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Wisconsin counting on Obama to heal finances
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With the state projected to spend $500 million over budget in 2009 and no federal assistance coming from President George W. Bush’s administration, Wisconsin officials are counting on President-elect Barack Obama for federal aid.
Since the previous summer, the financial situation has gotten worse throughout the nation and Wisconsin has not escaped the crisis. According to Wisconsin Budget Director Dave Schmiedicke, this will make figuring out the budget quite the challenge.
“I think most economists would agree that the country, if not the world, is in recession, and it looks like it will be a long and deep one,” Schmiedicke said.
The effects of the dwindling economy can be seen across Wisconsin. The personal incomes of Wisconsinites have decreased, in turn affecting consumer spending which has caused tax revenues for the state to decrease dramatically.
According to Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, the Wisconsin government is “too willing to increase taxes before figuring out other solutions.” He said a tax increase should be the last place to turn to since Wisconsinites are already struggling enough.
Suder, who sits in the joint finance committee, said his course of action would be to control government spending, evaluate existing programs and not necessarily rely on federal aid to get out of the economic slump.
“I think Wisconsin is capable of solving its own problems, and I don’t think Wisconsin should look to federal funds as the first option,” Suder said.
According to Suder, the federal government has room for improvements, one of the most important being health care reimbursements for Medicaid and BadgerCare. Currently, Wisconsin is ranked 49th for the amount of money reimbursed by the federal government for such programs.
“We have to first take care of the most vulnerable people and keep those programs like BadgerCare in place, then put more money in K-12 education and continue to build and maintain roads,” Suder said.
Before further budget discussions can proceed, several agencies will have to submit their budget requests to Gov. Jim Doyle, many of which will be submitted today.
Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, said the important thing to look at is how the recession came about in the first place. He blamed Republicans and President George W. Bush’s administration and added that we should look to the future Obama administration for aid.
“I think we will get some real relief with policies passed by Barack Obama,” Black said.
Black added Wisconsin could save money by looking at closing corporate loopholes within the state revenue budget, as well as preserving those programs that benefit Wisconsin.
Like Suder, Black said additional federal revenue could come from hospital assessment and Medicaid reimbursements. Obama’s plans for increased federal assistance as well as reimbursements could save Wisconsin $1 billion, Black said.
“There are still a lot of issues to address, and it will be a long process before the budget is complete,” Schmiedicke said.
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Yes, count on the federal government to bail us out. Someone else can pay for it, like taxpayers.
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oh god, the last thing we need to do is spend more money on education in Wisconsin! It’s a black hole and they always want more.
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Democrats have controlled both houses of the US Congress since 2006. What has the Democrat controlled Congress even tried to do for Wisconsin or the country in general.
There are reasons why the approval rating of Congress is so much lower than that of GW Bush.
Are you one of the Obamamaniacs that didn’t know that the Democtats were already in control of Congress?
On November 4th, 2008, millions of Americans were shocked that a man of Barack Obama’s limited experience, extreme liberal positions and radical political alliances could be elected President of the United States. For many of these Americans, the explanation was rather simple… the news media, completely enamored with Obama, simply refused to do their job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8
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Sooooo…. the Annointed One will Heal Wisconsins profligate spending problems, eh? Good luck with that, Skippy!
A real shock is Democrat Spencer Black blaming the Republicans for the recession. Such partisanship, my my. Shocking.
The recession was triggered by the home mortgage lending debacle. The meltdown of the home mortgage lending system (Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, major banks and anyone holding the commoditized loans) was caused by a systemic problem dating back 3 decades. The root cause lies back in 1977 when the Carter administration enacted the Community Reinveatment Act. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CommunityReinvestmentAct) It was politicized as helping the “poor people achieve the American dream of home ownership”. The requirements for prospective borrowers to have 20% down payments, a reliable job, and little other debt were ‘relaxed’. Lenders started making riskier loans. Community activist groups started intimidating lenders to make even riskier loans to poorly qualified borrowers by threatening “discrimination” lawsuits. The easy money began to flow.
Under the Clinton adminstration in the 1990’s, our lawmakers again saw fit to ease lending requirements and and allowed the increasingly risky loans to be packaged in groups for resale. The banks that were assessing the risk of each loan they were writing could then sell the riskier loans in bundles quickly into the ‘subprime’ market. The banks writing the loans were no longer responsible and culpable if the new borrowers couldn’t meet the monthly mortgage payment. Risk was decoupled from responsiblity. With Clinton administration cronies Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick running Fannie Mae and lining their pockets with millions of dollars in bonuses in the late 1990’s, the flow of easy money accelerated. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41165-2004Sep22.html
Enter the new decade and century. Alan Greenspan, John McCain, and others expressed concern with the increasing risk to the nations financial health posed by risks and corruption intrinsic within Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, and the subprime mortgage market. Their valid and accurate assessments of a gathering financial disaster were demogogued again and sneeringly dimissed by the Democrats. The flow of easy money continued building like a rogue wave headed for the shore.
Rahm Emanuel, a Clinton admisitration insider and Barry Obama’s new chief of staff, received an appointment to the board of directors of Freddie Mac in 2000 - 2002, when the books were being “cooked” to hide the growing loan failures and Democrat cronyism was running rampant. Rahm collected more than $200,000 for his fine stewardship there.
The Bush administration pushed for tighter lending requirements and greater constraints on Fannie and Freddy. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41165-2004Sep22.html ) Legislation to do that was brought before Congress. A Democrat controlled Congress denied there are any financial risks and refused to support the needed legislation.
Thus, our last opportunity to staunch the financial tsunami was demagogued and thrown away. Now the tidal wave has broken. Many financial houses, from the smallest individual home owners to the greatest of century old banks and financial institutions, have been swept away. More will fall in the coming days, too damaged to be repaired.
Today we sort through the wreckage wrought by 30 years of Democrat devolution of a once-robust and conservatively managed home mortgage lending system. Today a Trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000)of our tax money is deemed insufficient to begin the clean up of this mess, as Barrack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and Harry Reid continue their demagoguery.
In high irony and hypocrisy, today the Democrats nationwide berate conservatives for their “free market, unfettered capitalist debacle”. As the good socialist democrat Mao Zedong said, “A lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth.” Rep. Spenncer Black is just the latest to retell it. I’m sure we will hear this Democrat deceit many more times in the coming months. And somewhere Chairman Mao is looking at the ‘new’ Obama administration, nodding his head in approval, and smiling…..
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