Nor surprisingly, our County Executive has had to back off the ridiculous claims he made last week that he wouldn’t seek out any federal stimulus money. As I’ve written over the past week, even many conservatives who would normally share his ideology urged him to reconsider his stance for the well being of Milwaukee County.

But Walker and his supporters in the media, especially on the AM radio dial, now want to have it both ways. They still want to claim he’s “standing on principles” by not seeking out any of the federal stimulus money, while at the same time claiming he never said he would do so.

It’s a tactic right out of the classic right-wing playbook. Simply repeat as factually correct your own version of events regardless of what you actually did or said.

I think it’s important to put the facts out there about this issue of what our County Executive said and when he said it to counter the clear attempt of some of his supporters to soften Walker’s initial radical stance on this.

So I’ll simply let Scott Walker speak for himself.

This all started last Tuesday, January 6th when County Exec. Walker said the following in this article in the Journal Sentinel (LINK):

…Walker said Tuesday the county and the country are better off without the spending. The only federal economic stimuli Walker endorses are tax cuts.

“All we are asking for is ‘do no harm,’?” the county executive said. “I’m not asking for any new projects or things to be done here.”

Milwaukee County has some huge funding dilemmas, including $300 million in backlogged repairs for parks, annual shortfalls of up to $43 million in transit and some $300 million needed to rebuild its mental health complex.

“The last thing you want to do is put money in hands of government,” if the goal is to pull the economy from recession, Walker said.

Clearly, in the own words of Scott Walker, he did not and would not seek any of the federal stimulus money.

The next day, Wednesday January 7th, the Journal Sentinel carried another piece and quoted Scott Walker again (LINK):

Walker said Wednesday that he won’t ask for anything from the federal economic recovery plan. He cited his opposition to deficit spending as a strategy to jolt the economy from recession and said he philosophically favors tax cuts as a remedy.

“There’s never any free money from the federal government,” Walker said. “There’s always strings attached.”

Again, pretty clear. Milwaukee County Executive is not going to ask for any federal stimulus money. On the Wednesday edition of the Jay Weber show on WISN 1130 AM, Walker went on to say:

“The reality is, if you really want to stimulate the economy, you don’t put money in the hands of the government, you put it in the hands of the people.”

But then as opposition grows to his stance, Scott Walker begins to change his tune a bit. From the Friday, January 9th edition of the Journal Sentinel (LINK):

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is opening the door a bit wider to acceptance of federal stimulus aid, after he was criticized for saying he would refuse to seek such funds.

Walker said he still preferred tax cuts to deficit spending on infrastructure projects as a way to revive the U.S. economy.

And Walker said he still has reservations about taking federal aid, especially if it means spending more county money as part of a local match.

But he said he wasn’t rejecting outright an offer of stimulus cash.

“I’m not opposed forever” to carrying out projects with federal money, he said Friday. “If they put money in programs where we have legitimate needs, of course we are going to look at that.”

He listed three conditions for acceptance of the federal aid: that it not require any unusual local match; that it not go for a service that would require county taxpayers to pick up the bill in the future; and that it not have hidden operating expenses.

It’s pretty clear in this article that he isn’t as opposed to the federal money as he was only a few days earlier.

So to recap: On Tuesday it was “NO NO I’m not going to ask, this stimulus package is wrong”.

Wednesday brought, “Government is bad and I won’t accept anything other than tax cuts”.

Then on Friday you have, “I prefer tax cuts to this stimulus, but I wouldn’t outright reject federal stimulus money as long as it meets three conditions I just came up with”.

Someone explain to me how that isn’t a complete 180 degree turn by our County Executive on this issue?

And to be clear, changing your mind is fine. I’m glad he is changing his tune on this and it isn’t at all what I have a problem with.

What I’m pointing out here is those, like my pal Jay Weber on WISN 1130 this morning, who are trying to change how this whole thing went down by claiming Walker was never against the stimulus money for Milwaukee County to begin with are wrong. Walker’s stance has been anything but consistent here.

As you can see by the County Executive’s own words above, that’s just not the case.

He wasn’t “clarifying his position”. He was just changing it as it became clear his initial stance of “NO!” wasn’t as popular as he had initially calculated.

A small point in the larger scheme of things, but it’s important to point out the facts about this issue and hold people accountable for their decisions.. Ironically, that’s usually something the right laments is lacking in our political environment today.