I’ve always thought it was interesting that we live in one of the most technologically advanced ages, but the political discourse that much of the public seems to subscribe could be cut right out of an episode of “The Flintstones”.

One of the biggest and most dishonest pieces of rhetoric is “cut taxes”. We’ve all heard it. Sometimes the candidate that simply says they will cut taxes prevails — much like if Fred Flintstone said, “rock good”.

The result of elections where this type of thing prevails can be disasterous as we saw several years back when a bunch of “cut taxes” politicians in California did just that and decided that a scheme investing in high-yield derivatives would allow them to maintain services while cutting taxes. Well Orange County lost big and rather than blame the simplistic politicians, Orange County resident blamed the derivatives. Now in the same state, Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger wants to borrow money to pay for operating expenses and the debt load is growing out of control and their bond rating is poised to suffer.

Locally we have Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker who has consistently used the same rhetoric and the voters have rewarded him by returning him to office. The problem is that the public doesn’t have a solid grasp on what he has done to the fiscal state of the County. Walker has done what Schwartzenegger has done — he has borrowed heavily to pay for ongoing operating expenses. As an example, the pension plan which Milwaukee County is legally committed to funding is not fully funded. Walker has invested the funds in risky places and has lost big. Voters have to make up the difference but Walker has simply borrowed money so voters don’t realize that their taxes have gone sky high because of his poor decisions. The irony here is that Walker did receive a large chunk of money via a lawsuit against Mercer for bad advice the county was given regarding their pension plans several years ago. Where did that money go?

Operating expenses.

After all, why tax when you can borrow to pay for expenses? That way you can put off todays expenses and get all the benefits of a public happy with a sustained level of services. Of course this isn’t sustainable but the public doesn’t know that. Since Walker is running for Governor, it won’t much matter to him if he loses because the next guy will have to figure out how to pay the bill that Walker has run up. It’s a bit like inviting someone to a dinner party at a restaurant and leaving the last guy to arrive with the check.

The reality is that Walker’s over simplistic message has no place in good government and a trite “cut taxes” has about as much substance as “yabadabadoo”.