Thoughts on TABOR...

Several of our Republicans in the WI Senate and Assembly have said that it is the Colorado model that they are basing TABOR on. What does that mean? Here are excerpts from an interview with the 'father' of Colorado TABOR, Douglas Bruce:

First off, Bruce says, the state should adopt a statewide voucher program for public schools and simultaneously cut state aid to education. How much? For starters, it could be an amount equal to the difference between per-pupil spending now (about $8,000) and the $3,000 annual voucher level being talked about by voucher advocates.

Next in line for the budget ax would be higher education. I always thought most people thought higher education is a good thing. Going to college not only helps one land a better-paying job, it might even help with appreciating life more, expanding minds and all that stuff.

To Bruce, however, the state's colleges and universities collectively are a fiscal drain down which state taxpayers have poured millions and millions of dollars for nothing.

"As a matter of simple morality, why should Jose Fernandez or Joe Johnson, who are flipping burgers or mopping up floors, pay higher taxes so that Cecil Candyass can go to Boulder for four, five, six or eight years?"

Bruce urges dramatic increases in college and university tuition so that the people who insist on getting an education pay the full cost of it themselves.

Next, there's Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides medical care for the poor. Bruce would eliminate it. He argues there is no federal requirement to have the program, so we shouldn't.

I asked Bruce how hospitals should respond when poor people without insurance present themselves at emergency rooms.

"If you don't have the money, you don't get the service."

So, if you agree with Bruce's vision of a Colorado where everyone goes to private school, there's no state-subsidized colleges and universities and poor people without health insurance go without medical care — be happy.

Bruce and the right-wing Republicans in the Legislature carrying his ideological water are gonna make it happen — eventually.

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2003/03/10/editorial1.html

This is why me must win in the next elections - do you want this to be the vision of Wisconsin?