Progressive Thinking

Although the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision to lift the Safer at Home Order was disappointing, we have an opportunity to make Wisconsin stronger while we continue to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.

EAU CLAIRE - Disappointment and opportunity may not always belong in the same sentence, but when addressing conflicts they often work together. We can be disappointed, but we have to consider the opportunity before us to move forward and be better.

This is how I felt about last week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court decision to lift the Safer at Home order. Although we’re left feeling disappointed, we must consider the opportunities ahead to get through this crisis.

In a previous session, the Legislature passed legislation to give the Secretary of the Department of Health Services (DHS) the authority to respond to a public health emergency. During this pandemic, Republican leaders filed a lawsuit requesting the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturn the Safer at Home order. Ultimately, the court determined the DHS Secretary cannot call for a Safer at Home order without first going through a legislative rule-making process. To put that into perspective, think about firefighters showing up at your home to extinguish a fire, but they can’t start without the city council convening to determine if they can turn on the water.

Oddly, the decision allows our county health officers to introduce an order at the local level, the very law Republicans claim the DHS Secretary cannot use. Many local health departments issued their own Safer at Home orders, but last Friday, Attorney General Josh Kaul warned local health departments that the Supreme Court’s ruling may affect local health departments’ decisions. Shortly after that, numerous county health departments rescinded or rolled back their orders, leaving Wisconsin even more confused during a crisis.

It’s hard to know exactly where to find the best information now that Republicans left us in the lurch during a global pandemic. Seek the guidance of public health experts, like our local health departments, to know what to do and how to do it safely.

It’s all the more disappointing to know that all of the sacrifices we’ve made and the work public health officials have done is now jeopardized without these safeguards in place. Wisconsin was turning the dial under Governor Evers’ Badger Bounce Back Plan. Republicans asked the Supreme Court to flip the switch without a plan in place. More people will be sick, economic impacts will be more severe and recovery will take much longer.

The 4 Justices who delivered the majority decision ignored the law. In fact, Justice Brian Hagedorn argued in his dissent that the people of Wisconsin did not empower the court "to step in and impose our wisdom” on "proper governance during this pandemic" adding "they left that to the legislative and executive branches." He went on to state that "today's decision may or may not be good policy, but it is not grounded in the law."

I agree. We are living in an era of conservative justices playing politics and legislating from the bench for the benefit of a few rather than the public interest. COVID-19 hasn’t disappeared because lawyers and politicians want the world to return to what they consider to be normal.

The Safer at Home order put us in a good place to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. Each of us has an opportunity to protect our communities. We know how staying safer at home, practicing social distancing, washing our hands and only traveling when necessary has worked to protect others. Also, wearing a mask protects those around you in case you are carrying the virus without your knowledge.

At a recent roundtable discussion, my colleague, Representative Bob Kulp (R – Stratford), spoke about creating a “better normal.” Throughout this unprecedented time, we’ve experienced disappointment. We’ve realized that we weren’t prepared for the ramifications of a public health crisis. We’ve seen how the lack of investment to support healthcare workers, expand broadband or strengthen our public health infrastructure has affected our response to this pandemic.

This disappointing realization brings new opportunity to draw a fresh perspective and evaluate what it will take to make Wisconsin stronger. I look forward to this opportunity and hope it draws us all closer together to create, not a new normal, but a better normal.

MADISON - After the outrageous decision by the right wing majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to lift “Safer at Home,” we noted that there still is another case before the Court on this same issue. And guess what? The lead plaintiff is a major GOP donor, and he maxxed out to Justice Rebecca Bradley, as we explain here:

Conservative Justice Got $20K Contribution from Individual in Second Stay-at-Home Suit

We were also so disgusted by Chief Justice Roggensack’s “regular people” comment about the meatpackers in Green Bay that we checked out her statement of economic interest to see “regular” she was. Here’s what we found:

Roggensack Has at Least $295K+ in Investments

By the way, if you want to see financial relationships and how wealthy some of our other state elected officials are, just click here:

Statements of Economic Interests

Our Data Analyst, David Julseth, just posted statements of economic interests filed with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission as of May 2020. These statements cover calendar year 2019. This is the only place that the public can view them without first submitting a request form to do so!

I hope you find these postings useful.

And I’d love to hear from you, so please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you’d like.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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P.S. If you like the work we’re doing, please make a tax-deductible gift today to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. We’d really appreciate it. Just click here. Thanks!

Wednesday's decision comes as no surprise, says Green Bay Senator. Justices put the bidding of their corporate benefactors over workers' lives.

GREEN BAY, WI - Congratulations workers! Thanks to the corporate controlled State Supreme Court you’re going back to work whether you feel safe or not. Because now that they have repealed the Safer at Home order if your employer calls you back to work and you don’t feel safe you will lose your unemployment.

In a decision that comes as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with the Republican, corporate-controlled State Supreme Court a majority has decided to put profits over the lives of workers, customers and their families.

Also in a move that is as no surprise, they abandoned their own values to do the bidding of their corporate donors. Judicial activism is alive and well on the state’s highest court when it comes to doing the bidding of their corporate overlords.

Perhaps those who believe people’s lives are more important than corporate profits should begin the process of recalling those justices who, once again, did the bidding of their corporate benefactors at the expense the people.

Elected leaders have a responsibility to invest in safety nets to protect citizens when disaster strikes. Being prepared by properly investing in our future will ensure we’re successful for years to come.

EAU CLAIRE, WI - As we become responsible adults we are faced with many decisions that can affect our future and the future of our families. We choose a career, decide where we work and how to prepare for retirement. We may choose a life partner, start a family, move and continue to make important decisions because, after all, we’re responsible to prepare our children to be independent.

We buy insurance policies to be prepared for the worst-case scenarios for just about every circumstance: a house fire, car accident, health crisis and even death.

Almost all of the choices we make are with our future in mind, whether it’s next week, next year or 20 years from now. We do this because we know from experience that anything can happen and though we can’t predict the future, we can be prepared for it.

However, during this highly unusual and frightening time, the lack of foresight and planning by Republican leaders is on display. From the White House to Wisconsin, there have been years of tearing down the very safety nets that we, as tax-paying citizens, expected would be there when we needed them.

The safety nets we had in place were intended to support people when disaster struck. But over the last decade, the Majority Party latched onto a buzzword that became their rallying cry against the government: “austerity.” They bolstered the notion that we’d all be better off if we cut government funding.

Now, while facing a public health crisis, we see the visible ramifications of austerity policies. The reluctance to strategize on ways to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, on the part of Republicans, by expanding Medicaid or embracing a universal healthcare system is a significant reason why a pandemic is scary for so many. For almost a decade, Republicans in Wisconsin have rejected Medicaid expansion, even though the expansion would save our state $324.5 million and provide coverage for 82,000 low-income individuals. Looking ahead, Wisconsin would also bring in an additional $1.6 billion in federal healthcare funding if we expanded Medicaid now.

Without adequate health insurance, some may even be putting themselves at risk because they can’t afford a doctor’s visit, thus putting others at risk during this crisis. Republicans still aren’t making public health investments even in the middle of a pandemic; they cut a key provision from Governor Evers’ COVID-19 relief proposal that would have allocated $200 million for costs related to the current or a future public health emergency.

We’re fortunate to have dedicated public servants in local public health departments who grabbed the reins and are making the most of what they have to protect us. But still, Republican legislators choose to ignore the professionals and even look for more ways to limit their resources.

While all of this is happening, there is also the terrifying reality of not collecting a paycheck. That is why we have agencies at both the federal and state levels that work to provide support for those struggling to make ends meet. The Department of Workforce Development is currently left scrambling to help thousands affected by this crisis; the workload is further exacerbated by outdated phone systems.

To make matters worse, Republicans ignored numerous requests by the Governor and Democrats to lift the one-week waiting period for unemployment compensation which caused Wisconsin to losing an additional $25 million in federal funding. Weeks have gone by and our office continues to handle daily calls and emails of desperate pleas for help.

It’s simple – we need to be better prepared. It’s the same reason we buy homeowners insurance and car insurance or the reason we make sure our local governments are funded to provide police and fire protection.

People choose their elected leader based on whether they appear responsible or have an eye for future comfort and success. Hopefully, when we come out of this pandemic, we realize that our government serves a purpose. We must properly support the people and programs responsible for keeping our communities safe. Being prepared by properly investing in our future will ensure we’re successful for years to come.

Senator says area Republicans don’t seem to care that the majority of people in this state do not want to re-open now, nor do they care about the predicament the workers are in. They just seem so eager and willing to risk the lives of others.

GREEN BAY, WI - Thursday’s press conference at an Appleton dairy by Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke and area Assembly Republicans to call for regional re-opening at a time when Brown County is seeing the fastest increase in COVID-19 cases is as dangerous as it is tone deaf.

Not one person speaking at their press conference was a health expert. Not one person there seems to understand that just because some parts of the state aren’t showing significant numbers of cases doesn’t mean there aren’t more cases than are known. Not one of them seems to care that re-opening those areas could lead to significant spikes in cases and overwhelm smaller, rural hospitals leading to needless loss of life.

They also don’t seem to care that the majority of people in this state do not want to re-open now. Nor do they care about the predicament they are going to put workers in by forcing them to choose between keeping their job and protecting their lives and the lives of their families.

No life is expendable. No person should be forced back to work before it is safe to do so.

The fact that these so-called pro-life Republicans are so eager and willing to risk the lives of thousands of their constituents calls their judgment and motive into serious question.