Eat Cheese or Die

This is what happens when a trial lawyer becomes governor. Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle allied with the cheese headcases in the liberal university town and state capitol of Madison have really gone nuts on this one. (Full disclosure, I grew up in Wisconsin and own a cheesehead for discreet viewing of Packer games at home.) Wisconsin may be competitive with Illinois on the sheer incompetence and unreason of its Dem "leadership". WSJ:

Democrats who run the Wisconsin Senate have dropped the Washington pretense of incremental health-care reform and moved directly to passing a plan to insure every resident under the age of 65 in the state. And, wow, is "free" health care expensive. The plan would cost an estimated $15.2 billion, or $3 billion more than the state currently collects in all income, sales and corporate income taxes. It represents an average of $510 a month in higher taxes for every Wisconsin worker.

Employees and businesses would pay for the plan by sharing the cost of a new 14.5% employment tax on wages. Wisconsin businesses would have to compete with out-of-state businesses and foreign rivals while shouldering a 29.8% combined federal-state payroll tax, nearly double the 15.3% payroll tax paid by non-Wisconsin firms for Social Security and Medicare combined.

You may recall before Republican Tommy Thompson became governor back in the late 80's, Wisconsin had a very generous welfare program, much appreciated by a fair number of indigent Illinoisans---wow, all those new Dem voters in Wisconsin, YES!---and costs soared. Uh:

One reason to expect costs to soar is that the state may become a mecca for the unemployed, uninsured and sick from all over North America. The legislation doesn't require that you have a job in Wisconsin to qualify, merely that you live in the state for at least 12 months.

And the Journal goes on to detail the Dem's plan, which runs away from market solutions that control costs, with predictable results--severely rationing care. Unless the Republican House stands fast, this may give one of the state's unofficial mottos, "Eat Cheese or Die" a certain grim resonance. One way to keep costs down I suppose.