MacIver Institute

By Chris Rochester - President Trump today did something all too rare in Washington - he found an excuse NOT to spend money.  Read More Trump Asks Congress to Rescind $15 Billion in Unnecessary Spending

MacIver Communications Director Chris Rochester joins Oliver Burrows on WXCO in Wausau to discuss the fantasy land that bureaucrats at MPS and its union are living in. While the district is staring down a $40 million budget shortfall, the union is proposing doubling the district's budget and the school board is rejecting common-sense ways to save money proposed by outgoing Superintendent Darienne Driver.  Read More News And Views: Fantasy Land at Milwaukee Public Schools

Bill Osmulski sits down with Sen. Duey Stroebel in the MacIver studio to talk about the need for referendum reform, what's been done to protect taxpayers so far, and what else can be done.  Read More MacIver Report Extra: Senator Duey Stroebel on Referendum Reform

By M.D. Kittle - Days after audaciously asserting Milwaukee Public Schools “needs” to double its $1 billion budget, the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association is flirting with the ’S word,’ if the district doesn’t back off on budget cut talk.   Read More MPS Fantasy Land Deals With Fiscal Reality While Union Demands More

MacIver Investigative Reporter Matt Kittle joins Oliver Burrows on WXCO in Wausau for his weekly discussion of Wisconsin news and politics. Up this week - a public fund at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health devoted to making “Wisconsin a healthier state for all” has become a funder of housing and gardening projects – as well as a variety of left-wing issue advocacy groups.  Read More News And Views: UW Medical Foundation Fund Gives Generously to Liberal Causes

By M.D. Kittle -   Read More UW Med School Fund For Public Health Gives Generously To Liberal Policy Advocates

Forget the fact that Madison is already one of the nation's most digitally connected cities. Forget the half-million dollar failed broadband pilot project. Forget that private sector internet providers are already offering options for low-income residents. Madison politicians and bureaucrats sure are - despite all those inconvenient truths, they're forging ahead with a city-owned broadband boondoggle that could cost taxpayers as much as $130 million. Isn't that the definition of insanity?  Read More MacIver News Minute: Insanity on Parade in Madison Broadband Boondoggle

By M.D. Kittle - U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson wants answers about what many see as a $200 million, taxpayer-funded scam designed to fatten big labor’s wallet.  Read More Johnson Seeks Answers On Medicaid ‘Skimming’ By Unions

Even after a costly pilot program went down in flames, Madison politicians and bureaucrats seem bent on pursuing a city-owned broadband network, a boondoggle that could cost taxpayers $130 million-plus. MacIver's Matt Kittle discusses the latest on this story on the Vicki McKenna Show on News/Talk 1310 WIBA.  Read More Madison Liberals are Bent on a Municipal Broadband Boondoggle

While MPS board member Michael Bonds got all the attention when he told a Milwaukee teachers union leader to "go to hell," the real controversy should have been that same union boss's retort. She insisted that the struggling school district's budget should be doubled - to $2 billion. Bad news for the union and money-hungry bureaucrats: MPS already spends $15,000 per student and continues to fail. The claim that soaking taxpayers to the tune of another billion dollars will fix the district's failures is what's truly offensive.   Read More MacIver News Minute: Another Billion Dollars Won’t Fix the Failures of MPS

By Brett Healy - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is proving — once again — to be the nation’s leading limited-government governor having recently signed into law the most ambitious welfare reform package introduced anywhere in the country.  Read More Wisconsin Leads The Way on Welfare Reform

By M.D. Kittle - The city of Madison and its pursuit of a broadband-for-all, Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) initiative may well fit the definition of insanity.   Read More Despite Epic Failure, Madison Continues Down Costly And Unnecessary Broadband-For-All Road

By M.D. Kittle - The candidates kept things mostly cordial, at least until closing statements. Then, the gloves kind of came off.   Read More Sparks Fly At End Of First Republican U.S. Senate Candidates Debate

Is the "Blue Wave" more of a "Blue Puddle?" If you look at a recent Milwaukee protest against last year's tax overhaul that cut taxes across the board and will save the average family $2,000, you might think so. While last year's protest drew more than 600 people, this year just 24 showed up - many paid organizers. It looks like even many liberals aren't exactly onboard with this "raise my taxes now" demand by progressive agitators.  Read More MacIver News Minute: Milwaukee “Raise My Taxes Now” Protest Was A Total Flop

By M.D. Kittle - In a hate-filled, late-night tweetstorm, Fresno State English professor Randa Jarrar described former First Lady Barbara Bush as an “amazing racist” and triumphantly declared, “I’m happy the witch is dead.”   Read More Marquette And Fresno State’s ‘Amazing Racist’ Case Expose Two Americas In Campus Free Speech

By Ola Lisowski - No amount of state aid will ever be enough to prop up such cost drivers and an establishment that is more focused on employment than students.  Read More The Real Controversy Surrounding the MPS Budget Debate

MacIver Investigative Reporter Matt Kittle joins Oliver Burrows on WXCO in Wausau for their weekly discussion of Wisconsin news and politics. Up this week - progressives are split again on the issue of gender neutral bathrooms, and tax freedom day is earlier in Wisconsin this year thanks to pro-taxpayer reforms.  Read More News And Views: Discord on the Left Over Gender Neutral Bathrooms

MacIver communications director Chris Rochester joins Oliver Burrows on WXCO in Wausau for their bi-weekly chat. Up this week: Why Gov. Walker's reinsurance plan, recently submitted for federal approval, is another expensive sign that Obamacare has failed on its promise of making health care more affordable. That and a liberal "raise my taxes please" protest that was a total flop and the corporate bailout scheme that just won't die.  Read More News And Views: Reinsurance Plan is the Latest Example of How Obamacare Has Failed

A recent Legislative Audit Bureau investigation of the financial relationships between UW campuses and their affiliated, but private, foundations raised plenty of concerns for taxpayers. But an even greater concern is the lack of transparency and accountability the auditors found. It's more evidence that it's high time for an independent, external audit of the UW System and all affiliated entities.  Read More MacIver News Minute: UW Foundations Have A Big Transparency Problem

By M.D. Kittle - Conservative speech is under assault again on a Wisconsin college campus, where the First Amendment has taken a beating in recent months.   Read More Conservative Speech Under Assault Again At UW-Stevens Point