Kenosha News. January 18, 2022.
Editorial: Use more federal money to aid health care workers
Give credit where credit is due and one person deserving a tip of the hat is state Sen. Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg. The state Senate majority leader has suggested that Gov. Tony Evers channel some of the $5 billion the state has received in federal COVID-19 relief funds toward bolstering pay of hospital and nursing home workers.
It’s been well publicized since the pandemic reared its ugly head in the late winter months of 2020 that health care has felt the brunt of the pandemic on their operations. And the recent surge in cases brought about by the omicron variant has only exasperated staffing shortages and scheduling challenges.
Health care was dealing with staffing shortages even before the pandemic. Nurses, for example, have been and continue to be in high demand. Nursing schools can’t turn out trained graduates fast enough and while it no longer is the case, waiting lists have existed in the past for enrollment in programs like the respected one at Gateway Technical College. Herzing University, the for-profit school with a campus in Kenosha, has stepped in to help fill the ranks, but the demand for nurses remains.
Nursing homes have long struggled with getting enough certified nursing assistants, a field that has long struggled with low pay. (Why we can’t acknowledge the fact that people who care for our senior citizens and children in daycares deserve better wages continues to puzzle us).
So LeMahieu’s suggestion has a lot merit in our eyes. But Evers’ administration has been noncommittal in recognizing the suggestion, instead noting that it has already made moves in helping health care workers.
In a Jan. 6 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Evers spokeswoman Britt Cudaback noted that the Evers administration provided nursing homes and other facilities with $100 million in federal aid last year and used the state budget to increase payments to health care workers.
And, last week, Evers announced that 50 National Guard members, with training as certified nursing assistants, had been deployed to assist with staffing at hard-hit nursing homes and another 80 are expected to be deployed next month after completing accelerated CNA training. The influx should allow nursing homes to open 200 more beds for residents by the end of February, Evers told the Associated Press.
But as pressures continue on hospitals and nursing homes, what is wrong with infusing more money to address the staffing shortages? And even though Evers has much of the say in how the federal funds are dispersed, it would be a great show of unity between the Democratic administration and the Republican-led Legislature to take action that puts politics aside and puts people first amidst a crisis.
One argument that has consistently been put forth by health care professionals — one they contend would also help health care workers in the long run — is more people need to get vaccinated against COVID. LeMahieu has taken a stand that many in this state and throughout America have that vaccinations should remain the decision of individuals. (LeMahieu told the Journal Sentinel he is vaccinated.)
But the long and short of it, as divisions in thought remain and likely will continue, is the pandemic remains here and thus the demands on hospitals and nursing homes also remain and are intensifying. More people are being hospitalized and nursing homes are limited in taking in more people to help hospitals due to lack of workers.
LeMahieu’s idea to infuse more funds surely can’t hurt and merits a bipartisan sit-down for further discussion and sooner rather than later.
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Racine Journal Times. January 19, 2022.
Editorial: Three years in, and some Evers appointees remain unconfirmed
Gov. Tony Evers is seeking re-election this year. In other words, we are in the fourth year of his term.
Amazingly, some of his appointees have still not been approved.
Most of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ appointees to the boards overseeing Wisconsin’s higher education systems remain unconfirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate, a move that could allow the GOP to quickly gain control of the boards if the party wins the governor’s race in November, the Wisconsin State Journal reported earlier this month.
Five of Evers’ picks for the state technical college system board are unconfirmed, with three of them unable to serve because appointees of former Republican Gov. Scott Walker refuse to vacate their seats, even though their terms expired last spring.
Why are they refusing? Their replacements haven’t been confirmed by the Senate.
That’s quite the vicious cycle.
And while Evers’ seven unconfirmed appointees to the UW Board of Regents have been serving without the Senate’s stamp of approval, the Republican lawmaker chairing the committee charged with confirming them recently warned that some may be in trouble.
Evers, in a statement to the State Journal, said the individuals he appointed are doing everything that’s asked of them.
“The transfer of power is a part of our democracy, and it’s breathtaking, frankly, that Republicans have decided it’s more important to play politics than confirm appointments they know are qualified, dedicated people who want to serve our state,” he said. “It’s wrong-headed, it’s clearly political, and it’s affecting the work these boards are doing every day.”
Sen. Roger Roth, R-Appleton, who chairs the Senate Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges, said he plans to “start moving on some” of the appointees after wrapping up hearings on some bills this month. But he also entertained the possibility of continuing to deny some appointees a vote over the next year or even booting some from their posts. Senate leadership ultimately makes those decisions, he said.
Committee member Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-West Point, said refusing to approve appointees for so long shows that Republicans are more concerned about political gain than governing. “I don’t know what their plan is other than waiting out the next election cycle,” he said.
This is far from the first time that gubernatorial appointments have been bottled up by the opposing political party.
Most recently, Fred Prehn, a Wausau dentist appointed by Walker to the Natural Resources Board, has refused to step down since his term expired May 1, denying Evers’ appointee Sandra Naas a seat and maintaining a 4-3 majority for Republican appointees. Citing a 1964 Supreme Court ruling, Prehn maintains he does not have to leave until Naas is confirmed by the Senate, but Republicans have made no move to set a hearing.
Wisconsin’s Democrats don’t have clean hands in this area, either: When the party controlled the Senate in the early 2000s, it declined to act on Gov. Tommy Thompson’s nominations to the UW Board of Regents for so long that even after he left to become secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services his picks remained held up for the entirety of his Republican successor’s two-year tenure. After Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle was elected in 2002, he withdrew the Republican appointees and replaced them with his own.
We understand that there are plenty of Wisconsinites who did not vote for Evers and may not be concerned with the fact that some of his appointees remain in limbo.
As we often do in this space, we pose this question to a hypothetical Republican: How would you feel if a Republican were governor and the Democrats were doing this?
Follow-up question, for the whole class: Do elections only have consequences when “my side” wins?
We do wonder why the governor hasn’t made more of an issue of his appointees remaining in limbo.
But more importantly, we feel that elections do have consequences, or at least they should.
Whether Evers wins re-election or a Republican takes his place, we believe the person sworn in next January should have his or her appointees given a hearing and, barring evident unfitness to serve, an up-or-down vote.
If you’re elected to be chief executive, you get to put your appointees in place.
That used to be understood across the political spectrum.
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Wisconsin State Journal. January 13, 2022.
Editorial: A New Year’s resolution for Assembly Republicans: Get rid of Speaker Robin Vos
The longest-serving Assembly speaker in Wisconsin history has clung to power for nearly a decade, becoming increasingly stubborn and unproductive. The Assembly needs a fresh voice with more optimism and better priorities than Speaker Robin Vos.
As the new year begins, Assembly Republicans should resolve to make 2022 Vos’ last as a legislative leader. GOP lawmakers should pick someone else for this important position.
Vos has represented parts of Racine County in the Legislature for 17 years and previously worked as a legislative aide. That means he was enmeshed in partisan politics long before he sought election — and it shows. Vos has become entrenched, constantly picking political fights and increasingly fond of wasting public money.
Not unlike Illinois’ longest-serving speaker, Democrat Mike Madigan, Vos has lost his way and worn out his welcome. He needs to go.
Republicans are supposed to favor careful stewardship of tax dollars. Instead, mirroring his party’s litigious and free-spending former President Donald Trump, Vos is blowing close to a million dollars on a redundant, meandering and ham-handed investigation of the 2020 presidential election. He’s wasted millions more on high-priced attorneys defending his partisan gerrymandering. Vos has even refused to allow a public hearing on Iowa’s proven nonpartisan redistricting model, which enjoys bipartisan support across Wisconsin and in the Legislature.
Vos’ curt response to public information requests about his spending of public money has prompted lawsuits, and he’ll soon be forced to answer to a judge. Worse than that, Vos was behind the witless attempt to neuter Wisconsin’s open records law in 2015. He has constantly looked for ways to undermine transparency in favor of big-government secrecy.
Vos loves the limelight, riding in Trump’s private jet and trying to upstage the governor at the governor’s State of the State address last year. More recently, he called for an elections administrator to resign — even though it was Vos’ own appointee (and a former GOP lawmaker) who voted for the decision Vos belatedly disliked.
With Vos in charge of the Assembly, every small health precaution during the pandemic has become a battle, pitting neighbors and communities against one another.
Vos is constantly making headlines. What’s far less frequent is Vos’ actions leading to progress for Wisconsin citizens.
That’s why a change at the top is needed.
When former Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, ended his long tenure running the state Senate a year ago, a more open-minded and dignified voice took his place in Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg. Similarly, replacing Vos in the Assembly should allow for more serious leadership on tackling Wisconsin’s challenges.
Some GOP lawmakers may scoff at the suggestion Vos needs to go. After all, the speaker has prioritized — above all else — keeping Republicans in power. Many of his colleagues owe their seats to Vos’ fierce defense of partisan gerrymandering.
But those members — and their constituents — should prioritize better public service and results instead. Vos is supposed to work for the people, not his party, the former president or special interests. Vos is in bad need of a permanent vacation from his powerful perch.
Assembly Republicans have plenty of choices for a new speaker among their 60 other members. They should pick someone in the coming year to move past Vos’ stale approach.
