Remember this quote by Barack Obama? “I have a phone and a pen — and I can sign executive orders, take administrative actions and executive actions that move the ball forward.”
Yeah, good times. Actually, compared to President Resident, it could be argued that the Obama Era was not all that bad. Oh, who I am kidding? This is Obama 2.0, and this time, it’s personal. But Obama did perfect the practice of leaders achieving whatever they may want with an executive order. Witness the first few days of Resident’s administration in which the orders were flying out of the Oval Office at a fever pitch.
Gov. Tony Evers (D-Wisc.) There is a phone in his pocket, or perhaps several. I’m sure he has pens nearby. He used one of these pens to “partial-veto” a Wisconsin school funding bill for 2024-25. Evers removed the hyphen and 20. By doing this, he increased revenue per student per year by $325 until 2425. If the law remains in place at that time, then the state will spend more than $130,000 on each student than it currently does. It is 400 years from now.
That’s funny. It’s comedy gold.
It’s hard to tell if Evers was trying to send a joke or to make a statement, or if he was actually trying to change the bill that was passed by the Republican legislature. It was a move in line with the Democrat Party to which Evers belongs, namely spending large sums on a whim, without any forethought, and using the fastest way to do it, regardless of whether the move was legal or not. It’s always nice to snub the local members of the GOP.
Evers’ stunt could have legal ramifications. The Wisconsin Institute of Law & Liberty, a non-profit legal firm, is considering filing a lawsuit. Lucas Vebber, Deputy Counsel at Fox News, said:
We are looking into legal action. I’m certain that others are also looking into it. The people in Wisconsin who are elected to the Senate Assembly and represent them in writing laws have written the law that they intended. The governor’s decision to veto the bill makes it completely different.
Vebber stated that this has been done before and is referred to by the term “Vanna white vetoes” where governors remove individual letters in order to create a new word. Wisconsin governors have broad veto power, but Vanna-White vetoes are prohibited since 2000. In court, the question may be whether or not this prohibition also applies to numbers. If the decision is not overturned by a court or addressed in future legislation, then it will remain.
Evers is aware that his veto was an outrageous act of grandstanding. If it’s not, then he knows he has won at the expense of his political opponents. It is not his concern that a bill of unimaginable proportions will be due 400 years from now. Someone else will take care of it. The veto is a perfect illustration of progressive dysfunctional policies. Progressives use the same reckless, destructive approach to solve short-term problems with the belief that someone else would always be responsible for the mess they make and refuse to acknowledge.
