In This Issue | 1. Guarding Paychecks
2. Wallet Pading 101
3. Wasserman's Lifetime
Appointment
4. How We Can Fix U.S.
Energy Policy
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Guarding Their Paychecks and Milking Taxpayers
 If you're a liberal who argues that higher taxes benefit everyone, you might want to get an ice pack. Advocates for higher taxes got a lump on their head this week with revelations that Department of Corrections’ employees have been scamming taxpayers by claiming overtime for hours they never worked. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, high-level correctional institution officers often times use sick leave to appear as if they are working overtime, thus making time-and-a-half for hours they never actually worked. In essence, it’s just free taxpayer cash for them to grab.
One Green Bay correctional officer made $117,764 with overtime. An officer from Redgranite made $97,280, of which $51,042 was overtime gained by using 23 days of sick leave. At work tomorrow, try going in and asking your boss if you can double your salary by using your sick leave as overtime. Chances are, you’ll be picking up a copy of the want ads on your way home.
Yet at the Department of Corrections, this behavior appeared to be commonplace. As the state wrestles with how to fill a $525 million deficit, only one option has been taken off the table by Governor Doyle and State Senate Democrats – cutting spending. The Assembly Republicans proposed non-specific cuts to spending to allow the Governor and state agencies some discretion, but Doyle and the Democrats prefer to plunge the state into years of higher debt, more taxes, and bigger deficits just so they can protect scams like the correctional officers are running. And you, the taxpayer are left paying the bills.
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Teaching Kids How to Pad A Wallet
 Last week, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance released a widely ignored report that blows a hole in the argument that our high level of education spending is "for the kids." The report found that Wisconsin spends over 8.5% more than the national average to educate school kids.
In fact, the report found that Wisconsin schools spend only 60% of their budgets on pupil instruction. Forty cents of every school dollar goes to something that has nothing to do with teaching math, science, or English.
So with that 8.5% in extra spending, are our kids getting better textbooks? Are they getting more individual attention from their teachers, new rulers, maybe?
If you chose none of the above, you are correct. Teachers are getting pension and health care benefits at levels 50% higher than the national average. This fact is especially egregious in Milwaukee, where student achievement has become an oxymoron.
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Wasserman's Lifetime Appointment
 When Democratic State Representative Sheldon Wasserman isn’t out disparaging women who have survived breast cancer, he’s making bogus campaign pledges intended to insult voters. Recently, Wasserman said that if he beats incumbent Republican Senator Alberta Darling, he'll limit himself to three terms in office. (A bit presumptuous, since the district leans heavily Republican.)
Wasserman’s pledge to serve "only" twelve years in office seems to be pretty generous, until one realizes that he was originally elected to the Assembly in 1994. So if twelve years is the most someone should serve in office, why didn't he resign from his Assembly seat two years ago?
If we take Wasserman's pledge seriously (and ignore the voters that would have to actually elect him in 2008, 2012 and 2016), he will have served 26 years in the Legislature. At that point, there will actually be people in the Legislature that were born after Wasserman initially took office.
Wasserman’s pledge to serve more than a quarter century would have him retiring at age 59 with a nearly full state pension Only a pompous out-of-touch career politician can say that “limiting” his time in office to 26 years is somehow a "sacrifice."
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How We Can Fix U.S. Energy Policy
by Congressman Paul Ryan
 As the political finger pointing begins in Washington, D.C., Congress would serve itself well by looking in the mirror. Traveling around Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District, I routinely hear about how high gas prices are reducing people's paychecks.
Well, last week in Janesville, more than 750 people found they soon will lose their entire paychecks. Why? General Motors announced that due to high fuel prices and sluggish sales, Janesville's GM plant is eliminating its second shift of production of its large SUVs.
As a fifth-generation native of Janesville, I grew up learning the old saying, "As GM goes, so goes Janesville." These layoffs are a devastating blow to our town and a harsh reminder of the consequences of our incoherent national energy policy.
There are five clear examples of how the federal government has exacerbated this problem and how Congress could alleviate the mess it helped create:
One: Drill for oil
As demand outpaces supply, energy prices continue to soar. Congress is wasting its time asking Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran and others to boost their energy supplies for our consumption. Members of Congress should instead be pursuing initiatives that would boost supply here at home. For example, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has reported that more than 10.4 billion barrels of oil could be recovered from beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Technological advancements, such as directional drilling, would allow for responsible exploration and leave a minimal environmental footprint, affecting only 2,000 acres (out of ANWR's nearly 20 million acres). Full use of this field alone would boost our domestic production by an estimated 20%. Congress also should pass legislation that would allow efforts to explore oil and natural gas resources in the outer continental shelf. In the last session of Congress, the House passed legislation that would have allowed this, but these efforts died in the Senate by a filibuster. Unfortunately, the new leadership in Congress refuses to even allow these measures to be considered.
Two: Build more refineries
Congress can take additional steps to put downward pressure on prices by streamlining the process for building new refineries. In the past three decades, there has not been a single refinery built in the United States. As a result, we have relied on an increasingly larger share of imported refined product. Rather than making use of refineries here at home, we have dramatically increased our reliance on refined product from abroad. The Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act of 2006 would have cut down the bureaucratic red tape that stood in the way of building new refineries, and allows for building refineries on abandoned military installations. After passage in the House with my support, this legislation languished in the Senate and the new leadership has not allowed this to be taken up in this session of Congress as well. Congress' failure to clear a path for new refineries has made us increasingly dependent on foreign sources of refined petroleum, directly resulting in higher gas prices.
Three: Streamline fuel blends
Congress should end its mandates for specialized "boutique" fuels for different regions of the country and different seasons of the year. I have been active on advancing legislation that would cap the required number of reformulated gasoline blends throughout the nation and allow for fuel waivers in the case of supply emergencies. Unfortunately, strong opposition has come from the oil industry, which has helped kill a number of our efforts to remove these distortions and reform our fuel distribution system. This provides a straightforward opportunity for Congress to take action and end the fragmentation of our gasoline supply.
Four: Don't rely on food for fuel
This Congress has passed an energy bill. It quintupled the ethanol mandate. In a classic case of unintended consequences, this overreaching ethanol mandate has led to serious problems for families in Wisconsin and around the world. By converting food to fuel, prices for both have risen. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recently reported that the monthly grocery bill for the average American family is $70 higher today than it was just a year ago. The ethanol industry was not ready to take this kind of supply shock, and federal efforts to pick the winners and losers in the marketplace have had devastating consequences in food market. Worse yet, this situation is igniting a counterproductive backlash against agriculture. Congress can promote a more reasonable path to alternative energy by investing in the basic research to develop the ideas of tomorrow, such as using corn stalks and switch grass, rather than food, for energy.
Five: Stop stoking inflation
Additional responsibility for our current state of affairs rests with the Federal Reserve, whose dramatic interest rate cuts since last fall have pushed crude oil prices to new heights and stoked inflation. Inflation erodes the value of American's paychecks and savings, and adds to the burdens of a rising cost of living. Congress is in a position to put our monetary policy on solid economic footing by reviewing the dual - and often contradictory - mandate, which directs to the Fed to focus on both long-term price stability and short-term economic growth. This past week, I have proposed the Price Stability Act of 2008, which will make the Fed's overriding policy goal to control inflation. For a real economic stimulus package, Congress should commit to sound money policies.
The flaws and failures of Congress have done much to contribute to our current energy crisis. There are concrete steps that Congress can take that will move us toward a coherent approach to a sustainable energy policy and put immediate downward pressure on energy prices. The American people have rejected gas price pandering and finger-pointing; you deserve responsible leadership and must demand it.
Rep. Paul Ryan, a Republican, represents Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District. This editorial appeared in the MIlwaukee Journal Sentinel on Sunday May 5, 2008.
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