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Republicans set 2006 agenda

Wisconsin Assembly Republicans revealed their 2006 agenda Monday in a series of statewide press conferences, focusing on their major goals of tax relief, job creation and health-care reform.

Democrats recently unveiled initiative proposals to enhance key social programs, but Republicans maintain that centering reform on business development will improve Wisconsin's economy and create wealth.

"The Republican agenda is not to ignore the poor … but to realize that government can't always be the answer," Lance Burri, spokesperson for Rep. Frank Lasee, R-Green Bay, said. "Sometimes we have to get out of the way and let the private sector do what it does best, and that is create wealth."

In addition to job growth, Republicans plan to push for a Taxpayer Bill of Rights to ensure "reasonable" tax growth, and health savings accounts to promote patient accountability.

In contrast to Democratic plans to expand BadgerCare, Republican leaders support accounts out of which patients would deduct payments to simulate using personal funds.

"With BadgerCare type of insurance, you can go to the doctor with every sniffle," Burri said. "But with a health savings account — it will help people to make better choices."

Democrats, however, view TABOR as a dangerous threat to the state Constitution and see health savings accounts as the wrong approach to the health-care crisis.

Additionally, Assembly Democrats met the overall GOP agenda with heavy criticism, dismissing Republican proposals as nothing new.

"To me, it was the same old tired agenda they've been talking about since the early '90s — they are clearly out of ideas," Assistant Minority Leader Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, said.

Republican proposals will do little to help the middle class, a demographic at the heart of their "On Wisconsin Agenda," Democrats added.

"I see a whole lot that will help wealthy people, and if you have a big checking account and a big bank portfolio, you're going to love [the Republican] agenda," Richards said. "But if you're like most families in Wisconsin, chances are their agenda won't do anything [for you]."

But according to Christine Mangi, spokesperson for Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, the Republican plan includes key "backbones" aimed at helping middle-class citizens in an affordable manner.

A "Health Care Transparency Act" would make it easier for consumers to compare the cost and quality of physician groups, and a measure to attract doctors to rural areas would help extend care to more residents across the state, Mangi said.

Additionally, Republicans called the "On Wisconsin Agenda" unaffordable, lauding their own agenda as a responsible plan that will not push the state further into deficit.

Democrats conversely charge that Republicans are leaving the state's poorest citizens behind.

Though each party's priorities of tax relief, job creation and health-care reform seem to align, the parties remain confrontational.

"If they want to play political games … or make life easier for the very wealthy, like they would with abolishing our state tax, then we're going to have different agendas," Richards said.

Mangi added although she hopes for more cooperation, it remains a difficult goal.

"The items on our agenda might be similar," she said, "but we just have very different views about what are the best measures to help us achieve our goals."