On Paul Ryan's CNN Fake Town Hall:
✦ Ryan wants to censor the internet. When asked about the rise in hateful rhetoric and white supremacy, he blamed the internet and said everyone should deny them the ability to post their views even it means new laws to improve it. Apparently, Ryan is blaming the gun.
✦ Paul Ryan on war in Afghanistan: "No timelines. Spend until we win."
On war on poverty: "This has gone on too long. Can't sustain this spending."
✦ CNN doesn't help itself with the public's perception of fake news by hosting a scripted interview with a self-promoting high-speed charlatan like Paul Ryan.
On Foxconn:
✦ Wisconsin taxpayers are being forced to GIVE $3 BILLION to one company, Foxconn, a $136 billion corporation. Make Taiwan Great Again!
✦ So you think Foxconn chose Wisconsin for its good policy, economy, environment and collaboration? Oh please.
✦ For all the talk from the party of personal responsibility, will Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan deliver federal dollars for the Foxconn debacle? Since they claimed credit for bringing Foxconn into Wisconsin, they should take some responsibility by paying for it.
✦ The federal government expects to gain the most in income taxes collected from Foxconn workers in Wisconsin, so why doesn't Speaker Ryan write a $3B grant or earmark for the project ...since he said it was such a "game-changer" for the state. Put some "skin in the game."
✦ For real - Paul Ryan said he worked directly with Trump to get his Foxconn plant in WI. Make no mistake, IT IS an unfunded big government mandate on the state of Wisconsin.
✦ The "incentive" package offered to Foxconn by Gov. Walker and state republicans reminds me of the typical Janesville trickle-down publicly funded economic development "incentive" package - but on steroids.
✦Gee, Wasn't it Barack Obama they told everyone to be afraid of because he will transform America into a government-run economy?
✦ I would not doubt if members of the Rock County 5.0, Rock County bureaucrats and Janesville's corporate welfare director played a large role helping Walker write the deal for Foxconn. Their motto is something like this: If residents don't accept increased tax obligations, the economy could death spiral. If anything, Foxconn is a major new draw (and unnecessary) on Wisconsin's public funds. It's fiscal conservatism at its finest.
✦ Healthcare marketplace for Wisconsin residents? Not a chance in Hell. Gov't-run marketplace for Foxconn robots? Yep! Funny how that works.
✦ Democrats at the state level shouldn't be surprised at Foxconn's absence during the hearings. If you follow economic development in Janesville, you know that most recipients of local public funds and lucrative TIF contracts, often transferring millions to "connected" individuals, rarely show up at the public hearings. We're used to it here in Janesville.
✦ Anyone else notice that Foxconn CEO or company officials are not flying around Wisconsin to lobby communities for the $3B they demand for their company? They don't have to when they have the taxpayer paid governor of the state as their chief lobbyist.
✦ That reminds me again why wealthy developers and other well-connected individuals in Janesville rarely show at city hall for their public hearings. They don't have to when they have taxpayer paid city bureaucrats as their chief lobbyists. It's all part of the swamp system. Only the scale is smaller locally.
✦ Democrats and other opponents make a mistake when they complain that Foxconn has a history of not following through, yet warn of long-term environmental damage, fewer jobs due to automation and escalating state debt, if they do.
✦ Walker boasts Foxconn will spend $10 billion in Wisconsin. I doubt they'll spend even 1/3 of that and what they do spend - how much of it will go directly into Wisconsin pockets? Not much when you consider Foxconn has its own "not-Wisconsin" global supply chain, construction, maintenance and workforce departments.
✦ Foxconn will do to Wisconsin manufacturing what Wal-Mart has done to mom and pop retail businesses in small town U.S.A.
✦ Funny how Walker brags about Foxconn supplying 13,000 $54K annual jobs when only $30K qualifies for taxpayers money. If it's not in writing, it's meaningless political hype. Oh, and it's not in writing.
✦ It was expected that state representatives of the area Foxconn plans to build in would vote for it. Peter Barca was right to say politics is local. In Janesville, no political candidate or incumbent ever objects to the local trickle-down publicly funded corporate welfare or calls it what it is. In fact, they support it in Janesville.
✦ When Walker said the deal was not re-negotiable, he explained why proposing amendments are an exercise in futility and the hearings are little more than theatrical skits to pacify the public.
✦Weird. Republicans said Democrats are playing divisive party politics by objecting to Foxconn, yet republicans rejected every one of Democrats' 22 amendments. The amendments were excellent by the way.
On second Milton School District referendum:
✦ So they haven’t learned their lesson? People do not want a new fieldhouse and new high school. They’re just playing games, smoke and mirrors. We will come back out and vote it down again, and they will just be wasting our taxpayer money.
✦ Rumor has it that the first Milton School Referendum was deliberately made unreasonably high to guarantee its failure. That in turn set the stage for wider acceptance of a referendum anything smaller.
2 comments:
All your points are spot-on, something that the local and regional media will not express.
Our current governor and legislature are trying to impose exactly what's bad for Wisconsin. My opinion comes from another smaller city upstate--where I know we're not the middle of nowhere, but sure can see it from here as politics works now.
This is good stuff, whoever it is. You can also add the CEO of WEDC to that list of Foxconn paid lobbyists - not a good sign given that WEDC is supposed to be overseeing Foxconn and verifying the activities for tax writeoffs
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