State (WI) GOP health bills mirror model ALEC legislation!!

[iwishiwas]

This is investigative journalist at its best. Read the entire article to get the full picture of what is happening--or about to happen in WI with Walker and his Repug poodles!!


And A comment from this article:

Fact_based said on: March 27, 2011, 8:02 am
Rep. Robin Vos is listed on ALEC's site as Wisconsin chairman. It takes five seconds there to see that Fitzgerald is lying through his teeth when he says ALEC isn't a Republican initiative.




http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/health_med_fit/vital_signs/article_30e0cb12-5719-11e0-970f-001cc4c002e0.html


Vital Signs: State GOP health bills mirror model ALEC legislation

SHAWN DOHERTY | The Capital Times | [e-mail] madison.com | (19) Comments | Posted: Sunday, March 27, 2011 7:15 am

State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald speaks to media during a press conference in the Senate parlor at the state Capitol in Madison on Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011. M.P. King – State Journal archives

All the fuss this week over ALEC, a right-wing organization said to be the mastermind behind a nationwide wave of conservative proposals and laws, inspired me to look into whether the group has anything to do with a spate of recent health legislation from Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers.

My first step was to consult an online "study guide" about the shadowy American Legislative Exchange Council written by UW-Madison history professor William Cronon. (When I first wrote this post I had a working link to ALEC but the organization seems to have blocked access in the last 24 hours.) The state GOP has filed an open records request seeking access to Cronon's e-mails, and I was curious to see what they were upset about.

A bunch of links and some digging later, I tracked down ALEC's The State Legislators Guide to Repealing ObamaCare, and it looks like our governor and Republican legislators could indeed be following this handy manual. Several health bills the Republicans have proposed and passed this year, or are about to propose (and probably pass, given their majority,) mirror ALEC's "model legislation."

But so what, asks Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, when I call him about my discovery. Fitzgerald says he has been a proud member of ALEC since he first became a legislator in 1994, and is currently the Wisconsin State Chairman. State lawmakers have always turned to such national organizations for help brainstorming ideas and crafting legislation, Fitzgerald says. "These groups are about exchanging ideas between different state legislators from around the country to be sure we're not isolating ourselves in Wisconsin," he tells me.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Tippy]

1. K&R.....are there any sane republicans? they all seem to belong

to the same cult.....

[Scuba]

2. Here's the ALEC Toolkit for your reference... bastards...

http://www.alec.org/am/pdf/tax/Budget_toolkit.pdf

[midnight]

3. One of the tools is bipartisanism...

"In some states, the legislature may not wish to wait for its governor to develop a list of core functions. In other states, it will be a joint endeavor between political parties and the branches of government. A bipartisan ratification of agreed-upon core functions should be sought within the first few weeks of budget-writing sessions. This would dramatically increase the productivity of standing com- mittee hearings because everyone would know the terms and the budget limitations. "

[iwishiwas]

5. yes.

[Wilms]

4. kr