Wisconsin Corporations Shift Tax Climate

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Every time a new tax or increase on corporate profits is proposed in Wisconsin - Republicans, conservatives and their media enablers are the first ones to oppose it primarily on the claim that the tax will hurt consumers, seniors or the poor. Our local newspapers, chambers of commerce and republican politicians repeat this over and over again, they should know.

Wisconsin Falls In Business Rank:
Wisconsin fell three places, to No. 39, in the annual ranking of state business tax climates published Tuesday by a conservative Washington policy research organization.

I don’t know what methodology the WTA or the Tax Foundation use to separate or define portions of corporate tax paid to the state collected from corporations embedding their tax burden into the price of goods or services they provide. I don’t believe the formulae exists. They all pay the same Federal taxes. In other words, corporations don’t pay state taxes – AT ALL. Their customers pay it. That’s why Wisconsin is consistently ranked in the top ten worst for individual tax burden. While each state has different taxing mechanisms to lift the burden off of individuals, corporations for the most part use the same tactics to unload their burden. But consumers aren’t the only ones who pay the taxes for corporations, their workers also take a hit with lower wages. Wisconsin is not known for high wages.

Now, some may say this is a perfect reason why corporate taxes should be abolished or lowered, but that's not the issue. Some states with a much lower corporate tax burden on the books actually have poor economies. The issue is the state needs money to operate without increasing the tax burden on individuals. So how can the state collect a fair tax on corporate profits without the corporation shifting the burden to their customer?

Tax Foundation Excerpt:
If taxes take a larger portion of profits, that cost is passed along to either consumers (through higher prices), workers (through lower wages or fewer jobs), or shareholders (through lower dividends or share value).

For one thing and you better believe it, corporations will not allow a cut in profits because of a state tax. It just won’t happen – not now or ever if they can help it. But I don’t believe the last part (about dividends) of their statement. Over the years, this problem has gotten worse primarily because businesses are no longer beholden to their employees (revolving door) or customers (when was the last time you heard a customer is always right). The CEO’s and their officers are judged ultimately by the return of dividends paid to the shareholders. In large corporations, workers are fully expendable, and believe it or not, so are customers if there is a large enough population.

Wisconsin residents should be outraged when politicians defend corporations. Legislators should be working night and day creating policies defending income taxpayers, property owners and consumers from tactics employed by these "shifty" corporations.

If the WTA or the Tax Foundation have a system which accurately measures the state tax burden on corporate profits like their charts and graphs portray, exclusive from receipts charged to customers - Gov. Doyle should look into it.

No - the whole world should look into it.

But if their business ranking report lacks this minor detail - they should file the entire 64 page report under the letter "G" and start over.

Ryan Ineffective On Health Care Crisis

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The “new” Janesville Gazette, same as the old Janesville Gazette has been on a roll lately. Predictably ripping some of the strongest representation we have in Rock County, both State Rep. Judy Robson and Sen. Russ Feingold. Sunday’s Gazette editorial slamming Feingold for his stance on CAFE was just another rehash of an editorial from a few months ago. Apparently, readers don’t mind paying full price for the brainwashing, the lack of new direction or the constant repetition of the same old attacks and reruns.

JG Sound Off Excerpt:
ON SCHIP: Those who criticize Paul Ryan’s stance should have read his column in Monday’s Gazette. He is for the original SCHIP program and for children but voted against this plan because it added unqualified pork-barrel issues. – anonymous

Politicians, and that includes Democrats, who would put tax dollars, pork spending, taxpayers, saving money, privatization for profits, lower taxes, pork dollars, higher taxes, money or whatever they want to call it ahead of the health care and welfare of any child are pure losers, plain and simple. Particularly so during this time of increased Federal revenue collections, democrats should see no need to compromise this bill.

Paul Ryan Column Excerpt:
Why expand SCHIP to people who already have coverage, when so many low-income children remain uninsured?

This raises the question: Why give tax cuts to people who don’t need them when so many others get by without tax cuts.

Paul Ryan Column Excerpt:
If universal health care is the goal, as proponents claim, this is the wrong pathway.

Universal health care is a goal, but not a goal by expanding SCHIP. This is where Bush and Ryan have stigmatized the expansion of SCHIP by wrongly painting it as spring board to universal health care. It’s not. And lastly……….

Paul Ryan Column Excerpt:
Makes it simple for illegal immigrants to fraudulently qualify for Medicaid and SCHIP – allowing states to disregard the requirement to view actual documents of applicants.

Do you mean the same way illegal immigrants are allowed to fraudulently qualify for a low paying job?

This sounds more like a procedural problem than a policy issue. But let’s pretend it’s not. Let’s face it, 20 million illegal immigrants didn’t sneak in without the help or knowledge of the U.S. government. Once again Bush (and Ryan) feels these people are good enough to work on American soil for poverty level wages but not good enough to qualify for poverty level assistance. Even still, are we going to blame another unresolved issue, illegal immigration, as an excuse to deny expanding health care for children?

Ryan says there’s a better way but doesn’t elaborate. But from what I understand, Ryan’s solution to everything is privatization, thereby distributing all of your health care dollars among the profit takers and speculators first, and let their profitability decide what YOU can afford. This is not what America is about, we’re not a third world country yet…….or are we?

View individual donations to Rep. Paul Ryan here
View corporate donations to Rep. Paul Ryan here.

Brett Davis Makes No Compromise For Partisanship

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Saturday’s Janesville Gazette contained a column titled “Compromise Budget Invests In Priorities” written by State Rep. Brett Davis. In it he explains that on Oct. 15th, he was the only Republican to vote in favor of the Governors special session budget, and that it’s time legislators put the people of their districts above party politics. Nowhere in his article did Davis mention the $4 million soybean crusher he captured from state taxpayers for his district. Perhaps he doesn’t have to.

Although Davis makes it sound like his conservative base was upset by his pacifying vote, his vote was meant to be irrelevant from the start. In no way should democrats think this guy is some kind of a “people” legislator. He is a Republican who happened to find himself in that rare compromising position all pork spenders only wish for, where they can ”reluctantly” take a $4 million piece of state pork and cook it up as the cost of bipartisanship. Do you think republicans in his district will vote against him in the next election? Not a chance.

Owning Property In Janesville Is Obstructionism

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After the last Janesville City Council meeting involving "passionate" citizen Steve, we learned that all homeowners, property owners and taxpayers in Janesville are now reduced to potential “obstructionists” if they think they are entitled to quiet enjoyment of their property.

Saturday’s Gazette contains a letter from another “obstructionist,” who seems to think existing property owners within the Downtown Revitalization Plan should be included in someone else's vision for their property. The letter writer also thinks that Big Developers are given the upper hand (and hand-outs) over the “little man.” Whatever gave her that idea?

JG letter Excerpt:
The last development plan included our building. After I read it in the newspaper, I went to Forward Janesville to ask questions. I was treated like I was being nosey. – letter writer

That’s about right, I mean, who do you think you are? You know they want to steal your property when the first time you hear about it – is in the newspaper. These kind of people lay awake nights scheming of ways to make money off someone else’s investment, and when they have city government in their back pocket, you can’t “win."Then we had the promised “tipping point” article from Forward Janesville’s president John Beckord.

JG Excerpt:
Private sector investors are watching and waiting to see if the public-sector support is for real this time

By public sector support I must assume he means taxpayer handouts to outside investors. But it’s more than that. Once outsiders realize (and they already do) that city hall no longer represents the current and long-time property owners, they will swoop in like vultures. Hence the “tipping point” moniker given to a new wave of investment dollars.

JG Excerpt:
Our community's history...........

How could you even begin to talk about "community" when you exclude it from your plans?

JG Excerpt:
It is central to the brand we portray to the outside world.

What exactly is the brand Janesville portrays to the outside world? By offering investors and developers backroom deals to help themselves to someone else’s property - how does that help us all? And if revitalizing downtown means we ignore the rights of existing property owners who had the wisdom and wanting to “buy” long before some venture capitalist decided to turn a buck – what kind of brand is that? I’ll tell you what brand it is – it’s horseshit brand.

Steve isn't the only one "passionate" about downtown.

Republicans Don’t Know What They Wished For

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I was surprised to read that Sen. Judy Robson was ousted by her fellow democrats as majority leader. People can say what they want, but I took the cue a long time ago from both of the newspapers in Janesville. Robson was/is regularly pummeled by them like no other politician, except for maybe Feingold, but the catch is – these are fiercely GOP propagandist brochures masquerading as newspapers. Getting dissed by them is a “badge of honor.”

The Messenger for instance would print a non-combative article by Robson informing constituents of her direction, views and policies only to be literally trashed in their editorial the same day! The Gazette, well what can be said. They think she is too liberal and not a leader, etc., etc. I can understand others in the state reading this and saying “so what?” Who really cares what those newspapers say? I agree, but nearly all newspapers including these two, complain often about the partisan bickering, about the need for politicians to reach out across party lines and negotiate for the good of the people. Judy Robson is just that person – they couldn't stand her.

Now I’m also under the impression that if we had a different Senate majority leader, we would still be at an impasse on the state budget. That this would be good for the state. Somehow I agree.But now I would admit and hope that the new direction chosen is different. That the partisan “bickering” is over and we can now look forward to what Republicans wanted to do all along anyways. Something the respectful, dedicated and intelligent Robson refused to participate in.

Lets get ready to rummmm-ble.

Janesville Planners - Visionaries Or Pirates?

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The article titled Heavy Lifting Starts in Tuesday's Janesville Gazette about Monday's Janesville City Council meeting left out quite a bit of the passion that was displayed by several citizen speakers.

I was enlightened by some of the rhetoric coming from at least one of those citizens who approached the podium to address the city council about a privately owned building in downtown Janesville, explaining his ideas and vision for property that belongs to someone else.

”We condemned buildings before, the building is condemnable. We can take the building back with eminent domain, and release it to private development.” – Steve (Janesville resident)

Wow. But Steve wasn’t finished just yet.

”I encourage you not to accept the fact that just because one man, an obstructionist, owns a building that we don’t have the right to speak out against that, that we don’t have the right to take that building back” – Steve

Pretty powerful stuff, to publicly announce how you covet somebody else’s property and then encourage authorities to literally take it from one private party, in this case the owner, and hand it over to another private party. Again, the City Council sat motionless after his speech, and without rebuttal or denial I’m afraid, gave viewers the solid impression that Steve was speaking their language. Afterwards, John Beckord from Forward Janesville referred to Steve’s rant as passionate, and then discarded a popular opinion by some residents about the spending relationship and the debt incurred between the operational budget and the borrowing required for capital investment as a “failure to understand.” In a backward sort of way, Beckord’s comments actually supports the reasoning behind the request made by another citizen to televise the upcoming city budget “learning sessions” on public access cable. That request (for televising) was made again at this meeting – and for the third time the city council denied permission.

Another issue was the annexation of property at County A and Austin Road. Here, two citizens made an impassioned plea to the council in opposition while none (private citizens) spoke for it. Those two people were as good as 200 against zero, but the council doesn't see things that way. People should understand by now that once a city administration has bought into annexation as a favorable way to sprawl and expand their tax base - it's extremely hard to beat them. This pre-determination weighs like a heavy anvil over the heads of those who oppose. I can't think of anything short of radioactive land that would stop an annexation request made to the city of Janesville - and I'm not too sure about that (radioactivity) stopping them either.

Hiking Trails Vital To Economic Growth: Gazette

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This past Sunday’s Gazette editorial was a curiously odd endorsement of the Janesville Downtown revitalization plan. Not so much that they asked the City Council to approve it, but the Gazette’s logic and reasoning given for their support.

JG Editorial:
Naysayers will question why the city should buy more land when it can’t properly care for what it has now. Those concerns have some merit. But maintenance is a short-term issue of shifting work crews to properties getting use

Why call those who practice fiscal common sense “naysayers.” This entire statement perfectly defines the reasoning of an irresponsible and neglectful property owner. I don’t know about you but “maintenance” and everything it implies is a long-term plan. And if maintenance means maintaining only areas being used, while the others are left to deteriorate, some would say you're in over your head or at worst a “slumlord.” It only figures that the City of Janesville seems to have adopted this same reasoning regarding their greenspaces and parks.

JG Editorial Excerpt:
Like the new plan, the city’s 1998 Riverfront strategy included goals of increasing public access to the river and making the water a catalyst for economic revitalization. Imagine a hiking, biking and walking trail that runs along both sides of the River from the Jackson street bridge near Dawson Fields north to Memorial Drive…….

Imagine what that could do to downtown redevelopment dreams.

It isn’t often when the Gazette editors use a word like “imagine.” When I think of economic development in high density downtown areas I imagine a 20 story condo/office mid-level skyscraper or a marina/amusement park lined with boutique shops. Bike paths, hiking trails and jogging paths are nice recreational perks, but for some reason they not among the first things I think of to attract new economic development.

To spark economic redevelopment, I also imagined turning a site like the vacant 75,000 square foot Accudyne/Alliant building at 340 N. Franklin into a modern $22 million 54,000 square foot printing press facilities with change to spare. But that was not to be.Monday's Gazette was the first issue printed in their new facilities on the east side fringes of Janesville. An area far away from downtown, the river, hiking trails and everything else that they believe is necessary for economic growth. Imagine that!

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Capital Rally BDN Excerpt:
About 600 state prison inmates currently housed in jails under contracts with 15 Wisconsin counties will be removed starting in December to help save money, Department of Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch told counties in a letter released Wednesday. How to accommodate those prisoners in already overcrowded state prisons is being examined, Raemisch said.

This is where those 350 protesters of the group Americans For Prosperity along with their republican cohorts can put their tax dollars where their mouths are and each can take home two inmates to “save money.” Start up a new pledge drive: Adopt-a-Convict. Just think of the tax savings here.

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Luckily for us only a small niche is effected by high energy prices.

Title Drivers Beware: Oil At All-Time High

DRIVERS BEWARE?? DRIVERS BEWARE??

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BDN Editorial Time to carve Budget into pieces:
We think Wisconsin should give up on these people. Next election, vote them out. All of them. Both sides. Turn out all the incumbents and start over, with a new crop. Maybe, after an incumbent bloodbath, the new ones would get it. For awhile.

Terrible advice. I can’t imagine what kind of a state government we would have if leaders didn’t stand on their principles and feel as strongly as they do. I wouldn’t want it any other way. The lack of politics only happens at the demand of a dictatorship. As always when the Democrats pursue common ground they are drawn up to look like they have no backbone.

I’m not saying the democrats compromised everything, but canning good hardworking legislators over this is exactly what the Republicans want. If people followed the suggestions of the BDN editor(s), the GOP can celebrate “mission accomplished.”

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Add Armenian Issue To List Of Bush Follies

Armenian National Committee Of America:
"The twentieth century was marred by wars of unimaginable brutality, mass murder and genocide. History records that the Armenians were the first people of the last century to endure these cruelties.The Armenians were subjected to a genocidal campaign that defies comprehension and commands all decent people to remember and acknowledge the facts and lessons of an awful crime in a century of bloody crimes against humanity. If elected President, I would ensure that our nation properly recognizes the tragic suffering of the Armenian people." -- George W. Bush, 2-19-2000

Uses the suffering of the Armenian people in an election stunt. Shame.

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Bush said his veto pen was one way to ensure that he is still relevant; that it ensures his involvement in the process.

Bush Vetoes Shut Down Congress:
Bush said Congress, under Democratic control for nine months, has not "managed to pass many important bills. "I'm looking forward to getting some things done for the American people," Bush said. "And if it doesn't get done, I'm looking forward to reminding people as to why it's not getting done."

Will shut down the country with his veto pen then blame the democrats for it. What a guy! Huh? This here President Bush.

But why doesn't Gov. Doyle spin his veto power like this. Instead state Republicans rip into Doyle over his propensity to remain "relevant," yet they are willing to hold the state hostage. How does a minority party do this? Why aren’t they called obstructionists and partisan extremists by the mainstream press.

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The Chinese central bank is reducing the amount of money available for lending in an effort to cool the investment boom. Whaaaa?

Money CNN:
The bank said in a statement on its Web site that it had raised the rate by half a percentage point to 13 percent to "strengthen liquidity management in the banking system and check the excessive credit growth."

Leave it to a communist country to take precautions against “excessive credit growth.” Just the opposite of what we do in America. Here, the greater the debt, the greater the incentive to keep working for less and less and the more stakeholders there are sharing in the overall burden. When it crashes - we all crash. Hurry join now!!

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Mitt And Rudy are flip-floppers to the "n"th degree. Yet Steve Chapman from the Chicago Tribune defends their philosophical instability and vote-pandering as an entertaining evolution and re-enforces their view of liberal politics as merely "youthful indiscretions." If only John Kerry had such apologetic "attacks" when he changed his mind.

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Quote of the Month

Madison.Com Excerpt:
"Government does not create these jobs. Ken Hendricks creates these jobs, but government has partnered with him to provide the incentives to get that investment here." – Rep. Phil Wise (Democrat?)

Iowa State legislator explaining that without government hand-outs and backroom deals, billionaires would see no reason to create these jobs.

It's Official - Democrats Are Majority

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Rep. Paul Ryan and other Republican lawmakers unveiled their version of the late Sen. William Proxmire's Golden Fleece Award, which targets examples of government waste. The Janesville Gazette placed high priority on this announcement for the front page of Wednesday's edition.

JG Excerpt:
Ryan thinks wasteful spending can be prevented - or at least reduced - through the "power of embarrassment."

One thing about Republicans is they are all into this pomp and circumstance involving awards, and what better time to start up an award to embarrass the recipients now that Democrats have the majority. Where was Ryan and his “embarrassment“ Boondoggle Award when his fellow GOPers held the majority and delivered a steady stream of record pork bills to a fiscally blind president who never vetoed one bill during that time?

JG Excerpt:
Another example cited by the group was money allocated to bike paths and other "cosmetic projects" while more than 73,000 bridges in the United States are considered "structurally deficient."

Will Ryan propose a tax increase to repair the 73,000 bridges? or would he rather cut 3 billion dollars worth of pork every year till he raises a million for each bridge? It’ll take about 25 years and double that considering he'd also cut taxes on top of it. Now if America’s only problem was crumbling bridges. Well, that's different.

Perhaps taxpayers should immerse themselves in this same negativism and draw up an award to embarrass members of Congress when they fail to bring a fair share of federal money back home for the needs of their constituency. When they continually talk up a tax cut during deficits, wartime and collapsing bridges. There's a pattern of irresponsible borrowing fed by tax cutting, along with a culture of privatization for profits and cronyism that needs to be addressed. I'd call it the “George W. Ryan” Award.

Speculators Riding A Broken SeeSaw

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Is oil worth $89 a barrel OR….is our dollar just worthless.

There really hasn’t been much going with the global oil supply. No hurricane or pipeline explosions, no tankers grounded in some pristine wildlife area, and with most of the heavily populated industrial northern hemisphere entering the “slow” season, no heavy petrol demand. Yeah, there's a problem between the Turks and the Kurds but it involves Iraqi pipelines. Tensions are rising, but isn't there a war going on over there? I mean, if we believe all the war hype....how much worse can it get?

But what has changed dramatically over the past two years is the global supply of the U.S. dollar. The Iraq War arguably has dumped a couple hundred billion dollars into the mid-east economy with almost no accountability.

Oil Hits New Record:
Many analysts argue that the supply and demand fundamentals don't support oil in the high $80 range, and believe speculative investing is the real culprit behind high oil prices.

Add to this the recent housing mortgage lending crisis and the Fed literally pumping tens of billions into the domestic economy, the lowering of interest rates and the return to easy money. Simple laws of money supply and demand. I'm barely scratching the surface here.

If Dollar Free falls, then what?:
If the dollar trend continues spiraling downward, the risk is that nations like China – or Japan or Saudi Arabia – which have been buying U.S. Treasury bonds and thereby funding America's deficit, would stop that practice.

This is one area where American officials disagree. Many think that China and the others wouldn't dare trade in their Money Bonds on the low.

The U.S. dollar has fallen in value against five major currencies, the Japanese Yen, the Euro, S.Korean Won, British Pound and the Canadian dollar. For the first time in over 30 years, the Canadian dollar is equivalent in value to the U.S. dollar all the while President Bush seems unconcerned or oblivious. The high price for oil may have less to do with the global oil markets and more to do with global financial markets, particularly the value of the U.S. dollar. It’s going downhill……fast.

Read additional:U.S. Currency Strategy With China

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Healthy Wisconsin Revival
Well……that settles that. Now that the Assembly Republicans wouldn’t pass a state budget even without Healthy Wisconsin, we know that wasn’t the problem. Now is a good time for Senate Democrats to re-introduce it.

Big Crandon Story: News Media

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Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen (R) has asked the residents of Crandon to ignore reporters inquiring about the mass shootings. That didn't sit too well with the news media.

WSJ Excerpt:
"No one has the authority to suggest that an entire community remain silent, " an editorial in Friday 's Wausau Daily Herald read.

Anyone has the right to suggest anything they want providing it's not for financial or personal gain, suggestions are…suggestions, nothing more. Now if he ordered the community to remain silent, that’s different.

Interestingly enough, Monday’s Janesville Gazette editorial gave J.B. Van Hollen a big "thumbs up” for his office holding seminars on the state public meeting laws and open records, of all things.

But news media has clearly run amuck, censoring whatever they please, shaping stories to fit an agenda and invading privacy for the sake of news. Van Hollen merely gave them some of their own medicine, and they cry foul.

Average citizens are overwhelmed by the tactics employed by trained reporters and usually submit embarrassing or sensitive information without knowing the real consequences and power of newsprint. I’ve mentioned this here before, that municipalities, school boards, unions, civic organizations and private citizens need to formulate a “rules of the wrode” handbook on dealing with the unruly and profit driven press.

For starters, perhaps they should be viewed and labeled as “solicitors.”

Read related: Sympathy for Crandon shooter prevails.

Paul Ryan: Two Rate Tax System For Two Americas

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Rep. Paul Ryan has been making some publicity rounds lately with articles in the Beloit Daily News, including an interview with Peter Slen on C-Span just this past Wednesday.

Lately, the fast-talking Ryan seems to be increasingly used as a GOP point man for fiscal policy, but much like the Republican presidential field, he has been sending a message that the GOP has fallen from graces so to speak with their evil spending ways and in making that acknowledgement sends listeners an agreeable message that because he is aware of this, they (GOP leaders) can make corrections to restore the party back on some imaginable and righteous course. Make no mistake, the GOP over the past 40 years has maintained the same policies as always under the guise of conservatism, religion, smaller government, economic growth and less taxes. They are the phonies they always were, nothing has changed except for the confession that they are heading in the wrong direction while somehow someway the country under their recent guidance is headed in the right direction. Suuuuuure.

BDN Excerpt:
He noted that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill would shift about 2 million children currently in private health care plans to government-run health care, and provide benefits to those making incomes of up to $83,000.

The $83,000 figure is debatable. It was originally the income cap designed for high cost-of-living states such as California and New York, but was eliminated by the Bush Administration as part of SCHIP. More importantly though, why would anyone be willing to selfishly hold up the health care of nearly 47 million people because 2 million may be pulled out of private insurance plans? Still, Ryan implies that middle-class families earning less than $83,000 are too wealthy to collect what amounts to a $5,000 tax credit towards health care. But…….. in very typical fashion, Ryan redirects the focus from SCHIP to the elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), a tax nearly equivalent to the SCHIP credit that he claims the middle-class are not wealthy enough to pay.

BDN Editorial Excerpt:
Ryan would repeal the AMT and pose a choice for taxpayers: Continue using the present tax system or opt instead to be part of a two-rate simplified reform plan, taxing all income at either 10 percent (up to $100,000 for joint filers) or 25 percent for income beyond that.

This is a trick bag. Ryan is not only playing election-year tax cut politics here, his anti-idea is only one step away from instituting a devastating flat tax.

In the simplest of terms, we are taxed by the income we earn on a sliding-bracket scale for the best and fairest of reasons. For instance, if the country produced $5 trillion in annual cash flows and you collected 2.5 trillion of it, you alone are in a bracket that collected 50% of all revenue. You would be required to pay 50% of the governments operating costs. It may be 20% percent of 2.5 trillion or it might be 80% percent, whatever the government requires. A flat tax ignores all of the complexities of the modern world and the income earner. Nothings perfect in the system today, but clearly, simplification of this order is purely idiotic. If you think there is a great divide between the rich and the poor now, you ain’t seen nothing till you see what a flat tax or sales-only tax would do. Either one would be devastating. This isn't rocket science.

But it is interesting that Ryan believes annual incomes of $100,000 or less deserve what appears to be a substantial tax cut, they do, although in his view not performing the additional duty of cutting health costs of a middle-class family as SCHIP would do. This sends a strong message that Ryan’s tax policy favors private sector profits at any costs, even your health.

It has been said that George W. Bush is the only president to enact a tax cut during wartime. Just as well, Rep. Ryan may be the modern exemplification of old school Republican politics, offering tax cuts during deficits.
In basic terms, the fiscal problem in Washington is the inability to exercise borrowing restraint. And Republicans - who turned years of well-placed tax cuts and pay-as-you-go surpluses into record deficits - are the guilty suspects.

Embrace borrowing control and pay-as-you-go, because it's the right thing to do. Set partisanship aside and work toward real reform, especially in the private sector health care system. We know now that Social Security is not in bad shape, in fact it will be needed in it’s original intended form now more than ever. Medicare, Federal, state and education budget problems are largely inflationary fueled by runaway profit taking and rising costs in the health care and energy sectors. Fix that first. Do it now because it's the right thing to do.

Note: This post was delayed a few days awaiting the Janesville Gazette's expected feature presentation of Ryan's recent media blitz. None yet, perhaps later this week.

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Wal-Mart short-changes schools and other public services by challenging its property tax assessments.

Good Jobs First Excerpt:
Wal-Mart is involved in a large-scale effort to roll back the property tax valuation of its stores, cutting the amount it owes to local governments for schools and social services.

The largest tax reduction was in Tomah, Wisconsin, where local officials were forced to compromise and return more than $300,000 for each of three years totaling $949,000. The procedural costs local governments incur when defending their assessments can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for lawyers and outside appraisers. Unless of course your community gave the big-box retailer a TIF district, which shifts the property tax burden to neighborhoods and property owners outside the TIF district for up to 20 years in some cases. Thereby upholding Wal-Mart’s cost-cutting philosophy to “take back” what they give.

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Obama: Wrapped in Ideas

Obama no longer wearing Flag Pin Excerpt:
"Instead," he said, "I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism." — Barack Obama

Showing patriotism through ideas assumes American voters think. Has he doomed his campaign because those who don’t think believe he is dissing the flag?

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Did lies hinder case? Excerpt
Hiers said Janesville police wouldn't do anything differently.
"We would do it again in the same circumstances," Hiers said.

No, he wasn't talking about invading Iraq again despite knowing that there is no WMD.

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Guiliani, Romney Champion Borrow and Spend:
"I cut taxes 23 times. I believe in tax cuts," said Giuliani, former mayor of New York and leader in national Republican polls.

.........Rudy Guiliani explaining his role in creating today’s fiscal hole.

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"We have to get spending under control," No matter whether Republicans or Democrats are in control of Congress, he said, "the system is built to spend."

.........Sen. Sam Brownback ignoring the fact that the system is built on borrowed money.

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Link:
"If things haven't changed by our next visit, we may have to announce a revolution."

.........Mikhail Gorbachev, implying that if the non-existent recovery in New Orleans happened in Minsk, Russia, the people over there would start tearing down walls and demand regime change.

Janesville Annual Budget - You See What You Get

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During Monday’s Janesville City council meeting, a taxpaying citizen approached the podium and for the second time, asked the city council to allow permission for the council and administration meetings on the upcoming city budget be televised on the city’s public access cable channel JA-12. Nevertheless, the response from the council was extremely disappointing.

The resident, K. Andreah Briarmoon, made the original request a couple weeks ago explaining that JA-12 needs only one council member to officially request the broadcast. The city council president was the only member to respond directly to Briarmoon’s pointed request to which he replied, ”we haven’t discussed it.” For a moment there, it appeared as if Briarmoon was going to call out each council member in sitting order for their own response to her request, which would have been the proper thing to do considering they are all her representatives at-large. But she did not. Their silence was their only defense, it was deafening.

Equally predictable was the omission of this brief episode the following day in the Janesville Gazette. For a newspaper that has been relentlessly attacking the Janesville school board and union for secret negotiations, demands government openness and records at every turn, and editorialize often about our inherent right to communicate and participate with the people who represent us when they spend our tax dollars, the omission from their city hall reports came as no surprise. When it’s this close to home, no one…ummm…ahhh….. needs to know.

Speaking of deliberate omissions from our local newspapers, a Sound Off caller to the newspaper complained about the lack of reporting of a recent event in downtown Janesville.

JG Sound Off Excerpt:
On health Care: The Gazette should have covered the rally on Main Street in front of Rep. Ryan’s office Thursday afternoon. The purpose was to ask Ryan to vote to override Bush’s veto on the bill to provide health care coverage for children. There were a lot of people there. It make’s the paper look bad when you don’t cover these events. – anonymous

As far as they’re concerned, it’s now covered.

Huebsch’s Irresponsibility: The State Budget

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Assembly Republicans profess not to care about the damage done to Wisconsin's bond rating, or to the communities who will suffer as a result of the Assembly's neglect of its most basic duty. Why is this? When the eviction notice is hanging on the wall, some renters will do anything to get even.

Capital Times Editorial:
Assembly Republicans continue to refuse to participate in a serious manner with the budget-writing process. Their extremism has made Wisconsin the last state in the nation without a spending plan.

If he (Huebsch) does not choose to play by the rules, then Assembly Democrats should begin working with responsible Republicans to remove him as speaker.

With each passing day, suspicion becomes the obvious. Wisconsin Republicans, still reeling from losses in the last election have deliberately stalled the budget in what now can be described as a sore-losers tantrum.

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In a well-written but rare political editorial, last week's Edgerton Reporter asked Wisconsin State Supreme Court Judge-Elect Annette Ziegler to resign. (no link available)

Republican Blames Wisconsin for Bush SCHIP Veto

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Rep. Adam Putnam, a Florida Republican, appeared on CBS’s Face The Nation Sunday morning and said the reason why Bush vetoed the children’s health care bill had nothing to do with the cost. Instead, he placed blame on the money management in a few states.

Republican Versus Democrat: Children's Health Debate:

"The issue with this bill has nothing to do with the cost. The issue with this bill is that states like New York, states like Minnesota and Wisconsin are diverting the money away from covering these poor kids who we do have a moral obligation to cover, and they're putting it into other things." -- Rep. Putnam

I don't know where Gov. Doyle or the state legislature stood with the expanded SCHIP, but it really doesn't matter because their vote wouldn't count in the House of Representatives. Of more concern is where our Rep. Paul Ryan stood. He opposed SCHIP.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said he will make sure Republicans who opposed the bill pay a political price, and that price could keep growing. Is Van Hollen paying attention to the race in the 1st Congressional District of Wisconsin?

Bush Doesn''t Give a SCHIP

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The political rhetoric heated up over the past couple days regarding the Bush veto of SCHIP. Fortunately, people are catching on about the consequences resulting from the uninsured. SCHIP is more a conservative program about preventive maintenance than it is socialism and only hardcore special-interest republicans continue to stand firm with Bush on this issue. They take every chance they get at labeling the vetoed expansion program as socialism or health care for illegal immigrants.

Despite being one of those bills receiving rare bi-partisan support, Bush vetoed it. But the one thing they could have done better was in advertising and public relations. Democrats should have played Rovian-style politics by painting the expanded program as a tax break for middle-class families. It would have been much harder to resist, particularly with another election coming up in 2008.

Bush Vetoes SCHIP

Kaley wrote:
Maybe the middle class families would be able to afford health insurance if other costs weren't constantly being raised to pay for the illegals, it's just a never ending circle. The illegals don't need anymore health coverage, last year the government gave a billion dollars to hospitals to help illegals, wonder where that came from.

My response: Hey, I won't argue your point. But that is the illegal immigration issue - it's huge. But because politicians didn't "fix" it doesn't mean everything else should come to a standstill including healthcare. Costs are skyrocketing. We hear that our economy wouldn't survive without the 20 million illegals but they’re killing our health care? Health care for all is part of the economy.

In Wednesday’s Sound Off anonymous column in the Janeville Gazette, we had this remark.

JG Sound Off:
On Democrats: They’re going to tax the rich for everything they propose. Hillary Clinton just proposed giving $5000 to each baby that is born; this was in front of the NAACP. It doesn’t take a real smart person to understand that this isn’t going to work. – anonymous

Are you sure they’re going to tax the rich? I won’t believe it till I see it. I hope Democrats are saying this because that’s 5% of the population they can afford to lose. But the comment about the $5000 for every baby ain’t so bad when you consider each baby owes $27,000 the moment they’re born, not from the hospital bill, but from Bush and his tax-cut GOP Congress. Why should politicians talk taxes when they can sell the debt off to a foreign country? Everything is built on debt – they want it that way to keep you hungry. Only someone like Archie Bunker knows what the commenter meant by “in front of the NAACP,” I won’t even go there.

If Bush paid for his war with paygo, there would be a $20 tax on a pack of cigarettes. But he gets the easy way out, he sells off the war note to China or Saudi Arabia so every newborn owes $27,000 before the cord is cut. Then he says "we don't have a revenue problem - we have a spending problem." Veto's a $35 billion pay-as-you-go health care expansion while asking Congress to sell off $200 billion in debt to foreign countries. Sicko!!

Police Should Stand Up With The Wrong Man

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Wednesday’s Janeville Gazette seemed to go to great lengths explaining there was no conflict of information between the Janesville Police Department and the county DA’s office regarding the arrest and subsequent release of Antonio Polland, the first suspect in the recent rape and robbery case.
The Tuesday Gazette headline DA: Rape suspect cleared led many readers to believe that the county DA overrode the city police department’s release order’s extra restrictions.

As a reader following this awful crime, I never felt there was a dispute between the two departments. What seemed odd was the fact that the police department felt good enough to release the innocent man on a recognizance bond late Monday afternoon, but felt threatened enough for public safety to issue special restrictions such as electronic monitoring and no contact with juveniles. The Gazette meanwhile added to that foundation with this in Tuesday's paper.

JG Excerpt:
O’Leary’s (DA) decision to free Polland this morning followed a surprising second press conference called by police Monday afternoon. In that meeting, Moore said police had asked O’Leary to release Polland but with strict bond conditions and pending charges.

O’Leary did release Polland but…..

JG Excerpt:
O’Leary’s decision today eliminated any pending charges, the bond and it’s conditions.

Which gave O’Leary’s decision (about the restrictions) the appearance it was exclusive from the police department.

In Wednesday’s paper, the police chief claims he called O’Leary Tuesday morning and ordered Polland to be released unconditionally. This was information absent from Tuesday’s article.

The initial order to release with conditions does seem suspicious, allowing authorities to keep Polland on the hook and leave the door open for charges and surveillance against an innocent man. While the later order to release unconditionally seemed to coincide with the arrest of Kenneth Jarrett, the identified perpetrator. I hate to think this - that fortunately for Polland the evidence found was another suspect.

Missing from Gazette articles and the police chief’s timeline were reports of Polland being tasered during his arrest in front of four small children.

JG Excerpt:
Mahan and a detective visited Polland on Tuesday afternoon to explain why he was wrongly arrested.

In hindsight, these are reasons why I think someone owes Polland a public apology and not an explanation, regardless of his attitude at the time of arrest.

It's not a question of whether arresting the first suspect was the "right thing" or apologizing for doing your job. It's a matter of your dignity and his humility. Other than that, the Janesville Police did an outstanding job getting the perpetrator of this ugly and life-changing violent crime quickly off the streets.

RipRap

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Innocent Man Released
After being detained by Janesville Police, Antonio Polland was cleared and released.

JG Excerpt:
In a court hearing Monday afternoon, Polland was ordered freed on a $25,000 personal recognizance bond that included the conditions of remaining in Rock County, appearing at all future court date, electronic monitoring and no contact with the victims or any other juvenile females.

The Rock County DA would allow none of this and dropped any pending charges, electronic bracelet, the bond and its conditions as it should. At this point, it would appear a public apology from the department to Mr. Polland is in order.

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Bush Economy Is Now Inherited - Not A Good Sign

The President gives tax cuts, then goes to war. Congress responds by raising the debt limit again to nearly $10 trillion, and journalists had to come to the defense of George W. Bush.

Kansas City Star Excerpt:
Bush’s supporters say he’s had little practical choice but to rack up more debt between two wars and the weakened economy he inherited in 2001.

That Clinton economy was soooooo terrible that I don't remember it......was that what some call the Great Depression?

However, they are to be commended to have the awareness of an economy in shambles, the foreboding statement "weakened economy he inherited in 2001" could be the beginning in laying the groundwork to rewrite history. Our economy is in shambles and Bush and his supporters have no other recourse than to blame his predecessor. Otherwise, if the economy was doing great, that statement would have been unnecessary.

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Hillary Prods Bush To Go After Iran

History Repeating:
So let me see if I’ve got this right: Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front runner for the presidential nomination, is demanding that George W. Bush take a more belligerent posture toward Iran.

Yep! Congress mistakenly gave Bush approval to invade Iraq and now they are ready to do the same again with Iran. It appears that Hillary is playing the percentages here. She knows that no matter what, democrats and most of the middle will not vote Republican in the next presidential election. She also knows that most everyone else are irrational jingoistic war-mongers who wish nothing less than to take over the world. So,the best way to appease that group for whatever it’s worth, is to join with the others in Congress, surround the wagons, and declare anyone who opposes America as “global terrorists.” Hopefully, this was a symbolic gesture only.

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Some Auto Workers Outraged By Contract

GM Pounding Last Nail In UAW Coffin Excerpt:
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (Reuters) - Gregg Shotwell says that by agreeing to a new contract with General Motors Corp, the UAW has ceased to be a union. "The UAW is now a corporation," he said, sitting on the back porch of his home in a leafy neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan. "It has become UAW Incorporated."

Egads! GM pawning off the retirement account for $7 on every $10? Two more plants will close with no other guarantees? Will workers vote their paycheck and not their principle? Will union members vote to change the union into our worst nightmare - a corporation!! We'll all find out soon enough.

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We’re the British -- Mayor MICHAEL BLOOMBERG who also compared Iraqi insurgents to the Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War

Smart guy this Michael Bloomberg – real smart. He may as well disband his presidential exploratory committee right now.

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Bush Blackmailed World To Invade Iraq For Oil

Bush worried about Iraq’s oil before he planned the invasion.

Chicago Tribune Excerpt:
A historic sense of responsibility guides me, too, same as you," he says. Bush talks positively about a quick war, about securing Iraq's oil wells and enlisting the Saudis to help bring the petroleum to market. "We've already planned for a post-Saddam Iraq, and I think there is a good basis for a better future," Bush says, in yet another statement on Iraq that has come back to haunt him.

Then he explains what might happen to countries who do not join the "coalition of willing."

He says other nations on the UN Security Council should be careful not to oppose the United States lest they see their trade deals and foreign aid packages disappear.

Bush blackmails the world for cooperation. No wonder why America is so well loved.

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Excerpt:
Whenever I hear anything described as a heartless assault on our children I tend to think it's a good idea." -- William Kristol, Compassionate Conservative, describing his reaction to the President Bush's intent to veto the new Childrens Health Insurance Program, Fox News Sunday, 9/30/07

So that's what neo-con "tough love" looks like.