A Time of Discontent in The Northwoods

As I write this, Gov. Jim Doyle and the cabinet secretaries and staff are wrapping up the "Up North" tour, held each year to bring, in theory, government away from Madison for awhile.
At the stops I've been at, it's clear Doyle and Co. already know there's only so much that can be done from Madison to improve the financial life here in the Northwoods, but they're at least giving it the old college try, and it could bring a few votes.

In a stop at Woodruff, Doyle was pointed in his efforts to try to get everyone covered under the Badger Care or Badger Care Plus low-income state-sponsored healthcare plans. He claims when the next round of Badger Care comes out next year, it will eventually lead to 98 percent of state residents having access to some form of health insurance. He noted that in many households (including many in the Northwoods) two people making minimum wage can't afford health insurance, and that is true.

But the fact that many can't afford health insurance dovetails into other areas. He also appeared in places like Park Falls where one company decided they didn't want to make paper anymore, and some local citizens got going, and with state help, kept the paper mill in business there.

The paper industry is really hurting now from a variety of factors, not the least of which is what has been politely termed unfair competition from overseas. Europe and China are dumping cheap paper here, and until members of Congress from both parties loudly and publically humiliated the Bush Administration into doing something, it was simply put under the banner of “free trade.”

So people in places like Park Falls and Niagara almost or did lose their jobs, in part, because of trade policies, or lack thereof, on the federal level.

While roughly 47 million people don't have

, the feds fiddle, citing costs, leaving the states to try and pick up the slack. At the meeting in Woodruff, a Lakeland Area Food Pantry board member told Doyle that a block or two away from the tourist fudge shops in Minocqua, every Tuesday hundreds of people are lining up for food and other services. It was noted the face of poverty remains hidden, except at times like this.

Some state health administrators said if people could afford to see doctors sooner it would lower costs, before someone goes to the emergency room needing immediate and costly care. Rural people aren’t the only ones facing poverty, but it remains hidden here more so than in larger cities.

Source : http://newsofthenorth.net/