The Brawler is not sure what constitutes Scott Walker's "essence" of a Marquette University education. But it's clear he dropped out before he took any history courses, based on his "principled" refusal to seek federal money for local projects.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Walker said federal aid for ongoing state or local operations would only put off the day of reckoning for unbalanced budgets.
Though he doesn't categorically reject the idea of federal money going for local infrastructure projects, Walker said he won't ask the federal government for anything.
"All we are asking for is 'do no harm,' " the county executive said. "I'm not asking for any new projects or things to be done here."
Milwaukee County has some huge funding dilemmas, including $300 million in backlogged repairs for parks, annual shortfalls of up to $43 million in transit and some $300 million needed to rebuild its mental health complex.
"The last thing you want to do is put money in hands of government," if the goal is to pull the economy from recession, Walker said.
Reality to Scott: Who do you think built up and improved many of the parks that are jewels of the park system you've assiduously neglected? Yes, big gummint.
From a UW-M paper onWPA projects in Milwaukee County during the Depression:
Six Civilian Conservation Corps camps were established in Milwaukee County to employ single, unemployed young men, ages 17 through 28. Milwaukee camps, unlike those in northern Wisconsin, were open to African American as well as Caucasian men. The CCC crews laid jetties into Lake Michigan to control erosion at Sheridan Park, excavated rock and dirt and built dams on the Milwaukee River to control flooding, landscaped miles of parkway, and developed large sections of Whitnall Park.
The most visible legacy of WPA projects in Milwaukee County was the parks system, which had more construction and landscaping during the WPA period than any other time in its history. WPA construction included six swimming pools, pavilions at Red Arrow and Brown Deer Parks, service buildings at Jacobus, Jackson and Whitnall Parks, the Botanical Garden administration building and golf club house at Whitnall Park, a bathhouse at Doctor's Park, a recreation center at Smith Park, new roads in nearly every park, and parkways throughout the county.
The Park Commission's success in using unemployed workers was due to visionary plans the Commission had already developed for a county system of parks and parkways, state legislation allowing land acquisition for parkways, availability of land parcels because of tax delinquency, and the zeal with which county and city park technicians produced detailed plans for landscaping and park lands.
Projects that got people working and improved a park system that hundreds of thousands of people have enjoyed in the ensuing decades. "Do no harm," indeed.
Walker's latest buffoonery earned him plaudits from Charlie Sykes, who who scoffs at the notion of spending out of a recession (even though that's how we got out of the Great Depression thanks to the public works program known as World War II). He told his listeners that Walker will take some hits for this and called upon them to support him. Walker no doubt will get some free air time before the end of the week.
Charlie suggested that Walker may be the only local politician in the country to take such a stand. Charlie, there's a reason for that.
Keith Schmitz and Gretchen Schuldt have more.
JUST IN: In the updated Journal Sentinel story, MMAC honcho Tim Sheehy says if the fed guv opens the spigot we should be there with a bucket and Walker hems and haws. Paul Cesarz, meanwhile, thinks Scott Walker is a man of enormous magnitude.
Brawler, incomparable post as usual. The fact is though that the New Deal was lifting the country out of the Depression before the war. Things only slowed down in '38 when FDR gave in temporarily to the balanced crowd.
Posted by: Keith Schmitz | January 08, 2009 at 04:47 AM
It was 1937 but otherwise right on.
Posted by: Brew City Brawler | January 08, 2009 at 05:44 AM