back on a more common sense course, and Doyle's faithful deep-pocketed allies leap to the governor's defense.
We're never going to have leadership that puts people and taxpayers ahead of the people with the largest PAC warchests until we get Jim Doyle out of the East Wing of the Capitol.
We're never going to have leadership that puts people and taxpayers ahead of the people with the largest PAC warchests until we get Jim Doyle out of the East Wing of the Capitol.
From last weeks Journal Sentinel.
In the statehouse, Republicans condemn Doyle's budget. They reserve their harshest criticism for borrowing mechanisms that would allow Doyle to borrow $180 million from the state's patient compensation fund and another $130 million in the form of a bond issue.
Speaking to Milwaukee's business leaders Monday, Doyle shot back at his critics, reminding them of the circumstances in which he is drafting the budget. When he took office in January 2003, he inherited a $3.2 billion deficit - the deepest in the state's history and one of the nation's worst shortfalls when measured on a per capita basis. The current budget must fill a $1.6 billion budget hole without raising taxes or cutting education, the governor said.
Speaking to Milwaukee's business leaders Monday, Doyle shot back at his critics, reminding them of the circumstances in which he is drafting the budget. When he took office in January 2003, he inherited a $3.2 billion deficit - the deepest in the state's history and one of the nation's worst shortfalls when measured on a per capita basis. The current budget must fill a $1.6 billion budget hole without raising taxes or cutting education, the governor said.
The governor doesn't need to remind us of how he is drafting the budget, and he is indeed raising taxes. It included $2.2 billion in new spending, $800 million in transfers from special-purpose funds, $368 million in tax and fee hikes, and a whopping $1 billion in increased borrowing.
What we need is comon sense responsibility in spending. Doyle decides what he wants to spend first, and looks for the money after. Robs Peter to pay Paul as the old saying goes by raiding funds earmarked for other purposes like the highway fund, PCF etc. What he can't get with his shell game, he shakes down the taxpayers for it or increases the debt.
Wisconsin residents must see the greed and irresponsible spending of this governor, and I have no doubt that he won't be around after 2006.