Class War, Gender War and War

"It's just so frustrating," she said. "People see these things happening and they just feel powerless. They think it's going to happen and there's nothing they can do."

That's Lindsay McClernan, a single mom and full-time worker, discussing the Republican proposal for the Wisconsin state budget, as quoted in a recent Capital Times story.

Ms. McClernan - who, by the way, won this year's YMCA Women of Distinction award - is particularly concerned at the Republicans' proposal to raise the co-pay for child care by an average of $40 per month, or nearly $500 per year. She told the Cap Times:

"If I can't afford the co-pay, I can't go to work, I can't go to school, I'll lose my financial aid for at least a year, and I'll feel like a bad mother."

If politicians were ethically and logically consistent - a big "if," regardless of the major party being discussed - you might expect state Republicans to go out of their way to support child care and education. After all, they voted to deny access to emergency contraception on UW campuses and to place pharmacists' personal beliefs above Wisconsin women's right to reproductive health care.

Why are these votes inconsistent with Republicans' budget priorities? The harder it is for women to get contraceptives, the more likely they are to have children. (Or abortions... is that a Republican goal?) Anyhow, more children means an increased need for child care and education. Yet Republicans want to slash state funding for child care, K through 12 and university-level education.

What happens, then - even without the potential increase in unplanned, unwanted children - is that the state budget is balanced on the backs of the working poor, like Ms. McClernan. Lest we forget, Wisconsin's Democratic governor, Jim Doyle, also shares some blame for declaring tax increases - or even moves to close loopholes that allow corporations to pay less than their fair share of state taxes - off the negotiating table.

Then again, maybe these Republican stances are consistent, if the goal is to ensure that there are enough underprivileged, undereducated young people to serve in tomorrow's military.