Randy Hopper: The lesson from Merc debacle? WI needs more corporate welfare

Will enough ever be enough for corporate piranhas and their lackeys in the conservative caucuses at the State Capitol? Apparently not for Randy Hopper, whose column in the Oshkosh Northwestern this weekend calls for even more taxpayer financed gifts to corporate interests. Seriously.

According to Randy Hopper what Wisconsin really needs to do is levy more taxes on regular folks so we can give that money to corporations. Then, Hopper says, we should change the rules so corporations dont have to pay their fair share of taxes back to the state. Once we give the corporations all of our money, the next thing Hopper wants is to get rid of those pesky regulations that put employersout of business.

Maybe Im missing something, but have we not spent the entire summer listening to unhinged teabaggers and their enablers like Robin Vos, Randy Hopper and other conservative public figures practically soil themselves because theyre just SO UPSET about government intervention in the marketplace? So what exactly is Hopper talking about here — government subsidies for businesses? Shouldnt the all-powerful free market be able to sustain corporations without a hand-out to from the taxpayers? I guess Randy Hopper doesnt think so.

This is just one more item on a laundry list of examples that proves conservatives dont really care about smaller government, lower taxes, spending restraints and keeping the gummint out of the way of business. In fact, the opposite is true. If conservatives had their way, they would funnel tax dollars to the private corporations that fund their campaigns, bloat the size of government contracts with private business to increase corporate profit margins and eliminate any conditions or regulations for those corporations that receive taxpayer dollars. Conservatives dont want less government involvement; they just want less government for the regular people. Conservative are for more taxes, but only if they go to private corporations and not stuff we can all use like infrastructure, health care, or basic social safety nets.

In every cloud, though, a silver lining. With the new sales tax levied to subsidize Merc Marine, Randy Hopper might actually join the ranks of regular taxpayers in Fond du Lac County. As weve reported before, Randy Hopper has only paid Wisconsin personal and business income taxes once since 1997. No wonder hes so willing to send our tax dollars to corporations ” Hoppers not paying his fair share.