Wisconsin budget is missing many numbers

[Scuba]

Squat Wanker and his Koch connection have published the sneakiest budget ever.

http://uppitywis.org/blogarticle/wisconsin-budget-missing-many-numbers

The Legislature is given a 519 page “summary” of the budget to consider but nowhere can you find numbers to compare this year’s budget requests for particular programs to dollars actually spent under the previous budget. There are no numbers clearly showing the increases or decreases in each individual program. There are no numbers showing what was accomplished by the spending.

Most of the budget numbers compare the Governor’s request for new spending to “the base year doubled”. For anyone looking for real numbers this creates a problem because “the base year doubled” is just a place to start - an imaginary number. It is what you would get if you took the budgeted or expected spending in the current state fiscal year -- which ends on June 30th -- and doubled that number.

Budget analysts assume an estimate of what was budgeted last year is a reasonable starting place. Details given to legislators are changes to the base – not to how much was actually spent for specific programs. Without the real numbers it is difficult to answer the question: Can this program be better run with fewer dollars? What is really happening at the specific program level is often buried and nearly impossible for legislators or the public to dig out.

For example, let’s look at the Department of Health Services (DHS). According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau staff, DHS buried in the $7 billion Medicaid base-funding request is a nearly 3% increase in rates paid to Medicaid HMOs. Buried in the $663 million cost to continue is a 2% increase to HMOs to compensate them for a new federal excise tax. Also buried in the cost to continue is a 2% increase for HMOs to “ensure an adequate network”. A total of 7% increase in money is going to HMOs. HMOs already receive a 14% skim off all state payments to cover their administrative costs. For every dollar the HMO pays out they keep 14 cents. With this budget they receive another seven cents on each dollar.

Is anyone suprised Squatty is hiding another give-away to big insurance in his latest attempt to rob from the poor? If the private sector is so much more efficient than Medicare/Medicaid, why do they need a 50% boost in their already-too-high administrative fees?

[midnight]

1. Very interesting discovery.... Sometime the things they try to hind become much more glaring....

I have to wonder how many dollars of give away is that? Then I have to wonder why Walker can give that away after he cut health care to the poor.... He obviously had the money, but it appears to be given to his campaign donors for his next re-election?

[Newest Reality]

2. The Koch

brothers and ALEC are designing, defining and determining policy for several states via ALEC.

While, in a non-bizzaro world, this would be considered an unacceptable and insidious threat to the surface values of a supposed democracy or the foundation of a republic, it continues, proving that big money is increasing its stranglehold and rising-up to shape and dominate the political landscape despite any popular opinions on important, (nay, vital) issues.

Our collective attention is captivated and focused on issues that have strong emotional impacts and that also serve to distract us from extremely essential and prevalent crises. Any critique of that brings knee-jerk reactions and serves to support ignorance of what is kept in the background.

We currently have gun control issues and marriage equality taking the spot-light. That's all well and good. The gun control issue has brought us face-to-face with one, of thousands, of powerful political and economic special interests. So, since we are being focused disproportionately and deliberately on what is designed to predominate our discourse, let's at least note just how much control just one faction, the NRA, has and why.

When it comes to reproductive rights and equality in marriage, we come up against another powerful faction, the Religious Right. Why are they so powerful and influential? Well, it is not just about tradition and religion, that's why. There are good reasons that they have been politically aligned with the money and overall support by the Fortune 500 by proxy. Their disruptive impact of projection of their personal "values" that they want to enforce on others is merely a reflection of the corporate mindset and so, we see the proverbial selling of the "soul" in a Faustian deal with the "Devil". Women's rights, from equal pay to reproductive, under that unholy regime and it also helps to keep us off other, extremely important topics.

Poverty has been shown, again and again, to be a major factor, (in fact, it is primary) in relation to most of our social problems, generally speaking. Big deal? Well, not when you have other issues shoved to the foreground and given disproportionately large amounts of air-time.

Jobs? Well, does that seem to you to be a critical discussion that gets as much attention and prolonged focus by the major media? Does the problem that the jobs lost will not be returning matter much from what we are seeing? Does the proliferation and improvement of automation force a new referendum on how we could distribute the vast wealth of this country in new ways? One could go on, but it is hoped that you know the rest.

And that's just the condensed version.

No. Profit is the real King of this country. In my opinion, the last few decades were an intentional grab by a small percentage of us to overthrow any vestiges of influence and self-governing we may have had by amassing, (taking) massive amounts of wealth and then turning it back on us to bring about an inescapable, massive subjugation with Orwellian sprinkles on it.