The Republican Party reached a new low last week, rejecting outright a series of proposals brought to a joint legislative hearing on infant mortality. Wisconsin finds itself among the worst of all states with infant mortality rates. The number of infants who die in Wisconsin in the first year of their lives is twice the rate of those in Minnesota. Worse still, according to Chairman of the Committee on Infant Mortality Cory Mason, D-Racine: “If [Racine] were a country, [the mortality rate] would have put us between Nicaragua and Kazakhstan.”

According to Mason’s press release, the committee was “comprised of medical and public health professionals, elected officials, community leaders and policy experts.” 

This distinguished group put forth eleven relevant proposals to, as Mason put it, “save lives and save money,” which are two “very positive things that I hope we can build bipartisan support on.” 

Unfortunately, there was no such support from GOP lawmakers. 

In some Wisconsin counties, babies are dying at the same rates as many developing nations. Proposals that could have saved millions of dollars as well as thousands of lives were rejected solely to serve partisan political interests. At one point during the session, Mason explained, “just reducing the five communities that have the highest infant mortality rates would save over $17 million a year.”  

Understand this for a second: Wisconsin currently has a crisis in our healthcare system because we are failing to create an effective system that will maintain the care for an infant after it has left the hospital. In response to this crisis, a committee of the best and the brightest in their field was asked by our Legislature to take time away from their jobs to create a comprehensive and cost-effective plan to reduce the problem. 

Those experts accomplished what they set out to do. Of the 11 proposals, five had unanimous support. The other six no more than one or two dissenting votes out of the 12 committee members. In response to all of that information, the Republicans chose to reject that these proposals be advanced to a standing committee where they could formally be presented as a bill. 

Simply put, Republicans chose to adhere to this partisan position that they are against healthcare reform over using the time and knowledge of experts to save the lives of infants. It is beyond unacceptable. 

If Governor Walker wants to reject the federal grant to create a health insurance exchange in Wisconsin as he did this week, fine. I understand the greater political battle of the Affordable Health Care Act and the uncertainty surrounding its eventual implementation pending the Supreme Court case. I completely disagree with the Republican stance but recognize the political climate in which that decision was made. But there is no such excuse in this situation.

What is the point of spending taxpayer money on these committees, aimed at solving real and serious problems within our state, if the unequivocal answer is no? The rest of the joint legislative session was no better. Rep. Edward Brooks, R-Reedsburg, voted to reject changes that were presented by the committee he chaired. Ridiculously, his excuse for voting down his own committee was they went in a direction outside their scope. He entirely missed the point – as chairman, perhaps, at some point,  he could have changed the direction to something within the scope.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, may have put it best.

“I don’t think I would ever even consider chairing a council; looking at the actions of this committee, we have turned down report after report … ignoring professionals who are creating a body of knowledge that we asked for.” 

Time and again during the session, the only Republican responses were, loosely, “well somebody somewhere already does this, and we don’t really need to create these changes.” They ignored the data, recent outcomes and, most of all, specifically ignored the people working in these fields. 

“These were the best ideas they could put together, health care specialists,” Mason said. “They said ‘this is how we can fix this.'” 

This common sense reasoning fell on deaf ears.

It is a new low for a party that has consistently put its own political interests above the interests of Wisconsin citizens. To, as Mason put it, “prioritize partisanship over saving babies’ lives” tells you all that you need to know about the state of the Republican Party in Wisconsin right now. There is a time and a place for establishing political power, and there is a time to try and figure out how to save the lives of babies. You decide which of those most held the joint legislative session’s focus. 

John Waters ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism.