GOPs whine over problems they've caused, and don't try to fix

Two sets of tweets really illustrate how little the WisGOP legislators care about effective governance, even as they cry crocodile tears about wanting things to be more efficient.

Here's the first, from State Rep. John Nygren, Co-Chair of the Joint Finance Committee.

Given the unprecedented amount of ppl applying for unemployment assistance, DWD has been overwhelmed with requests. According to DWD, more than 313,000 have applied for new unemployment benefits between 3/15 and 4/6. This is estimated at 18x more than the same time last year.

— John Nygren (@rep89) April 21, 2020

If @GovEvers is going to have our state remain closed until May 26th or later, it is imperative that the DWD, which is ultimately under his control, begin efficiently serving the taxpayers of Wisconsin. At no fault of their own, thousands of Wisconsinites are now unemployed.

— John Nygren (@rep89) April 21, 2020

Golly, if only the co-chair of the state's Finance Committee could do something to make it easier for people to get their unemployment benefits! I mean, it's not like he was able to propose a bill to add money and staff to the Department of Workforce Development or something.

Also, let me remind you that John Nygren and all the other GOPs in the gerrymandered Legislature signed off on all of the barriers that kept Wisconsinites from getting their benefits immediately, including extra paperwork and the one-week waiting period for getting benefits. And Nygren waited 4 weeks after unemployment claims began spiking before they lifted a finger to vote on ending that waiting period and giving the higher unemployment benefits that are part of the CARES Act.

The other absurd tweet from a WisGOP comes from State Sen. Duey Stroebel, who comes from Ozaukee County, which is in the top 5 in the state when it comes to the rate of COVID-19 infections and overall deaths (9). Duey says there's no need for us to invest more in figuring out who is getting sick and who they got in contact with.

.@GovEvers has also called for up to 1,000 new bureaucrats to perform contact tracing. Before state government grows by a single employee, existing employees should be engaged in the fight against COVID-19.

— Duey Stroebel (@SenStroebel) April 22, 2020

Ok, genius. Tell us where these state employees should be moved from? A Health Department that's already using lots of staff to deal with COVID-19 and a large increase in Medicaid and FoodShare cases? The understaffed DWD? Engineers from the DOT as road construction season kicks in? Tax reps at the DOR at the same time that Wisconsinites are filing their taxes? The DNR? You want state agencies to borrow researchers from the UW?

WisGOPs have underfunded and underpaid these services for years, and now they're acting like there's some magical source of staff and money to take care of all of this extra work. Hey Duey, if you think there are a lot of problems in how state government is being run, why don't you GIVE US A PLAN, throw it the flagpole and see who salutes it?

But of course, if Republicans had to actually come up with a plan on how to improve these services and get things done, they'd either have to spend more tax dollars to execute that plan (which won't do for them), or they're shot full of holes and rely on magic and other laughable assumptions that will never work.

These guys don't believe in science and facts that don't fit their agenda, and therefore aren't fit to run a hot dog stand, let alone oversee the response to the COVID-19 outbreak. As I said yesterday, they can choose to step up or shut up. But GOPs don't get to whine about how the Tony Evers' Administration is handling these many challenges of day-to-day governance when they've offered no help and no solutions, despite having months (and frankly years) to do so.