The Walker Way

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

20 February 13

he election (twice!) of Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to run their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, has caused a radical redefinition of the political culture unlike that taking place almost anywhere else. The Wisconsin Idea - from which came many of the progressive notions that made the 20th century superior to the 19th, and the political manifestation of what became known as the Social Gospel - was the animating force behind Wisconsin politics for so many years that watching Walker recklessly destroy it is like watching the political equivalent of paving paradise and putting up the parking lot.

Much of the attention was paid to Walker's attempts to drain the power from organized labor. But he also was serving up almost the entire movement conservative buffet, including "tort reform." Working with the folks at ALEC, and with the assistance of the complete roster of the state's profiteers, Walker got passed the Wisconsin Omnibus Tort Reform Act of 2011. One group of profiteers was composed of the people who run the state's nursing homes and, as their participation ribbon in the game of dismantling The Wisconsin Idea, these gombeens got a provision in the law whereby any state records of abuse and/or neglect in the state's nursing homes has been ruled inadmissable and unavailable to attorneys seeking damages on behalf of the victims of said abuse and/or neglect. In other words, you have to prove abuse and/or neglect of some of the state's most vulnerable citizens without the help of the state to which they paid their taxes most of their lives. You can see where this is headed, right?

The Wisconsin Center For Investigative Reporting did.

Wisconsin's nursing homes have descended into deregulated chaos. The industry now combines all the worst elements of a monopolistic business model with the basic bureaucratic inhumanity of a spread sheet. What regulations are still in place are paralyzed because there aren't enough investigators to make them function. And the most obvious remedy outside government - the threat of huge penalties deriving from civil judgments - has been defanged by the tort reform bill.

But critics say making state investigation reports of nursing homes inadmissible in civil and criminal lawsuits - a change that took effect after Wisconsin adopted tort reform legislation in 2011 - means that more cases of alleged neglect or abuse will go undetected and unpunished. "Especially if it's a Medicaid facility, I really believe transparency is essential," Hanrahan said. "We need to see how tax dollars are being spent and what quality of care is being provided." In fact, the Wisconsin health department has cut its staff of full-time nursing home surveyors from 100 in 2002 to 64 in 2012. Smith said staff was reduced because the number and capacity of nursing homes in Wisconsin have decreased. She provided data showing that, during this same period, the number of facilities fell from 412 to 398, and that resident capacity declined from 43,268 to 35,183. The drop in inspectors (36 percent) was greater than the drop in facilities (3 percent) or capacity (19 percent). Meanwhile, the number of complaints the state received about Wisconsin nursing homes and assisted living facilities rose from 1,684 in 2000 to 2,562 last year - an increase of more than 50 percent.

I will grant you that I am a little bit bughouse on this because I lived in Wisconsin for five years and came to deeply love its tradition of progressive politics, which is now being trashed for private profit by a jumped-up county executive with his eyes on bigger prizes. Give Paul Ryan credit. He only wants to starve granny slowly.

Oh, and the state's supreme court is still a mess, too. But it does give me another opportunity to write, "Patience Roggensack."

Fallone and Megna argued that Roggensack is part of a dysfunctional Supreme Court that has suffered through high-profile altercations, including in 2011 when Justice Ann Walsh Bradley accused Justice David Prosser of choking her during an argument. Prosser denied the allegation and a special prosecutor declined to bring charges. Roggensack has tried to distance herself from that incident even though she witnessed it."I'm not connected to that inappropriate interaction," she said Tuesday.

She's "not connected" to it even though she witnessed it.

Profiles In Jell-O.