Opinion

Here are five reasons why Wisconsin should accept the federal funding for Medicaid expansion.

Deploying broadband is an issue that generates strong bipartisan support in our nation’s capital. In May, the entire Wisconsin congressional delegation came together seeking Federal Communications Commission action on better broadband mapping, which will lead to more efficient broadband investments.

The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll indicates that 55 percent of Republicans support states expanding Medicaid.

There has never been a magic solution to the existential threat that Trump poses. Not impeachment, the Twenty-fifth Amendment or lawsuits. Only winning the 2020 presidential election will work.

The conservative Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump White House tried to keep a U.S. Navy destroyer, named for Senator John McCain, out of view during Trump’s trip to Japan.

It’s irresponsible to ask Wisconsin taxpayers and drivers to shoulder a heavier burden before the state proves it can be trusted to “just fix it.”

Gov. Evers’ budget includes an 8-cent gas tax hike with automatic increases tied to inflation, but a small group of Republican lawmakers have an alternative plan. They say it could save the DOT $22.8 million a year through efficiencies and negate the need to raise the gas tax. They’re calling it the “Road to Sustainability Package.”

New specs show its vastly smaller than the original plan. And not the LCD plant promised.

In just three years state changed from net exporter to suffering a massive trade deficit.

It’s cost state taxpayers $1.1 billion. Why won’t Republicans accept the money?

Once they promoted this user fee, now they’d rather roads fall apart. Why?

With right issues, it’s possible, even If districts are still gerrymandered.

Ron Johnson and Trump lead the way. But beyond that word, things get murky.

It’s time Republicans and conservatives have a conversation among themselves and in their communities, not just about cannabis policy, but also about alcohol, drunk driving and criminal justice reform. And if Barnes’ dumb joke is the impetus for those conversations, I’m certain that’s a good thing.

If the education budget crafted by Republicans on Joint Finance is signed as is, the increase will be $903 million less than what voters expected when they went to the polls in November to vote for change and for Evers.

Throughout the budget process, my Republican colleagues on the Joint Finance Committee repeatedly touted how eight years of Republican rule had “turned the state around.” Yet the facts reveal a starkly different picture.

State Republicans don't actually care about so-called 'divisive' flags — they just want something to rile their bases.

Without Scott Walker around to rein in spending, Republicans are set to pass the most bloated budget in their history.

Marquette University announced that it will no longer require prospective students to submit SAT and/or ACT scores as part of their applications.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Richard Niess Niess’s belief that the judiciary can intervene when it doesn’t like how one of the other branches of government sets its own schedule is simultaneously laughable and terrifying. That three Wisconsin Supreme Court justices agreed with it is downright chilling.

Raising the gas tax is a short-sighted solution to a long-term problem. So naturally, Illinois is diving in headfirst.

One house can hold up the whole process and two GOP senators have already said they oppose the budget passed by the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee.

When we write off student debt it means that other taxpayers have to pay for the poor judgment of those who got themselves into this predicament.

The workaround that Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee have come up with to get to some form of transportation tax increase has even me a little concerned. But just a little. If it works, I’ll eat the sausage.

For sure, there are many abortion foes who sincerely believe that to abort a fetus is an intolerable sin. But, also for sure, there's a vast swath of so-called "pro-life" advocates and lawmakers who are nothing but hypocrites.

According to the New York Times, the median of the 200 top chief executives received compensation totaling $18.6 million in 2018, up about 6.3 percent from the year before — roughly twice the increase the average working stiff received during this "roaring economy." Interestingly, economists and the Trump government call the 3.2 percent hike in ordinary wages last year "robust."

In Wisconsin and elsewhere, we're witnessing the advent of huge "concentrated animal feeding operations," or CAFOs. Operated by corporate interests, they find their own ways to bully their way the political landscape.

Wagner was one of Dane County's first elected officials to come out as gay, and through his work and numerous accomplishments was instrumental in helping explode the pernicious myths and stereotypes so much of the public had ignorantly come to believe.

Joint Finance Committee Republicans froze university tuition for another two years, but declined to make up for the shortfall with increased state funds. Instead, they cut roughly in half the UW aid Evers recommended.

Last year in one of his many unsuccessful broadsides against Obamacare, Trump suggested that the English were marching in the streets against their health system. No, they weren't — they were marching in favor of their socialized medicine system, urging the government to increase its funding.

For some reason — stubbornness, rigid ideology, special interest influence — the corps of the Republican Party would rather put the burden on Wisconsin taxpayers, denials notwithstanding.

Who are the partisans on the court? We nominate Justices Rebecca Dallet, Ann Walsh Bradley and Shirley Abrahamson.

The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com. When University of Wisconsin-Madison student journalist...

We learned Friday that Abrahamson has watched quietly throughout her decades-long tenure as Wisconsin legislators acted, time and again in her opinion, outside the limits of the state’s constitution.

While over time stricter laws have passed, there is one measure that seems unable to muster its way to a touchdown. Wisconsin remains the only state that does not penalize a first-time drunken-driving offense as a criminal charge.

If the proposed ordinance to impose fines on parents of young bullies passes it will send two messages. First it will say as a society the victims of bullies have a strong ally. Secondly, it makes clear that everyone involved with a bullying experience, even the parents of the perpetrator, has to bear some of the responsibility.

The Medicaid expansion is the best way to increase access to quality, affordable health care across our state.

The Legislature completed work on the state budget, and I am proud to say it invests in the people of Wisconsin while protecting taxpayers.

First vets were hit with the massive privatization program called Choice passed by the Republican Congress in 2014 and signed by Pres. Obama. But 70 House Democrats thought the Choice program was not the way to improve VA veteran healthcare. They voted NO. The second punch was President Trump’s hitting unionized VA workers with a “bad faith” proposed bargaining contract to replace the present contract covering 260,000 VA workers.

The Wisconsin community with the most compelling economic narrative is not Madison or Greater Milwaukee Area, but Fort Atkinson.

The governor can mesh the work of the DNR, WisDOT, public health, DATCP and the AG's office to make science and the public interest core drivers to ensure both progress and preservation--necessities that were ignored or sold off for nearly a decade.

The failure to increase the gas tax is perhaps a sign of Evers' lack of any rapport with the Republicans in the legislature.

When the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee wraps up their budget work this week, they are likely to consider a “999 motion” that will contain a plethora of last-minute provisions for special interests to be snuck into the budget. One of those provisions could be a sop to the Wisconsin Tavern League who are out to destroy what they see as competition from Agricultural Event Venues, commonly referred to as “wedding barns.”

Nearly hidden in the transportation budget passed by the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee is a provision that would allow the committee to implement a mileage-based fee on drivers by 2023. The decisions to create the fee, how it would implemented, and the amount of the fee would all be in the hands of the 16-member JFC instead of the full legislature and the governor.

Let’s not settle for the broken Republican status quo. Let’s invest in our state and restore Wisconsin’s reputation as a place where the next generation wants to live, work and raise a family.

Wisconsin’s legislature is considering a bill that would broaden teacher reciprocity and help alleviate the major problem of teacher shortages in the state. It would allow Wisconsin to more easily recognize teaching credentials issued by another state.

Under U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan's suggested calendar, the House would be in session for two consecutive five-day weeks, followed by two consecutive weeks at home. That would provide more time on the floor, more time in Washington and more uninterrupted time at home.

On June 6, 2014, Declaring it a matter of “liberty and equality,” U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb struck down Wisconsin’s same-sex marriage ban, which voters had approved as a constitutional amendment in 2006, making Wisconsin the 21st state to allow same-sex marriage.

From June 18-20, I attended #Circularity19 by GreenBiz Group, the first major Circular Economy event in North America that brought together over 850 thought leaders from leading companies, government and NGOs on ways to accelerate more sustainable commerce.

The four justices who sided with the Legislature in the lawsuit over last year's extraordinary session did not act as “originalists” or “constitutional conservatives.” Rather, they rejected the original intent of the drafters of the state Constitution in order to permit legislative lawbreaking.

I came of age in a family that revered former Chief Justice Edward George Ryan, so I was a bit surprised when former Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, who was also revered in my family, raised an eyebrow as we considered the bust of her predecessor on a summer afternoon many years ago. Abrahamson recalled when Lavinia Goodell, the first woman admitted to practice law in Wisconsin, applied in 1876 for permission to argue cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Ryan rejected her — and all women. He argued that allowing women to practice law would be a “departure from the order of nature.”

Perch count way down in Lake Michigan. Strong leadership needed to protect state waters.

Republicans’ mistake gives Evers some say over how to apportion tax cuts from online sales tax revenue.

When the worst economic news out there is that workers are becoming more valuable as companies compete for their services, you know we’re in a darn good place.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is right: the deal the Trump administration inked with Mexico is a brilliant win, made possible only by the President’s promise to take real action.

If the rest of the world can look at reparations for slavery, through the lens of collaborative efforts such as the Global Reparations Summit, surely in the U.S. we can agree on the formation of a committee to study the issue.

Bernier talks about elections, voter fraud, and why people who need people may be the luckiest people in the world on this edition of MacIver Newsmakers.

On Tuesday, the rightwing justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court demonstrated once again that they have no compunction whatsoever about discarding established law if that’s what’s necessary to rule in favor of their Republican buddies in the legislature.

On an 11-4 party-line vote by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, state Republicans have pumped $231.6 million in new funding into direct caregiver wages, responding to that need. It’s a step in the right direction toward addressing both the workforce issue in nursing homes as well as helping to stop the closures we’re being faced with.

Last week, the Joint Finance Committee completed its work on the 2019-21 biennial budget, originally proposed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in February. The following 10 ideas would improve the JFC budget.

The budget passed by the Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee spends too much, borrows too much, raises too many taxes and fees, and fails to deliver on the promises made by Republican politicians in the last election.

On Friday afternoon, as people all over Wisconsin were getting ready to enjoy the first official weekend of summer, Gov. Tony Evers vetoed four bills relating to abortion.

Wisconsin has long been a tax hell where it is more expensive to live, work, and play than in most other states. Gov. Scott Walker and the legislative Republicans made some progress over the last eight years in making the state more affordable, but now many of those same legislative Republicans are allowing the state to slide back.

Earlier this year, we authored a bill that sought to end the practice of discriminatory abortion. The Shield the Vulnerable Act would have protected children targeted on the basis of gender, race, or disability. The bill passed the Assembly and Senate, and needed only the governor’s signature to become law.

If left up to you, would you discard the U.S. Constitution and start over? That question underpins the hit Broadway play “What the Constitution Means to Me.”

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has gone out of his way to avoid collaborating with Gov. Tony Evers even when his positions align with the governor's.

Republican lawmakers are spinning their evisceration of Gov. Evers’ budget, talking about their “historic investment” in schools. They’re deliberately obscuring the facts.

Besides the ethical problems with selling body parts from aborted children, research using those body parts has never led to a single successful clinical treatment despite decades of trying.

America is no longer a democracy based on the principle that the majority of the people decide who will run the government. Our country is now ruled by politicians whom the majority voted against — essentially, a dictatorship of the minority.

There’s no manual on how to be a lieutenant governor and no specific responsibilities, other than being ready to become governor in the event of a resignation or death. But there’s a few unwritten political rules in the relationships between governor and lieutenant governor.

Eight years ago, more than 200 scientists, researchers, educators and environmentalists warned that climate change could affect Wisconsin in major ways.

As GOP legislators ready their budget for a floor vote, the WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, debate the decision to turn down federal Medicaid expansion. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and Michael Best Strategies.

With GOP legislators poised to pass their version of the biennial budget, WisOpinion Insiders Chvala and Jensen evaluate funding for schools and special education. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and Michael Best Strategies.

As the GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee works through the budget, the WisOpinion Insiders, Chvala and Jensen, offer mixed reviews on the committee's budget plan for the UW System. Sponsored by the Wisconsin Counties Association and Michael Best Strategies.