WI Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Bros.

[Dan and Judy 614]

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions has caused an uproar among state employees, might not be where he is today without the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch are conservative titans of industry who have infamously used their vast wealth to undermine President Obama and fight legislation they detest, such as the cap-and-trade climate bill, the health care reform act, and the economic stimulus package. For years, the billionaires have made extensive political donations to Republican candidates across the country and have provided millions of dollars to astroturf right-wing organizations. Koch Industries' political action committee has doled out more than $2.6 million to candidates. And one prominent beneficiary of the Koch brothers' largess is Scott Walker.

Are you saying that Walker is just a "Koch mouthpiece"

[Dan and Judy 614]

We are all equal, just some are more equal than others.

Show off

Its clear the monkeys need to learn to do what they're told and just be happy with what they are given.

I suppose you spank your monkey when he trys to stand up to you

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions has caused an uproar among state employees, might not be where he is today without the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch are conservative titans of industry who have infamously used their vast wealth to undermine President Obama and fight legislation they detest, such as the cap-and-trade climate bill, the health care reform act, and the economic stimulus package. For years, the billionaires have made extensive political donations to Republican candidates across the country and have provided millions of dollars to astroturf right-wing organizations. Koch Industries' political action committee has doled out more than $2.6 million to candidates. And one prominent beneficiary of the Koch brothers' largess is Scott Walker.

Are you saying that Walker is just a "Koch mouthpiece"

Is that a rhetorical question?

[DukeOfYork 28]

Holy #######! Your insurance is crappy. You didn't have a choice of plans, like an HMO?

I have great insurance, I just have to shoulder some of the burden. I'm ok with that, by the way.

I ran the numbers, the HMO option was way too expensive, $376/month for my wife and me plus a $30 co-pay each time we go to the doctor and the hassle of having to get referrals, not being able to go out of network, etc.. I pay $143.30 for a $5k ded PPO plan, I get the first $2k from my employer, so I have to make up the other $3000 ded portion. Since we're having a kid this year, we'll definitely incur the $5k ded. So yeah, I pay $143.30/month for my plan + $250 month to pre pay (tax free) my portion of the deductible.

So I'm not terribly sympathetic to public sector union members crying about how they'll have to pay more for their health insurance and it's still less than $200/month with a low deductible [if any at all].

Since when did school teachers in Wisconsin teach in coal mines, anyway?

[Pooky 3,355]

Who cares who contributed to his campaign, a majority of the voters of Wisconsin voted for him.

That's why he's the Governor and not a Democrat. It's simple math, when you think about it.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Who cares who contributed to his campaign, a majority of the voters of Wisconsin voted for him.

That's why he's the Governor and not a Democrat. It's simple math, when you think about it.

Things are getting back to normal, when the commies and the hippies are doing all that protesting.

"Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach." -- George Bernard Shaw (Man and Superman)

Edited February 19, 2011 by Some Old Guy

[Zero Sum 305]

Show off

I suppose you spank your monkey when he trys to stand up to you

Master Yoda says there is no try, only do.

[JohnSmith2007 353]

Walker is funded by the Koch brothers? Seems fair since the White House is funding the protests.

Politics of Wisconsin Labor Fight Spread to Washington

President Obama and his political rivals in Washington have jumped into the epic battle in Wisconsin between organized labor and the state’s newly elected Republican governor over the rights and benefits of state workers.

Efforts by Scott Walker, the state’s Republican governor, to slash collective-bargaining rights of public employees prompted days of protests at the state capitol by thousands of union workers, fueled and organized in part by Mr. Obama’s own political apparatus in Washington.

Even as Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin fled their own state in an attempt to stall a vote in the Republican-controlled state senate, Mr. Obama decried the tactics of Mr. Walker as “an assault on unions.”

That prompted House Speaker John Boehner to rip into Mr. Obama, accusing him of having “unleashed the Democratic National Committee to spread disinformation and confusion in Wisconsin.”

Mr. Boehner, in a statement, praised Mr. Walker and other Republican governors for making the tough decisions to cut spending. And he chided the president for siding with the wrong side in the contentious Wisconsin debate.

“Rather than shouting down those in office who speak honestly about the challenges we face, the president and his advisers should lead. Until they do, they are not focusing on jobs, and they are not listening to the American people who put them in power.”

.....

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/politics-of-wisconsin-labor-fight-spread-to-washington/

[DukeOfYork 28]

Walker is funded by the Koch brothers? Seems fair since the White House is funding the protests.

Politics of Wisconsin Labor Fight Spread to Washington

President Obama and his political rivals in Washington have jumped into the epic battle in Wisconsin between organized labor and the state’s newly elected Republican governor over the rights and benefits of state workers.

Efforts by Scott Walker, the state’s Republican governor, to slash collective-bargaining rights of public employees prompted days of protests at the state capitol by thousands of union workers, fueled and organized in part by Mr. Obama’s own political apparatus in Washington.

Even as Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin fled their own state in an attempt to stall a vote in the Republican-controlled state senate, Mr. Obama decried the tactics of Mr. Walker as “an assault on unions.”

That prompted House Speaker John Boehner to rip into Mr. Obama, accusing him of having “unleashed the Democratic National Committee to spread disinformation and confusion in Wisconsin.”

Mr. Boehner, in a statement, praised Mr. Walker and other Republican governors for making the tough decisions to cut spending. And he chided the president for siding with the wrong side in the contentious Wisconsin debate.

“Rather than shouting down those in office who speak honestly about the challenges we face, the president and his advisers should lead. Until they do, they are not focusing on jobs, and they are not listening to the American people who put them in power.”

.....

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/politics-of-wisconsin-labor-fight-spread-to-washington/

Don't bother pointing out liberals' own hypocrisy. You'll just get ignored and they'll move on to more ad hominims.

[Zero Sum 305]

A lack of reality seems to be clear here. The unions have already agreed to most of the Budget cut proposals.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

A lack of reality seems to be clear here. The unions have already agreed to most of the Budget cut proposals.

Yep.

How This Whole Wisconsin Budget 'Crisis' Came Down

In Wisconsin, budget season is two years long. The current budget window was opened on July 1, 2009, and will close on June 30 of this year. If for unexpected reason, the state finds itself faced with a severe deficit within a biennial window, the legislature must pass what's known a "budget repair bill" -- to close the gap with spending cuts or other emergency measures.

The state has not crossed that threshold.

The previous governor, Democrat Jim Doyle, passed a budget that left the state poised for a surplus this year. When Walker took office in January he chipped away at that surplus with three conservative tax expenditure bills, but not severely enough to trigger a budget repair bill. The current, small shortfall was "manufactured by Governor Walker's own insistence on making the deficit worse with the bills he passed in January," Kreitlow said. But Walker cited that shortfall to introduce a "budget repair bill" anyhow -- a fully elective move that includes his plan to end collective bargaining rights for state employees.

"The trigger had not been reached prior to Governor Walker adding to the previous year's deficit by passing bills that didn't create a single job," Kreitlow said.

Walker will soon have to introduce an actual budget, which will outline spending and revenue policy for the two years between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2013. And the state's Legislative Fiscal Bureau -- the official scorekeeper -- does project that he'll face a $3 billion shortfall. But Democrats faced a shortfall twice as large ahead of the previous budget cycle and managed to close the gap.

"The $3 billion is a projection based on requests and forecasts, but it's the governor who has to do the hard work of putting together a plan," Kreitow explained. "it is just practically half of the projected deficit that we closed in the last budget bill, which we did by making serious cuts and some very deliberate choices. That's what we expect leaders to do." In 2009, Wisconsin Dems did get just over a billion in help from the stimulus bill, but they made up the rest by giving state agencies less money than they asked for, and through furloughs and other real austerity measures.

"We know it could be closed again by making tough choices," Kreitow said. "But not included in those tough choices would be stripping away labor rights that have allowed there to be labor peace in Wisconsin for over 50 years."

[one...two...tree 2,762]

It's also worth noting that Walker averaged a 'C' in college and never graduated. Another academically challenged politician trying to manage economic policies that they have no clue about.

[Pooky 3,355]

It's also worth noting that Walker averaged a 'C' in college and never graduated. Another academically challenged politician trying to manage economic policies that they have no clue about.

And a majority of voters in Wisconsin still voted for him over the Democrat candidate for Governor.

I guess they didn't mind about his academic achievements, they just preferred his policies. That's democracy in action for you.

Edited February 20, 2011 by Pooky

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

A lack of reality seems to be clear here. The unions have already agreed to most of the Budget cut proposals.

Public employee unions are by their very nature in conflict with promoting the general welfare.

Prior to the 1950s, as labor lawyer Ida Klaus remarked in 1965, "the subject of labor relations in public employment could not have meant less to more people, both in and out of government." To the extent that people thought about it, most politicians, labor leaders, economists, and judges opposed collective bargaining in the public sector. Even President Franklin Roosevelt, a friend of private-sector unionism, drew a line when it came to government workers: "Meticulous attention," the president insisted in 1937, "should be paid to the special relations and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government....The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service." The reason? F.D.R. believed that "[a] strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable." Roosevelt was hardly alone in holding these views, even among the champions of organized labor. Indeed, the first president of the AFL-CIO, George Meany, believed it was "impossible to bargain collectively with the government."

http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-trouble-with-public-sector-unions

http://www.professorbainbridge.com/professorbainbridgecom/2011/02/the-case-against-public-sector-unionism.html

[one...two...tree 2,762]

And a majority of voters in Wisconsin still voted for him over the Democrat candidate for Governor.

I guess they didn't mind about his academic achievements, they just preferred his policies. That's democracy in action for you.

Yep. The American voters didn't mind GW Bush's academic ineptitude either, but that doesn't change the fact that neither one of them seem to have a clue about economics. As for Walker pushing to end collective bargaining for state employees - is he fulfilling a campaign promise? Because it's one thing to vote for a candidate you think might do one thing but does another vs. watching that candidate follow through on what they said they would do if elected.

Edited February 20, 2011 by 8TBVBN