Wisconsin to soon be the dumbest state in the country..freedom..

[jodymarie aimee]

Proposal to De-license Occupations Gains Steam in Senate
Imagine you are with your loved one who is in the hospital. Night comes. You prepare to leave, gently kissing your loved one “good night”.

As you walk down the corridor and into the hospital parking lot, you might wonder how your loved one will feel in the morning. Will things be better, worse or stay the same?

One thing you don’t worry about is the quality of care provided to your loved one because the nurses working the night shift are licensed by the state.

Nurses and other professionals follow “standards of care” that are spelled out in their education and clinical training. They follow licensing and board requirements set in state law. Patients are protected from incompetent nurses by a board that oversees the practice of nursing. This is true for dozens of other professionals in Wisconsin.

Recently, a Senate committee on which I serve passed two bills that set up a process to potentially de-license professionals. Senate Bill 288 establishes a partisan appointed council that reviews licensing, registration or other state approval for ALL occupation and professional licensing in Wisconsin. Senate Bill 296 creates a process for self-certification that allows a person to claim “state certification” even though they may have no training or experience in their chosen occupation.

Electricians, nurses, certified public accountants, plumbers, physical therapists, doctors, and other professionals will have their licensing and continuing education requirements reviewed by a non-elected, partisan council. The Council would have the power to write and introduce a bill making changes to the laws governing occupational licensing. These powers are generally reserved for lawmakers.

The process set up by these bills is eerily similar to a process laid out in an August 2017 publication of the ideologically conservative Mercatus Center:

Policymakers…would be wise to follow these steps:
1) Pass legislation that sets an ambitious goal for the elimination of licenses and the reduction of licensing burdens.
2) Establish an independent commission charged with examining the state’s licensing laws. …the commission should be charged with evaluating all licenses.
3) The commission should be charged with setting a comprehensive path for licensure elimination and reform. The authorizing legislation should commit elected officials to accepting the commission’s recommendations in their entirety or not at all.
…the institutional structure that we recommend borrows elements from other reforms that have succeeded in eliminating favoritism. In particular, it allows elected officials to cast conspicuous votes in the public interest while giving them some degree of “cover” from the special interests that will inevitably be harmed by the elimination of their regulatory privilege.

Let’s break down that last sentence.

The elected officials cast “votes in the public interest” – your elected representative is voting to de-license your plumber. “Giving them some degree of ‘cover’” – your elected official is now able to say, “I didn’t really want to de-license your plumber, but it was part of a larger bill and I couldn’t change the bill.”

“Special interests that will inevitably be harmed”—those “special interests” would be the plumbers’ union or the nurses’ association.

The public likely did not hear about the de-licensure plan because the daylong hearing by both the Senate and Assembly committees happened at exactly the same time as the public hearing on Foxconn. The Foxconn hearing dominated headlines, not the concerns of over 100 Wisconsinites who traveled to Madison to testify or register against the de-licensure bills. Those speaking in favor of the bills were, almost exclusively, conservative ideological groups.

When I asked what problem the bills were trying to solve, proponents said they wanted to eliminate “fence me out” legislation that left people unable to get into a desired profession. When I asked them to provide me a list of professions with licenses that create a “fence me out” problem, they did not give me a single example.

Over the years, the Legislature created licensure requirements in conjunction with professionals. If we have unnecessary licensing, committees of the Legislature should review details of a professional license and determine if change is necessary.

Setting up a process to de-license professionals by unelected appointees is an attempt by conservative ideological groups to remake Wisconsin in their own image. In fact, a republican colleague commented that these ideological groups have become a shadow legislature.

These bills need to be stopped.

Some computer systems change the formatting of and strip punctuation from the column. If that affects your view, please see the attached pdf version of the column.


[e-mail] State Capitol Room 108 South - P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707-7882 Toll Free: [phone] or
[phone]

[murielm99]

1. We are not that far from Wisconsin.

We have used the UW hospital and the Monroe Clinic Hospital.

If this goes through, we won't be doing that again.

[Dustlawyer]

11. Attorneys, CPA's, architects, welders...

So now you may get a jail house lawyer, a book keeper, all office'd in a building that will fall on your head!

[mdbl]

2. I would not consume any food or medicine from Wisconsin

If they have a legislative body that stupid, greedy or power hungry as to jeopardize the consumer, they don't deserve to sell it. The twump administration has the worst FDA yet, if the states follow, I'll just have to grow everything myself.

[octoberlib]

3. This is Koch Libertarian bullshit. I'm currently reading a book on how

they infiltrated and control the Republican party and use it as their delivery vehicle to de-regulate, privatize and destroy government. And any politician who doesn't go along gets primaried. I feel sorry for Wisconsin . Like North Carolina , they're so extremely gerrymandered that it's almost impossible for Dems to gain a majority.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. This is bizarre, destructive, and nonsensical. Who gains? Not small business or the middle class.

The 10% and 1% would pay a little extra to be sure they get good professional service.

But the middle class and poor people would fall prey to a lot of shysters and frauds and criminals.

In the long run, the state would pay extra for emergency medical costs and for lost business as people go out of state. The economy would be damaged because more people would have to have work done by contractors twice because the first work would be so bad. That is very inefficient which is bad for the economy.

What is this nonsense?

Is it just ideological purism? Or does somebody stand to gain financially?

[Cosmocat]

6. It's a hot take

But sadly true.

Republican party is a full on death cult now.

[lastlib]

10. "Who Gains? Not the middle class." That's exactly the point!!

It's an all-out attempt to f*ck us all over on a massive scale. This sh*t has to be stopped!

[safeinOhio]

5. This isn't brain surgery,

Oh wait, it might be in Wisconsin.

[AllyCat]

7. My once great state SUCKS.

[LakeVermilion]

8. Attention Minnesota: They're here...

The know-nothings and god-fearing zealots have been elected in Minnesota too. Despite Minnesota's economic success, they wish to impose their system (Kansas, Mississippi, Wisconsin...) on Minnesota. Just read the comments in newspapers.

This is an intellectual war and intelligence is losing.

[JI7]

9. looks like they are in competition with Florida for something

[AJT]

12. It's Ayn Rand's lovely extreme libertarianism about to be put into practice.

On Wisconsin.......Forward.

[Raven123]

13. Sounds a little like the Rand Paul method of certification

Make your own standards, then claim you meet them

[egold2604]

14. Rand Paul self certified himself as a ophthalmologist

[UCmeNdc]

15. WI at one time had very good school systems. Too bad that they keep voting GOP.

The GOP is taking the United States down and it seems no one can stop their power to remain in office.

[Greybnk48]

19. The Republican's key vote counter in Wisco did the counting on a private

computer in her basement. And they let her do it AGAIN the next election for Walker! That's just one thing the Walker/Koch mafia has done. We haven't had a clean election for Gov. or Supreme Court, let alone other positions, like Ron Johnson's in years. Our elections are dirty.

Remember Kathy Nickolaus? She was the first actually exposed dirty player in WI. There are more. Outagamie County where I live was off in several towns this past election and the County clerk refused to do a hand count. They were forced to do a recount and she ran them through the tabulators again, but would not allow the tabulators to be checked. There were more counties like ours, so PLEASE stop blaming the voters in WI.

[Archae]

16. I live in Sheboygan...

And every year in the news I see news stories (usually from Florida) of scandals involving staff at nursing homes that have criminal records, abuse the patients, steal from them, etc.

Is this where we are heading?

Or worse?

[Solly Mack]

17. Drug dealer becomes a pharmacist and the perfume sprayer a chemist, who goes to work

for the newly minted pharmacist. You receive a soothing medicinal spritz after each toke.

You have a reaction to the spray, go to the ER, where the nurse, who once wiped his own nose and who now feels qualified to treat you, is on duty.

You finally get the doctor, who binge-watched Grey's Anatomy during a lay-off from the cheese factory, and goes by the name Doctor Brie Cheddar, tells you to take two and call her in the morning.

To take two you go back to your pharmacist and talk to the chemist, who feels totally professional with their mortar and pestle. Adding a little of this and a little of that, you soon leave with a bottle of something. You don't know what it is, but it smells good.

Minutes later, when you pass out on the hospital lawn, where the teen who cut your grass that morning is now the town EMT (he got his lawnmower started and he can restart you too!) tries to revive you.

They send your dead body to the mortician nee' needlepoint enthusiast - where your beautifully appointed shroud is hand-stitched and one of a kind! (For smells, call the chemist. A little spritz should solve the problem.)


I joke - but damn. That bill is dangerous, stupid, and meant to undercut labor.

[Luciferous]

18. My husband talks about moving back to WI but at this point it's almost as bad as MS!

[Thor_MN]

20. The corporate class finds it is cheaper to pay wrongful death settlements than to pay professional

wages, Cut corners where ever possible, and when the inevitable failures occur, fight the settlements down in court.

[boston bean]

21. Once again your barber can be your physician and dentist!!!

Progress baby!