We've both been down this same road before with Gov. Scott Walker on his so-called school voucher expansions.
In a posting from November 2013, I mentioned how Walker made 1,000 Wisconsin families, who were previously untethered to government help, fully dependent on government aid to pay for sending their children to private schools. Now, Walker and state republicans apparently want all Wisconsin families, regardless of income, to receive state aid to pay for sending their children to private schools. They call that newly anointed government dependency, "moving Forward."
We also know Walker played a political shell game with Wisconsin lives when he pushed over 62,000 adults from the state's BadgerCare program. In the end, Walker is actually insuring fewer people overall at higher costs to the state. But at the same time, the state is claiming 81,000 adults were added to the program for a net gain of 19,000 people.
Up to this point everyone is still waiting to find out if those adults, who were pushed out from BadgerCare because Walker changed their income guidelines, have successfully transitioned to Obamacare. The Walker Administration says that number won't be available until June, but it will be interesting depending on the numbers whether they post the results as a success or a failure. For the sake of this discussion, I don't have an issue with the accuracy of the numbers.
But let's back up a moment. Gov. Walker, the state and even Walker's media enablers are painting the net gain of 19,000 more people dependent on the state's BadgerCare program as progress, or dare I say success. Even a Walker ad had this recently...
Under his leadership, more people in Wisconsin "have access to health care."
They can call it "access," to health care, but let's not lose sight of the fact we are talking about government assistance first and foremost. Simply put, "more people" dependent on government for anything doesn't mesh with Walker's rhetoric at all.
Because, who can forget this...
On President Obama Excerpt:
“What I think we’ve seen increasingly is more of a political agenda, and one in which he measures success by how many people are ultimately dependent on the government. We should measure success by just the opposite, by how many people are no longer dependent on the government”
- Gov. Scott Walker (Aug, 2013)
No problem if that's what you really believe. As a political/media blogger who understands the need for government programs, I'm not questioning the necessity of those programs or those receiving assistance. What is highly suspect is Walker's narrative and what appears to be a case of selective memory loss.
The point is, that wild statement about Obama is in all reality an important policy statement of Governor Walker's. With that, Walker of all people should be claiming that any reforms that increase the number of people ultimately dependent on government is ... a failure. If, IF he was true to his principles.
In truth, he actually kicked more people out of BadgerCare than if he had accepted Obamacare funding to restore the federal income limit to 133% of the poverty line. So the second point is, since there are fewer people in Badgercare under Walker's Obamacare excluding deformation, why not say so since in his view - it means success? Why did Walker and his campaign choose the opposite failure meme (more people dependent on government) and flip it as a success?
The only explanation is Walker's principles ARE strictly a political agenda. Exactly what he was accusing Obama of.
So the question becomes why hasn't the media asked Walker to reconcile his own measurement of success regarding government dependency with the reality of his failures?
ADDITIONAL:
RNR - Walker's School Vouchers Turn Wisconsin Families Toward Government Dependency
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