Good faith bargaining is over

Good faith bargaining is over. Of course, folks want to blame state Republicans for this.

It was not the Republicans in our state government that broke the faith with the Wisconsin taxpayer.


Today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is demanding that the Republicans negotiate in good faith to pass the governor’s budget.

The good faith should have started with the governor.

On January 30, 2007, Governor Doyle promised tax cuts to the middle class of Wisconsin.

Two weeks from tonight, I’ll present a budget designed to do just that, while putting our fiscal house in order. It will cut waste and yes, cut taxes for hardworking Wisconsin families.

This is after spending his entire re-election campaign promising not to increase the taxes on Wisconsin’s hard working families.

Two weeks after Governor Doyle’s State of the State address to Wisconsin, the governor promptly proposed raising taxes and fees on every single Wisconsin taxpayer.

The good faith that we had been promised by Governor Doyle was promptly broken on February 13, 2007, when he rolled out his new budget.

The tax cuts the governor promised to Wisconsin’s middle class was swallowed under by a $1.7 billion tax and fee increases.

Governor Doyle and the democrats broke the faith with the Wisconsin taxpayers.

Like the MJS editorial board, I also expect good faith negotiations. Where the MJS is wrong is that they expect Republicans to negotiate in good faith to benefit Governor Doyle and the Democrat's budget.

Absolutely not!

I expect the Republicans to negotiate on my behalf and not on the behalf of government.

The Republicans have made a commitment to the taxpayers of Wisconsin that they will not raise their taxes. I expect them to keep that commitment.

To make matters even worse for the taxpayers, the Democrats in the state senate have decided to pile on even more taxes to Wisconsin’s middle class. As if this budget was not bad enough, they want $15 Billion more!

$15 Billion!

Let that sink in for a second.

It is stunning that will all of the heat the senate Democrats have taken for this budget; they would actually demand more money from the taxpayers.

Are they not listening?

Good grief. It seems every time the Democratic caucus meets, they come out of those meetings with new tax increase proposals.

It is not as if the Democrats are trying to hide the fact that this will cost working class Wisconsinites even more money-

Wisconsin residents would receive universal health care coverage through a plan paid for by workers and their employers starting in 2009, under a proposal state Senate Democrats will include in their version of the state budget.


Since the Democrats love watching the polls so much, did they happen to notice that Wisconsinites are more concerned with taxes than they are with health care.

The Governor and the Democrats have broken the faith with Wisconsin residents. They made a commitment and then failed to follow thru.

It is now up to the Republicans to fulfill the government’s responsibility to the taxpayers. After all, these guys do work for us.