Republicans would rather teach the poor to fish

Than subsidize poverty!

Blaska gave his old boss Dave Zweifel plenty of excuse to fire his sorry ass. Especially the time your irascible blogger blocked the employee side entrance at The Capital Times with his Saab 900 because the computer system shorted out a news story he spent all weekend writing. In retrospect, the electrical glitch probably did the reading public a favor.

Memo to self: agree with Dave Z. someday. But the day before Independence Day is not that day.

We were wondering (like Hunter, sitting there with his father wondering why certain commitments have not been fulfilled!) if The Capital Times could spare even a parenthetical aside to praise Wisconsin Republicans for a budget that increased education funding, sent more money to local municipalities, while simultaneously cutting taxes.

Instead, the editor emeritus on Sunday grouses “GOP does nothing for the poor.” Seems like nobody can do enough to help the poor and, dad gummit, they’re still poor! That’s what happens when your neo-socialist yardstick measures only income redistribution.

“Republicans fight labor unions,” Dave writes. But labor unions are notorious for pulling up the drawbridge. Take the Madison teachers union (please)! They greedily accepted a 8 to 10% raise at the price of inevitable layoffs because the school district really can’t afford those pay raises. (Did YOU get a 10% raise?) Guess who suffers, besides the unemployed teachers? You got it! THE KIDS! 

Dave Z. indicts Republicans for enacting exclusionary zoning. Just ask the good liberals of Shorewood Hills why they opposed low-cost housing in their privileged midst. Or those in Monroe-Dudgeon and Vilas neighborhoods of Madison. Homeless shelters in those neighborhoods are as uncommon as MAGA yard signs! Let’s put the next Rethke Court and Tree Lane adjacent to the Zweifel property.

Dave Z. can’t overcome that Tourette Syndrome tic that afflicts all Lefties: the minimum wage. Nobody is paying $7.25 an hour, Dave. It is an irrelevancy in an economy with a 2.5% unemployment rate and permanent Help Wanted signs.

Instead of subsidizing poverty, Republicans invested in its surest antidote: education!

Republicans increased K-12 spending by $1 billion, devoted another $30 million for mental health services to students, and $50 million to improve reading outcomes for K-12 student. They also put the cops back in Milwaukee schools to keep everyone on the straight and narrow — crime being a predictor of poverty. They also approved $115 million more for the state’s private school voucher programs like Kaleem Caire’s One City Schools here in Madison.

Like all good Democrats, Dave and the teachers unions oppose school choice even though the public at large supports it, according to the Marquette Law School Poll. Just 37% of students who took the state Forward Exam in 2021-22 scored proficient in English and language arts. Our government-run schools need the competition.

And just maybe the CT should quit ridiculing Rep. Grothman’s emphasis on two-parent families.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: If young Javon learns to read and develops the discipline required for learning, he’s likely to succeed in the trades or in college. Then he won’t need affirmative action or the Democrats‘ incessant victim mongering. That’s Dave Z.’s real fear.

How much more Great Society can we endure?