Surplus Of Stupid
By Mitch Berg
SCENE: Mitch BERG is ordering a Banh Mi sandwich at iPho on University. Avery LIBRELLE enters the store.
LIBRELLE: Hey, Merg! After four years, Minnesota’s economy is rocking under Mark Dayton, while Wisconsin is sucking pond water!
BERG: How do you figure?
LIBRELLE: Minnesota has a $2 Billion surplus
BERG: Right. After raising taxes by…$2 Billion. Now, if the economy is humming along, you’d think that the surplus would be bigger than the tax increase, now, wouldn’t you?
LIBRELLE: At least Minnesota has a surplus!
BERG: Right – apparetly, entirely due to the tax hikes. In the meantime, Wisconsin is headed toward a surplus without the need for tax hikes – or, as we call it, a sustainable surplus.
LIBRELLE: Yeah, but our economy is still better!
BERG: Most of Minnesota’s growth is in metro-area medical, medical device, insurance and financial services companies – the ones that benefitted from Obamacare and “Too Big to Fail” stimuli. Things aren’t nearly as rosy in Greater Minnesota. In the meantime, Wisconsin’s growth is being held back by the slow manufacturing sector – which is a much bigger share of Wisconsin’s economy than Minnesota’s, and isn’t doing all that well here, either.
LIBRELLE: If Minnesota had elected Tom Emmer governor in 2010, we’d be in the same boat!
BERG: Right. We’d have two economies being dragged down by Democrat policies.
LIBRELLE: What?
BERG: The parts of Wisconsin that are dragging the state’s economy are the ones that have been run by Democrats for generations. The decay of Milwaukee’s manufacturing base is the state’s biggest economic problem.
LIBRELLE: Hah! But in Minnesota, it’s the Democrat-run cities that are winning…
BERG: …as a result of national Democrat probrams to transfer wealth from consumers to banks and health insurance companies.
LIBRELLE: You should issue a rape trigger warning.
BERG: Clearly.
[And SCENE]
May 1st, 2015 at 1:04 pm
Wisconsin’s economy isn’t doing bad at all, but there are things that you allude to above. Oshkosh Truck has had large layoffs due to defense cutbacks. Schlitz, Pabst, Parker Pens, Allis-Chalmers, Chrysler-Kenosha and GM – Janesville are gone. While Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic and United Health grow hugely in their better industries.
But I guess the thing to ask…….how would raising taxes and giving in to government unions increase private sector employment in Wisconsin.
Again, people may not like a lot of stuff Governor Walker is doing, but they look at Madison wackos and fear them more than they have concerns about Walker.
May 1st, 2015 at 1:42 pm
Say what you like about his policies, Chuck, but the indication that they’re having good effects can be summed up by one pretty interesting fact: AFSCME went from three councils in Wisconsin to one. While they’ve now adopted Obama’s transparency policy so we can’t know today’s numbers, they went from their publicly trumpeted 63K to what’s now estimated to be 20K. I view that as a triumph for the First Amendment freedom of association since Walker delivered to union members the ability to leave the union and now all that are left in those unions are those Democrats who wish to be there.
Of course, now that all that’s left of the unions is the committed lefties, I have to point out that AFSCME in WI collectively ran up $3.1M in deficit spending since 2011. Naturally, the Dane County council headquartered in Madison ran up nearly half that by themselves.
May 1st, 2015 at 2:01 pm
I was watching Fox News live coverage of the Baltimore riots the other night. The reporters (including Geraldo) randomly approached people and asked what they thought about what was going on.
We had these inner city Blacks who I thought were going to sound like Occupy Wall street types. But I was totally impressed. They talked about what it is like to live in inner city Baltimore. What each day is like there. They didn’t defend the rioters, but did talk about the frustrations everyone who lives there have. They just want to live in a better environment.
And what I couldn’t help but compare these folks to the spoiled middle-class/upper middle class white idiots in Madison.
The people in Baltimore intelligently and clearly stated their case. What each day is like living there.
In Madison, when you have a chance to be on live international television, you get the “Fox News Sucks” guy. A teacher from Lake Country schools who made an asss of himself on live TV. Google YouTube Fox News Sucks Guy and see if it is still available. Again, that is why Walker is blessed to have the opponents he has.
May 1st, 2015 at 2:36 pm
“AFSCME went from three councils in Wisconsin to one.”
If I close my eyes, I’m on the beach in Cozumel, drinking a frosty beverage while semi-clad hot girls massage my neck.
May 1st, 2015 at 3:24 pm
When the accounting department at Joe Sixpack’s employer screws up and issues him a paycheck with a decimal point misplaced so he is overpaid by a factor of ten, that is not a “surplus” If he spends the money at Mystic Lake instead of returning it, he is prosecuted for theft. Minnesota doesn’t have a surplus, either. We were overcharged and we want our money back.