Radical Rightists Prefer to Reduce Taxes Rather Than Create Jobs

Radical Rightsts Don't Care About Creating Jobs

The Radical Rightists’ attitude toward creating jobs in Wisconsin is becoming clearer every day. They don’t really care about jobs at all. They care about reducing taxes on rich people, and they will do anything to achieve that. The Post-Crescent recently (May 1, 2013) reported that a project to expand and improve Outagamie County Airport may be delayed because of Congress’s recent  decision telling the FAA to use money from the airport improvement budget to pay the air traffic controllers and thereby avoid flight delays.

Reid Ribble Agrees: Avoid Airport Delays at All Cost

You may remember that the air traffic controllers had to be furloughed because of the federal budgetary “sequester.” With fewer controllers at the airports, flights had to be spaced further apart and that led to the delays. Congress decided to view delays at airports as a national emergency that demanded immediate action and passed a law modifying the “sequester” to allow money to be moved from the airport improvement budget to pay the controllers’ salaries.  With less money for construction, some projects will of course be delayed, and that brings us to jobs. Moving money out of construction will cost jobs. Apparently, creating jobs is less important than avoiding delays at airports.

Our own Representative Reid Ribble shares this attitude, as he made that clear in a recent release from his office. “Representative Reid Ribble (WI-08) today praised House passage of a bill that will give the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) flexibility to avoid flight delays stemming from mandatory budget cuts known as the sequester.” Translation: the FAA can cut construction and eliminate jobs in order to avoid delays at airports.

Is There a Pattern Here?

We can see a pattern here. Recently, the radical rightists in Madison decided to turn down federal funds for expansion of Medicaid to cover more uninsured people. As I discussed in an earlier post in this blog, the decision to reject the expansion of Medicaid will cost jobs in the Fox Cities as well as Madison, Marshfield and other communities in Wisconsin that have regional medical centers. Governor Walker’s reason for turning down the funds was that the cost of the program might later fall on Wisconsin. He was concerned that the state might later need to increase taxes, and avoiding tax increases comes before creating jobs every time for a radical rightist. The next time you go to the polls, ask yourself whether you agree or not.