Ezra Klein writes this morning, "Wisconsin is about power, not money." His point is that in asking state employees' unions to yield on collective bargaining rights, Gov. Scott Walker is looking for a way to still the less powerful of his state's creditors -- the people who work for it.
That same consideration of power exists across national politics. Rachel Maddow:
"Republicans understand that the business interests that support them have always wanted to get rid of unions -- as it has always been and as it will always be. But more directly, Republicans understand sources of Democratic political power, and they understand sources of Democratic political power well enough to be focused across the country on how they can destroy those institutions."
Unions have consistently played a major role in electing Democratic candidates. If Republicans can start breaking the unions, they stand to gain. While their Democratic colleagues continue boycotting the State Senate to avoid a vote on Gov. Walker's budget bill, Republicans are threatening to go after another source of Democratic electoral power. They're now considering a bill that would make it harder to register to vote -- and new voters tend to help Democrats.
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"What's the deal with Wisconsin? Power."
It would be hard to tell from the report I heard this morning on NPR. The protesters were portrayed as noisy and raucous, only quieting twice a day when the police paraded. And the report ended with Gov. Walker stating that it was all about money. The reporter didn't point out that the governor conveniently omitted the fact that the unions has agreed to salary and benefit cuts and only asked to keep their collective bargaining rights which would cost the state nothing.
NPR's "reporting" is vastly over-rated. They seem to suffer from a particularly bad case of Liberal Guilt and give far too much time to obviously biased and dishonest propagandists of the right.
K.G., email NPR to complain. I did. Horrendous coverage this morning by Steve Inskeep.
You're getting bad information. The Unions are allowed to keep their collective bargaining rights for their Salaries, but lose it for Pensions & Benefits only. the reason being that it's the pensions that are out of control and are breaking the State. If the pensions are not controlled now, in three years Wisc. will have a $3.6 Billion dollar debt. It's these unsustainable pensions that are breaking all Public Union States. California, New York, Michigan and several others are facing the same problem. They can't afford to keep paying teachers 100% of their salary after retirement. Wisc. taxes are already high enough and it's would hurt the economy of the State if they were raised any more.
The dishonesty is coming from the left as usual. They act as if nothing is wrong. This attitude is what will kill this country. Democrats and Left-wingers are complete total fools if they can't see what's coming. This is always how it works. The democrats act like spoiled children and the republicans have to act like the Adults and make the hard choices. Rachel Maddow should be ashamed for lying and putting our country at risk of total economic collapse. She knows nothing about economics like most liberals.
Maybe things would be better if we stopped redistributing wealth upward to the richest people, and taxed at an appropriate rate. We have seen a culture in repub circles that tell us tax cuts are always good, no matter what the situation, and that they don't have to be paid for. When we were running a surplus, Bush said we needed tax cuts to give money back to the people. Then when the economy tanked, he said we needed tax cuts to stimulate the economy. He was of course wrong on both occasions. Repubs from Reagan onwards have campaigned on cutting taxes at all levels of the government, passing the buck further and further down the line until cities and municipalities have been left holding the bag.
Tax cuts are like any other budget line item, a cost that must be accounted for. Too bad the right is so deficient in basic math skills that they still think 10-5=20. Instead, they blame everyone else for their own ignorance.
Dr. Moon,
Actually you are getting bad information.
First, WI teachers are not getting 100% of salary in retirement.
Second, the left understands there is plenty wrong with the budgets.
Third, WI taxes are not too high.
Frankly, no one, in any state, is paying too much in taxes.We have been told this by the Right. When this country came out of WWII we had a much higher deficit by percentage of GDP. This country went to work with effective tax rates of 35- 50% for the working class and 70% and more for the "rich". AND sent millions to college on the GI Bill. Otherwise known as "the government dole". AND built an interstate highway system with , GULP, a gasoline tax!
What has happened is our society has come to believe we can have all this and more without paying for it. We don't even think we have to maintain it (like roads), it will just always be there.
If you think life is so rosy for public sector employees, why don't you go out and fill a few potholes in the road, with traffic flying by and the weather never good?
Boehner keeps promising that, "We will cut spending!" Okay, that's one side of the equation. Now, how about generating some revenue? You can't build a strong government without sufficient funds, and without a strong government a country degrades to the status of Somalia. Government is not the enemy, it is a cornerstone of a well-run, stable, law-abiding, thriving, educated, achieving, and responsible society.
In responce to Dr. Moon,
Economics is NOT a science. You can not do reproducible experiments so you can't use the scientific method to PROVE anything in Economics. I know that economists claim that they can and it is a science. They may be fooling themselves and you but they are no fooling me.
Economics is sort of like Astronmy and Paleontology. It can look at the past to try to form generalizations.
The problem here is that nobody really cares about theories in Paleontology, because their incomes do not change because one theory is accepted over another. In Economics it matters a lot what theory is accepted by the government. It DOES EFFECT your income.
An example-- right now are businesses holding back hiring more people because a) of uncertainty mostly from Obamacare or b) because they have not yet seen a growth in demand for their product or service? These 2 possibilities do not cover all possible but lets limit this discussion to them, OK? These 2 are each the result of different theories in Economics. They are the results of a lot of "proofs" based on different assumptions or premises.
If a) is right then one set of government actions is called for and if b) is right then a different set of gov. actions is called for.
Now, since reproducible experiments are not possible, there can be no certain proof which is right. So what should we do?
I believe that Econimics should be classified with Philosophy, but of course it really matters to the powers that be the American people continue to believe that it is a science, that therefore the gov. is going a scientifically called program, and can do nothing else. So I have no delusions that my view will be accepted by the media or therefore the people as a whole.
Never the less I am right.
Economics gets divided into two categories- philosophy and research. Research economics is where you look at data trends over times. It can also be where, based on historic data trends, you attempt to make predictive figures. Philosophical economics is where you come up with (and practice) belief systems on how to macro or micro (or both) manage economies. Economics has more in kin with a psychology degree than it does with a mathematics degree.
Rachel, thank you for your continuing coverage of those of us in Wisconsin fighting for our rights! We really appreciate your insight and understanding. Would you please put a bug in Jon Stewart's ear? He obviously hasn't done his research and is making the fight for democracy even harder. Democrats need to stand together, not tear each other apart.
Democracy, please!!
Democracy took place when the voters elected Scott Walker to balance the budget. When the Democrats ran off to Illinois to prevent a legal vote, which was the same as trying to overthrow the election and take away the authority given to Walker by the Voters is anti-democracy, it's lawlessness. You obviously don't understand the meaning of democracy.
But I guess it was just fine and dandy when repubs blocked every piece of dem legislation after Obama became president, despite the fact that he and the dems in the House and Senate were elected by landslides? You obviously don't understand the meaning of democracy.
Polls show more people support killing Walker's proposal than support it, by a wide margin. You obviously don't understand the meaning of democracy.
Two thirds of Americans support abortion rights, but repubs in the House and Senate have 3 separate bills pending that would restrict abortion even further. You obviously don't understand the meaning of democracy.
Those on the right typically have a warped, self-serving concept of "democracy".
After hearing about how Walker did EXACTLY the same thing when he ran Milwaukee, creating a "budget crisis" that "required" him to fire unionized government security workers and hire private security firms, AGAINST the advice of the county executive committee, it's apparent that this man feels he is some sort of tin pot dictator. The arbitrator's ruling saying that there was no budget crisis, hence no rationale for firing the workers, is something that perhaps would have kept Walker out of office if it had come out before the election. Now Milwaukee has to right the wrong by hiring back the fired workers, with back pay. Gov. Walker, your delusions of grandeur have now cost Milwaukee far more money than if you had just left things alone, instead of deciding to be a union-busting dictator. Apparently, like so many repubs, lies are your standard tool, because the truth isn't the reality that you need in order to justify your illegal actions. If all goes well, you will join the unemployment line in a few short months after you are recalled, (maybe you can then jet over to CA to have lunch with Gray Davis). Any other repub govs that want to follow in your footsteps, as Daniels and Christie apparently are considering should carefully note your impending downfall. People in America may take a while to rile up, but when they are, as they are now, they can be just as powerful as the people in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Maybe you should call up Mubarak and see what happens to dictators.
This "budget crisis" strategy is the same one used by former Gov. Pawlenty in MN. When he didn't get the cuts he wanted he declared a "budget crisis" and unilaterally cut program after program. He was sued several times and his "budget crisis" strategy was debunked and thrown out by the courts. MN faces a $6b shortfall because of his actions. He says he balanced the budget. The truth is he failed miserably at his job.He had a chance, the legislature gave him a balanced budget. He refused it. IS ANY OR ALL OF THIS SOUNDING FAMILIAR?
As a MN resident, I am all too familiar with TPaw's misadministration. I laugh every time I see that loser pretend that he has a chance of being elected president, as he is not enough of a christofascist to fool the Tea Party-dominated repub party to vote for him. They view him with the same level of distrust and disgust that the rest of us do, but for different reasons. He's a too-slick, too arrogant man that reminds me too much of Norm Coleman.
Hey idiots, did it ever occur to you that these places, cities and States really DO HAVE A SERIOUS BUDGET CRISIS. Nobody is making up these things, if these States and the United States don't get our budgets balanced our governments and economies are going to collapse. When this happens no one will have a job, we'll be fighting for our existance. No banks, no jobs, no Social Security, no welfare, no food stamps, nothing, nada, zip. GOT IT! Pull your heads out of the sand. Public Union Pensions are bankrupting every State their involved in. California, Wisc., Michigan, Illinois, New York, Ohio etc... If not dealt with these debt problems will be worse than 911. WAKE UP!
Calling people names isn't the way to convince people that your ridiculous, unfounded OPINIONS are right. As has been pointed out on another thread here, a state with one of the BIGGEST DEFICITS is TEXAS, which has practically no unions, along with a number of other southern states in the same fix.
I guess it must really suck when reality so blatantly goes against your manufactured reality.
Dr. Moon,
We have Public Union Pensions in MN, too! Don't forget, these pensions were negotiated! They were not something that unions just invented to steal from you! Your government agreed to create AND fund these pensions funds. And then they didn't. Sometimes actually borrowing from them with a promise to pay them back and then never did. Just passed it on to the next administration. It is a contract. Why do contracts only get kept for the rich? The average person thinks they have a deal and then OOPS! I guess not.
And there is a lot more to this government collapse thing than just "...no Social Security, no welfare, no food stamps,...". There will also be no roads, no bridges, no snow plows, no police, no fire dept. Most of government is the basic infrastructure of society and its maintenance.
Dr_Moon, don't address everyone as an idiot please. You are suspended for a day for violating rule # 1 of the Code of Honor.
Gracias, Sally!
"Wisconsin Retirement System Funding $72.8 billion WRS assets (market value) on December 31, 2009."
http://etf.wi.gov/publications/et8901.pdf
Watch Republicans cut taxes for the rich then use the resulting debt crisis as an excuse to rob civil service pensions.
It's all they know.
Scott Brown said on CBS 60 Minutes that he'd starve his mother for a buck.
Problem is, why can't people see that? Back when we had a surplus, Bush reversed that by giving tax breaks to his buddies. A surplus over time brings the debt down. But no one seems to understand the debt isn't because of domestic spending. It's because of tax breaks to people who don't need them.
The debt is not due to tax breaks, it completely due to spending. The size of the US GOVERNMENT has doubled in the past 4 years DOUBLED, how can taxes keep up with that. Bushes tax breaks to his buddies account to $225 million dollars per year. Our budget is $3.7 Trillion plus another $1.3 Trillion this year. The government would have to tax every house hold in America $40,000 to balance the budget.
In Wisc. alone the public Union teachers pensions will raise the state debt by $3.7 Billion dollars in three years. People in Wisc are already over taxed.
WAKE UP PEOPLE THIS AIN'T NO JOKE. Walker was elected by the people to balance the budget and he's trying to keep his promise. Of course he could be like Obama and forget making any promises at all.
Bush's tax cuts amount to $225 million per year? Man, you are proving to be as mathematically challenged as every repub I've ever heard. The recent deal to extend the tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans added $87 BILLION over 10 years. A far cry from $225 million per year...about 45 times higher than your number, doc.
Actually, Moon, the fix to WI budget that Walker is trying to do through the union pension thing will amount to $300 million over two years. I want to see what else he is planning to cut...
And the tax cut extension adds $87B per year.
Bush darn near doubled the debt in 8 years. Before he did, him and Cheney bailed out on the American people like they were dining and dashing at Denny's.
Between Reagan and Bush, they account for 90% of the national debt through tax breaks for their buddies and cold and hot wars they started.
Um, someone just pointed this out to me- know what else is in that Union-busting bill? This:
16.896 Sale or contractual operation of state-owned heating, cooling, and power plants. (1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state-owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).
In short, Walker stuck in a measure to be able to sell the state-run power plants to anyone one he wants, as cheaply as he wants, without any oversight. Yeah, he's not going to abuse that at ALL.
It seems that repubs really, really like dictators, whether it is Walker, Daniels, Christie or Ryan. In other words, those who constantly are ranting about "We the People" are either incredibly gullible, stupid or hypocrites of the highest order.
These goofs were all voted in by the same gullible people that let Fox news and the like do their thinking for them. Now these goofs are trying to destroy them and protect their corporate interests. If the workers don't win this it is going to be like the 1920's sweat shops all over again. No worker rights, poor pay and no benefit's at all. Work until your 70's or your dead. The middle class better wake up!
Holy sheet. Looks like the Koch Brothers are already hiring people to run powerplants in WI that Walker's going to 'sell' to them: http://www.thinkenergygroup.com/think.nsf/J/84239?Opendocument
Since Koch already has coal and gas supply under their thumb in Wisconsin, it just makes sense for them to own the power plants, too, doncha think? I believe the B-schoolers call that "vertical integration".
Plus with all the "forest products" that are cut... I mean, generated under Koch's Georgia-Pacific subsidiary in Wisconsin, they're all set even if the state decides to go down the disastrous path of wanting to generate electricity with wood (*headdesk*)
http://www.kochind.com/factsSheets/WisconsinFacts.aspx
I feel that instead of punch the hippie, this is mug, rape, and shoot the hippie.
Let's be honest- nothing is like rape BUT rape. The bill is atrocious and an insult, but let's *not* diminish sexual assault for this, ok?
Ever hear of Koch Brothers industries? They will get the contracts.
Link about Walker and the Kochs
HERE
Link won't post,
Ginandtacos.com
Just watched Gagdafi speak on CNN and I could not see the difference between him and the Walker in Wisconsin. They both acting for themselves and not for the people. Gaddafi has always taken away the rights of the people and Walker is modeling himself after every dictator.
Just watched Gaddafi on CNN and thought that we have one in this country just like him. His name is Walker from Wisconsin. Walker is doing the same thing Gaddafi is doing there. TAKING AWAY THE RIGHTS OF PEOPLE AGAINST THEIR WILL. WILL HE START KILLING PEOPLE,TOO.
A fabulous activist friend just passed this job posting on to me. You should check it out. Not because any of you are qualified for this job, but because of what it suggests is happening behind our backs.
That link takes you to a job posting for a number of power plant managers. Thinkenergygroup says it is recruiting candidates for these jobs for a client who is actively seeking to fill positions. That unnamed client is apparently about to have a whole bunch of management jobs at a number of plants available, plants that you will note from the last two items in the job requirements list apparently currently have unionized workforces. Hm ... multiple sites, all with simultaneous management openings, all with unionized workforces. Hm ... what could that group of power plants be?
What you need to know is that Walker's union-busting, BadgerCare-busting, LTE-busting bill also includes a provision that would allow him to sell off our publicly built and managed power plants to any private buyer at any price he cares to name. These sales won't be required to have public comment or to come before the public utilities board. All they need is Walker's approval and these power plants (mainly ones heat public buildings, as far as I can tell) that we the people bought for the public good are in the hands of profiteers, likely on very sweet-to-the-buyer/political donor terms.
Call your legislators and let them know you want public scrutiny before our assets are sold off. Actually, tell them to "Kill the Whole Bill" since it's rotten to the core.
Re: the LINK mentioned: it looks like the link was automatically struck when my comment posted, but interested folks can go to
think energy group dot com and search for plant manager jobs in Wisconsin. It's there.
As a Milwaukee County employee who has suffered through Walker's 8 year rein of terror I am so excited to see the national spotlight on his misdeeds. The Wackenhut issue is the tip of the iceberg. Dig into the criminal negilience at our County Mental Health hospital, the 15 year boy who was killed when a 30 foot concrete slab fell off one of our county parking structures(inspections cost money -"We're broke" you know)the sale of public parklands immediately after his first election with no bids. Then add in the gag order enforced on employees for 8 years (don't dare talk to the media about how his budget cuts are hurting taxpayer's property and services) and even the innuendo that we should not display signs for the democrat running for Governor at our homes because the republicans would "pay back" our institutions with cuts (I'm really not making any of this up). The public building I work in has been so neglected by his budgets that we had a hole in our roof for 4 years before it was repaired, and then it only got priority because our ceiling collapsed in a public area. The outside of our building has all the paint peeled off, holes and the windows are endanger of falling out. And yes we have sacrificed- I'm on my second year of 26 days of furloughs. Help!
Power is right - including the grand payback of all, the WI power plants. As soon as Walker sells them to the Koch brothers, they will have a vertical monopoly in the state. Surely this, too, should be receiving more press?
The Republicans are overplaying their hand. It seems like they would like to usher in a new Dark Ages and I really can't believe people are this deluded. When they try to take away civil rights or gay rights or abortion rights they're sort of in "safe territory" with the general public but when it becomes Unions and who knows what's next? It starts becoming a little too much.
I predict Republicans will be back to their usual sex scandals and ethics violations just like the Bush days, because they haven't changed. The public need a good reminder of what the Bush years were, I think they forgot over 2 years.
Please fix the link to the TN story. We need all the help and coverage we can get - there's a lot of David and Goliath feelings down here right now. Thanks Rachel! You have supporters and fans in the rural South - surprising to many I'm sure!
Scott Walker and his connection with the Koch Brothers.
I agree...
I think it's a lot simpler than we suspect. Walker is the most transparent puppet I've ever seen. For him not to sit down and talk means he's not calling the shots.
Excerpt:
"The monsters aren't Wisconsin's public employees whose right to collective bargaining has helped their families lead middle-class lives, and who have repeatedly declared their willingness to return to the table and negotiate a shared sacrifice. The monsters are on Wall Street, where state pension funds were sunk into toxic sub-prime mortgage-backed securities. The monsters are on K Street, where lobbyists are fighting financial industry oversight. The monsters are the politicians who are using Wisconsin's deficit as a pretext to demonize public employees and bust their unions.
If you look at the budget that House Republicans just passed, if you listen to the "so be it" language of their leadership, you'd think that the federal deficit is caused by the very people who who've been suffering the most in this recession.
But the monsters aren't low-income pregnant women and mothers who can't afford adequate nutrition for their families; or sick Americans who can't find health insurance to cover them; or blue-collar workers who want to retire at an age when there's still some life left in their bodies; or students who can't afford college without Pell Grants; or people who think their government's job includes preventing their air and water from poisoning them.
Sitting on the hilltop, watching Americans turn one another into bogeymen, evading scrutiny and responsibility, are the real sources of our distress.
They're the bankers who've extorted trillions of public treasure, blowing up the deficit while awarding themselves inconceivably fat bonuses.
They're the billionaires who've benefited from a massive transfer of wealth from the middle to the top, and whose political puppets protect them from paying their fair share of taxes.
They're the corporations whose cash has convinced Congress to deregulate industry after industry, despite all evidence that it is the enforcement of rules -- not the magic of the marketplace -- that protects the public's rights.
They're the defense contractors and pork appropriators who've used the cover of "national security" to shield the Pentagon's budget and its procurement process from the cuts and reforms that even Republicans like the Secretary of Defense are advocating.
They're the front groups and propagandists, like FreedomWorks and Fox, who use class warfare and culture wars in order to turn Americans against their own economic interests.
They're the Supreme Court justices whose Citizens United decision, overthrowing a century of settled law, has made our campaign finance system an open sewer, and whose indifference to conflicts of interest in a coming case promises to throw sick people back onto the tender mercies of insurers and to destroy our best hope to curb Medicare costs - further ballooning the deficit and providing cover for even more draconian cuts.
The game in Washington is to use the deficit as camouflage for destroying government's capacity to promote the general welfare. The game in Wisconsin and other states whose new Republican governors and legislative majorities are feeling their oats is to shelter the income of the wealthiest, and to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class."
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/marty-kaplan/34528/the-monsters-are-due-on-maple-streets
Amen to, "The monsters are on Wall Street, where state pension funds were sunk into toxic sub-prime mortgage-backed securities."
Amen to "ballooning the deficit and providing cover for even more draconian cuts".
I understand that there is lots more in the bill too.
Rachel sure hope you can highlight this on the show. No one else in the press seems to have the guts.
People need to understand just how underhanded this guy is.
Scott Walker decimated Milwaukee County for 8 years. His handling of the mental health crisis was criminal. Scott Walker is not a politician, he is a psychopathic criminal who belongs in a locked setting. Narcissistic,self centered little teapot suffering from illusions of grandeur.
I'm sure all that is true, and it would go a long way toward explaining why his sycophantic supporters/apologists admiare him so much.
Looks like the republicans are doing just what they said they would do! Their top priority when they took over the house was to make sure President Obama only served one term. That is what is going on with the attack of the labor unions. That and they don't care about the middle class. Not one of the wall street crooks went to trial, let alone were prosecuted for the billions of dollars they stoled. They created this mess, but the middle class is expected to pay for it.
Who paid for his security while at the super bowl in, Dallas- why the taxpayer of course.
An awesome quote from "Dinki" on Fark.com:
In these tough economic times, we need everyone to make a sacrifice. We need everyone to share the pain. We are all in this together, and everyone must be willing to suffer for the greater good. So we are going to make some cuts-
Poor people, we are going to cut food stamps, Medicaid, family services (including Planned parenthood), HEAP, and many if not all other programs that you use.
Teachers, social workers, Police, firemen - we will be cutting your numbers, pay and benefits.
Students (and parents of students), we will be cutting financial aid (and of course the above mentioned teachers).
Veterans, we will be cutting veteran services, health care and mental health assistance.
Disabled people, we will be cutting support services and staff used to provide those services.
Senior citizens, we will be cutting social security and Medicare, along with assisted living support and the above mentioned HEAP.
And finally, for the wealthy, we will be cutting your taxes. Everyone has to give up something in these trying times.
Signed,
The GOP
P.S. for our corporate friends, we will not just cut your taxes, but also cut many of those rules and regulations also. We appreciate your sacrifice.
Yes, it's about power, but money IS power when you have obscene amounts of it.
First step is to break the unions; second step is to privatize all those jobs - see the Republicans ARE creating jobs. Ha!
Remember that "papers please" law in AZ? That was to create customers for the big private prisons that the Guv built. See creating jobs!
So, you bust the unions and privatize the jobs at greatly reduced salaries and benefits. You know, end the pension and put retirement benies into private funds. (Mr. Toomey, here in PA, campaigned on how he didn't want to give Social Security to Wall Street; he just wanted to put it into a fund, oh, something like "Vanguard which is a PA company" - right like that is not invested in the stock market? AND is exactly where my 401(k) lost money! But folks voted him in anyway, along with a Reb Guv and now PA has a completely Republicant controled government. Can't wait til the complaining starts! but I digress - sort of.)
In any case, it is about the POWER that the MONEY brings them. They want to bust unions and privatize all those jobs and privatize all those pension funds while they work their butts off in Congress to privatize Social Security and every other damm thing - put it all on Wall Street and make tons from their investments.
So yeah, it's about the power; but yeah, it's about the money!
Of course it is about power and also about public funds.
As to the "make it harder to vote" nonsense, you can't do anything these days without showing ID (and a lot of times the 5-point nonsense) and I showed my ID when I registered to vote. To say that you shouldn't be required to prove who you are is nonsense and if they stop that I would support going to WI and voting for the fun of it under a fake name - straight down the line republican. If you do not have to show an ID, how is it to be guaranteed that you actually have the right to vote?