The Other Reason for Wisconsin

1. 82

   lovemychrisposted 13 years ago

   I saw a video years ago, involving big banks and big business, along with corrupt, greedy politicians and how they destroyed Argentina in 2001. I posted the url: "Argentina's Economic Collapse":
   
   http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 817317115#
   
   Anyway, watching it made me see many similarities to what is going on with banks and corporate big money here in the USA.
   The last nail in Argentina's coffin was the privatization of state-owned companies. It was so tragic as to make you weep.
   
   And then...today! This:  Mon Feb 21, 2011 AT 02:30 PM EST
   
   "The other part of the Scott Walker plan: Firesale of Wisconsin state assets"
   
   http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/2 … ily+Kos%29
   
   The same game-plan is playing out here.
   Watch the video....it's the same players.

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2. 70

   Ralph Deedsposted 13 years ago

   http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/22-11 
   
   
   Priorities? GOP Governors Shift Burden To Poor, Middle Class To Pay For Tax Breaks For Rich, Corporations
   by Josh Dorner
   
   State budgets across the country are in disarray as a weak economy, the end of tens of billions in Recovery Act funds, and a GOP-led House that is pushing for deep cuts to many programs that benefit state and local governments set the stage for massive in shortfalls over the next two years. Instead of making the tough choices necessary to help their states weather the current crisis with some semblance of the social safety net and basic government services intact, Republican governors are instead using it as an opportunity to advance several longtime GOP projects: union busting, draconian cuts to social programs, and massive corporate tax breaks. These misplaced priorities mean that the poor and middle class will shoulder the burden of fiscal austerity, even as the rich and corporations are asked to contribute even less. Here’s a detailed look at how the GOP’s war on the poor and middle class is playing out at the state level:
   
   Wisconsin: Gov. Scott Walker first gained national headlines for joining Ohio’s Kasich in a future-losing decision to cancel an $800 million investment — fully paid for the by the federal government — in high-speed rail. This decision prompted train manufacturer Talgo to announce it was leaving the state and will likely cost the state thousands of jobs.
   
   Walker is of course now famous for his high-stakes war against Wisconsin’s workers. Walker has used a very small short-term shortfall and larger shortfall to come (which is still smaller than shortfalls the state has faced in recent years) to move forward with an unpopular plan to destroy the state’s public employee unions. As Ezra Klein and many others have noted, Wisconsin’s unions aren’t to blame for the state’s budget problems and taking away their collective bargaining rights will have no impact on the state’s fiscal situation. Indeed, the unions offered to concede to all of Walker’s financial demands, so long as they could retain their collective bargaining rights. Walker balked at this offer, betraying his true motive: busting unions. Walker is also late in offering his budget, but it is believed that in spite of the supposed “crisis” and being “broke,” as Walker himself has said, his budget plans will include “a LOT more tax breaks” for the rich and corporations that will have to be balanced on the backs of workers or with painful cuts to state services and the state’s Medicaid programs, BadgerCare. It’s also worth noting that the last time Scott Walker went union busting, it turned into a massive boondoggle when he was overruled by an arbiter, wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars in the process.
   
   When Republican governors speak of “shared sacrifice,” it seems that the only thing they mean is sacrifices by the poor and middle class in order to fund massive tax breaks for the rich and corporations. As governors from across the country gather in Washington, D.C. at the end of this week at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, ThinkProgress hopes to catch up with some governors to discuss their priorities — misplaced or otherwise.

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3. 70

   Ralph Deedsposted 13 years ago

   Wisconsin's Political Crisis Is A Good Deal More Serious Than Its Fiscal Crisis
   by John Nichols
   
   MADISON - Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau was created in 1968 by a Republican governor, Warren Knowles, and a Republican-controlled state legislature.
   
   The purpose was to establish a non-partisan agency that would provide honest fiscal analysis and information for Wisconsin Legislators. Across more than four decades, the bureau has done just that, earning the respect of legislators from both parties, including a young Scott Walker, who frequently cited the bureau when he served in the state Assembly.
   
   Less than a month ago, a Fiscal Bureau memo reported that the state had a $121.4 million surplus through the remainder of the current fiscal year.
   
   That is a fact that is now under attack by Governor Walker, who the conservative publication Human Events refers to as the “new hero” of the Republican right. Walker argues-- as Republicans and Democrats have acknowledged for some time -- that the state’s fiscal house is not in order and that unsettled issues relating to a payment due Minnesota after the canceling of a tax agreement, as well as rising health care and prison costs, could well create a shortfall before the end of the year.
   
   So it is possible that Wisconsin might need a budget repair bill of the sort Walker has proposed before the fiscal year is finished, as it has in many years.
   
   But Wisconsin has not reached the statutory trigger – roughly $188 million -- that would demand a repair bill.
   
   So why is Governor Walker rushing to act now? Why is he doing so with a bill that massively extends his own authority over cabinet agencies while creating new positions to be filled by his political cronies? And why is he claiming that it is necessary to take away the collective bargaining rights of state, county, municipal and education unions in order to address the issue?
   
   http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/22-8

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4. 58

   logic,commonsenseposted 13 years ago

   Are you two serious?
   I thought only right wing extremists believed in conspiracies!

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5. 0

   PrettyPantherposted 13 years ago

   Some conservatives will eagerly believe that Barack Obama's mother hid his birth in Kenya because she wanted him to be President some day, but can't fathom that the rich might conspire to screw the poor, even though it has repeatedly happened throughout history.
   
   Go figure.

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