WWJDD: What Would Jim Doyle Do?
I heard an interview with Jim Doyle (D - Governor of Wisconsin, for now) this morning that made me laugh out loud. Doyle called the Early Spin to discuss his resent request for oil companies to come to Wisconsin and explain the price hikes after the gulf coast hurricanes. I don't even want to talk about the first eighty percent of the interview. It was standard, lame political posturing. There's probably template for it in Microsoft Word. I want to tell you about his ridiculous answers to Dan's questions on the gas tax and voter ID. If you're interested in commentary on the oil company hearings, Dean does a good job of tearing that scam apart. Thank you, Patrick, for sending me the audio!
Doyle claimed that lowering the gas tax would not lower the price of gasoline:
...If we lowered the gas tax by, whatever, take five cents. Nobody would see that five cents come off the cost. ...The price of gasoline would've stayed exactly the same. It's just the five cents would've gone, additional profits into the oil companies' pockets...
He said this right after talking about how he fought to kill the minimum markup law. So, we're supposed to believe that if we removed the minimum markup to allow the oil companies to lower prices they would do it. But, if we lowered the gas tax (to allow the filling stations to lower prices), they won't? Of course the gas prices would go down! It may not happen right away, but gas stations know that they attract customers in droves by lowering their prices one penny below the other guys on the block. How far do YOU drive for that extra penny? I think that they teach this economics lesson before sixth grade in Wisconsin public schools.
Dan asked if Doyle would sign the bill to end the automatic annual gas tax increase. Doyle's response was extremely weaselly. To paraphrase, because the response was a broken stream of double-speak:
[sigh]... I don't mean to be ducking... There's a very serious problem... That the lawmakers are gonna have to look at, and I'm gonna have to look at... Which is, what is the effect on future road projects? ... So it's a really complicated kind of issue, of road finance.
Allow me to translate: The budget for road construction in this state is laid out in advance, before the gas tax hike takes effect. The budget includes the projected revenue from the tax, so there would be a shortfall if the gas tax did not get increased each year. Listen to Patrick's recording of the Mark Belling interview with John Gard, and you'll see how deep this rabbit hole goes.
While this is a clever scheme to make sure that the gas tax increase never gets repealed, there IS a solution. The bill to repeal the gas tax increase must include an adjustment to how the road budget is determined. Phase the gas tax out of the budget the year (or years) before the increase is eliminated. Once the gas tax money is out of the budget, there is no excuse to keep it. The tax increase may last a few extra years, but it will no longer be permanent! Jim: my political consulting fee is $50,000 per good idea, take it out of the gas tax.
The response on voter ID was even more maddening! When asked why he doesn't support voter ID, Doyle implied that he does support it. He said "I keep vetoing the bill that they send me, which would be the most restrictive one in the country."
Dan pressed on, to ask what would make the bill right. Doyle's response was to say that if we weren't playing politics and could sit down and compromise we could've worked something out a long time ago. He also said that he believes a new ID isn't necessary because people already have a wallet full of picture IDs. I'll deal with the separate ID issue first, because I'm going to rant and rave about his point on reaching a compromise. You've been warned.
The problem with the wallet full of IDs is that ANYONE can get them. You need to be a US citizen to vote; seriously, look it up! You don't always need to be a US citizen to get those IDs, though. With the recent push to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens, there is no ID that is "sacred." Ideally, this bill should be coupled with a bill to issue new federal ID numbers. That way, we can fix the problem of being saddled with one Social Security number for life at the same time! Giving every citizen a "credit number" that can be changed (like your credit card numbers) would help guard against repeated fraud and the credit legacy that fraud leaves behind. I have some interesting tales on the subject, and I'll need to get permission to share them some day. Good luck getting the many levels of government to coordinate on this, though.
Here comes the rant!
This notion that Doyle can't coordinate with the other lawmakers is utter nonsense! There is a telephone directory in the capitol, isn't there? If I can find it, I'll post a link!
Would someone like to go with me to Madison to MEASURE the distance from Doyle's office to the assembly and senate? I'll go! We'll take a tape measure and some string, or count paces. Then, if I can find a map of the capitol, I'll even trace the route for him!
Not only can the governor take the initiative to bend the ear of lawmakers him self (if he really wanted to pass this bill), but he can write one himself and push for it. NO ONE is stopping him (except the special interests and activists that funded his campaign).
Doyle also has the power that makes him one of the most powerful governors in the country: LINE ITEM VETO! If you don't like the part about requiring special IDs, Jim, cross it out! Even a driver's license is better than nothing. The partial veto might only be allowed on budget bills. In that case, it's up to the legislature to really push this issue: pass it in the budget and force Doyle to make a choice! Keep reading, and you'll see how this could be dangerous, though.
Check out this example of line item veto, and tell me Jim Doyle can't turn this bill into something he would support. It's from the Journal and it cites the governor's office as the source.
EXCERPT:
Gov. Jim Doyle used his partial veto 139 times to shape the state budget to his liking. Among his moves was to increase a transfer from the transportation account to the general fund from $268 million to $427 million. To do so, he crossed out hundreds of words, stringing together individual words from unrelated sentences to write a new sentence. To get the $427 million figure, he took individual digits from five sets of numbers.
Read the text underlined in red as it moves from the column above, beginning with the word "the," to the column on the above right and finally to the column at right, ending with the digits "0,000." The grayed-out text is the veto. The two columns above appear on page 373, the column at right appears at the top left of page 374. The state Supreme Court has upheld such use of the partial veto.
Doyle claimed that lowering the gas tax would not lower the price of gasoline:
...If we lowered the gas tax by, whatever, take five cents. Nobody would see that five cents come off the cost. ...The price of gasoline would've stayed exactly the same. It's just the five cents would've gone, additional profits into the oil companies' pockets...
He said this right after talking about how he fought to kill the minimum markup law. So, we're supposed to believe that if we removed the minimum markup to allow the oil companies to lower prices they would do it. But, if we lowered the gas tax (to allow the filling stations to lower prices), they won't? Of course the gas prices would go down! It may not happen right away, but gas stations know that they attract customers in droves by lowering their prices one penny below the other guys on the block. How far do YOU drive for that extra penny? I think that they teach this economics lesson before sixth grade in Wisconsin public schools.
Dan asked if Doyle would sign the bill to end the automatic annual gas tax increase. Doyle's response was extremely weaselly. To paraphrase, because the response was a broken stream of double-speak:
[sigh]... I don't mean to be ducking... There's a very serious problem... That the lawmakers are gonna have to look at, and I'm gonna have to look at... Which is, what is the effect on future road projects? ... So it's a really complicated kind of issue, of road finance.
Allow me to translate: The budget for road construction in this state is laid out in advance, before the gas tax hike takes effect. The budget includes the projected revenue from the tax, so there would be a shortfall if the gas tax did not get increased each year. Listen to Patrick's recording of the Mark Belling interview with John Gard, and you'll see how deep this rabbit hole goes.
While this is a clever scheme to make sure that the gas tax increase never gets repealed, there IS a solution. The bill to repeal the gas tax increase must include an adjustment to how the road budget is determined. Phase the gas tax out of the budget the year (or years) before the increase is eliminated. Once the gas tax money is out of the budget, there is no excuse to keep it. The tax increase may last a few extra years, but it will no longer be permanent! Jim: my political consulting fee is $50,000 per good idea, take it out of the gas tax.
The response on voter ID was even more maddening! When asked why he doesn't support voter ID, Doyle implied that he does support it. He said "I keep vetoing the bill that they send me, which would be the most restrictive one in the country."
Dan pressed on, to ask what would make the bill right. Doyle's response was to say that if we weren't playing politics and could sit down and compromise we could've worked something out a long time ago. He also said that he believes a new ID isn't necessary because people already have a wallet full of picture IDs. I'll deal with the separate ID issue first, because I'm going to rant and rave about his point on reaching a compromise. You've been warned.
The problem with the wallet full of IDs is that ANYONE can get them. You need to be a US citizen to vote; seriously, look it up! You don't always need to be a US citizen to get those IDs, though. With the recent push to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens, there is no ID that is "sacred." Ideally, this bill should be coupled with a bill to issue new federal ID numbers. That way, we can fix the problem of being saddled with one Social Security number for life at the same time! Giving every citizen a "credit number" that can be changed (like your credit card numbers) would help guard against repeated fraud and the credit legacy that fraud leaves behind. I have some interesting tales on the subject, and I'll need to get permission to share them some day. Good luck getting the many levels of government to coordinate on this, though.
Here comes the rant!
This notion that Doyle can't coordinate with the other lawmakers is utter nonsense! There is a telephone directory in the capitol, isn't there? If I can find it, I'll post a link!
Would someone like to go with me to Madison to MEASURE the distance from Doyle's office to the assembly and senate? I'll go! We'll take a tape measure and some string, or count paces. Then, if I can find a map of the capitol, I'll even trace the route for him!
Not only can the governor take the initiative to bend the ear of lawmakers him self (if he really wanted to pass this bill), but he can write one himself and push for it. NO ONE is stopping him (except the special interests and activists that funded his campaign).
Doyle also has the power that makes him one of the most powerful governors in the country: LINE ITEM VETO! If you don't like the part about requiring special IDs, Jim, cross it out! Even a driver's license is better than nothing. The partial veto might only be allowed on budget bills. In that case, it's up to the legislature to really push this issue: pass it in the budget and force Doyle to make a choice! Keep reading, and you'll see how this could be dangerous, though.
Check out this example of line item veto, and tell me Jim Doyle can't turn this bill into something he would support. It's from the Journal and it cites the governor's office as the source.
EXCERPT:
Gov. Jim Doyle used his partial veto 139 times to shape the state budget to his liking. Among his moves was to increase a transfer from the transportation account to the general fund from $268 million to $427 million. To do so, he crossed out hundreds of words, stringing together individual words from unrelated sentences to write a new sentence. To get the $427 million figure, he took individual digits from five sets of numbers.
Read the text underlined in red as it moves from the column above, beginning with the word "the," to the column on the above right and finally to the column at right, ending with the digits "0,000." The grayed-out text is the veto. The two columns above appear on page 373, the column at right appears at the top left of page 374. The state Supreme Court has upheld such use of the partial veto.
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