Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
I have already written three posts about Governor Scott Walker, his budget repair bill, and the protesters in Wisconsin. People have been interested in
the Wisconsin story and have left nearly 1,800 comments at my three posts. I’ve even received requests to write up another post so that we could continue the discussion on the subject. I think there are others like me who believe the Wisconsin/Walker story is not over yet.
As I did last week, I’m posting links to some articles on the subject for you—as well as excerpts from some of the articles.
Democrats immediately file suit to halt challenges (Journal Sentinel)
By Jason Stein, Don Walker, and Patrick Marley
Excerpt: Wisconsin is now among the vanguard of Midwestern states embarking on a new era with their rules for public unions. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, signed an executive order in 2005 to eliminate collective bargaining for state employees. Ohio is working on a measure to rewrite its collective bargaining law with public-sector unions.
But the fight in Wisconsin isn’t over – Democrats and unions are already filing lawsuits against the proposal and recall actions against GOP senators who approved it.
“It’s just the beginning,” said Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar). “This is the civil rights issue of this century.”
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Wisconsin’s Legacy of Labor Battles (New York Times)
By Kate Zernike
Excerpt: In her book, “Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950,” Professor Feurer recounts how companies in the electrical industry in St. Louis started a network known as the Metal Trades Association in the first part of the 20th century to fight union organizing. The association had been alarmed by union protests that erupted violently with the Haymarket Square riot in 1886 and the demands for an eight-hour day, which started with the 1894 Pullman strike in Illinois — an early effort by Eugene V. Debs, the former Indiana legislator and future Socialist Party candidate for president.
“That left a legacy of the 1930s and ’40s for employers to form deep right-wing networks,” Professor Feurer said.
That network, she argues, was the precursor to the Midwestern groups that have now been assisting the fight against the unions in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana: the Bradley Foundation, based in Milwaukee, and Koch Industries, based in Wichita, Kan. David H. and Charles G. Koch, the billionaire brothers behind the energy and manufacturing conglomerate that bears their name, have been large donors to Mr. Walker in Wisconsin, as has their advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, which first opened an office in Wisconsin in 2005.
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By Ryan Haggerty and Michael Muskal
Excerpt: Even as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Friday signed into law a bill that sharply curbs collective bargaining for most public employees, his opponents were preparing for more demonstrations, court battles and political infighting over what has become a national test of labor’s power.
Organizers were hoping to attract tens of thousands protesters to the Capitol on Saturday for a rally featuring the return of Democratic lawmakers who fled the state on Feb. 17 in an effort to block the measure from passing. Along with the rally, Democrats are planning to ask the courts to overturn the new law and they have begun circulating petitions to recall some lawmakers. GOP supporters are circulating their own recall petitions, directed at the Democrats.
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Op-Ed: The GOP’s costly Wisconsin Koch binge is a wake-up call (Digital Journal)
The Big Shakedown: Wisconsin and the GOP’s Vision for America’s Future (Common Dreams)
Dane County sues state to block budget bill (The Cap Times)
Union Bill Is Law, but Debate Is Far from Over (New York Times)
My Previous Posts
Scott Walker: A Fiscally Responsible Governor or a Politician Who Is Playing Favorites?
Is the Scott Walker Story Just the Tip of the Koch Brothers’ Political Iceberg?
Wisconsin, Scott Walker, and Protesting Workers: The Story Continues
From Think Progress (3/16/2011)
REPORT: In 12 States, GOP Plans To Slash Corporate Taxes While Increasing Burden on Working Families
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/16/gop-state-corporate-tax-cuts/
Excerpt:
ThinkProgress has been documenting conservative efforts to shift the burden of record budget shortfalls onto middle-class Americans, while simultaneously doling out tax cuts to corporations. While progressive governors have proposed raising revenue from those who can afford it, alongside painful cuts to programs, Republican governors have unveiled budgets that cut taxes for corporations and raise them on the middle-class and working poor. In this report, ThinkProgress evaluates the priorities conservatives have set in twelve states:
NEW JERSEY: Last year, Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) budget raised taxes on the working poor and middle-class by cutting the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit and homestead rebates — yet still found money for lucrative corporate tax cuts. This year, Christie’s budget calls for $200 million in business tax cuts, while cutting mental health services, $540 million from Medicaid, and witholding property tax rebates for seniors until public workers give up many of their health and pension benefits. Many New Jerseyans have said they prefer a tax on millionaires to Christie’s draconian cuts.
MICHIGAN: Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) budget would make Michigan’s already regressive tax system even more unfair for the state’s poorest residents. The plan cuts taxes on business by more than 86 percent while slashing $1.2 billion in funding for “schools, universities, local governments and other areas.” Snyder also wants to raise personal taxes by 30 percent — an increase that will fall disproportionately on Michigan’s lowest income residents.
GEORGIA: Last week, the Georgia House passed an austerity budget that will increase health insurance costs by more than 20 percent for state workers, teachers and retirees and cut funding for state universities by $75 million. The House has already gutted the state’s HOPE scholarship program, and is now considering implementing a regressive new tax system that would lower income taxes for the rich while raising the sales tax on basic necessities. House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal (R), meanwhile, has introduced a bill that would implement a flat income tax rate and cut corporate taxes by 33 percent.
FLORIDA: At a Tea Party rally last month, Gov. Rick Scott (R) unveiled his budget, telling supporters he would make the state the most “fiscally conservative” in the nation. The budget would slash corporate income and property taxes, lay off 6,700 state employees, cut education funding by $4.8 billion, and cut Medicaid by almost $4 billion.
OHIO: Gov. John Kasich (R) has proposed cutting 25 percent of schools’ budgets, $1 million from food banks, $12 million from children’s hospitals, and $15.9 million from an adoption program for children with special needs. A Kasich staffer revealed yesterday that these cuts are more about politics then budget-balancing, telling the Cincinnati Dispatch that “even if there weren’t an $8 billion deficit, we’d probably be proposing many of the same things.” The plan includes tax cuts for oil companies, a repeal of the estate tax and an income tax cut for the rich that former Gov. Ted Strickland (D) halted last year because of the state’s fiscal crisis.
IOWA: Gov. Tom Branstad (R) began this year proposing a budget that included a $200 million tax cut on commercial property taxes and corporate income but would freeze spending on schools, cut $42 million to state universities and lay off “hundreds” of state workers. Since then, the Governor has already begun laying off state nursing home workers and frozen funding for mental health services. The budget is now moving through the politically divided legislature, where Republican-controlled House committees have gone even further, approving tax refunds for upper-income Iowans while cancelling infrastructure investments, eliminating preschool for 4-year-olds, closing Iowa workforce development offices, and making even deeper cuts to public universities.
PENNSYLVANIA: Gov. Tom Corbett (R) presented a budget last week that would cut taxes for corporations, while freezing teacher salaries, cutting dental care for Medicaid recipients, and eliminating more than half of the state’s universities. Yet the state has lots of revenue potential in northern Pennsylvania, where out-of-state energy companies’ “fracking” of natural gas has reaped them hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. Corbett has refused to tax these companies, many of which helped fund his gubernatorial campaign, and has instead opted to lay of more than 1,500 state workers.
MAINE: Despite calling for “shared sacrifice” Tea Party Gov. Paul LePage’s (R) budget would cut income taxes for Maine’s wealthiest one percent, while actually raising property taxes for the state’s middle class. This so-called “jobs budget” freezes healthcare funding for working parents, cuts money for schools and infrastructure and raises the retirement age for public workers. Yet LePage was still able to find more than $200 million in tax cuts for large estates, business and the rich.
WISCONSIN: The tax cuts Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed earlier this year worsened his state’s fiscal condition, so now Walker is planning to raise taxes on the poor, eliminate $26 million in tax credits for seniors and single mothers and cancel property tax rebates for low-income Wisconsinites making less than $24,000 a year.
Value…..
Maybe added Value Troll….kind like getting 20% more free….so if its free then why do you have to purchase the other part…
Damn….Yawn….and the troll knows its vale…
More on the Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez recall story:
From The Miami Herald (3/16 2011)
In dramatic revolt, Miami-Dade voters fire Mayor Carlos Alvarez over pay hikes, tax increase
By Matthew Haggman and Martha Brannigan
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/15/2117129/9-of-10-say-yes-to-ousting-alvarez.html
Excerpts:
Voters swept Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez out of office by a stunning margin Tuesday, capping a dramatic collapse for a politician who was given increased authority by voters four years ago to clean up much-maligned county government but was ushered out in the largest recall of a local politician in U.S. history.
The spectacular fall from power comes after two years of missteps, ranging from granting top staffers big pay hikes to construction of a publicly funded stadium for the Florida Marlins to implementation of a property-tax rate increase that outraged an electorate struggling through an ugly recession.
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The campaign to recall Alvarez was launched in October by billionaire businessman Norman Braman after Alvarez successfully pushed for a property tax-rate increase to help plug a gaping budget hole. At the same time, Alvarez pushed for labor contracts with employee unions that included pay hikes for most county workers this year.
Anonymously Yours:
I think you mean “did some worthless POS”. Not “someone worthless POS”.
Yawn…..did someone worthless POS say something interesting….Yawn….
Hey guys here is something you may like:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0316/As-recall-wave-builds-Miami-Dade-Mayor-Carlos-Alvarez-first-to-go
“Two years after winning in a landslide, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, the chief of some 2.5 million people in south Florida, lost his seat Tuesday in a recall vote after raising taxes and boosting the pay of public-sector union employees.”
“According to a Miami Herald poll, 67 percent of residents wanted Alvarez out, mainly because he raised property taxes for two-fifths of the county’s homeowners by 13 percent, while increasing pay and unfreezing some benefits for public-sector employees. The unemployment rate in Miami-Dade County is 12 percent.
With such sky-high unemployment, as well as crashing tax revenues, “Miami is a microcosm of what may also be the continuing national mood of anger that the economy and high unemployment reverberated,” Fernand Amandi, a Miami political analyst, told the Financial Times.”
Could be a vendetta but maybe not. Dont be too sure Wisconsin is going to go the way you think it is.
Follow those thieves!!
TPMDC
As Wisconsin Sens Head For DC, Labor Brings The War To Them
Evan McMorris-Santoro | March 16, 2011
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/as-wisconsin-sens-head-for-dc-labor-brings-the-war-to-them.php?ref=fpb
On Wednesday evening, Republican state legislators from Wisconsin will gather at the offices of prominent DC lobbying firm BGR Group for a high-dollar fundraiser.
If they hoped that escaping Madison and the labor protests that continue there even after Gov. Scott Walker (R) decisively won the latest round of the bout over collective bargaining, labor progressive groups aim to make it clear they were mistaken.
As the Republicans arrive at BGR for the fundraising event this evening, they’ll be met by a coalition of left-wing activists who’ll bring the frustration over Wisconsin to them.
From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
Among the 11 organizations sponsoring the protest are MoveOn.org, People for the American Way, Code Pink, Common Cause and the Public Campaign Action Fund.Other sponsors include AFSCME, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and the Center for Media and Democracy.
BGR Group’s ties to the Wisconsin GOP run deep, and as Roll Call reports the BGR fundraiser is an annual event for the firm. Usually it goes unnoticed. But coming so soon after the state Senate passed the restrictions on collective bargaining rights for state workers — and coming in the midst of a growing recall campaign against eight Republican state Senators — this year’s fundraiser has become a lightning rod.
“Timing is everything,” said Robert Wood, BGR’s government affairs president and a former top aide to Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R). “With Democrats’ groups like MoveOn, Public Citizen and the International Socialist Organization committing upwards of $2 million in each of these potential Senate recalls, every dollar can help.”
The progressive groups planning to protest later on Wednesday say every dollar raised at the fundraiser tonight is another sign that Wisconsin Republicans are out of touch.
“Last week, Wisconsin Republicans stripped middle class workers of their rights,” reads the Facebook page setup by protest organizers. “This week, those same lawmakers are receiving their payoff by corporate lobbyists and donors.”
rafflaw
1, March 16, 2011 at 11:54 am
Elaine,
I saw that article on Kasich! How do people with any brain believe these Lying Liars? Maybe the Dunning-Kruger effect is correct.
==========================================================
Teabaggers have a talent for finding the biggest liars and believing every word uttered.
Even the show Glee, that was aired last night, made fun of Ohio’s teabaggers … we are known for having some of the dumbest ones in the country residing within our borders.
Elaine M,
Thanks for that. Christie is nothing more than the bully in the sandbox. It’s “fun” for him to ridicule people when the cameras are rolling.
David Gregory, pardon the french, is a dick. Plain and simple.
From Sam Seder: David Gregory and the Corporate Media Love Chris Christie, Hate Social Security
Elaine,
I saw that article on Kasich! How do people with any brain believe these Lying Liars? Maybe the Dunning-Kruger effect is correct.
“Elaine M. 1, March 16, 2011 at 11:35 am
And now from Ohio:”
Boomerang Politics .
OS:
Bingo !!
There is an excellent discussion of the “Duning-Kruger Effect” in the linked essay.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/16/956907/-I-Wish-Stupid-People-Would-Understand-Theyre-Stupid
From Wikipedia:
And now from Ohio:
Think progress (3/16/2011)
Kasich Promises To Help Low Birth-Weight Babies, Then Slashes The Programs That Help Those Babies
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/16/kasich-baby-promise/
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) unveiled “The Jobs Budget” yesterday — a two year spending proposal that slashes funding for local governments by 25 percent in fiscal 2012, and 50 percent in 2013. Kasich’s callous budget efforts, including his union-busting attack on Ohio collective bargaining rights, have won him boos, tears, and staggering unpopularity within his first three months in office.
But last week in his State of the State address, Kasich touted a “surprise,” promising an initiative to aid low birth-weight babies. Low birth-weight babies face serious health risks and expensive hospital re-admittances. “With a little extra effort, we can make life better for the most vulnerable Ohioans by also giving taxpayers better value,” Kasich said:
Let me tell you what we’re talking about, low birth weight babies face serious health risks. And I know my kids come out at four-two and four-four, my sweet Emma and Reese. But they weren’t the really low birth weight babies because they got to go home. But the ones that have those serious health risks, they incur six times the costs as other babies.[…]
Now, I think we can help these mothers and their babies by staying in touch with them and how about give them the prenatal care they need so that we don’t have more low weight babies born? We can take — we can’t solve it all, but we certainly can solve some of it. And with just a little extra effort, we can make life better for the most vulnerable Ohioans by also giving taxpayers better value and making Medicaid more sustainable.
But Kasich’s budget tells a different story. While reiterating the objective to provide “evidence-based parenting education through the Help Me Grow Program” and “provide safety screenings, parental mental health screenings, and needs-based referrals for 15,000 pregnant women and first-time programs” on one hand, Kasich slashed funding to programs that support this work with the other. He cut the Help Me Grow program — “a program for Ohio’s expectant parents, newborns, infants and toddlers that provide health and developmental services” — by $2.8 million, eliminated operational support for the Mothers and Children and Safety Net Services, and eliminated state funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers like community health centers which are “important providers of prenatal care for many low-income women of all racial and ethnic groups.”
When asked by ThinkProgress, experts at Policy Matters Ohio agreed that Kasich’s proposal didn’t seem to provide support for his low birth weight baby initiative. However, they pointed out that Kasich’s Office of Health Transformation would be addressing the issue via Medicaid reform. An Ohio Health Transformation official confirmed knowledge of Kasich’s initiative, adding that it was not necessarily a “targeted” program but reflective of a more holistic, whole-system approach to preventing low birth weight. When asked by ThinkProgress what defined that approach, he pointed to care coordination and Kasich’s “Health Home Initiative” –funded by “taking advantage of the federal Affordable Care Act provision that allows states to claim a 90 percent federal math for eight quarters (two years).”
Of course, the fact that Kasich simultaneously wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) belies the credibility of this ACA-funded effort. So, not only is Kasich cutting programs that actually battle low birth-weight babies, he’s actively seeking to repeal the main source of funding for his alternative. If Kasich gets his way, his “little extra effort” to help “the most vulnerable Ohioans” will turn out to be very little indeed.
It is said that when you have young men rebelling in the streets, you have the potential for violence. When you have grannies in the town square beating on pots and pans, you have a revolution.
eniobob,
Great info from Miami. I hope Gov. Walker in Wisconsin and Gov. Kasich in Ohio are both sweating it out now. A real movement is afoot.
Hey Guv!!
Voter revolt in South Florida tosses Miami mayor and Dade commissioner
Previously unthinkable revolts seem to be in the air these days…
(corrupt, thuggish, nepotistic, hubristic, and plainly tone deaf) Miami mayor Alvarez goes down harder than the Titanic with 90% voting for his recall.
Voters swept Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez out of office by a stunning margin Tuesday…dramatic collapse…largest recall of a local politician in U.S. history.
Of course, none of this is to say that a new regime in the mayor’s office will be any different than the old regime. Miami/Dade politics has been notoriously notorious forever, attracting the corrupt, inept, greedy, and stupid like a squashed possum on Alligator Alley attracts blow flies.
18 year fixture Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas also went down in flames by an 88% margin in the same vote.
…Bankrolled by county employee unions, developers and lobbyists, Seijas raised $213,575 through a political action committee, Abre Los Brazos — nearly 10 times as much as her political opponents could muster. But in the end, voter anger trumped the power of incumbency, sweeping both Seijas and Alvarez from office by the same drastic margins…
The lesson here seems to be that money can only “buy” an election where the populace is at worst ambivalent about you. If there’s a major wave of “asshole fatigue” sweeping the electorate, they aren’t going to be swayed by slick campaigns, token buyoffs, and more hollow promises of cake and circuses.
The good news is, if a joint with institutionalized incompetence and corruption as entrenched as in Miami/Dade can successfully initiate and execute an overwhelming voter revolt like this, it can pretty much happen anywhere in the USA. The PoliTards in D.C. would do well to pay attention to what just happened here in South FL. The perfect storm is brewing.