Scott Walker, the guy who wants to double the state's budget deficit with tax cuts for the rich, but hasn't come up with one credible idea about how to balance the budget, has outdone himself with his latest idea.
His latest gimmick, which is a waste of the paper it's printed on, and of any staff time spent preparing it: Create a new commission to find waste, fraud and abuse in state government.
Pulling a number out of the air, or perhaps his rear end, Walker "estimates" it would save $300-million.
Why so modest? If you're making up numbers, why not say $5-billion and take care of the whole deficit? It would be just as credible, which is to say not at all.
For years, people in politics and government have joked that the right wing seems to believe there is a Department of Waste, Fraud and Abuse operating at every level of government, and that if we just shut down that agency everything would be OK.
But Walker's simple-minded scheme doesn't even suggest that. It proposes another new commission -- just what the taxpayers have been clamoring for.
The Journal Sentinel reports, with a straight face:
One example Walker gave was excessive overtime, citing an audit that said the state spent $66.5 million on overtime in 2008. But he didn't spell out how much he believed he could reduce that number.[Or any other number.-Xoff]
Walker spokeswoman Jill Bader said Walker and the commission wouldn't know all the wasteful areas they could cut until he won election and had access to the Department of Administration's budget office. The commission's purpose would be to then find areas for savings, she said. [Straight out of Ross Perot -- "I won't know how to fix it till I can get under the hood." - Xoff]
The commission would consist of two people from the private sector, the deputy secretary of administration and four lawmakers -- two from each party. Legislative leaders would appoint the lawmakers and the governor would appoint the others. [Good. Four people who pass the budget and one bureaucract out of the seven members. Revolutionary! - Xoff]
There is definitely some waste, fraud and abuse going on -- Scott Walker is wasting everyone's time, abusing the system and issuing fraudulent claims of savings that are pure fiction.
His last big idea to save money, you may recall, was to eliminate 4,000 state jobs that are already vacant, saving all of the salaries and benefits the state already doesn't pay.
People choosing a new governor deserve better. But nobody ever lost an election by under-estimating the voters, it is said. Walker's testing the limits.