Scott Walker and "Government Dependence"

For reasons that really don't matter, I was listening to Scott Walker's presidential campaign announcement earlier today and I noticed a term I thought I'd heard from him before: "Government dependence." I ambled on over to Google and did a search on the terms "Scott Walker" and "government dependence." More than 5,000 results. "Government dependence" seems to be his bete noire.

Except, of course, he's the poster boy for it.

As a kid, he participated in the American Legion's "Boys Nation" where he says he caught "the political bug." In college, he participated in student government and ran for school president (he lost, after allegations of campaign rule irregularities).

Once he dropped out of college in 1990, he worked in the non-profit sector (for the Red Cross) for a little while, but seems to have mostly concentrated on getting himself on the government payroll. After losing an election for state representative in 1990, he moved to a friendlier district and managed to win a seat in 1993.

Ever since then, his ass has been cradled by a government chair, and his family has been fed by the taxpayers, continuously. State representative from 1993-2002. Milwaukee County Executive from 2002-2010. He ran for governor in 2006 and lost. Then he ran again in 2010 and won.

Teeth firmly clamped on the taxpayer teat for 22 years straight, and he's running for president on a platform of getting people off that teat. Color me skeptical.