Walker Tries to Steal Credit for Obama Administration Decision

By Ryan Alexander

On Wednesday, Scott Walker held a press conference touting that he was going to lift a cap he imposed on Wisconsin's Family Care program, which offers services to the elderly and the disabled. Advocates for the disabled and the poor and the elderly were overjoyed and Scott Walker was eager to take credit for his about-face.

But it turns out that Scott Walker was actually ordered to lift the cap on Family Care because the Obama Administration called out his plan as reckless, dangerous and possibly in violation of federal statues.

Scott Walker did not lift the cap because of any sudden change-of-heart. He did not turn away from his policy of cutting health care access for working, middle-class families to finance tax giveaways to out-of-state billionaires like the Koch Brothers. He did not have anything to do with the decision at all, but he tried to take credit anyway.

Here's a quote from a letter Verlon Johnson, the Associate Regional Administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, sent to Scott Walker two weeks ago:

"We are directing the state to identify any individuals not currently enrolled onto the Family Care ... and immediately enroll those individuals in the ... programs."

So instead of telling the people of Wisconsin the truth about how he designed a plan so irresponsible that the federal government had to take the unusual step of ordering a state to reverse course, Scott Walker tried to steal the credit and use disabled and elderly people as a photo-op for his desperate campaign.

Scott Walker has repeatedly lied to the Wisconsin people about his true motivations. While campaigning for governor, he never once mentioned taking away basic workplace rights from Wisconsin workers, and on his infamous prank Koch brothers phone call, he bragged about his plans to dupe Senators into returning to Wisconsin so he could ram through his extreme legislation.

This also isn't the first time Scott Walker has been caught trying to claim credit for positive news on Family Care. During his campaign for governor, Scott Walker also dishonestly claimed that he had eliminated the Family Care waiting list Family for seniors in Milwaukee County.

The problem with that claim? Just as with Wednesday's press conference, Scott Walker was shamefully trying to take credit for something he did not do in order to score a photo-op and cheap political points. Facts are stubborn things and it turns out that it was actually the preceding administration that put the budget and plans into place to eliminate a wait-list in Milwaukee County.

Scott Walker likes to run around the state claiming that he couldn't possibly ever be dishonest with the people of Wisconsin because he was a Boy Scout as a youth, but Scott Walker's own actions continue to prove that working, middle-class families just can't trust anything that he says or does as governor.

Rep. Jon Richards called Scott Walker out for his hypocrisy and for his "despicable" attempt to take credit for something he was forced to do in the Associated Press:

"I don't remember anywhere in the Boy Scout oath the dishonesty we saw yesterday," Richards said.

Scott Walker knows that working, middle-class families have rejected his extreme agenda. That's why he is willing to say or do anything to try and deceive Wisconsinites into thinking he is a champion for their concerns.

The truth is that Scott Walker has been advocating for weeks to kick 30,000 children off BadgerCare before the holidays and he's cutting benefits for more than 280,000 Wisconsinites. Scott Walker has led a frontal assault on health care access for families, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. Trying to steal credit from the Obama administration will not change that fact.