What Makes a Fact a Fact?

{Photo Credit - Gannett Wisconsin Media}

I guess if you say something often enough, it becomes fact.

At a February 17^th news conference, Governor Walker claimed, “I campaigned on this.”

On February 21^st, Walker stated, "The simple matter is I campaigned on this all throughout the election.”

Time and again, throughout this budget battle, Walker has echoed the same, “If anyone didn’t know what’s coming, they’ve been asleep.”

I guess if you say something often enough, it becomes fact.

Yesterday, a CNN reporter challenged a capital protester with “Governor Walker campaigned on this.” 

It’s now fact…I guess.

My ten-year-old son asked the other day, “Dad, are grown-ups allowed to lie?” 

Kids are so cute.

On Walker’s website, http://www.scottwalker.org/, it reads the following in regards to education and families: “School districts are often steered off track by one-size-fits-all mandates that suppress innovation. Once we eliminate outdated and unnecessary rules, schools will have the freedom to set high standards and the ability to meet them…

 We will also create a new class of highly qualified, well-paid teachers who will be given the opportunity to advance in their career…

  I understand that Wisconsin families are struggling to make ends meet.”

Would “outdated and unnecessary rules” refer to collective bargaining? 

Walker’s website continues: “The following set of reforms will help put state government back on the side of the people:

·         Start the state budget at zero.

·         Require the use of generally accepted accounting principles.

·         Strip policy and pork projects from the state budget.

·         End the practice of raiding segregated state funds to pay for other programs.

·         Restore Wisconsin’s reputation for clean and honest government.

 Of course, he did not campaign on this.  It wasn’t until after he was elected (December 7^th, 2010 to be exact) did he reveal the details of his plan. 

  "Anything from the decertify all the way through modifications of the current laws in place," Walker said.  "The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers and the people who care about services."

  I will admit, in Walker’s defense, that we’ve “been asleep.”

 During the Tommy Thompson years, 1996-2001, pay freezes for teachers were enacted. (In order to compromise, the unions agreed to the pension and benefits packages that Wisconsin teachers have today).

  Thompson (Republican) targeted teachers' compensation, demonized their union and succeeded in passing revenue caps that limited how much school districts could increase spending, termed a Qualified Economic Offer. 

 (For this reason, less money is spent on children and a greater proportion of allotted money is devoted to deferred compensation packages.)

  Despite these cuts, the state’s debt rose by $1.8 billion during the Thompson years despite the nation-wide economic prosperity of this time and growth in state revenues.  In fact, the state’s structural deficit is often credited to Thompson.   

Thompson then resigned to become a member of President Bush’s cabinet. 

Yes, we should have seen this coming

    - The Thompson era was the proper preface.

 

Yes, we’ve been asleep

    – half of the voting age population participated in the last gubernatorial election.   

  

On Saturday, one hundred thousand people protested at the capitol.

  It certainly looks like people are awake now.