Politics

On Scott Walker, Wisconsin, and the Budget Repair Bill: Is the Story Over Yet?

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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Opposition gears up for more protests, lawsuits as Walker signs anti-union bill (The Bellingham Herald)

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

492 thoughts on “On Scott Walker, Wisconsin, and the Budget Repair Bill: Is the Story Over Yet?”

  1. Otteray,

    I highly doubt Letterman would insult union workers–as most of the people who work on his show most likely belong to a union.

  2. Elaine M,

    “Ask Maury if he has a link to that Letterman list.”

    It’s probably something he copied and pasted from Clownhall.com

    ———————————————

    OS,

    I suspect the GOP hasn’t a clue as to how utterly foolish they look in trying to pass highly idiotic legislation … Gee, for a party that whines, “Less government!”, they certainly has no problem trying to pass laws regulating how much money one can have in one’s pocket.

    Pretty soon they’ll try to legislate how many peas one can have on their dinner plate at one time …

  3. Elaine, there is no link to Letterman’s site because Letterman did not say it. This is a made up meme you can find on places like RedState and those gawd-awful emails from crazy Uncle Ned.

    I was joking when I made that comment about Letterman. He probably has more class in his little finger than all our trolls put together.

  4. Maury,
    It would almost be funny if you ever used facts in your discussions. The public sector does not make more than the private sector when you compare equally educated workers. But, I realize you don’t want to let the facts get in your way of a good scam.
    OS
    Timing is everything, I guess! That story that you quoted should be repeated every day to hammer home the hate that abounds on the Right. I have a replacement bill to suggest. Any Minnesota legislator that is found to have less than $100 in their pockets shall be drummed out of the Republican party.

  6. Hmmmmmm….Am I the only one to notice that when a meaningful discussion starts, the trolls show up with all kinds of attempts to derail the thread? David Letterman, that great economic philosopher, humanitarian and Nobel laureate in economics no less.

    Let’s see how amusing this latest chapter in the Republican War on the Poor looks to the group here:

    “Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all.”

    http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/war-poor-minnesota-republicans-want-b

  7. Top ten ways to tell if you might be a member of a public-sector union
    By David Letterman

    02/21/2011

    even if David Letterman didnt write these, spot on and funny.

    10.) You take a week off to protest in Wisconsin and your office runs better.
    9.) On a snow day when they say “non-essential” people should stay home you know who they mean.
    8.) You get paid twice as much as a private sector person doing the same job but make up the difference by doing half as much work.
    7.) It takes longer to fire you than the average killer spends on death row.
    6.) The worse you do your job, the more your boss avoids you.
    5.) You think the French are working themselves to death.
    4.) You know by having a copy of the Holy Koran on your desk your job is 100% safe.
    3.) You spend more time at protest marches than at church.
    2.) You have a Democratic congressman’s lips permanently attached to your butt.
    1.) You pay more in union dues than you do for your healthcare insurance.

  14. From Think Progress (3/18/2011)
    Palm Trees Come To Cleveland: FreedomWorks Uses Discredited Footage In New Ohio Anti-Union Ad
    http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/18/freedomworks-ad-palm-trees/

    Excerpt:
    FreedomWorks, a right-wing group bankrolling the Tea Party, has a new advertisement it is planning to run in Ohio supporting Gov. John Kasich’s union-busting efforts. The advertisement tries to paint union protesters in Ohio as violent thugs. One problem: the ad uses footage from an old union protest in California.

    How do we know? This is the same footage from California, which features palm trees, that was used by Bill O’Reilly just days ago. He used it to argue that the protesters in Wisconsin were violent thugs.

    *****

    Check out the Think Progress story to see the video included in the post.

  19. From Huffington Post
    Vice President Biden Fires Up Union Activists: Organized Labor Keeps ‘Barbarians From The Gate’ (AUDIO)
    By Amanda terkel
    First Posted: 03/17/11 10:17 PM
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/biden-union-barbarians-labor_n_837346.html

    Excerpt:
    WASHINGTON — Vice President Biden gave the Obama administration’s most forceful statement of solidarity with organized labor in its current battles around the nation on Thursday, encouraging activists to continue fighting for workers’ rights.

    “You guys built the middle class,” said Biden in a virtual town hall conversation hosted by the AFL-CIO. “I would just emphasize what Hilda [Solis] said and say it slightly different: We don’t see the value of collective bargaining, we see the absolute positive necessity of collective bargaining. Let’s get something straight: The only people who have the capacity — organizational capacity and muscle — to keep, as they say, the barbarians from the gate, is organized labor. And make no mistake about it, the guys on the other team get it. They know if they cripple labor, the gate is open, man. The gate is wide open. And we know that too.”

  20. From Salon (3/18/2011)
    The states’ legislative sadists
    BY DAVID SIROTA
    http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/18/sirota_laboratories_of_democracy/index.html

    Excerpt:
    Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said that states are the “laboratories of democracy.” Oft repeated over time, the aphorism has helped impart legitimacy to the rough and tumble of state lawmaking. We’ve heard “laboratory” and we’ve imagined staid scientists in white coats rigorously testing forward-thinking theories of societal advancement.

    It’s certainly a reassuring picture — but there is a darker side of the metaphor. States are indeed laboratories. The problem is that today, those laboratories are increasingly run by mad scientists.

    We’re not talking about the usual Dr. Frankensteins trying to bring alive new corporate giveaways through harebrained cuts to social services (though there are those, too). We’re talking about true legislative sadists looking to go medieval on America. Behold just six of the most telling examples:

    The Anti-Life Pro-Life Act: After antiabortion Republicans in Congress tried to narrow the legal definition of rape, Nebraska Republican state Sen. Mark Christensen took the assault on women’s rights one step further with a bill to legitimize the murder of abortion providers by classifying such homicides as “justified.”

    The Let Them Eat Corporate Tax Cuts Act: As poverty rates and hunger have risen, so, too, have corporate profits. The Georgia Legislature’s response? Intensify the inequity with a bill to create a regressive sales tax on food that would then finance a brand-new corporate tax cut.

    The Demoralize the Workforce Act: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker didn’t just threaten to deploy the National Guard against state workers unless they accept big pay and pension cuts. Apparently, that was too Kent State and not enough Ludlow Massacre for him. So he pressed to statutorily bar those workers from ever again collectively bargaining.

    The Child Labor Act: Missouri state Sen. Jane Cunningham’s proposal to eliminate child labor laws would allow corporations to employ any kid under 14 and would terminate restrictions on the number of hours that kid can be forced to work. The legislation is proof that when Tea Party ideologues refer to “the ’50s,” some of them aren’t referring to the 1950s — they are referring to the 1850s.

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