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Spinning the truth, cherry-picking the facts, promoting inaccurate or misleading information and simply lying are common political tactics. This is how you sell any product in our consumer economy, including political candidates and party agendas.

Tom Tiffany is using all these tactics to sell himself as Wisconsin’s next governor.

Unfortunately, Tom doesn’t come with a satisfaction-guaranteed return policy. There are no consumer protection or lemon laws for politicians. “Buyer beware” is the only recourse for Wisconsin voters.

Fortunately Tom, the self-proclaimed “proven conservative,” has a proven track record of being an extreme MAGA sycophant. There is plenty of consumer information indicating “Toxic Tom” will be a lemon as governor.

Case in point is Tiffany’s opposition to green energy. In his Aug. 11, 2025, e-newsletter he attacks “President Biden’s green fantasy policies.”

But far from being fantasies, green energy technologies – solar panels, wind farms, heat pumps and electric vehicles – are working very effectively and are growing in popularity.

Tiffany rants about “taxpayers” being “forced to finance green energy giveaways at the expense of our farmland.” He says this will cost $11.3 billion a year in the next decade.

He introduced legislation to “restore common sense and fairness to energy and agricultural policy by removing the corporate welfare that has propped up intermittent energy sources for far too long.”

The truth is “market-distorting energy tax handouts” (Tiffany’s verbiage) have been around since 1926 for the oil industry. Today they cost taxpayers kore than $20 billion a year. These subsides are for mature, highly profitable industries that are fueling climate change which will cost us all many billions in environmental and health costs.

No one, of course, is being “forced” to move toward cleaner, cheaper, alternative sources of energy. Farmers, businesses, utilities and homeowners are voluntarily choosing to adopt sensible green energy solutions because they work well and can reduce costs.

Currently solar panels are the least expensive way to generate electricity. Plus sunlight and solar panels are not affected by the closing of the Straights of Hormuz or price speculation on the global oil markets.

Opposition to green energy makes no sense from a business perspective. Green energy technologies are a fast growing, emerging market with huge potential for future growth, profits, job creation and positive environmental benefits. Solar panel installation is especially good for local, small businesses and job creation.

So why is Tiffany – who frequently pontificates about supporting small business and farmers – opposed to green energy while advocating for more use of fossil fuels?

Why is he concerned about the loss of farmland for solar and wind farms but not for data centers, oil wells, gas fracking, fracking sand mining, other mining or urban sprawl?

In his newsletters Tiffany frequently rants about achieving national “energy Independence.” By this he means continuing our dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear power.

It apparently does not occur to Tiffany that homegrown, clean green energy is the most secure and abundant energy source. No one owns or controls the wind or the sun. So solar and wind energy are clearly important to any serious effort to achieve national energy independence.

As is typical, Tiffany’s positions on green energy are not rational or supported by facts. He says we should be “tapping into our own vast oil and gas reserves to lower prices at the pump...” But U.S based oil companies import and export oil and refined petroleum products all the time for many reasons. They are multi-national giants with no loyalty to our country.

Tiffany says, “It’s time to stop begging undemocratic Third World dictatorships for the energy America needs...”

But no one “begs” for oil. Oil and gas supplies are traded globally and prices are set by the world market. No U.S. president can control this free market capitalism.

The U.S. is currently the world’s biggest oil and gas producer and has been for most of the 20th century.

According to the Department of Energy, “The United States again became the world’s top crude oil producer in 2018 and maintained the lead position through 2022.” Fossil fuels are a major U.S export. Our problem is our lavishly consumptive, wasteful lifestyles, not supply.

The truth is Republican’s opposition to green energy and advocacy for “energy independence” are about campaign attack ads rather than rational national energy policies.

Tiffany is also wrong about the costs of healthcare. In a recent newsletter Tiffany claims “choice and competition” (the free market) will lower healthcare costs.

Tiffany says, “Americans should be free to buy the kind of healthcare coverage they want at prices they can afford, based on their own unique medical needs.” This would be wonderful but most people cannot afford to buy anything without employer or government subsidies. Individually purchased health insurance is not affordable.

In many places (NE Minnesota and NW Wisconsin for example) there is virtually no competition in healthcare providers. Rural areas are healthcare deserts and other regions are dominated by one or two big box providers.

Only in major metropolitan areas is there any significant competition. Even if there is competition, most people have no capacity to comparison shop. Healthcare is not just another consumer product.

Healthcare in America is the most expensive in the world for many reasons. The major reason is our fragmented system of private, public, for-profit and non-profit providers and insurers that produces 20-30% bureaucratic overhead costs. For over 100 years all efforts to create a more efficient, universal, public or non-profit system have been defeated by “free market” ideologues like Tiffany.

On healthcare Tiffany is a “proven conservative.” He voted against Medicaid expansion for Wisconsin. He has voted against the Affordable Care Act and to extend funding for individual ACA subsidies. This is causing premiums to increase for hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites. Many can no longer afford any coverage.

Tiffany voted to cut Medicaid funding causing some 30,000 people in Wisconsin to lose Medicaid coverage. These cuts reduced support of rural hospitals in Wisconsin by $600 million.

Tom Tiffany doesn’t have realistic solutions for the high costs of healthcare. Rather than helping people, he has voted to take coverage away from people and make the problems worse for everyone.

Tiffany has not worked to improve the lives of his constituents in the House of Representatives.

There is no reason to think he will do better as governor.