From Kim Tschudy
New Glarus
To the editor:
Last week’s Wisconsin Legislature lame duck session showed the true colors of many Wisconsin legislators. It was especially interesting to see how Sen. Howard Marklein, the Republican recently re-elected to represent Wisconsin Senate District 17, voted.
During the recent November election season, Marklein paraded around his district blowing steam and smoke about how he’s independent and represents, first and foremost, the residents of his senate district who are his main concern. There isn’t a mega farm with a big enough manure spreader to load all of the manure he spread to his constituents.
Marklein voted against those very people who elected him. Marklein’s district consists of the following counties, or portions thereof; Juneau, Sauk, Richland, Grant, Iowa, Lafayette and Green.
Marklein’s lame duck vote against health insurance covering pre-existing conditions will have a long-term effect on many of those who voted for him. Of the seven counties he allegedly represents, only two of the counties, Iowa and Green, rank in the top 18 counties for good health care availability.
The rest of Marklein’s district counties rank 37th to 54th for county health rankings. Sen. Marklein, how many of your constituents will suffer poor health because of your gutless vote for big money for your next campaign versus the best interests of those you claim to represent?
Sen. Marklein, you should be ashamed of yourself, telling the public that Wisconsin, under your watch as a forensic accountant, has a budget surplus of $500 million. Using Generally Accepted Accounting Practices, the budget surplus you tout is actually a $1.67 billion deficit, as is pointed out in the Legislative Fiscal Bureau report. You sound more like a 5 a.m. bantam rooster perched on the top of a locust fence post crowing at the rising sun than a statesman.
Sen. Marklein, stand tall with, and proud of, the nasty ads your corporate sponsors put out ripping your rival Democrat, Kriss Marion, with the big lie of Kriss being “a union boss,” when in fact, Kriss is active in the Wisconsin Farmers Union, a farmers organization. Just as a number of other Wisconsin farmers groups, such as the Wisconsin Beef Producers, sheep producers and honey producers are.
