Opinion

This progressive, pragmatic proposal shows that the minority party is ready to govern again.

What will be the impact of the Senate GOP health care bill on Wisconsin? Cruel and devastating.

Millions, including nearly 300,000 Wisconsinites, stand to lose health coverage.

The two GOP governors have different views on federal health care reform efforts.

By voting against ACA repeal bill, McCain, Murkowski and Collins reminded Americans that there are still GOP giants.

Republicans should stop trying to repeal or sabotage the ACA and instead cooperate with Democrats to make the ACA better.

Wisconsin lawmakers should not be destroying records they create and receive in their official, taxpayer-funded capacity.

There are two words that characterize every budget in the City of Milwaukee since Tom Barrett became mayor: borrow and spend.

Wisconsin lawmakers might not like the idea of borrowing to pay for road projects, but an overwhelming amount of research and experience, not to mention current state policy, shows bonding to be an effective and essential component in transportation funding.

Report shows poorer residents have far less access to bike trails.

Study warns over-reliance on property tax, state aid threatens city’s future.

The fire fighters union’s backing of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's recall is all about driving up their wages and benefits.

Throwing ever more money at manufacturers, with ever fewer jobs gained.

Former Republican state senator Dale Schultz offers a frank look at the false claims of voter fraud used by his GOP colleagues to justify restrictions that have suppressed voting in Wisconsin.

But without the FM translator, Mike Crute's "Resistance Radio" station will likely have a smaller audience and less value in the marketplace.

Conservative MacIver Institute says yes. Let’s look at the data.

While the CBO has not broken down the projected coverage decrease for each state, the Urban Institute concludes that in Wisconsin, about 286,000 more people are expected to be uninsured under the Senate health-care bill than under Obamacare in 2022.

That the Wisconsin Supreme Court shut the door on the John Doe investigation in the absence of any testimony or factual findings is indicative of the collapse of the analytical process upon which the justice system relies.

Wisconsin wins; Florida, Texas, southern states big losers.

Sessions wants to reverse a national trend toward legalization of marijuana and crack down on it.

Certainly the governor has already begun to think about potential replacements for Brancel. Into that certainly tough and complete search process should be thrown the name of Pam Jahnke, also known as the Fabulous Farm Babe.

As part of the Republican-controlled Legislature’s attempt to close a $1 billion transportation fund deficit, three Republican Assembly leaders put a new twist on the old corporate welfare schtick.

As governor, Gronik would spend all his time tilting at windmills in order to “make Wisconsin Illinois again.”

A recent study by the University of Washington found that the City of Seattle's recent move to increase its citywide minimum wage to $15 has been detrimental to the very workers it was trying to help.

Those with even a fleeting knowledge of professional wrestling, of course, know that Trump's tweet wasn't inciting any sort of violence.

Barrett helped set the precedent that recall elections could be used to pull elected officials out of office for standard political differences.

Seizing an individual's property without a conviction — or even an arrest — makes a shambles of due process and invites abuse by police departments.

Walker's compromise offer is a reasonable life raft — the Legislature shouldn't think too long before grabbing it.

The liberal tripe about blue-collar voters going against their own self-interests or going for their worst instincts just isn’t a useful explanation, no matter its accuracy.

The phenomenon of Trump has made me see ways in which America really is exceptional.

The mayor made a sloppy and serious mistake when he claimed that Madison accounts for two-thirds of all the state’s private sector job creation since Gov. Scott Walker took office.

Let’s see how it plays out in other states first.

Walker, Trump, and their ilk find it easier and more appealing to their followers to condemn one and all in the media to, as Huppke points out, make the divide wider for their own purposes.

Don't expect many — if any — of these new positions that Foxconn could bring to Wisconsin to come close to matching the pay and benefits of the manufacturing jobs that built Wisconsin's and the nation's middle class, but which are disappearing all too rapidly.

As we've all come to learn, strange things happen to the budget in the wee small hours when no one's looking.

Among Scott Walker's boneheaded moves during his years in the governor's office, his decision to give away more than $800 million in federal aid to expand passenger rail in Wisconsin still ranks among the top contenders.

A bill introduced several days ago to allow anyone in Wisconsin to purchase insurance through the state's BadgerCare program probably makes too much sense to get through this Legislature.

And Paul Ryan. And a Republican legislature?

The Republican leaders who swallowed hard to accept “a different kind of president” are now girding their loins. Donald Trump is not draining the swamp, he’s breeding more alligators.

Gronik is running as a Bernie Sanders businessman.

While many states have legalized medical marijuana, Wisconsin and other states should move toward full legalization in order to best combat the opioid epidemic.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first of many presidents to address the Scouts at their National Jamboree. He told them: “Scouting revolves around not the mere theory of service to others but the habit of service to others.” Trump had a different message — he talked about himself and belittled his enemies.

Ryan thinks he needs Trump. But how has it worked out so far? The health care bill is on the ropes, and nothing of substance has been accomplished since the reality TV star took office. Trump's White House is inept. It's likely to remain inept.

With at least five states bidding for the work and a governor eager to burnish his cred as a job creator as an election approaches, there is a real risk of "overpaying." Walker needs to be ready to walk away.

A person who is happily retired from public office has a lot more freedom to suggest solutions than officials who are still in the arena. Here are my unpleasant but honest suggestions.

The repeal-replace rhetoric was absurd with Obama in office and it remains a bigger absurdity today as the ACA has taken hold and helped far more Americans than claim damage despite the drumbeat of GOP ads.

Johnson offered a vigorous “aye” to the ACA repeal bill that hours earlier he said was a sham.

The Foxconn deal's $3 billion in state subsidies means revenue balancing against any promise in jobs. That means more pain for transportation, public schools, environmental protection and other human needs a responsible government should be paying attention to first.

The logical approach is to raise the gasoline tax, though Walker’s self imposed tax denial and Fitzgerald’s enabler tendencies have prevented that.

Now one of the professed goals of the GOP is to reduce health care costs. None of the bills they’ve proposed have done anything to address health care costs.

For the first time in his administration, Walker is faced with two very distinct sides within his party. Meanwhile, he is up for re-election in 2018.

While Ryan claims to be on the side of the working class people of his home town of Janesville, his Randian beliefs and his complete lack of interest in actually meeting with his constituents face-to-face paint a very different picture.

If those costs were truly the only reason for the ban, however, I could understand at least having a discussion about altering that part of the order. Completely banning transgender people from serving, however, signals that this is about much more.

These growing industries have tremendous potential to create jobs, attract tourism and grow our state’s economy. There’s just one thing holding them back: outdated, prohibition-era regulations.

Waukesha should go with the best deal, but remember that Milwaukee could have had this years ago but preferred instead to play chicken.

Milwaukee Ald. Jose Perez is asking a good question: Why hasn’t a federal Department of Justice draft review of the Milwaukee Police Department been released to city officials and the public?

The passing of former state Sen. Ted Kanavas the other day was a sad day not only for his family, but for Wisconsin as well.

The game of chicken over the state budget continued Friday, but the sides have changed.

The US Supreme Court will soon hear the most important case in the decade, Whitford vs. Gill, which could restore electoral democracy in Wisconsin and throughout the rest of the country.

Bills that Republicans are proposing unnecessarily curtail local control, continuing a six-year trend of Republicans micromanaging every aspect of state and local government.

Foxconn deal would make him a 10 point favorite if Las Vegas offered odds.

The record under Walker — and before him, former Governor Jim Doyle — shows what happens when reasonable limits are ignored.

By pledging to veto a gas tax hike, the Governor has reduced the scope of debate to amounts that might sound large but in fact don’t approach well-documented needs.

Republican state senator is against more debt. Except when he isn’t.

Doyle, and now Walker and the Republicans, were so hooked on highway debt they have needed to resort to the general fund to finance a portion of the burgeoning sums.

Critics skate by the Legislative Audit Bureau's conclusion that DOT "generally had effective oversight" of the bidding and contract award process and "took steps to control construction costs, but it could take additional steps."

A Capitol cliche, widely employed and often accurately so, goes about like this: “Tommy would not have let this happen.” It most surely applies to the current budget stalemate.

With more than 30,000 people admitted to hospitals annually for firearm injuries, and a huge segment of them receiving Medicaid, there seems to be a vacuum of dialogue and common sense when it comes to our national reform efforts presently underway in Congress.

Over the past weeks the narrative about the agenda that Ryan now is pressing down on, following the most embarrassing flop of health care reform, shows a number of problems.

Tom Barrett's organizational skills and personable manner have brought a lot of success in the public arena but have also at key moments worked against his elections and his reputation in office.

Three Plott hounds have been reported by the Department of Natural Resources to have been thrown to the wolves by their owners between July 15-17.

Mac Davis went all-in against roundabouts, as if that were the cause or the heart or the substance of Wisconsin's transportation over-built, unfunded, special-interest infested major highway expansion problem.

Senate Republicans are breaking out the credit card to borrow more hundreds of millions of dollars and stick our grandkids with the bill. Remember when Republicans sold themselves as fiscal conservatives?

Don't overlook the availability of Great Lakes water as critical to Foxconn's location decision.

Amazing how many good ideas and solid public services these anti-transit Republicans have derailed.

Republicans say they believe in austerity and fiscal responsibility. Bunk.

The mess that is the state's over-budget, pothole-pitted and red-ink stained highway system and looming fiscal fiasco just got even more intense.

If Foxconn were to build a 10,000-employee factory in Racine County, there would be a need for extensive transit coordination among Racine, Kenosha, Milwaukee counties to help move unprecedented numbers of people in and out of the Racine area.

Walker's bill would guarantee that any business considering a Wisconsin project will ask for Foxconn subsidies, Foxconn DNR exemptions, Foxconn PSC privileges and Foxconn road-building priorities.

Many Western Wisconsin roads and other infrastructure washed out in 2016 floods are still not rebuilt; one NW local official says he has seen a dozen 100-year-storms in the last 30 years, while a state official says road-building standards have not caught up with "evidence ... pointing towards increasing frequency of large" storm events.

Wisconsin's major highways are congested, in disrepair, with no Amtrak alternative for relief or a 2017-'19 transportation budget resolution in sight -- so let's not forget who helped set this in motion years ago.

It’s not often senators will call out their own leaders like this.

While a clever video may give you the spotlight, the spotlight burns awfully hot on the unprepared.

Wisconsin law requires lifeguards to be at least 16 — a requirement that may be compounding a shortage that forced a Wisconsin Dells resort to delay the opening of part of its outdoor waterpark this year.

We need to stop pretending the Political establishment is most qualified to lead us.

The latest version of TrumpCare continues to favor these special interests by cutting taxes for the wealthy, raising out-of-pocket costs on working families and making huge cuts to Medicaid.

Ensuring that every eligible American voter has the ability to cast his or her ballot without intimidation, preclusion and prejudice is a constitutional right.

While nursing it is currently one of the fastest growing occupations in the nation, the demand for nurses is outpacing the supply and the nation is facing a severe shortage here in Wisconsin, and nationwide.

Donald Trump’s new communications director, Goldman Sachs alumnus Anthony Scaramucci, doesn’t just claim that Madison is a communist stronghold. Scaramucci says there’s a Marxist strain that runs through all of Wisconsin.

In a representative democracy, representatives are supposed to engage with their constituents on the issues of the day.

House Speaker Paul Ryan had an opportunity not merely to reassert the authority of the chamber he is supposed to lead but also to steer the United States away from the dangerous course of endless war and steady subservience to an ever-more-powerful military-industrial complex.

A coalition of constitutionalists just prevailed in a high-stakes struggle to defend freedom of religion as it is outlined in the First Amendment.

Erik Iverson sees Wisconsin poised for the same kind of boom that Seattle experienced in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In the competition for a big Foxconn plant with an alleged 10,000 workers, bear in mind that Wisconsin has generally been a loser in sweepstakes those big deals.

As with many seemingly intractable problems, Ryan needs to step back, rethink and come at the economic chaos in health care in a whole new light.

Violating our voters’ rights in search of fraud is a waste of time, because the Republican claim of voter fraud has been proven false more than once. This national gambit will show nothing different.

Regardless of what happens in court or the “call back” from President Donald Trump, the Wisconsin Elections Commission will follow Wisconsin law and grant a request to release limited information about our voters, as they must under our open records law.

Latest GOP approach is bad news for this state and others.

For the $3 billion demanded by Foxconn, we can fix every pothole in the state with Wisconsin workers, reduce our public school classroom sizes by hiring hundreds of new teachers, reinvest in our University System and still have money left over! Instead, Walker is working with billionaire private interests to fleece the public and demand we pay the price tag.

The reason actual disciplinary actions will not be recommend nor taken by the Green Bay School District can be summed up in one buzzword: Optics.

The governor tells us the company will create 13,000 jobs that pay nearly $54,000. Other businesses will benefit because the company will buy things from Wisconsin businesses. But, as Paul Harvey used to say, 'Here’s the Rest of the Story.'

Access to affordable, high quality health care is a duty of our society to everyone. Health care for all is a moral responsibility of our people to each other.

In a bipartisan effort to bring more veterans into agriculture, Senators Testin, Ringhand, Representatives Goyke and Brooks introduced legislation called the Wisconsin Veterans Farm Bill of 2017.

While raising the gas tax won’t solve all our problems, getting agreement on a modest fuel tax increase would be good first step.

The Affordable Care Act and Healthcare.gov created a way for self-employed and small business owners to buy health coverage.

This unnecessary delay is forcing our local governments, school districts, and construction workers to wait even longer to develop their own budgets and find out if their projects are on track.

Health care repeal proves democracy isn’t just a spectator sport.

Call it what you will: “Global Warming” or “Climate Change.” The issue is real and portends to only get worse, as evident by this most recent climatic shift.

A House Democrat is calling for Congress to review the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, suggesting President Donald Trump is mentally “unstable.”

Since taking office, Trump has put forth so many baseless and absurd assertions that everything he utters must now be fact-checked for its veracity.

We’ve introduced a resolution calling for a statewide advisory referendum to give voters the opportunity to voice their support for a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United.

There is an interesting if not amusing "debate through the media" about the state's transportation funding taking place between long-time conservative George Mitchell and Sen. Duey Stroebel.

Notorious Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn is setting Wisconsin up for a hustle, and the very people who should be suspicious — news media and politicians — are playing right into Foxconn’s hands.

The real credit for landing this "once-in-a-century" deal are the people who said to do business, Wisconsin must be open for business.

There are at least three clear major reasons that Wisconsin should not raise the gas tax at this time.

Republicans are running out of excuses for why they cannot support a bill to legalize marijuana, and it’s time for us to give marijuana legalization serious consideration in Wisconsin.

In the economy of the next few decades, merely holding on to Wisconsin natives will not suffice. We need lots of people, especially younger people, to start moving to our fair state permanently (and not just to Madison).

If everyone can see who did and did not vote in a particular election, we can have confidence that nobody was marking ballots for people who did not show up at the polls or cast an absentee ballot.

Legislators and the governor need to give themselves another option and seek permission from the federal government to toll in future years.

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck gives his two cents after Wisconsin schools superintendent Tony Evers said he is mulling an election challenge to Gov. Scott Walker.

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck says President Donald Trump should not be trying to run the nation like it's a business.

In "Two Minutes with Mitch" radio personality Mitch Henck gives his two cents after Sen. John McCain cast a "no" vote that helped clinch the U.S. Senate's rejection of a measure to repeal parts of Obamacare.

Maybe it’s time we as a country candidly acknowledge our deep divisions on health care policy and work to develop a framework on the fundamentals on which we can agree.

As the U.S. Senate appears to be in the final throes of a bill to significantly change some of the worst aspects of Obamacare, it is appropriate to return to some fundamental truths that have been lost in the debate.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Stadtmueller issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting Milwaukee County from enforcing its ordinance requiring permits for virtual and location-based augmented reality games in county parks saying that it likely violates the First Amendment.

A group calling themselves “Save Our City. Milwaukeeans Can’t Wait” has announced plans to launch a recall effort against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

We have all seen empty big box stores sit vacant and unsold for years because there are very few buyers for properties that were purpose-built for a specific retailer. The consequences are real and the money is big.

The Sept. 16-17 festival’s unifying theme is “Reach a Better State,” and the sessions will center on core themes of the economy, equity, education, politics, journalism and culture.

The self-destructive tension between left-leaning factions is as baffling as it is counterproductive.

Our partnership with Lands’ End is just one example of the kind of innovative thinking that’s going to drive business development and keep both UW-Madison and our industry partners moving forward in the next decade.

There's no question a majority of journalists are liberal — not all but, statistically speaking, a high percentage. There are also a vast majority of journalists who are professional enough to do their jobs without being influenced by their own political or ideological beliefs.

I’m rooting for both to succeed.

Cutting Part B reimbursements would lead to reduced care for our seniors, especially for those living in rural areas.

As a person of color studying at the overwhelmingly white University of Wisconsin-Madison, I believe policymakers also ought to hear my story and consider my experience, and the stories and experience of other students of color, before telling us whose voices are and aren’t being heard.

In this situation any rational, objective person would demand due diligence and straight answers before giving this proposal their blessing.

The public, the press and elected officials need to ask some tough questions about what’s on the table and demand some straight answers, now.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Wisconsin, and there’s no doubt it will have a transformational effect on our state for generations to come, just as Silicon Valley transformed the San Francisco Bay area, or the Research Triangle transformed the Carolinas.

Wisconsinites are still hurting from the recession with wages and salaries below the national average. Bringing in additional foreign laborers would hit disadvantaged groups particularly hard.

Wednesday’s White House announcement about Foxconn coming to Wisconsin brought with it predictable complaints from the Wisconsin left.

Predictably, Democrats will compare the Foxconn jobs, if they materialize, to Third World sweatshop labor because wages won’t be what Democrats think are appropriate.

The future of Medicaid – the federal/state program that provides health care for one out of every five Wisconsin residents who are poor, elderly and disabled – is now a defining issue in next year’s campaigns for governor and the Legislature.

Two former Republican leaders urge current leaders to stand up to Walker.

Nygren's 28-year-old daughter, Cassie, has been dealing with drug addiction for years, including time in prison.

If legislators believe DOT has wasted tax dollars and been mismanaged for years, why did Senate Republicans last week want to borrow $712 million more for that agency to spend on highways over the next two years?

Five justices said penalizing homeowners who don’t open their homes to government appraisers violates the U.S. Constitution clause prohibiting illegal searches.

Business investment anywhere in Wisconsin is good for all of us, and we should be welcoming companies like Foxconn into the state.

The most recent state Senate proposal includes cutting 200 engineering positions at the Department of Transportation, a demonstrably counterproductive measure. Lawmakers instead should swear off this new round of outsourcing state work to pricey highway consultants.

There was a time, and not so long ago, when Wisconsin didn’t show up on the radar screens of businesses and national site-selection consultants looking for places to grow.

What’s it worth to Wisconsin to become the U.S. hub for a global company with 1 million employees and $136 billion in annual revenues?

The reasons why a mid-sized, Midwest state won the competition to land North America’s first liquid crystal display plant – and the 13,000 direct jobs that will come with it – have much less to do with Wisconsin’s offer of financial incentives than with its other tangible and intangible assets.

Even if Wisconsin does not become a U.S. home for Foxconn, a Taiwanese company best known for assembling Apple’s iPhones, it has the right ingredients to attract similar firms.

The MacIver Institute has dug into the numbers, taken a deeper dive into DOT projects that are at the very least questionable, if not an outright waste of taxpayer money, and administrative failures that have added substantial and unnecessary costs.

We each must choose to make a conscious effort to step back into the light of civility, strengthen our communication, and self-correct each time we stumble … and who better to first cross the aisle as unified partners, than our elected officials.

In Wisconsin, despite the best efforts of education reformers, we’ve created an unequal system where zip code does determine what education options are available to parents.

Ten Wisconsin donors contributed more than $1 million to a group headed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker that raises unlimited amounts of cash from special interests to elect GOP candidates for governor nationwide.

This week's WisOpinion.com Insiders show features another look back at Ted Kanavas highlights. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and Michael Best Strategies.

WisOpinion.com Insider Chuck Chvala talks about his late co-host and friend Ted Kanavas. Sponsored by Michael Best Strategies and the Wisconsin Counties Association.