Wisconsin's Water Cooler

Once we’ve drafted our NCAA bracket winners, it doesn’t matter how, we want our teams to advance.  Maybe we can win our $5 pool at our place of work.

Once in Cleveland, we’ll wear dog masks to Browns games, sit in the dawg pound, and bark at the opposition.  And, once in Oakland, we’ll paint our faces to demonize our game personas…anything to win.

Once we’ve chosen a side, “just win baby” – right Al Davis?

Problem is that the Browns and Raiders stink.  Problem is hardly anyone on this planet picked the Final Four.

We’ve chosen our side, now what?

In Wisconsin, we’ve chosen our sides as well.

This week it was reported that Governor Walker decided he doesn’t want to wait for the courts.  He wants his budget money now.  So, he’s taking it now. 

In response to the news story, over 1644 comment were made representing their side…comments which used words like “knuckleheads”, “peons” and “union thugs”.

This morning, it was reported that schools in Milwaukee’s school choice program performed worse than Milwaukee’s public schools in reading and math scores.


Public response included words like “your side”, “greedy”…comment accusing teachers, others blaming Republicans.

It was also reported that over the last six years, scores on statewide reading and math tests have increased and the achievement gap between minority groups and white students has narrowed.

Public response?  “dead beat teachers”…etc.

Here’s the thing: We’ve painted our faces to demonize our public personas and, in truth, our team stinks.  We’ve put on our dawg pound masks.  And, we’ve begun cheering against our co-workers in our office pools in hopes of making pocket change or bragging rights at the water cooler.

We’ve become these people – people who have enclosed themselves in their ideological boxes to such a degree that we know longer can appreciate the game that needs to be played.  The integrity of the game is sacrificed because of our desire to come out on top.  In the end, once the integrity of the game is gone, the game will go with it. 

We don’t need to look much further than the NFL today, stuck in a battle which has brought an end to the game.  I can only imagine that football as we love it will resume once we step out of our boxes, clean off our faces, and begin to participate in the process as fans should. 

Read the Simpson-Bowles budget report.  Find an impartial site and read their suggestions. 

What you’ll find is that the Simpson-Bowles commission suggests for us to 1) reduce defense spending; 2) reduce the size of government and the federal workforce; 3) pay a .15 cent/gallon tax hike on gasoline and restricting home mortgage tax deductions; 4) maintain Medicare costs; 5) reduce entitlements like farm subsidies, government pensions, and student loan subsidies; 6) increase social security payroll taxes and increase the retirement age. 

At the federal level, projections show close to $4 trillion in debt reduction. 

Consider, as we look to pay our debt and grow our economy, the federal government spends $4 on elderly people for every $1 it spends on those under 18. 

Our country can’t afford to reduce funds for education, science research and infrastructure projects if it looks to grow our economy in the long-term.  The Simpson-Bowles report is non-partisan and more worthy of our consideration.

Wisconsin’s solutions are equally accessible.  Let’s step outside of our boxes and find them.