If They’re Cooked Numbers, Then Walker’s the Chef

Republican candidate Mark Neumann took what was probably his most direct shot at Scott Walker thus far in the primary. Today he held a press conference right outside of Scott Walker's official office and exposed him in ways that progressives and Democrats have been doing for months and even years. Finally he called bogus on Walker's rhetoric versus reality on government spending.

Walker responded by saying that Neumann's numbers were "cooked". If I were Neumann I would say, "Oh Yeah? Well if they are cooked you were the chef Scott!" The reason that this is the perfect comeback is because it is simply the truth. The numbers that Neumann is using are Scott Walker's numbers from Scott Walker's own proposed budgets.

I've been harping on this for many months now, along with many others. Every year that Scott Walker has proposed a new budget it has included more spending. In his budget for 2003 he proposed $1.1 billion in spending, for 2010 he proposed $1.5 billion. Sorry, those are his numbers and the last one is 35% larger than the first one.

This is certainly not a news flash, but for me responsible spending increases are not a problem in and of themselves. In fact I look at it more as an investment in the common good. The problem here is Scott Walker's breathtaking dishonesty and the willful ignorance of the cult that follows him. You can't rail against government spending while increasing it every year. At least you can't anymore.

So while we are talking about Walker and cooking, maybe he should also fix up a full serving of crow. His phony rhetoric just wont fly for much longer.

UPDATE: Scott Walker tried to present a weak "fact check" of his own numbers yesterday. Essentially he is saying "yeah but if you don't include this part of my spending increase the number goes down." Yeah, and if I don't include my mortgage payments, my spending level goes down dramatically too! In making this argument Walker actually invokes the fact that he has taken advantage of Recovery Bonds which came courtesy of the federal stimulus. Too bad Mark Neumann has his own stimulus-related hypocrisy to worry about or he could capitalize on yet another opening that Walker has given him.