Politics

Wisconsin, Scott Walker, and Protesting Workers: The Story Continues

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

There have been some new developments in the Wisconsin story since my last post on the subject, Is the Scott Walker Story Just the Tip of the Koch Brothers Political Iceberg?. More than six hundred comments have been left at that post—and it takes a long time to load the page. I thought it best to write up a new post for people who would like to continue the discussion on the subject of Governor Scott Walker, the protesting workers in Wisconsin, Walker’s anti-union budget repair bill, the AWOL Democratic state senators, and various and sundry other things related to the subject.

Today, I’m just providing links to some news stories on the subject for you.

Wisconsinites were locked out of their capital building. WBAY (ABC)

Madison firefighters were denied access to one of the Capitol’s entrances when they were responding to an emergency. (Journal Sentinel)

A Democratic Wisconsin state representative who was tackled by police when he tried to enter the Capitol to get some of his clothes said that his Capitol card has been disabled. (TPMMucraker)

Some Democratic state legislators wanted to be accessible to their constituents so they moved their desks outside the Capitol to conduct business. (The Nation)

The Wisconsin Senate passed a resolution that called for police to take 14 state Democratic senators who fled to Illinois into custody for contempt. (Wisconsin State Journal)

Scott Walker’s budget defunds Planned Parenthood and targets contraception access. (Huffington Post)

A recent Rasmussen Poll shows that nearly 60% of Wisconsin voters disapprove of Governor Walker. (TPMDC)

AFL-CIO plans another big rally at the Wisconsin Capitol for this Saturday. (TPMDC)

573 thoughts on “Wisconsin, Scott Walker, and Protesting Workers: The Story Continues”

  3. Elaine: I have no idea who “his people” are. If I were a cynic, I would say they are the Koch crime family. But I am not a cynic [choke, cough, choke…….]. Sorry ’bout that. I could not help it. Now I am going to go to Hell. Pray for me.

  4. Maury,
    As usual your facts are wrong. The bill that Clinton signed did not cap the salaries. It capped at One Million dollars. The amount that could be deductible for the company. Did that reduce total compensation? No. The companies merely paid the execs bonuses in stock form. Try again.

  5. Otteray,

    Maury doesn’t care what schmucks like us have to say. He’s got his free market talking points to spout.

    BTW, do you know who “Maury’s people” are?

  6. Maury, or Moar, or Roam or whatever sockpuppet persona you want to go by. Your comments are getting further and further from anything resembling reality. I would say there are medications for that; however, instead of being delusional I think you are either a stupid dupe or you are deliberately lying. Which is it, Sport?

  7. Maury,

    We can agree about Alan Greenspan and federal reserve rates being kept low for too long a time. I, too, am no fan of Chris Dodd. I have mixed feelings about Frank.

    I agree with Blouise about the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLB). Another contributing factor to the meltdown was the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.

  8. no, my people did not bring the financial sector to it’s knees. you regulated market schmucks did that.

    Federal reserve rates kept artificially low did that. Clinton capping CEO salaries did that. The list goes on and on and on.

    Barney Frank and Chris Dodd did that. Market hating democrats and republicans did that.

  11. From Think Progress (3/10/2011)
    Busting The Conservative Myth: Public Sector Pay Has Declined As A Percentage Of State Budgets
    http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/03/10/myth-pay-decline/

    Excerpt:
    The rationale that several Republican governors are using to justify their attempts to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights is that the state can’t afford growing pay and benefits for public employees. “Our state cannot grow if our people are weighed down paying for a larger and larger government — a government that pays its workers unsustainable benefits that are out of line with the private sector,” said Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI). “If you were paying attention, the problems here that are created on the state budget — sure we have a deficit problem that was helped by the economic downturn, but what we also have are benefits and costs that are out of control,” claimed Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ)

    These Republican governors would have you believe that growing public sector pay has outstripped that of the private sector and crippled their states’ finances. The first claim, as many independent analyses have found, is simply not true. Public workers, once you control for education and look at comparable jobs, make less than their private sector counterparts.

    As for the second claim, CAP’s David Madland and Nick Bunker found that over the last 20 years, far from spiraling out of control, public employee costs have fallen as a percentage of state budgets:

    We find that in fiscal year 2009, the most recent year where data are available, average state spending on compensation as a share of total expenditures was 19.6 percent, below the 1992–2009 average of 20.7 percent…If state government employee compensation had suddenly overwhelmed state budgets, then a jump in compensation as a share of total expenditures would be apparent. Instead, the trend is relatively flat and declined over time. In 1992, compensation averaged 23 percent of total expenditures. That figure was 19.6 percent in 2009.

  12. Maury,

    Much of the blame goes to deregulation, credit default swaps, CDOs, derivatives that few people understood, garbage mortgages that were chopped up and bundled as securities with AAA ratings. Brooksley Born gave warning about what could happen to the financial system when she was head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for a time during the Clinton presidency–but Greenspan, Summers, and Rubin made sure her voice was silenced.

  13. Maury,
    I think you have forgotten that the recession officially started in December,2007. I think you have forgotten who started two wars totally off the budget. I think you have forgotten the two tax give aways to the rich that Bush and a Republican Congress presented to their base. You must have forgotten those facts, right?

  15. Enough with trolls … can’t accept responsibility for anything and always making problems for others.

    There’s a good book calling my name … good night

  16. Troll,

    Your people brought the financial market to its knees … your people belong in jail … why haven;t you put them there?

  17. “If it was up to me I would have sent them to jail along with Greenspan and Paulson. What happened was due to leftist economic theory, not Austrian economic theory but nice try at shifting the blame from statism to free markets.” (Troll)

    No dear … The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLB), also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act … that is what did it and
    Gramm–Leach–Bliley were all three republicans … Gramm retired weeks before his term ended to become … wait for it … wait for it … Vice Chairman of the Investment Banking division of the bank UBS. Yes, he left the senate to work for a company he helped deregulate. Gramm has since called the American public a “nation of whiners” …. moron

  18. rafflaw:

    I wish on the fork tail devil. I do have about six hundred hours in the “poor man’s P-38.” AKA, the Cessna 337 Skymaster–also known as the O-2.

    I was asked by some crew members of the Commemorative Air Force’s B-24 Liberator if I would be interested in coming on board as one of the flight engineers. Tempted to get checked out, but not enough hours in the day or days in the week to do it. I had to take a pass and it left a hole in my heart. A great old bird.

  19. “Maybe you should be criticizing the Wall Street geniuses for the near financial meltdown of our financial system. My tax dollars went to bail out billionaires–and then they turned around and used my tax dollars to lobby Congress so it wouldn’t pass a financial reform bill with any teeth in it!”

    If it was up to me I would have sent them to jail along with Greenspan and Paulson. What happened was due to leftist economic theory, not Austrian economic theory but nice try at shifting the blame from statism to free markets.

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