10 other ways Scott Walker is destroying Wisconsin

Flying below the radar are 10 other schemes by Scott Walker to become dictator of Wiscnsin. Sounds a little harsh. Not when you look at what he's doing.

1 - Destroying Medicaid by government fiat. Complete control of Medicaid will be handed over to ultra-conservative and public health enemy, Dennis Smith, DHS director who will have the power “to override state Medicaid laws as [he] sees fit and institute sweeping changes” including reducing benefits and limiting eligibility. You know where that's going.

2 - Selling off state energy assets to the lowest bidder, or in his case non-bidder. The budget that has just been passed will allow Walker to sell state owned energy assets without bids or any oversight or regard for the public interest. Higher utility bills and huge profits for providers in the future in Wisconsin,

3 - Repealing laws requiring municipalities to disinfect drinking water. In 1993, 104 people died and 400,000 became sick when Milwaukee's drinking water became infected. So Walker plans to limit Medicaid and then open the door for water borne illnesses. That's a fine mess you're going to make Scotty.

4 - Walker exempted a GOP donor and crony developer from Wetland restrictions but the way the law has been written an entire county, eliminating all hearings on wetland development in the county. Who cares if he pisses off hunters, conservative lot mainly as long as his donors get their due.

5 - California screwed themselves when they passed a law needing a two thirds majority to raise any taxes. It's made it virtually impossible to dig the state out of it's current fiscal hole. Walker has done this but first handed out huge corporate tax breaks to his cronies. The only solution to fiscal management is going to be to slash Medicaid. Screw the low income population, who cares, the didn't vote for him.

6 - Back to the old GOP playbook, making harder to vote using the phantom 'voter fraud' canard which is always alleged but never actually proven. In this case voters will need a picture ID form the DMV, making it a lot harder for the elderly, the disabled and the poor to vote. Not Scotty's constituency which is the object of the exercise in the first place.

7 - Killing jobs in the name of fiscal responsibility...and it wasn't even Wisconsin's money. In this case, he turned down $810 million in Federal money for high speed rail. The immediate effect is a Spanish company closing up shop and costing 40 jobs. A lot more jobs would have been created down the road. A sluggish economy will hurt the state and hurt state revenue, exacerbating deficits. Such concepts are far too obtuse for Scotty to comprehend.

8 - This little stunt was dead on arrival but it shows Walker's mentality. Walker introduced a bill that would effectively killed wind generated energy. $1.8 billion in future investment plus 11 current projects would have died. Instead, Waker would rather import coal from other states costing the state not to mention more pollution.

9 - The legislature passed a law handing over the state's rule-making process to Walker himself. He will now control the rule making in the Dept. of Education, Justice and most importantly the Accountability Board, the state's ethics watchdog. If you're going to run roughshod over accountability you'd better control the ethics process.

10 - 37 state civil service positions have been turned into political appointees giving Walker even more control, as if he needs it.

Think Progress has the full list plus links to more in depth articles on the various issues.

There is no doubt Walker has thrown the Democratic process out the window to create a quasi dictatorship. Let's assume the almost obvious. Walker has vastly overreached and is both arrogant and tone deaf. Wisconsin will pay for their folly in electing him and winning a second term is unlikely assuming he maintains his current course. A Democrat is elected Governor with the same expansive rules Walker has created for himself. Sadly, certain acts are irreversible like the tax rules and the giveaway of state utilities.