Slippery Scott Selling Snake Oil

In their reaction to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's announcement for governor, the Walker campaign responded with a little juvenile alliteration. I decided that two can play at that game, so I'm giving some alliteration right back. Naturally I think that mine is of a much higher quality because it doesn't just focus on one issue but goes to the (hollow) core of Slippery Scott's campaign.

Slippery Scott

If you are the average teabagging Republican that hates the Reinvestment and Recovery Act (federal stimulus), don't ask Slippery Scott what he really thinks about it. One minute he may tell you why he is saying "no thanks" to stimulus money and the next minute you will find him basing most of his budget on it. This is only one example of Slippery Scott trying to be on all sides of every issue. You could also look at his various positions on economic development and creative ways to bring jobs to the region. The list goes on and on and you simply can't keep up with the many competing positions of Slippery Scott.

Slippery Scott on Spending

Scott Walker stands before the right wing fringe and rails against big government and spending. He has the gall to do this even though spending in his own proposed budgets over the years have increased some 35%. Just from last year to this year Walker proposes over 6% in additional spending which is more than twice the rate of inflation! A good portion of that increased spending happens because of him frontloading three years of borrowing into one year.

Slippery Scott on Taxes

Walker and company constantly trots out the same tired rhetoric about tax cuts being a silver bullet for everything. If that really is his actual position then why all of the hate for the federal stimulus which includes the biggest tax cut in history? Does Walker have a problem with those tax cuts for some reason? Are those tax cuts a little too targeted to working people for Slippery Scott's tastes?

While we are talking about taxes, you simply can't ignore the fact that while Walker rails against them on the stump, his own budgets over time have proposed an 18 percent increase in property taxes. Even for those Walker groupies that don't want to look at his whole record in this way, Slippery Scott is playing a shell game when you look at it from year to year. One year he fights tooth and nail against what ends up being the adopted budget (and it's tax levy increase) but the very next year he uses that very same figure as his starting point for his next budget. If he really thought that the dreaded figure was so bad the previous year, then why is he using it as his starting point this year? A very slippery shell game indeed.

Stopping Slippery Scott as a Sport

I would like to conclude with a proposed sport, particularly for the true believer teabagging types. Go ahead, try to pin Slippery Scott down. If you really are a true hater of the federal stimulus, then ask him if he is for it or against it. If he says (or more likely suggests) that he is against it, then ask him why he is relying so heavily on it in his most current proposed budget? If you really hate "big government" and you think that we should not spend one more single dime, then ask him why each of his budgets increased spending. If you are a CRG member and you really fought hard with him last year against the county board's adopted budget, then ask him why he is now using those same numbers as his starting point for his budget this year? What the hell were you fighting so hard for last year if he is going to use that same number this year?

My guess is that if you really try to pursue these questions and really try to get a real answer, you will soon discover what so many of us already know. Slippery Scott is simply trying to sell you snake oil. Now how is that for some juvenille alliteration?