Progressive Thinking

Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board (GAB) quietly passed into history last week. The GAB was created to take partisan pressure out of the accountability process and was made up of non-partisan judges who ensured the decisions were in the best interest of public accountability – not partisan interests.

MADISON - Government Accountability passed in a quiet death the last day of June.

There was no fanfare, no long speeches – just hard working employees packing up personal items.

I imagined the nonpartisan judges of the Government Accountability Board (GAB) breathed a deep sigh as they left their service on the GAB and ended the rough and tumble ordeal as broad members.

All the fanfare, public speeches and hyper-partisan rhetoric happened last winter in what GAB board member, Judge Thomas Barland, called a “public lynching”.

Judge Barland is a former Circuit Court Judge for Eau Claire and Trempealeau counties. As a GAB board member, he oversaw government accountability in Wisconsin. Earlier this year he retired from the GAB.

For over thirty years, he served as a nonpartisan judge. Ironically, given the partisan focus of destroying the GAB, Judge Barland served as a Republican State Representative from 1961 to 1967.

Following an interview with Judge Barland, Chippewa Valley Herald Associate Editor David Gordon wrote, “Barland said his ‘public lynching’ comment referred both to the recurrent attacks on the GAB by members of the Republican majority in the Legislature, and to the actual destruction of the Board.”

These attacks were on display in a long, confrontational hearing of the Joint Committee on Audit last fall.

As the Audit Committee reviewed the extensive work of the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, in another room across the Capitol, legislators conducted a public hearing on a bill to dissolve the GAB. In less than a week, the bill went being a draft to a full joint hearing, which was the only opportunity for citizens to offer testimony on the bill.

During the Audit hearing, GAB chair Judge Gerald Nichols said in response to a question, “Not everyone before me has been true and honest. To do an investigation we want as many of the facts in front of us [as possible]. We are very balanced and it doesn’t make a difference if the subject of the investigation is independent, Republican or Democrat.”

Following the fall hearing, Judge Barland told the Chippewa Valley Herald, “It’s clear to me that [legislators] are basing some of their conclusions on false information…People are too quick on both sides to draw conclusions from minimal facts.”

The LAB auditors reported the facts. The audit showed, through an analysis of complaints and investigations conducted by the GAB, no major concerns. Auditors recommended quicker resolution of complaints and the GAB responded with a new computer system to track complaints.

An earlier audit reported on other activities of the GAB. The analysis was broad, covering every aspect of the agency. Some activities – for example the evaluation of the accessibility of polling places – won national acclaim.

Problems did exist at the GAB. During the study period, auditors reported on legally required tasks that were not completed or completed late. GAB officials countered that short staffing and an unusually high workload required managers to prioritize tasks. A new, complex administrative rule-making process increased the time needed to promulgate required administrative rules.

During that same period, the GAB dealt with several lawsuits, an on-again off-again voter photo ID law, a historical number of recall elections, a statewide judicial race recount, redrawing of legislative district lines, and the passage of 31 separate pieces of legislation affecting operations and elections.

Nevertheless, some legislators distorted the audit facts to justify the GAB’s demise.

Chippewa Herald Associate Editor Gordon reported, “Barland said that the GAB’s enemies, particularly in the Assembly, ‘distorted badly the audit findings’ in what proved to be a successful effort to kill the GAB. He said that the only hope of keeping the Board in existence lay with the Senate but ‘enormous pressure was brought on the Republican senators’ who were wavering.”

The pressure worked. On Saturday, November 7, 2015 at 2:24 a.m., the bill to dismantle the GAB passed with all Republican Senators present voting “aye” and all Democrats voting “nay”.

“It’s a great step backwards for the state,” Judge Barland said. Barland noted the undoing the legislative majority’s changes to the GAB would be difficult and would need “the electorate as a whole to come to an understanding that what was done was wrong.”

MADISON - For this July 4 holiday week, we’ve put together a special report for you on 10 wins for the good guys here in Wisconsin. Amid all the bad news that the Walker Wrecking Crew has brought us, it’s important to remember, and to celebrate, those times in the last year when We, the People, were able to stop Walker, Vos, Fitzgerald, and their big money backers from passing some disastrous bills or implementing retrograde policies.

So please take a gander:

10 wins to celebrate on July 4 in Wisconsin

Speaking of Walker, one of his biggest backers has been the NRA—a fact we shouldn’t forget in the wake of the Orlando massacre. And you can also see how much the NRA has given to your legislators by clicking here:

Walker’s NRA bankroll topped $3.5 million

The problem of big money and dark money is not confined to Walker and the Republicans. Late last week came the birth announcement of a new dark money group on the Democratic side, which will be operating here in Wisconsin. We don’t look kindly on this development, and you’ll see why here:

New dark money group for Dems is bad news

As we point out, “Our elections should not be tug-of-wars between liberal billionaires on one side and conservative billionaires on the other. All of us citizens should have an equal voice in the electoral arena.”

I hope you agree.

Let’s declare our independence from big money and dark money.

Happy 4^th of July!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director

P.S. Please support our urgent work to get money out of politics and to bring real democracy to Wisconsin and this country. Send us a tax-deductible gift today by clicking here or by mailing your check to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign at 203 S. Paterson Street, Suite 100, Madison, WI 53703.

The sun’s power can be harnessed to provide many of life’s essential needs and our natural resources are very much our wealth. Find out what can be learned at the Energy Fair hosted by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association.

ALMA, WI - “Don’t you want to sit in the shade?” my sister-in-law asked. “No” I replied. I love the sun. I understand why ancient civilizations worshiped the sun.

Somehow, I think my in-laws, Cindy and Norm, love the sun too.

They just returned from the Midwest Energy Fair in Custer, Wisconsin. The Energy Fair, sponsored by the nonprofit Midwest Renewable Energy Association celebrated its 27th anniversary in June.

With over 200 workshops and roughly 15,000 folks attending, the fair serves as a catalyst for clean energy projects all over Wisconsin.

Norm and Cindy put to work what they learned. Their yard soaked up the energy from the sun in so many ways.

As we drove up to the farm, laundry waved in the breeze on the clothesline. A big jar of rich brown sun tea soaked up the sun on the picnic table.

A large, black box with a slanted clear plastic top sat atop a small table. The “sun-oven” – awash with sun – cooked healthy brown rice.

And there was another contraption in the middle of the side yard. A small wooden shed with no roof and water hoses running to it with a little entry door on the back. Leaning against the shed was a coffin-shaped rectangular container with a clear Plexiglas lid. I peered through the lid and saw 17 black hoses looped the length of the container, which looked much like a nest of black snakes.

“What is this?” I asked. “Our solar shower” was the answer. Right there in the middle of the side yard. Oh, the joys of country living.

“The yard looks like Ma and Pa Kettle,” I joked. But clearly my family loved the sun.

The photovoltaic panels across the field spoke to my relatives’ commitment to the sun. As did all the equipment in the basement controlling both the geo-thermal and the solar panel systems that powered the farm.

“Don’t forget the power of the sun in all our growing,” Cindy told me as I caught up with her early the next day. She was weeding and mulching a carefully tended garden brimming with produce. The fencing and wooden gate were cleverly built to keep out hungry critters.

The garden looked exactly like the picture-book plot that tempted Peter Rabbit in Beatrix Potter’s books.

“Yesterday I had a little rabbit sticking his nose though the chicken wire,” Cindy said. “I felt like Mrs. McGregor.”

“The growing that happened in June was phenomenal,” Cindy exclaimed. “The longer days, so much rain coming at the right time.” She wanted to share the excitement of growing things. “Capture the energy of the sun in the plant growth and feed yourself! Even in a small area. Everyone can grow something; a window box in the city and a small area in the suburbs. When I dig in the garden and am surrounded by green, it brings me back.”

“We need to balance what we are hearing in the news with this optimistic stuff, and then the bad news won’t paralyze us,” Cindy said. “Norm says ‘all we can do is do what we can in our little corner.’ And we can share what we are doing.”

“This year we got two of our friends to go to the renewable energy fair. And I know they will come back,” Cindy noted.

Cindy shared her memory of a speaker from last year’s Energy Fair. “The speaker asked us ‘Does Wisconsin have coal? No. Oil? No.’ He went through a number of things and then asked ‘Does Wisconsin have sun? YES.’ We need to use what’s here. Let’s celebrate what we’ve got and be smart about it.”

“The good food, the flowers, the trees giving off oxygen; we have the sun and the water. We feel good about being in Wisconsin right now, even with all of our challenges.”

As I left, Cindy handed me a bag full of freshly picked baby kale and strawberries. Nature’s bounty, or as Gaylord Nelson once said, “The wealth of the nation is its air, water, soil, forests, minerals, rivers, lakes, oceans, scenic beauty, wildlife habitats and biodiversity. These biological systems are the sustaining wealth of the world.”

America has some king-sized challenges, and Wisconsin is showing more severe symptoms than most states. Here are seven ways to shake things up, starting close to home.

ALTOONA, WI - America has some king-sized challenges. Economic insecurity born of simultaneous deindustrialization and globalization. Stagnant wages. Grotesque and growing inequality. Nagging fear that the nation’s children will end up worse off than their parents. Strained social relations. Political parties that offer empty promises and false choices when they are not pointing fingers of blame at the other side. Collapsing public confidence in those parties and the democratic process.

No part of the country is immune to these conditions, but Wisconsin is showing more severe symptoms than most states. Wage and job growth in Wisconsin is lagging behind the U.S. average. The state’s poverty rate has reached its highest level in 30 years. Wisconsin leads the nation inshrinkage of the middle class.

When major change came to America in the past, it’s fascinating how often Wisconsin led the way. There’s no time like the present for Wisconsin to get back out there in the lead. With the enormity of today’s challenges, this is no time for pussyfooting.

Because most people have lost faith in the political system and are thoroughly disgusted with the politicians who continue to happily operate within that system, and because most of the general public sees big political donations as nothing more than legal bribes, the law should be brought in line with the broad public consensus that has formed. Any political donation over $200 should be legally defined as a bribe and therefore treated as a felony. Any spending by interest groups benefiting a candidate for office should be legally considered a donation.

Because wages are stagnant and economic inequality has reached alarming levels, the minimum wage should be turned into a living wage. The Fight for $15 is gaining traction in hundreds of cities across the country, the more the better, but it is far less likely to catch on in small towns and rural areas where the cost of living and average worker earnings are considerably lower than in big cities. So how about a Drive for 55, setting the wage floor at 55% of the average wage workers earn in a community or region? This would produce minimum wages at or near $15 an hour in large metropolitan areas and would substantially boost the minimum wage everywhere while flexibly accounting for differences in local economies.

Because the balance of power has been tilted against workers, rewrite the law to make forming a union a civil right for all employees in every sector of our economy.

Because the poorest of all Americans pay double the tax rate paid by the country’s richest few when all state and local taxes are factored in,taxes on the rich should be raised and taxes on the poor and middle class should be lowered until the rich pay taxes at a rate that’s at least on a par with the rate paid by everyone else if not higher.

Because feed-the-rich policies inspired by the “trickle-down” economic theory have been a miserable failure, never producing more than a trickle for the masses and causing grotesque economic inequality and the slow but steady extermination of the middle class, Wisconsin should lead the way in ending crony capitalism and put the state’s corporate welfare office — the failed Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation — out of business. Use the tens of millions of dollars saved each year by abolishing the WEDC to far better use, like paying to bring high-speed Internet and mobile phone service to areas of the state without access to these 21st Century necessities.

Because education is our best hope for building a better and more prosperous future, and our best weapon against economic and social decline, Wisconsin should blaze a trail for the nation in making education as accessible and affordable for future generations as past generations made it for us. Such a lofty goal won’t be reached overnight, but the state could fast-track the pursuit by ending the failed 25-year experiment with taxpayer-subsidized private schooling and using the savings to restore funding stolen from public schools and buy down college tuition in pursuit of the goal of debt-free higher education.

And because having government as close to the people as possible and having decentralized decision making at the community level is preferable to top-down rule with authority in just a few hands,Wisconsin should restore local control by repealing all 128 laws enacted since 2011 giving state officials more say and local communities less.

There you have it . . . seven ways to shake things up, starting close to home. And here’s hoping they inspire 70 more and create a ripple effect across the country.

The VA is America’s largest single payer and single provider system. VA healthcare is NOT broken. Congress and presidents must step up to the plate and fund the staffing and facilities needed to meet the escalating demand for veteran care.

MADISON - In order for the Veterans Affairs Department to “fix” the significant problems at many of the 1,700 VA hospitals and clinics across America, it needs nearly $18 billion more for additional staff and new and remodeled facilities said the acting VA Secretary in 2014.

He did not get the money from Congress.  Thus the VA limps along with ever growing number of veterans to serve, not enough staff and not enough facilities to meet the needs.

Additionally, the VA has weak management in some areas and drastically needs stronger whistleblower protections.

Conservatives have pushed for privatization of veterans’ healthcare for decades.  Recently, the Koch brothers recharged the effort to PRIVATIZE the VA.

Why?  They conclude billions can be made by closing down the VA and sending 7 million veterans into private healthcare.  How?  As private care merges into ever larger corporations, as health insurance and drug companies do the same, the costs for services and drugs increase due to the companies having to pay back the hundreds of billions in loans the CEOs borrow to buy each other’s companies.  Stock holders, Wall Streeters and CEOs make billions while patients pay ever increasing costs.  As the 1%ers know, monopolies are very profitable.

Those who support ill-advised PRIVATIZATION cover their pure, simple GREED with big tears about, “We just want to “help” our wonderful veterans!”

Privatizers listen up:

• Fact:  64% of us 22 million vets DO NOT WANT THE VA PRIVATIZED.
• Fact:  72% of us who use VA hospitals DO NOT WANT THE VA PRIVATIZED.
• Fact:  VA healthcare costs 20% LESS than Medicare.  Medicare is 10% less costly than private care.  Jumping from VA healthcare to private care may cost taxpayers 30% more.
• Facts:  VA care is peer ranked among the best healthcare systems nationally.  Vets are just as satisfied with their VA care as are patients in private care.
• Fact:  Between 2009 and 2016 the number of veterans served by the VA increased 22% to nearly 7 million.
• Fact:  The VA was overloaded and understaffed in 2009.  With all the praise Congress heaps on veterans, they continue to underfund the VA. Result:  Staffing and facility shortages continue.

The Koch propaganda machine marches on deaf to facts.  Their front group, Concerned Veterans of America, preaches privatization.  Dutiful media keep cranking out the stories about poor vets and the efforts to help them by privatization.  Obama, Sanders and Clinton all support No Privatization of the VA.  The major Republican candidates and Trump support privatization.

The VA is America’s largest single payer and single provider system.  VA is a massive high quality, cost efficient, proactive healthcare system that stands as a threat to all insurance companies and for-profit and non-profit hospital systems.  It provides 115 million outpatient visits plus surgery, RXs, therapy, mental health and nursing homes for a cost of $65 billion per year.  If VA healthcare was shut down today this amount of care would cost 30% more, private care hospitals could not accept the additional patient load and veterans would likely receive lower quality care.

VA healthcare is NOT broken.  Congress and presidents must step up to the plate and fund the staffing and facilities needed to meet the escalating demand for veteran care.

We served because presidents and Congress members sent us into combat or peace time forces.  We get injured, permanently damaged, our lives are impacted with some of us never being able to work again.  We demand presidents and Congress members pay the VA costs and help us they promised!

PRIVATIZATION OF THE VA WILL SOLVE NOTHING.  It will exacerbate America’s problem of supporting veterans and their families when in need.

The American Federation of Federal Employees (AFGE) is holding press conferences across America to help the public understand the VA’s problem and successes.  AFGE is one of America’s largest unions with nearly 700,000 workers of whom a third are VA workers.

It is AFGE members who have been risking their careers making whistleblower complaints against bad management practices in the VA. Whistleblowers have stood up for quality care in the VA and real rather than fake appointment lists.  They have personally payed for their courage with damaged careers as a result of retaliation by VA managers in many hospitals across the nation.  Congress must enact a powerful whistleblower protection act!

Wednesday, June 22, 2016, at noon AFGE and other leaders will speak out for VA healthcare and against Privatization in front of the Madison VA hospital.