Green, other Badgers provide winning margin for $50-billion in cuts

Wisconsin's four Republicans provided the winning margin early today as the House voted 217-215 to pass a budget plan that slashes programs for the poor, college students and farmers, among others.

To get the votes for passage, leadership jettisoned a provision to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and softened the cuts in food stamps and other programs slightly, from $54-billion to about $50-billion. AP story.

You could argue that each of the Wisconsin members -- Mark Green, Paul Ryan, F. Jim Sensenbrenner and Tom Petri -- cast the deciding vote for passage. If any one of them had voted "no" the bill would have failed on a tie vote -- or the leadership, which already held the vote open longer than the rules allow in order to round up the votes, would have scrambled some more.

That could be more of an issue for Green than the others, since he is running for governor and just cast the deciding vote to cut programs that will hurt people in Wisconsin. Green issued a release saying he was proud of his vote; he will no doubt get a chance to defend it. [UPDATE: Green suggests he traded his vote to get a pledge from the Speaker on the MILC program.]

No details yet on what happened to the proposed slash in money for child support enforcement, which had Wisconsin officials, including Green's primary opponent, Scott Walker, dismayed.

The Journal Sentinel reported on Nov. 8:

Wisconsin would lose an estimated $143.5 million in child support enforcement money over the next five years, according to a state estimate. Milwaukee County, with the state's biggest child support caseload, would lose some $9.5 million in 2008 - more than half its budget for finding child support scofflaws.

With dim prospects for scraping up replacement funding from either the state or counties, the federal reduction could translate into layoffs of half the Milwaukee County child support enforcement staff of 207, officials said.

"It's going to be devastating" for low-income families that rely on child support, said Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. "By doing this, you're really just pushing families more likely deeper into poverty" and into public assistance programs such as food stamps, the Wisconsin Works welfare reform program and Medicaid, he said.

If those cuts were part of the package that Green voted for, it could provide the basis for the first real difference of opinion between Walker and Green. Will Walker dare to criticize Green for cutting the budget? Let's watch and see.

UPDATE: Rep. Tammy Baldwin is angry.“This bill punishes sick children, struggling students, and their hard-working parents to pay for tax cuts for a wealthy few,” she says. Baldwin even used the "H" word -- heartless -- that caused an uproar when the Dem Party and I used it to describe Sensenbrenner's vote against hurricane aid. Baldwin, Dave Obey, Gwen Moore and Ron Kind all voted no on the budget bill.

UPDATE 2: Eye On Wisconsin reviews Paul Ryan's C-Span performance.