Opinion

Green, College Republicans distort Doyle’s record

Dear Editor,

In Tuesday's paper, articles by Mark Green and Erica Christenson claimed that Governor Jim Doyle has not fought for affordable college tuition. We must remember that it is the state Legislature, lead in both houses by Republicans, that crafted the state budget and proposed severe cuts to the University of Wiscsonsin System in the last budget. Governor Doyle was the leader who was thankfully able to restore nearly half of these Republican cuts with his veto pen.

The bottom line is that Congressman Green's record shows that he does not support college students. Republicans in both Wisconsin and Washington have made it more expensive to attend UW-Madison while trying to limit the freedoms of and opportunities available to UW students. For instance, just last spring Republicans in the state legislature tried to privatize our public universities by passing TABOR, which would've led to a massive reduction in state funding for UW schools.

In the Legislature, Republicans introduced a bill targeting college students by restricting our access to birth control in order to control our sexual choices. Apparently Republicans don't feel that college students are adults that are capable of making choices for themselves.

Republicans have failed to see the bigger picture in higher education, instead they have micro-managed, bringing politics into every corner of our lives.

Congressman Green and his Republican friends also don't seem to want college students to have any say about their policies. The Voter ID Bill that Gov. Doyle thankfully vetoed would make it much more difficult for students to vote on their college campuses.

Oh, and Mark Green has a track record of ethics? Let's look at his campaign's latest decision: When the nonpartisan Democracy for Wisconsin Campaign filed a complaint with the Elections Board about Green's huge transfer of dirty campaign funds, the Elections Board ruled that Congressman Green had to rid his campaign of these illegal campaign funds — totaling nearly half-a-million dollars. How has Mark Green responded? By saying he will not comply with the Elections Board ruling and will instead waste court time trying to reclaim his illegal campaign funds. For someone claiming to clean up government, Green's actions certainly don't back up his rhetoric.

Adam Petras is a senior majoring in political science and economics.