Five Year-End Questions Scott Walker Should Answer, But Probably Won’t

Gov. Scott Walker. Photo from the State of Wisconsin.

MADISON, Wis. — It’s that time of year again, Scott Walker will be granting a handful of year-end interviews with some members of the state media. He didn’t do a sit down with One Wisconsin Now today, he’s a featured speaker at a white nationalist conference in Florida instead. We still have some questions we think Gov. Walker ought to answer, but probably won’t.

Who were the donors to your criminal legal defense fund?
The biggest unsolved mystery surrounding the political corruption investigations of Gov. Walker’s campaign and his close aides and associates is not who provided internal “John Doe” documents to the Guardian newspaper.

Nope. The biggest mystery is the identities of the donors that underwrote Walker’s legal defense, forking over in excess of $447,602 to pay a team of Chicago based criminal defense lawyers.

So we ask, Gov. Walker, who are they?

Why are you speaking at a conference featuring white nationalists and a nazi?
You’d think a career politician like Scott Walker would realize that it’s bad optics, not to mention a lack of basic decency, to grant legitimacy to a literal Nazi, white nationalists, racists, xenophobes and homophobes by appearing with them at a conference, in his official capacity as governor.

So, what gives, Gov. Walker?

Is this just a crass political move to keep your national political ambitions alive, appealing to the darkest, ugliest wing of the modern GOP or are you actually in agreement with the repulsive ideologies of the people with whom you’ll be sharing a stage?

Foxconn. Why did you do it?
At the initially advertised price tag of $3 billion, Gov. Walker’s deal to bring a factory run by Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn to Wisconsin was already the largest state subsidy to a foreign corporation in history.

More recently, the tab has risen to $4.5 billion. That’s money that will be going to subsidize the operations and the bottom line of a huge multinational corporation, with no guarantees they’ll hire Wisconsin workers. It’s a deal that takes money out of our budget every year and, at best, won’t pay off for a quarter century. It’s money that won’t be able to go to support our public schools, to help fix our roads and bridges or to support our homegrown businesses and entrepreneurs.

So Gov. Walker, why would you make such a terrible deal?

Why haven’t you “called a bank” to refinance your student loans?
For nearly 5 years, Gov. Walker has steadfastly opposed a state based plan to help Wisconsin student loan borrowers refinance their loans, just like you can with a mortgage. Instead, in the Fall of 2016, Gov. Walker advised people to “call a bank.”

But according to Walker’s own financial disclosures, he has not yet refinanced the $100,000 plus in student debt he reported being responsible for at an interest rate of over 7 percent.

So, Gov. Walker, why have you not taken your own advice and called your bank to refinance the six figures in student loan debt held by your family?

Other than dog whistle racism, what’s your agenda for Wisconsin families?
Gov. Walker, and his allies, have been furiously blowing their racist dog whistles in 2017, touting “welfare reform” and essentially declaring that being poor is probable cause by seeking to impose onerous, ineffective and previously prohibited drug tests on public assistance recipients.

So why, Gov. Walker, have you spent your time focusing on appeals to racism instead of focusing on the issues that really matter to Wisconsin families?

One Wisconsin Now is a statewide communications network specializing in effective earned media and online organizing to advance progressive leadership and values.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.

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