Artwork by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
In 1975, Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin presented his first Golden Fleece Award, a trophy recognizing individuals and government agencies for outstanding achievements in squandering taxpayer money. The award was, of course, tongue-in-cheek, but if the senator were around today (and not spinning in his grave) he would be giving these prizes out daily—because we’ve become so penny dumb and dollar stupid.
The Republican Party has been historically touted (and loves to portray itself) as the fiscally responsible party in D.C.—or in Madison, Wisconsin, or in any of its other petty GOP fiefdoms. While this assertion may have been true in the days of Wisconsin governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus or President George H.W. Bush, recent data shows, that in fact, some of the most recently fiscally conservative administrations have been Democrats, not Republicans.
Every administration has had its share of wasteful spending, but according to Derek Thompson in his Atlantic article Obama: The Most Frugal President in Modern History? numbers tell us recent Democrat administrations, like Barack Obama’s, have been decidedly frugal, while Republican administrations, like George W. Bush’s, have been much more extravagant. This seems to be a trend. Of course, expansions of national security measures during Bush’s tenure in the wake of the 9/11 attacks were expensive—and necessary. The Iraq War, however, was not. And to be fair, Obama had to fund the bailout for Wall Street corporations after the 2008 housing bubble debacle.
Wisconsin’s spending record isn’t much better; in fact, it’s a little worse—and more than a little embarrassing. According to the Wisconsin Capitol Times, in 2011, as one of his first acts as governor, Scott Walker canceled a deal that would have linked high-speed rail hubs between Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and eventually Minneapolis, arguing that he would not allow the state to pick up operating costs of the rail line even though the Fed would have covered 90% of those costs, about S750,000, leaving the state to pay only $75,000. And, of course, the initial costs of installing the rail had been paid for by an $810-million-dollar federal stimulus grant which Walker asked to be redirected to help repair roads and bridges. The Feds said no, if you don’t want the money, we’ll give to someone else. And they did. The Department of Transportation estimated that over 13,000 jobs were lost as a result of Walker’s decision (In These Times) . Penny dumb and dollar stupid.
Walker also brokered a notoriously one-sided deal that brought in Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics company, to build a production plant in Wisconsin. The deal granted the company a $2.85 billion incentive package, but after failing—miserably—to reach hiring incentives of 13,000 jobs—eventually admitting that only 1,500 would be created, the state was forced to renegotiate Foxconn’s package down to $80 million dollars. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars used to improve infrastructure and buy land was lost never to recouped (CNBC) . Penny dumb and dollar stupid.
There’s more. Following Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, despite the numerous audits and recounts refuting that assertion, Wisconsin Assembly Leader Robin Vos hired former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice (and stout Republican) Michael Gabelman to investigate the results of the 2020 election. In a recent AP article (AP), former Republican party head Rance Priebus stated that the cost of Gableman’s venture had cost taxpayers $680,000, about nine times the original cost estimate. Vos made this decision even though not one previous recount or audit had uncovered any hint of wrongdoing. Penny dumb and dollar stupid.
On March 6, 2022, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (JS Online) reported that Gableman will be seeking to decertify, or invalidate, Wisconsin’s electoral vote results. In other words, despite the fact that no evidence of fraudulent or irregular election results have been discovered, and that the possibility of decertifying the election have been “legally debunked” the Republicans are still forging ahead with this Quixotic task. And even if (in the very unlikely event that the Wisconsin electoral results could be decertified), it would have no effect on the final results of the election. Biden would remain president. But Gableman is going ahead anyway. Who knows how much these new windmill tilting adventures will cost Wisconsin taxpayers? Penny dumb and dollar stupid.
While it may be argued that President Biden is spending money like a drunken sailor, pushing through billions of dollars of improvements with the Infrastructure Bill, advocating for childcare and improved medical care with the Build Back Better Bill, and providing free Covid vaccines and tests for his people, his spending is benefiting the people and not himself or his political ambitions. While it might be argued that every act of a politician is at least slightly political, the desire to provide for the common welfare seems to be the driving force of Biden’s agenda.
Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are totally innocent of negligence or incompetence in their use of taxpayer money, but when it is used solely—and nakedly—for political improvement, voters need to start closing the wallet.
After all, we’re Wisconsinites. We’re smart about our money. We are not—like our leaders—penny dumb and dollar stupid. It’s time to get smart.