When the Government Accountability Board (GAB) first allowed the recall elections in 2011 and 2012, they earned the wrath of the Republicans. When it was learned that GAB had been involved with the John Doe investigations into the illegal collaboration between Scott Walker and his dark money sugar daddies, that was more than they could stand.
So Walker and friends set about destroying the GAB, cutting its funding and looking to overhaul it by putting their faithful lackeys in charge:
It may indeed look bad -- not least for Walker’s presidential campaign -- if politicians are perceived as gutting the very agency that oversees their behavior. Nonetheless, GAB supporters predict that Republican legislators will move ahead with their plans for an overhaul. It wouldn’t be the first time politicians have sought to put themselves firmly back in charge of their own ethical and fundraising destinies. “Before the Government Accountability Board, we had an ethics board and elections board that were partisan,” says Rothschild of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, “and nothing got done. Nothing was investigated.”
Likewise, because the Department of Natural Resources' Bureau of Science Services was working on such things as global climate change, miming and pollution, they became political targets for Walker's budget ax.
Now Walker and his cronies gave made it easier for businesses to continue destroying the state's once pristine environment. As an added bonus, the chemical smells might help hide the stench of carrion from the roadkills that are accumulating due to their budget cuts.
The latest target for these goons is the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB), whose job is to make sure that the taxpayers money is being well-spent. It was the LAB who found the waste, the fraud and the pay for play being committed by Walker and is supposed job creations agency, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).
For the sin of exposing Walker's corruption, Walker and his goons are going to make the LAB pay:
Republican lawmakers on Monday were circulating a bill that would replace Wisconsin’s independent Legislative Audit Bureau, saying inspectors within state agencies could prevent problems before they occur.
Democratic leaders pounced on the proposal, pointing out that it comes on the heels of a highly critical audit bureau report on lax controls on tax dollars distributed to businesses by Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s economic development agency.
A recent State Journal investigation revealed that top Walker aides pressed the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. for an unsecured loan to a Walker campaign donor that cost the state half a million dollars without creating jobs. In another case, WEDC gave $686,000 to a company that promised to manufacture a jet-powered helicopter even though it had no experience building aircraft, the newspaper found.
Under the bill, the audit bureau would be replaced by a system of inspectors general working within state agencies. The proposal’s lead author, Rep. David Craig of Big Bend, wasn’t available to discuss his assertion that the inspectors would be better at getting ahead of problems.
“In a session filled with bad ideas, this is one of the worst in terms of adversely affecting the taxpayers’ long-term interest,” said Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha.
In other words, the Republicans are blaming LAB for not only reporting on Walker's corruption, but for not stopping him before he did it.
Instead of having a transparent government, Walker and company are going about methodically covering up the truth and stifling those who would speak it, just to makie it easier for them to carry out the agenda of their corporate masters.
While they busy mucking things up maybe the Republicans can change the state motto from "Forward!" to something more appropriate, like "Untruth, Injustice and the Fascist Way!"
