Let’s rewind about a month and a half. As hard as it may be to believe, it actually looked like relations between the University of Wisconsin and the state government were on the mend. Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank had just been chosen as UW’s next chancellor — a… Read more »

One of the most important roles of a government is to build and maintain infrastructure — without a sound transportation network, not much else matters. If Wisconsin is to be, in the words of Gov. Scott Walker, “open for business,” the state must make sure it is a place where… Read more »

The most vital part of a successful democracy is its electoral system. Almost every other problem in a democratic government is fixable in the long term through voting. Since elections are the most powerful means of change, if elections are broken, there is little the people can do to try… Read more »

According to a memo released by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau last week, Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget would result in structural deficit of $664 million.  A deficit is not the end of the world — Wisconsin is no stranger to unbalanced budgets. And Walker deserves credit for finally balancing… Read more »

Last week’s elections for the Associated Students of Madison once again boasted impressively poor turnout — roughly 15 percent, all told. With such woefully low turnout, ASM is dangerously close to being an illegitimate government. Luckily for them, however, no one actually cares enough to make a fuss about the… Read more »

Earlier this month, Gov. Scott Walker declined federal funds to expand Wisconsin’s Medicaid coverage to more of the state’s citizens. The exact details of the expansion and Walker’s alternative proposal are not important — suffice to say that, as compared to Walker’s plan, expanding coverage as part of the Affordable… Read more »

Hark! Good news! According to a recent Gallup survey, congressional approval is on the rise — from 14 percent in January to 15 percent in February. Unfortunately for Congress, this staggering increase of one whole percentage point is unlikely to stick around in the face of billions of dollars in… Read more »

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama called on Congress to pass legislation changing the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour, up from its current value of $7.25 per hour. Not surprisingly, this proposal has garnered plenty of opposition from congressional Republicans. House Majority Whip… Read more »

President Barack Obama’s second term is off to a chaotic start. In the first few weeks since his inauguration, most of the nation’s focus has been on the issues of immigration, gun control and, of course, the wonderful senatorial sideshow of cabinet confirmations. While all (or at least two) of… Read more »

Purchasing expensive textbooks is, for the most part, a necessary evil. After all, it’s not easy to make a textbook. Writing a college-level text requires a significant time commitment from a number of very well-educated and intelligent people – people whose time is valuable, and who must be compensated well… Read more »

For those of us who leave the state for winter break, it can be difficult to keep up with current events in Wisconsin. So while I wasn’t surprised to find I was behind on the news when I came back after break, I was pretty shocked I had somehow missed… Read more »

Welcome, everyone, to a new semester at The Badger Herald Editorial Page. As the editorial page editors, we’d like to take a few moments to introduce ourselves and lay out our vision for the page over the coming months. First, a little bit about the two of us: Charles, the… Read more »

The most difficult part of running a democracy is deciding who should be in charge of setting up elections. Allowing elected officials to govern over elections presents a clear conflict of interest. After all, once elected, politicians have a strong incentive to rig the game to stay in power (i.e.… Read more »

I hope to bring my unique experiences as a white, male, middle-class suburbanite to The Badger Herald Editorial Board. I also plan to use the wealth of knowledge I’ve accumulated during my extensive four-class economics career to form opinions on complex issues of fiscal and monetary policy. Further, as a mathematics… Read more »

Much of the post-election discussion in Washington has been focused on the upcoming fiscal cliff, and this will likely continue through the beginning of next year. This is understandable considering how important of an issue the fiscal cliff is. However, it’s not the only important issue right now, and the… Read more »

In the words of Ald. Mike Clear, District 19, “It’s Madison, everything has to be controversial.” This is an extremely apt description of the debate surrounding lighting the currently unlit southwest commuter path. The new lights, which would cost around $200,000, would run from the Beltline to Breese Terrace. There… Read more »

Free bus passes are one of the many benefits University of Wisconsin students receive. However, since these passes are issued separately from Wiscards, there’s an opportunity for students to try to game the system. Specifically, a student who never rides the bus could get his or her free bus pass… Read more »

I’m going to do a bit of a pre-postmortem on the 2012 campaign. So, without further ado, here are the top five most important moments in the presidential election, as determined in a completely non-rigorous manner by a carefully selected committee of one (me).  Honorable mention: The Paul Ryan pick.… Read more »

By the time this column is published, we will already know how the election has turned out (or there will be a lot of very tired people who gave up on Ohio’s ability to tabulate ballots at around 4 a.m.). Since I won’t be able to write this column after… Read more »

Madison is a wonderful city, as everyone who lives here can attest. It even has a reputation around the country as a vibrant, safe place to live with plenty of jobs, to boot. In fact, we consistently place highly in rankings of best small cities in the U.S. The secret’s… Read more »

Traffic enforcement is not generally one of the most popular duties performed by police. Most people can attest to the unpleasantness of looking in the rear view mirror and seeing a squad car turn its lights on. However, there are two good reasons speed limits exist — they save lives and they… Read more »

Madison is known for being extremely bike-friendly. This is clearly a boon for the city — more bikers means fewer cars, which means less traffic and less air pollution, and these gains come from relatively small investments in biking infrastructure. However, a recent string of three accidents involving bikes and… Read more »

Now that we’re almost a month into the semester and starting to worry about midterms, it’s easy to forget the biannual pain of purchasing textbooks. The National Association of College Stores estimates that, in the 2008-2009 academic year, the average college student spent $667 on “course materials” — namely, textbooks.… Read more »

Death is a very difficult topic to discuss. It’s not a subject that most people enjoy pondering. It is especially difficult to discuss with someone whose death may be imminent. Like many issues, it might be easier to just avoid the topic altogether. However, as is often the case, pretending… Read more »

Much has been said, perhaps too much, about the effects of the budget cuts championed and implemented by Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican state legislature. However, most of this discussion revolves around the short-term effects of the cuts. And these cuts will have serious short-term consequences, indeed. However, the… Read more »

With the Supreme Court’s ruling in the infamous Citizens United case, much has been said about the influence of money in politics. Many politicians, especially Democrats, have decried the money pouring into this year’s campaign. While the increased prevalence of money in politics does raise real concerns, it is not… Read more »

Half-truths and outright lies are nothing new in politics. Politicians are adept at bending the truth any which way in order to suit their needs. However, in his recent speech at the Republican National Convention, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, showed a remarkable disregard for facts, as reported by The Washington… Read more »

To say that political rhetoric has been heating up over the past several years would be a massive understatement. As the differences between the two parties have grown greater in number, the language used by both has grown stronger. This, in and of itself, is not inherently bad. However, this heated… Read more »

Since moving here from the Chicago suburbs last fall, I’ve become accustomed to most of Wisconsin’s quirks. I’m no longer fazed by the strange obsession with cheese. I accept that the Packers are a religion. I’ve gotten used to, and even come to enjoy, the constant political drama. However, I’m… Read more »

Former Governor of Utah and United States Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr., performed laughably in the Republican presidential primary race, dropping out in January after a lackluster showing in moderate New Hampshire, the state in which he had the best chance of coming away with a victory. Huntsman’s abysmal… Read more »

According to Urban Dictionary, the definition of a “shit show” is as follows: “A description of an event or situation which is characterized by an [sic] ridiculously inordinate amount of frenetic activity. Disorganization and chaos to an absurd degree. Often associated with extreme ineptitude/incompetence and or sudden and unexpected failure”… Read more »

News that Republicans will once again be running fake Democratic candidates in the upcoming recall primaries has been, unsurprisingly, met with cries of protest and outrage. Republicans say the candidates are merely being used to make sure that all of the general recall elections take place on the same day… Read more »

While studying last night (and by “studying” I actually mean watching “South Park”), I realized that, underneath all the profanity and bolo tie jokes, the episode “Cash for Gold” was actually pretty relevant.  In case you happen to not know every episode of “South Park” by heart, here’s a brief… Read more »

If you’ve watched any TV over the last few weeks, you’ve probably seen Gov. Scott Walker’s new ad, titled “Promises Kept” (that’s not a joke). If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing it, don’t fret — I’ll be doing a play-by-play of the ad in this week’s column. If… Read more »

The state of Wisconsin has become a microcosm of the broader political landscape across the county. It has all the great elements of political drama, and even one significant advantage over the rest of the country: We don’t have to wait until November to see how it turns out. For… Read more »

When a law providing for state-subsidized venture capital was signed in 1999, it seemed like a win-win. The state would provide $50 million to investment firms, called CAPCOs, which would invest in fledgling companies, creating plenty of jobs along the way. As one might imagine, things didn’t turn out exactly… Read more »

As the old adage goes, shit happens. This is especially true in the world of government. With something as large and complicated as, say, a state government or a campaign for office, things are bound to go wrong. For this reason, some mistakes are forgivable.  If one bad apple slips through… Read more »

The word “jobs” is now being used as justification for just about everything. The latest abuse of the innocent-sounding “jobs” is its use as a rationale for passing a bill that would restructure the mining permit approval process in Wisconsin. Part of the reason for the attention surrounding this bill… Read more »

Judge Michael Gableman’s tenure as a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice has been rocky. In his 2008 campaign for the Supreme Court, Gableman came under fire for an advertisement he ran against his opponent that may not have been completely truthful. This potential ethics violation came before the court and resulted… Read more »

There’s something about campaigns that makes politicians say some really stupid things. Take, for example, Lyndon Johnson’s promise to win the “War on Poverty” (ask the 46.2 million Americans living in poverty how that went.) Not to be outdone, George H.W. Bush famously vowed, “Read my lips, no new taxes”… Read more »

The recent failure of the congressional ‘supercommittee’ is yet another addition to the already long list of reasons why Congress’ approval rating is hovering around 9 percent. By the way, things that are more popular than Congress include, but are not limited to: the Iraq war, polygamy, communism, pornography (is… Read more »

Protests of all shapes and sizes have been in the news quite a bit over the past year. Between the Arab Spring, the Tea Party, the backlash against austerity in Europe and now the Occupy movement, it seems that not a day goes by without some coverage of a protest… Read more »