Republicans out of touch with Wisconsin residents

If you want to know just how much Republicans like Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) are out of touch with how most Wisconsin residents live, look no further than this article in the Badger Herald yesterday about Grothman's visit to a UW Regent meeting about the "Taxpayer Protection Amendment" he has authored with Jeff Wood (R-Chippewa Falls).

In it Grothman says this:

"Almost everybody in the state, unless their parents kick them out of the house can wind up with a four-year degree for a reasonable amount of money," Grothman said. "Even if we up the tuition again, we are a long, long way away from saying that the university is unaffordable here."

Oh and we have too many people getting four-year degrees anyway according to Grothman.

Yes kids, stop dreaming of going to the University of Wisconsin system for college. You read too much and we don't need that.

If only that was the worst comment Grothman made that day. The comment that truly illustrates just how far away Republicans like Grothman are from caring about things that affect the everyday lives of the residents of our state like rising tuition costs:

"Some people worked harder when they were in college, harder in the summers. Other people took more vacations."

That's right, it's not the legislature's fault that kids can't afford college anymore. The darn kids just don't work hard enough. Never mind that state investment in our college system has plummeted in recent years. If the kids going to college now would just work harder, they could afford it. This from a guy that works for a place that is trying to wrap up its work for the year by March.

Note to Senator Grothman: Stop hanging out with former senate candidate Nancy "I work harder than poor people" Mistele.

Not too long ago I was at State Street Brats with some of my friends from college watching the men's basketball team take one of their last beatings of the year on the court when we started talking about tuition costs. We were wondering just how much it costs to go UW-Madison now. So we asked the kids next to us and we were all shocked by what it costs now compared to when we were in school.

In-state tuition is now $5,618 a year! That is about what it cost for the out-of-state kids when I went to school. We've been out of college for a while, but not that long.

But don't ask Senator Grothman for help kids because it's your fault that you can't afford college.