[img_assist|nid=60764|title=Off with their heads|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=185|height=218]This would be laughable if it weren't so tragic and so enormously hypocritical. We're of course talking once again about Scott Walker.
First, Walker spends his initial months as governor of Wisconsin whacking billions of dollars in shared revenue, public employee compensation and social service programs while enacting tax cuts for big business.
Now, Walker is very concerned that the federal government may default on the national debt.
Walker says if the national debt ceiling isn't raised and the feds start shutting down revenue sharing programs on a wholesale basis, then the cash won't be there for the State of Wisconsin to receive all the federal dollars Walker expected. That, he says, will hurt health care for Wisconsin's poor, cut highway programs and reduce other services.
Yes, it's true: After gleefully whacking many state programs by hundreds of millions of dollars, Walker is suddenly very worried that the federal government will ... whack state programs by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Why, how very irresponsible of those uncaring politicians.
Apparently, when Walker and his band of merry state Republicans enact draconian social service deforestation, it's all good, but when Beltway Republicans force the federal government to do what amounts to the very same thing, that's bad. After all, a debt ceiling shutdown would hurt Wisconsin residents by cutting federal aids -- and, strangely, that worries Walker, whose administration in the past has shown more than casual disdain for such aid.
Meanwhile, Walker's own cuts -- we are supposed to believe -- only serve to help Wisconsin residents. So why the discontinuity? Maybe Walker is just not that self-aware, or maybe he realizes his cuts are going to cause real pain for many state residents and he's now seized on a way to pass the buck on to the feds. Of course, he ignores the fact that much of the hurt coming from the direction of D.C. will be the result of his own party's machinations.
With a straight face, Walker told reporters that he'd "rather start now to plan than be caught the day after trying to figure out what's going on." We guess he means in the way he "dropped the bomb" on an unsuspecting citizenry with his union-busting law, while planning secretly in advance to summon the National Guard in case things turned ugly.In other words, plan ahead for chaos, whether its of your own doing or that of your own party nationally.
Meanwhile, Walker's adminstration secretary, Mike Hubesch, added this:
"While a total shutdown is unlikely, the possibility of the federal government only paying a portion of its obligations is concerning and presents a great level of uncertainly to the management of state government programs."
Catch that? The possibility of the feds only paying a portion of their obligations to Wisconsin "is concerning," but the reality of the State of Wisconsin only paying a fraction of its multi-billion-dollar obligations to municipalities and school districts remains just what the governor ordered. Are these guys clueless or really just that smarmy?
Cue the Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland. It's very obviously time for another round of tea party political insanity in Wisconsin.