For a guy who claims to loath everything that Gubmint is and stands for, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson has gotten more than his share of very substantial government assistance—some of it running to this very day.
I will use the text of a poll over on DailyKos to summarize it for you:
- His wife’s family’s plastic plant (that Johnson now owns) was built on TIF land
- Wife’s family’s plant (that Johnson now owns) used gov jobs grant to hire Johnson
- Wife’s family used gov-subsidized loans to build plastic plant that Johnson now owns
- Johnson served on the board of, and got help from, Chamco– the industrial development arm of the City of Oshkosh that specializes in handing out gov grants/loans
- Johnson is a part-owner in the show “Hometime,” which airs on a gov-subsizized network
- Johnson uses gov-subsidized prison labor at his plastic plant
- Some of Johnson’s employees are on gov-subsidized BadgerCare
- Johnson fought for, and got, $500,000 in state funding for renovations to the Oshkosh Opera House
(Thanks, Kos.)
Of course today Lisa Kaiser broke the story that five of Ron Johnson’s employees and their ten children are on BadgerCare. Which, if you listen to Johnson, is some kind of evil “socialist” parasitic drain of all individual freedom. Or something like that.
Just unbelievable. So it’s okay if he gets it, but not the rest of us? Or government assistance is bad now, but wasn’t for the past thirty years? Obviously it’s not if he’s been using prisoners and state-provided health insurance. Great way to save on your bottom line!
At least he paid his income taxes… which we can’t say about his company.
Haas414: Milwaukee Writ 