WisGOP's Dubya-like plan: "cut taxes, borrow, and mess it up for later"

It's a rather mundane spot on the Wisconsin Legislature's calendar, but the State's Building Commission meets on Wednesday, a couple of items in particular made me break off onto a tangent. The State Building Commission deals with state facilities, and has to approve of all building projects for the UW System, state offices, and state parks (among other areas) before they can break ground. And while it seems quite lame at first glance, these two items have the undercurrent of a bigger problem in the 2013-15 WisGOP budget- borrowing money without paying up-front for these projects.

The borrowing part includes the "refunding" of $600 million in previous borrowing- $375 million to pay for DOT operations, and $225 million in borrowing for the Clean Water Fund. As the glossary from the Muni Bond folks tells us, refunding bonds is

[a] procedure whereby an issuer refinances outstanding bonds by issuing new bonds. There are generally two major reasons for refunding: to reduce the issuer’s interest costs or to remove a burdensome or restrictive covenant imposed by the terms of the bonds being refinanced.

It's basically a refinancing of debt the state has already taken on, and it's not necessarily a bad thing if the interest rates have dropped in the time since you took on the original debt (much like refinancing a house). Of course, the downside is that you're often paying for this for many additional years down the line, and doing large amounts of borrowing and refinancing is a way a government can mask a budget deficit, and kick the can down the road for later.

This type of behavior was famously exposed by State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout in May 2012 when she asked the LFB to reveal how much of this type of refinancing was done in Walker's first 16 months in office, and the LFB said over $558 million in general fund money had been changed out, growing the state's interest payments in later years. This June, Vinehout sent a similar request to the LFB, and it revealed that general fund interest payments in this year's Walker budget is at 5.26%, well above the 1.11% it was in 2011-12, and above the 4.0% limit that the state targets.

In fact, the Walker budget of 2013-'15 will be the debt gift that keeps on giving, since that budget added this little gem to our already-large amount of borrowing.

Increase the bonding authorization for refunding of any outstanding tax-supported or self-amortizing state general obligation debt by $2,010,000,000, from its current level of $1,775,000,000 to $3,785,000,000. These bonds could only be issued if the debt refinancing meets the current law requirement that the true interest costs to the state must be reduced.

Yep, we're borrowing an extra $2 billion in the next 2 years, which'll help pay for the hundreds of millions in Koo-Koo tax cuts, and giveaways to manufacturers and agri-businesses that start kicking in next year.

The upshot of this can be seen in the state's most recent bond offering. I won't burden you with trying to read the whole thing, but I'll highlight this passage on Page 11 of the PDF (page 8 on the paper).

Currently, the annual debt limit is $3,506,269,230, and the cumulative debt limit is $23,375,128,200. Funding or refunding obligations are not subject to the annual limit but are accounted for in applying the cumulative debt limit. Accrued interest on any obligation that is not paid during the fiscal year in which it accrues is treated as debt and taken into account for purposes of the debt limitations. As of December 1, 2013, general obligations of the State were outstanding in the principal amount of $7,968,706,754.

Ok, so a debt near $8 billion, but what does it mean? It means we're a lot higher than we were in the month before Walker took office, and claimed the state was "broke", and had to impose Act 10 on public employees as a result.

As of December 15, 2010, general obligations of the State were outstanding in the principal amount of $6,822,771,982, and the issuance of the Bonds will not cause the State to exceed its annual debt limit.

So nearly 3 years after being "broke", the Walker Administration has ADDED $1.145 BILLION IN DEBT, and shoved off many of those payments into future years.

Oh, but we have a $760 million "surplus" from the last fiscal year (in cash only, mind you)! Break out the party hats! So what did our governor done with that alleged surplus? Did he paid off some of this increased debt or give real property tax relief past $13 or say "thank you" to the public employees that were robbed to make the surplus possible? Hell no! Instead it's been blown it on tax cuts that'll go mostly for the rich, and a refusal to save taxpayer dollars by taking the expanded Medicaid funding in Obamacare. Both of these items put Wisconsin behind the 8-ball for at least the last year of Walker's term, and will explode the state budget deficit in future years (and it's already estimated at $725 million in the General Fund for the next budget, with another large amount coming in the Transportation Fund).

But that might just be the intelligence of the WisGOP design. Because with the hands of future governors and Legislatures tied, they may have few options other than to sell off state services to keep the budget solvent. And gee, lookie at what follows the borrowing items at Wednesday's Building Commission meeting!

Information on Request for Qualifications – Asset Brokerage Services The 2013-15 biennial budget includes provisions for the sale of assets; any such sale first requires actions of the Department of Administration and the State of Wisconsin Building Commission, among others. A Request for Qualifications for Asset Brokerage Services has been prepared and released under procurement provisions of Chapter 18, Wisconsin Statutes.

Amazing how it all ties together, doesn't it? Governor Dropout may not be able to see the full picture of what his policies are leading to, but his puppetmasters sure can.

Recent US economic indicators looking up, except pay

Two big economic reports out this week show an economy that seems to have been growing through this Fall, with growth possibly picking up. But one key indicator continues to lag, and it explains why inequality is becoming an increasing topic of conversation in this country.

First, 3rd quarter 2013 GDP was revised up to 3.6%. This is the fastest rise in 18 months, and includes good jumps in investment (particularly in residential and non-residential buildings), a narrowing in the trade gap (which helps GDP growth), and even a small increase in government spending for only the second quarter in the last 3 years. It also bumped up the year-over-year increase in GDP to 1.83%, reversing the lower amounts of 12-month growth we were seeing in the first part of this year, and heading back to the 2% level.



That being said, there are some red flags in the report, most notably that nearly half of the increase in GDP was due to growth in inventories, and that consumption growth dropped to 0.96% in Q3, which was lowest in nearly 4 years. I would assume a lot of that inventory was related to Holiday shopping, and it's worth looking at how well that goes, as it's unlikely that this inventory increase would continue if they can't get the original goods off the shelves. So the reports we start hearing in January about the end-of-the-year retail numbers might drive the direction we're going in for 2014.

Also, the November jobs number came out on Friday, and it was strong all around, with 203,000 jobs created (196,000 in the private sector), and September and October revised up by another 8,000 jobs. In addition, the unemployment rate dropped from 7.3% in October to 7.0% in November, the lowest level since 2008. Most interesting in the report was the 17,000 jobs added in Construction, and 27,000 in Manufacturing (including 6,700 in motor vehicles and motor parts manufacturing). Some of this is simply a reflection of lower-than-normal seasonal layoffs for November (Construction was down 97,000 on the non-seasonally adjusted survey, and Manufacturing was down 3,000), but unemployment claims continuing to drop is still a good sign, and an indicator of the underlying demand for construction that we also saw in the GDP report.

What's not keeping up with these positive jobs and GDP numbers is worker pay. The jobs report also includes average weekly earnings, and these are barely keeping up with the nation's 1.7% Core CPI inflation rate. Here's an example from Page 32 of the jobs report, and note the below-inflation increases in many of the lowest-paying jobs, but also in construction.

Change in year-over-year average weekly wages, U.S.
Retail trade +0.61%
Leisure and Hospitality +0.89%
Education and Health Services +1.00%
Construction 1.45%
Professional and Business Services +2.19%
Total Private Sector +2.32%
Manufacturing +3.17%

I'll also add that the lowest-paying categories are also the areas that have added the most jobs out of the 2.3 million added in the U.S. over the last 12 months. Professional and Business services have added 643,000 jobs over the last year, and Education and Health services is 366,000 of that. Leisure and Hospitality sectors have added 422,000, and retail trade nearly 323,000. So while adding jobs is a good thing, and certainly is a sign of progress, people aren't exactly springing into $50,000-a-year jobs when they do get hired, and aren't getting raises after staying on the job.

That could help explain the low 0.96% increase in Consumption in the 3rd Quarter GDP report, as people aren't going to spend money if they're not making money. It also helps to explain the numerous fast-food strikes we saw last week (fast food is in the Leisure-Hospitality category), and the rise in discussions about U.S. inequality. When the pro-corporate President Obama feels a need to say "The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream", you know that this issue is reaching critical mass.

Our economy has seen output grow and the number of people working grow consistently for the last 4 years. But we haven't seen enough people end up better off as a result. This is the next challenge that must be taken on, and one that I think the people will not allow the oligarchs on Wall Street and D.C. to ignore.

Stewart slaughters supply-side sham artists

In a week when many fast food workers went on strike to demand wages above the poverty level, here's a great clip from "The Daily Show", where Jon Stewart destroys Fox Business's Stuart Varney and CNBC's Larry Kudlow on their anti-poor ideology, and contrasts it with the recent statements from the Pope. It includes a line that I feel should be repeated constantly for the near future.

You’re going up against the Pope on how to help the poor? Helping the poor is in this man’s wheelhouse. This pope helps the poor. But you’re telling him how to do his job? The Pope doesn’t come over to where you work and slap Jamie Dimon’s d*ck out of YOUR mouth! - Jon Stewart

I love the ending quote as well.

We both actually agree that some people are being paid too much money to shovel unappetizing, unhealthy sh*t to the American public. We just disagree on who those people are and where they work. -Jon Stewart

Wisconsin gives away billions by not expanding Medicaid

The Commonwealth Fund, which is a health care study group out of New York University, came out with a report today that illustrates just how stupid it is to reject the expanded Medicaid funding that is part of the Affordable Care Act.

I'll give you the national picture first, and then narrow it down into the case of Wisconsin, which is one of those stupid states that hasn't taken the expanded Medicaid funding. Basically, the Commonwealth Fund points out that the federal government will be picking up a big chunk of expenses that states usually pick up, and it would be ridiculous for states not to take advantage.

We find that the Medicaid expansion will be a relatively large source of federal revenue to state enterprises. The value of new federal funds flowing annually to states that choose to participate in the Medicaid expansion in 2022 will be, on average, about 2.35 times as great as expected federal highway funds going to state governments in that year and over one-quarter as large as expected defense procurement contracts to states.

No state would experience a positive flow of funds by choosing to reject the Medicaid expansion. Because the federal share of the Medicaid expansion is so much greater than the state share, taxpayers in nonparticipating states will nonetheless bear a significant share of the overall cost of the expansion through federal tax payments—and not enjoy any of the benefits.

So the Commonwealth Fund is basically pointing out that not taking the expanded Medicaid funding is a fiscal loser, and the reason why is that it leads to a huge increase in the share of the expenses that the feds will take on.

The Affordable Care Act includes a substantial expansion of eligibility for Medicaid. Beginning in January 2014, all documented residents under 65 years of age with incomes below 138 percent of the federal poverty level and who live in states choosing to participate in the expansion will be eligible for Medicaid.

In states that do not participate in the expansion, analysts anticipate that some people already eligible for Medicaid who have not participated in the past will enroll. The federal government will fund a share of Medicaid costs for these participants who meet eligibility levels that predate the Affordable Care Act. The share is determined by states’ current federal medical assistance percentages (FMAP), which range from 50 percent in Connecticut and New Jersey to 73 percent in Mississippi. (Wisconsin's FMAP has been estimated to be around 58%) In states that choose to participate in the Medicaid expansion, Medicaid eligibility will expand to cover more people. Between 2014 and 2016, the federal government will pay 100 percent of the Medicaid costs for these newly eligible enrollees, declining to 90 percent by 2020.

So under current law, Wisconsin taxpayers have to pick up another 42% of costs for the next 3 years, and 32% between 2016 and 2020, all because Scott Walker and the GOP refuses to take this expanded funding for Medicaid. If states don't want to make up all that money, they then have to reduce benefits and/or cut people off of services, which is certainly going to happen for tens of thousands of Wisconsinites that aren't in poverty, but are barely getting by.

The Commonwealth Fund estimates just how much states that don't take the expansion would be giving up by 2022, along with the resulting outflow of federal taxes and payments to other places that would result.

Not surprisingly, Texass is the worst-off of the Bagger states that refuse the Medicaid funds, as they'd be giving away nearly $9.6 billion in federal funds by 2022, and having $9.2 billion in Texans' federal taxes flowing to other states as a result of this decision. Florida is second, at giving away $9.6 billion in federal money, and having $5.0 billion in federal taxes go elsewhere. And Wisconsin is not immune from this.

Result of not taking Medicaid funds, Wisconsin, 2022
Loss of federal funds- $1.75 billion
Wisconsin fed tax dollars going elsewhere- $1.85 billion

And here's the real kicker. Know what Wisconsin's cost in 2022 would be to gain that $1.75 billion in federal funding? and keep the $1.85 billion in federal dollars here? $56 million. That's a 30 to 1 payoff on investment. I think I'd take that trade if I was a lawmaker.

Lastly, the lame argument from righties about "We can't be sure if the expanded Medicaid funding goes away" falls extremely flat. As the Commonwealth Fund brings up, Federal Highway Transportation Funds to Wisconsin are estimated at $967 million for 2022, but Wisconsin is counting on federal funds to pay for the Zoo Interchange, I-90 and I-94 expansion over the next few years. Heck, Walker borrowed huge amounts of funds for these highway projects and refused to raise the gas tax in the process, but you never heard any concern about backing off and playing it safe in case the feds stop giving so much help to build the interstates.

Likewise, the 2013-15 state budget estimates that the UW System will receive nearly $3.7 billion in federal funding over two years. With the sequester particularly scheduled to hit federally-funded research, it could easily be argued that the UW System's federal funding is much more at risk than the expanded Medicaid funding for the next 2 years. In fact, the GOP Legislature criticized the UW System claimed these types of uncertainties led them to set aside large amounts of funds in case other sources started to run out. Somehow this comparison is never brought up to Gov Walker when he tries to spread the line of BS that "Well, maybe we won't continue to get a 90% or 100% match on Medicaid."

So here's more proof that refusing to take the ACA's Medicaid funds is another pig-headed Walker decision, and it recalls the foolishness of not taking stimulus funds to contribute to a rail line between Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and the Twin Cities. Both of these decision are fiscally irresponsible follies that have not lowered Wisconsinites' taxes, have not helped the services available to Wisconsinites, and is leaving our state behind our neighbors, who had the foresight not to pass up a good thing just because Obama favored it.

In fact, it seems to have only served to impress the miniscule, aging talk-radio listeners and other bubble-worlders that apparently matter most to Scott Walker, at the detriment to everyone else. And that's something that should be hung around his neck for the next 11 months between now and Election Day 2014, along with every GOP Legislator that rubber stamps this idiocy. And yes, EVERY GOP IN THE ASSEMBLY voted to table an amendment that would have taken the expanded Medicaid funding.

3 Progressive Dems show how things should be discussed

Here are three examples showing what Dems SHOULD be saying, and ignoring the spineless worries of the "please be moderate" Beltway crowd.

1. Sen. Elizabeth Warren heads this list, with a clip of her doing what she does best- bringing the facts, identifying real problems, and coming up with solutions to those problems. Here's an example from a couple of weeks ago, where she rightly describes a "retirement crisis" brought on by the decline of pensions and flat wages, and comes up with the common-sense solution to expand Social Security to meet this economic problem.



This type of honesty is why the Elizabeth Warren wing is in ascendance these days. Because members of that group get to the root causes of our issues in ways that no Republican and far too many Democrats wish to take on, out of fear of big-money contributors and a fear of having to actually earn their paycheck. Average, everyday citizens are recognizing that the Warren wing is making a difference, which clearly scares Third Way and other "moderate" oligarch organizations.

2. Moving down into the House, Madison's own Mark Pocan also shows how it's done. In addition to another Congress member that asks for Social Security be expanded, he is once again shining the spotlight on the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. The Guardian reported today on how it is trying to rebrand its image after receiving major criticism for supporting ultra-conservative policies, and is now running a deficit after losing large numbers of corporate and legislative members. It is now trying to set up a 510-c-4 organization called the Jeffersonian Project, which will separate it from ALEC's current 501-c-3 "apolitical charity" status. Pocan pointed out the lipstick on the pig known as ALEC.

“The only charity work ALEC does is on behalf of needy corporations and lonely legislators,” Pocan said. “It is past time that ALEC is exposed for what it is—a corporate lobbying firm doing the bidding of corporations. As the article details, they are now trying to not only hide their intensions, but their funding as well in a new “social welfare” organization. The IRS needs to step in and strip ALEC of its ability to rig the democratic system and rob the American taxpayers.”

Last year, Pocan sent a letter to the IRS urging them to investigate ALEC’s tax filing. He also wrote a letter to the ALEC Chairman asking him to justify its tax filing status. He never received a response.

Pocan also exposed ALEC's doings by going undercover and attending a couple of ALEC conventions while he was in the Wisconsin Legislature (a tradition continued by Pocan's east side Madison successor, Chris Taylor), and calling "BULLSHIT!" on these secretive corporate puppetmasters is the type of standard that Dems should follow nationwide.

3. Wisconsin State Sen. Julie Lassa is the third legislator that deserves props, as she wrote a strong editorial today asking the GOP-controlled Legislature to come to its senses, and take the expanded Medicaid funding available in Obamacare when it meets later this month.

Along with refusing to set up a state exchange, the Governor chose to reject federal funding for the expansion of Medicaid. And the administration has not taken advantage of the ACA’s provisions that allow the state to prevent insurance companies from increasing rates. The result is that fewer Wisconsinites are being covered and those who are will be paying much higher rates.

Our neighbors in Minnesota went in the exact opposite direction, and chose to implement the ACA the way it was designed. As a result, health care premiums in Minnesota are between 25 and 35 percent lower than in Wisconsin, despite the fact that per capita health care costs are basically the same in both states. Thousands of Minnesotans have enrolled in coverage through their state-run exchange, as compared with only a few hundred in Wisconsin using the federal website...

This situation wasn’t caused by Obamacare. It was created by a governor and a Republican majority in the Legislature whose ideological approach to health care made preventing the implementation of ACA more important than making sure people got coverage.

The problems with the federal website are being repaired, but Wisconsin’s health care coverage problems will be long lasting until our state government stops playing politics with the Affordable Care Act and starts taking the steps other states have taken to make affordable health care available to more of our citizens.

Sen. Lassa is unapologetically supporting policies that are fiscally sensible while also covering the most Wisconsinites. That's the type of tone Dems need to have for the next 11 months, to show a real alternative to the failing, ideological track that we have been on in Fitzwalkerstan for nearly three years. It not only illustrates the uncaring mentality of the Walker Administration when it comes to health care, it shows that we are falling behind our neighbors to the west because we didn't make the same choices they did- and it reiterates that this failure is Walker's, not Obamacare's. Lassa's strong statement has another benefit- it happens to be true, and anyone made aware of this WisGOP sabotage is not likely to vote Republican next November.

Candidates like Elizabeth Warren, Mark Pocan and Julie Lassa that stand up for values such as providing insurance to the sick, rewarding people who have put in a lifetime of work, and demanding fairness in our economic system are people we should rally around, and demand more like them. Not just due to the better society that results from these things, but because it will lead to more wins in November for Democrats, which increases the chances of the Overton window finally moving back toward the middle, sending our policies into the 21st Century.

These examples are also why the whole argument of "Democrats must unite" and supporting "electable" centrism rings hollow for me. The mealy-mouthed, pro-corporate approach doesn't inspire people, it doesn't win many elections and doesn't get things done that make for real change. It's why I approve of a Kathleen Vinehout challenge to Mary Burke in the August 2014 primary for governor of Wisconsin. A vibrant exchange of ideas will push the conversation in the governor's race in a more progressive direction, spark interest in the winning candidate for casual voters (regardless of who that candidate is), and help other Dems downticket due to a strong message that majorities agree with.

Today in massive media failures

As I await seeing if Russell Wilson will put me in the fantasy league playoffs (only because I made the brilliant idea to sit Alshon Jeffrey yesterday), I'll forward a few articles for you to check out relating to our continued failure of political media.

1. I love Charlie Pierce's Monday rundowns of the garbage that is today's Sunday talk shows, and today's article may have been the best I've seen of him yet. First, he gives a great evisceration of Karl Rove dance partner David Gregory, who allowed Bagger Rep. Mike Rogers to claim the 15% reported to be without health care is "probably high", and wax for minutes about "stories he's heard" about Obamacare leading to people losing coverage while giving Dem Chris Van Hollen approximately 10 seconds to respond. Then Marquette grad Pierce lays one on another ridiculous Sunday fixture- Peggy Noonan, and her take on a pope who dares to follow the teachings of Jesus.

NOONAN: Here's -- there are many different ways to approach the pope's paper, which is long and which dealt with many things. One of the thoughts I had briefly was this. Our modern popes have tended to be European social democrats. They are -- socialism is not something that has upset them (inaudible). They grew up in a certain world and they grew to understand the economic ways and practices and traditions of the West. The free place, which was helpful to them as they -- they, cardinals who became popes, resisted the Communist world. Now we have a new pope, Francis, from Argentina. His tradition is different. He may indeed view capitalism with a more jaundiced eye, (inaudible) in a way of critiquing it that previous popes have. But he may be bringing something else that will be revealed in time.

The previous two popes were a lot of things, but social democrats was not at the top of the list. And Francis, because he's from South American, may look at capitalism with a more jaundiced eye than do European social democrats? Of course, who can say about the future because it is not the present.

And we'd be remiss if we didn't note this classic Noonerism, in which Norman Rockwell takes blotter acid and paints with his own blood.

NOONAN: Woodrow Wilson stayed in Washington because he was dreadfully ill. He had had a stroke or a series of strokes, and so he was not well, so he moved a few blocks away from the White House. I think we'd all agree, in general, it is very good when the presidents arrive from a real American place, and it's very good when they get their job done to leave and get home, go home to the real American place. As Harry Truman did, as Reagan did.

Gee, I wonder which president did not "arrive from a real American place"? And Reagan went back to a multimillion dollar ranch in the California hills, which are indeed in America, but I don't believe they are what Noonan had in mind. Or maybe so. That would be in the future, which we cannot know, because it is not yet.

2. Charlie also has some nice words for our Governor, who showed up on CBS over the weekend for another not-so-hard-hitting interview. Walker made a silly claim about GOP states doing better in unemployment rate (and not mentioning that "Dem states" like California, Minnesota, and Colorado started dropping quickly once they threw out the GOPs that ran those states until 2010), calls Virginia a Republican state despite the fact that it's gone Dem the last 2 presidential elections, and just elected its third Dem governor in the last 4 terms.

Never underestimate [Walker]'s ability to prevaricate with a (relatively) straight face. Wisconsin is ranked 45th by Forbes in job growth. (Where are those 250,000 new jobs, Scotty? I'll tell you where they are. They're in Minnesota.) Does he really want to compare California with Texas? Does Texas win by any measure save poisonous lizards and exploding unregulated fertilizer plants? Virginia just elected a Democratic governor, foof, largely because the prominent transvaginalist who held the job took exactly the same kind of bold unintimidated stands that you crow about in your recently released book-like product. Sometimes, the line between bullshit and dumbass is passing thin.

3. And yet we still have DC dumbasses like Nate Cohn trying to call Walker some kind of unifying moderate who has something more than a snowball's chance in hell of being the GOP nominee in 2016. I dare you to read this bilge without either laughing hysterically, or puking your guts out at the Beltway "analysis". Cohn clearly just threw a bunch of superficial stats and events down on paper and didn't actually try to do 5 minutes of research into how things actually went down here.

Let me give you a clue Nate. You're dealing with a mendacious sociopath whose campaign tells supporters that sending him money is better for Wisconsinites than buying Christmas presents for their kids. Of course, if Nate and other I-95 media want to do some actual on-the-ground journalism and check into how things REALLY have been done in Fitzwalkerstan, we'll gladly welcome it, since we sure don't get it from the locals here. And if there was a national expose, Walker's political career would be over in a matter of weeks.

The Journal-Sentinel is covering up for their boy Scotty

Here is a longer version of a letter I sent on Saturday to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Unfortunately, they limit the letters to 200 words, and there's a whole lot more I had to reveal on this subject.

In watching Gov Walker's recent book tour, it was remarkable how he consistently would deceive and omit important information about the events of the last 3 years. Walker said that he didn't consider planting disruptors into the protesting crowds, claimed the protests of 2011 turned violent, and never mentioned the six convictions of Walker staffers in Milwaukee County, or the possibility of further indictments due to dealings in Madison.

You know who could have stepped up and refuted those claims? The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. You have the tapes, you witnessed the events, you know about the John Doe convictions. But instead you chose to be a bystander, allowing Walker's lies to go unchallenged. (and Walker's Sunday morning talk show appearance today will probably feature more of these lies, and yet again, the Journal-Sentinel will sit silent when they know the truth).

We have seen reports in other Milwaukee media that illustrate the money-laundering that has been done among right-wing organizations in Wisconsin over the last 2 years, but you have ignored this big story in order to check which officials signed recall petitions. I would ask why you are being so derelict in your duties as a member of the media, but then I remember this factoid.

Journal Communications CEO Steven Smith sits on the Board of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce, which has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Walker campaign in the last 3 years. Journal Communications also made huge profits in Summer 2012 due to recall-related political ads, which means the Scott Walker campaign and right-wing front groups currently under investigation gave your company big bucks.

You have chosen not to harm the golden goose, and therefore, many of us have chosen not to purchase your biased newspaper. We know whose side you are on, and it isn't the 99%ers that make this state run day after day.

Now let me expound on that letter.

1. Why is the Journal-Sentinel using GOP framing on the John Doe case, choosing to smear a judge who performed his right as a citizen to sign a recall petition (and not mentioning that 4 of the 5 DID NOT), instead of discussing the particulars of the case itself? And in today's paper, they run a story trying to imply that John Doe Deux may be a First Amendment "free speech" case. Actually, this case is about money-laundering, as shown in recent articles from the Shepherd Express as well as PR Watch, and it's about right-wing groups trying to get around established tax laws and campaign rules.

2. As mentioned on Friday, the J-S continues to fail in its reporting on the Medicaid and Obamacare issues. This includes not bringing up the fact that taking the expanded Medicaid in Obamacare saves the most state dollars by far, and covers the most Wisconsinites, and that the State Legislature could choose to do so in this week's special session. It also includes the J-S's willful negligence in not mentioning that Gov Walker and other GOP elected officials have tried to sabotage Obamacare's implementation by overloading the insurance exchanges with customers, and refusing to set up state-based exchanges that have proven far more successful in getting people coverage.

3.The J-S has chosen not to cover stories that could be damaging to the Walker Administration, including the accusation from Wisconsin senior groups that Walker's Department of Human Services rigged grants and directed funds to cronies who stood to get big bucks from the awards, and not mentioning Walker's recent fund-raising emails where his campaign told his marks supporters that sending Walker a donation was better than buying kids presents over the Holidays.

We trust media to be the watchers of those in power, but what happens when the watchers need to be watched themselves, because they also benefit from a corrupt system of government, and cannot be trusted to give you the real story? I'm not the only guy angered and troubled by this. Look at how two of our country's most respected news people reacted when 60 Minutes ran their false story on Benghazi a few weeks ago.



Now that's a funny skit, but the underlying point about our failing media is far from funny. This is true in both the DC-New York-based national media, and the Walker stenographers back here in Wisconsin.