By MICHAEL JAHR | April 2021

The federal government over the past year committed nearly $31 billion in relief to Wisconsin, a small part of the $4 trillion in two of the largest federal bailouts in American history.

Some economists say the latest $1.9 trillion stimulus isn’t needed, that the economy is roaring back to life. They argue that the surge in personal income, personal savings and employment indicates that the federal government overreacted to the COVID-19 pandemic with the size of the first stimulus.

These same economists are concerned about the fallout of all of this spending. The U.S. government is now carrying the biggest budget deficits since World War II. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates a $2.3 trillion deficit for 2021. The national debt now exceeds 100% of gross domestic product (GDP), a milestone last reached in 1945.

To read more of this article, click here. Permission to reprint is granted as long as the author and Badger Institute are properly cited.
 

By MIKE KONECNY | April 2021

The $360 billion that the federal government is throwing at state and local governments through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 might be the craziest and most irresponsible thing Congress has ever done.

Wisconsin’s share, $5.7 billion — $3.2 billion for our state government and another $2.5 billion to more than 2,000 county and local governments — is not needed. And its allocation was almost entirely arbitrary, much of it a matter of simple division rather than targeted need.

The numbers alone are staggering: $405,720,000 for the City of Milwaukee, $183,420,000 for Milwaukee County; $49,190,000 for Madison, $106,030,000 for Dane County; and $25,230,000 for Green Bay, $51,310,000 for Brown County.

Read more here. Permission to reprint is granted as long as the author and Badger Institute are properly cited.

Floating the little guy

By BENJAMIN GARBEDIAN | April 2021

By at least one important measure, the pandemic was not the calamity for Wisconsin business that some predicted.

The short-lived shutdown order by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the statewide disruption of essential businesses for more than a year did not result in wholesale bankruptcy, a records review by the Badger Institute found.

Total bankruptcies were down 30%, from 16,545 in 2019 to 11,603 in 2020, according to data collected by the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin.

Read the full article here. Permission to reprint is granted as long as the author and Badger Institute are properly cited.