Thanks to watching TV shows from other English speaking countries we’ve leaned some English idioms from other places. One phrase is Gordon Bennett which is used to express surprise, contempt, outrage, contempt, or frustration. Nobody seems sure where it came from but everyone agrees on the meaning. We have referred to the current governor of Wisconsin as The Suit because, although he is a Democrat, he didn’t seem like he wanted to move the needle much. He was just a guy in a suit. In fact, although we can’t find it, we’re pretty sure we had a favorable comment on him once.
The Suit’s recent actions on the Wisconsin budget has moved him towards an idiom status. Tony Evers would not be a positive phrase. Of interest, the photos accompanying the NRO stories by CJ Szafir and Christian Schneider show The Suit not in a suit. You should read both posts in their entirety. If you do read Christian’s be aware that he has incorrectly identified a previous WI governor, Tony Earl as a member of the GOP. He was a Democrat.
So what has The Suit done? It is too bad our local newspaper is no longer a daily or we might have been informed of it earlier. The Suit, however, is a Democrat so perhaps not. Both stories are about line item vetos. The GOP controls the legislature and passed a budget. The Suit was able to change things with a few strokes of his pen. As we understand it, line item vetos not like regular vetos so the legislature has to wait to try and fix the mischief. Here is CJ (paragraph break eliminated):
However, any hope for a middle-class tax cut this year was dashed by Wisconsin governor [The Suit] on Wednesday when he vetoed what would have been the largest tax cut in the state’s history. That tax cut, which was approved by Wisconsin’s legislature last week, was part of a $4.4 billion tax-cut package, with $3.5 billion dedicated solely for income-tax relief. After [The Suits]’s actions, only $175 million for the lowest tax brackets remains. Ninety-five percent of the middle-class tax cut was vetoed. The plan was simple: Of Wisconsin’s four income brackets, it collapsed the two middle rates of 4.65 percent and 5.3 percent into one lower rate of 4.4 percent, dropped the top marginal rate of 7.65 percent to 6.5 percent, and reduced the lowest rate from 3.54 percent to 3.5. All that remains is the reduction of the lowest two rates, or 5 percent of the overall cut. Instead of a $573 average annual cut per taxpayer, the amount is now only $37.
The line item veto let The Suit do that. Now Wisconsin will be less competitive as most states in the area, especially Iowa, tend to become more sensible.
Christian’s story is even more remarkable. He is making the point that the Democrats and their alleged attempts to protect Democracy ring false. Here is Christian (paragraph breaks deleted):
To be specific, while issuing his vetoes of the 2023–25 state budget, Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, [The Suit], effectively played a word game and created a new law that had neither been contemplated nor voted upon by the Republican-controlled legislature. A sentence in the budget bill passed by the legislature meant to temporarily increase per-pupil aid read, “For the limit for the 2023-24 school year and the 2024-25 school year, add $325.” But with the creative use of his editing pen, [The Suit] struck the occasional word, hyphen, and number to transform the sentence into: “For the limit for 2023-2425, add $325 . . .” And thus, as if completing a morning Wordle puzzle, [The Suit] locked in an enhanced level of school spending for the next 400 years. According to the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty, [The Suit]’s word game will require $57 billion in additional property taxes over the next two decades to fund the promise he made.
Yup, it appears, subject to any lawsuits, that you can line item veto letters or numbers and the result is a passed law. It looks to be brilliant politics as The Suit provided piles of money for his unionized teacher supporters and put the GOP in a quandary. In the next legislative session the GOP will need to fix the budget problem The Suit created. When they do that they will be vilified as hating children. Tony Evers! We like that phrase.
menwithgloves 