As Scott Walker’s Reforms Get Results, Wisconsin Democrats Struggle To Find A Coherent Message

With no message and no clear frontrunner for their party’s nomination for the Wisconsin gubernatorial election, Democrats are struggling as they oppose Governor Scott Walker’s successful reforms. A new Milwaukee Journal Sentinel column blasts Democrats for going out of their way to oppose Governor Walker’s proposals, claiming that “the mere idea that they might agree with Scott Walker has Democrats working late into the night in the talking point factory.”

The column went on to note that by opposing Governor Walker’s common sense health insurance proposals, Democrats “would rather keep insurance rates high than concede he has a point.” Wisconsin Democrats continue to prove to voters that they are more concerned with scoring political points than moving the state forward.

Christian Schneider writes in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“If you listen carefully, you’ll hear a whirring sound in Wisconsin. That faint hum is the OppositionTron 3000 machine working overtime to manufacture opposition for the state’s Democrats to some of Gov. Scott Walker’s election-year initiatives. These are proposals that, if introduced by a Democratic governor, liberals would swamp social media to support. But the mere idea that they might agree with Scott Walker has Democrats working late into the night in the talking point factory.

They dismiss Walker’s plan to save families money on school supplies as a ‘gimmick,’ despite the fact that regressive sales taxes penalize the poor. At the same time they deride Walker’s $100-a-child tax credit plan as a ‘bribe,’ they complain that the credit isn’t big enough. (On the federal level, Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Michael Bennet of Colorado have proposed increasing the child tax credit. If you hold your breath waiting for Wisconsin Democrats to complain, it would be best to have 911 on speed dial.)…

This week, the Legislature’s finance committee took testimony on a Walker proposal to stabilize health insurance markets by subsidizing high-cost health plans created by the poorly named Affordable Care Act. Under Obamacare, high-cost individuals have flooded the program, forcing insurance companies to raise premiums or drop out altogether. In the past year, premiums (not counting federal subsidies) have increased 38%, and several states are down to a single insurer in the plan. In Wisconsin, UnitedHealth and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield have bolted…

With a plan all set to improve Obamacare and lower insurance premiums all over the state, Democrats immediately praised Scott Walker, voting for his bill and issuing press releases giving Republicans credit for moving so quickly.

Except, given that it’s an election year, the exact opposite happened.

Democrats on the committee harangued witnesses as if they were on trial for stealing horses. Madison-area Rep. Chris Taylor repeatedly complained about Walker rejecting Medicaid expansion funds under Obamacare, a talking point that still hasn’t died six years after the decision was made. Yet even without taking the funds, Walker covered everyone in poverty with Medicaid for the first time in the state’s history…

Democrats slammed Walker for only proposing this Obamacare fix now, but it wouldn’t have made sense to do anything before Congress had completed its efforts to repeal and replace the law. Had the state gotten out ahead of the federal government, Walker could have been right back at the drawing board…

No one denies that many of Walker’s proposals are meant to reassure voters in 2018. But Democrats are inventing new contortions to pretend they oppose the plans. Three of the four Democrats on the Finance Committee voted against the reinsurance bill — their distaste for Walker evidently so strong they would rather keep insurance rates high than concede he has a point.”