It was recently released in the news that Gov. Scott Walker has indeed kept the promise he made during his campaign to pay his pension cost, just as he is requiring all state employees to do. The main argument, however, is over the timing. Walker is quoted to have said he would begin paying it “immediately.” The gray area of this word is where his opponents have chosen to strike. Like vultures awaiting an easy meal, liberals have focused in on his ambiguous language, but really they’re just grasping at straws.

Walker began paying his pension cost in August, when the law required him to do so, whereas his opponents say he should have paid “immediately” in January, right after he was elected. Walker has backed up his choice to pay in August instead of January, saying he has paid closer to what state employees will have to pay (something to the tune of 6.7 percent) by paying later. Had he paid in January, he would have saved around 5,000 clams. So Walker pays more money for the cost of his pension, and already the vultures have descended? I really do not understand the “logic” of Walker’s opponents. He’s at fault for paying more money? He’s at fault for supporting the bill he created? He’s at fault because he wishes to be treated as the state employees he’s affecting? Sounds a bit like liberal desperation.

I would have preferred my governor to pay the percentage I have to pay in order to fix our state’s failing economy. The arguments previously had been focused on how Walker “doesn’t listen to the people” and yet here he is treating himself like one of us. Walker wants to fix the spend-happy economy and the deficit Jim Doyle created during the last 18 years. Wisconsin is 10 billion dollars (yup, billion with a “b”) in the hole, yet some still believe Walker is trying to hurt our economy. Michael Moore was wrong when he said Wisconsin wasn’t in debt. We are.

But now Walker is fixing the deficit and holding himself to the same high spending standards.
It’s certainly a different Wisconsin now that this is the first time in 18 years that we have a projected positive state money balance. Wisconsin had suffered under Doyle for too long and we’ve forgotten what a balance without a negative sign really means. It means jobs. It means hope. It means economic recovery.

These liberal vultures seem to poke at the most nominal issues; Walker isn’t able to tie his shoes in the morning without someone calling him a fascist. It is more pertinent, however, that the vultures really focus on the important issues, like why our economy needs to be fixed and why government spending is not the answer to everything. The picking apart of Walker’s speeches to the point of debating a single word is embarrassing. “Immediately” is all relative, especially when in the end you end up paying more to unite yourself with Wisconsinites everywhere. Walker has kept his promises and more, and will continue to rehabilitate our Wisconsin economy.

Vincent Borkowski ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in neurobiology.