First, Do No Harm

Congratulations to the men and women who are now sworn to serve all of Wisconsin. As Edward R. Murrow once said, “Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.” Running against Democrats is not the same as governance…not by a long shot.

As his first act of “governance,” Scott Walker has called a “special session” to jumpstart the economy and to create “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Special Session sounds good because they are.. well, “special.”  The fact that we are having one sounds great – it has the illusion of having a bias for action. This is good as long as it’s the right action and not just rearranging the deck chairs.

Murrow said: “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”  In this case we are following a purely Republican ideological path, not necessarily a prudent or pragmatic one. Don’t get me wrong. There is some really nice feel good stuff that will certainly help some people, but thinking critically, we are not.

Taxes, regulations and size of government are all on the chopping block. Not all of this is bad. But we should be prepared for what they are doing and what it means.

“The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer,” Murrow said. What is obvious is tax cuts will reduce revenue and blow an even bigger hole in the deficit. Using this “trickle down” method of job creation (with its’ dubious effectiveness) means we’ll have to wait for these jobs. Then, we must hope that somehow, revenue will increase and reduce our deficit.

Prudent budget cuts, pay-as-you-go legislation, and revenue generation will provide realistic fiscal sanity. Where the Republicans have it wrong is that they think this is just a spending issue, not considering revenue an issue. They refuse to even consider that they may have to work on both as some economists have suggested.

“Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit," Murrow said.  And the truth here is that regardless of what the Republican led legislature and Chief Executive sign into law, the same amount of jobs will be produced as if they did nothing at all.

A 2010 study conducted by the non-partisan, non-profit Kauffman Foundation found that new firm formation is relatively constant regardless of the economy or public policy towards creation and that “policies will affect the numbers at the margins” and little else. 

Additionally, Kauffman along with the Information and Technology Foundation produced a study that suggests, “In particular, states can target their efforts even more to the small number of firms that are high-growth. These “high-impact” firms are especially important to state economic development because most small businesses are not growth businesses, and most jobs are created by a relatively small number of high-impact firms. For example, between 2008 and 2009, all the new jobs created came from young firms.” This is where we should be aiming. Someone should mention this in the “ special session.”

To our public servants, please remember; “haste makes waste.” Resist the urge to go purely partisan in your solutions. Have a true dialogue with all members in both chambers and produce thoroughly vetted legislation; too much is riding on this. Take your time and get it right. We have to make changes, this is certain. But please, during your special session remember, “first, do no harm.”