What Has Scott Walker Done for Wisconsin Lately?

In an update to the popular post What Has Scott Walker Done for Wisconsin, this post adds to the list of things Walker has done for Wisconsin in the last few months. Walker still hasn't created any jobs, the numbers he provides are unverifiable statistics which deviate wildly from official verified statistics, and thus can't be trusted until verified. Walker still hasn't balanced the budget, and contrary to Walker's claims, he raised taxes on the poor and middle class to support tax breaks for the very rich.

But all of that was already covered in the previous post. A lot has happened in the three months since.

Walker's Criminal Mind

In March, Walker opened a criminal defense fund, becoming the first ever governor in the United States to do so. According to Wisconsin Statutes, Walker can only legally open a criminal defense fund if he "is being investigated for or charged with a violation of campaign finance laws or prohibited election practices." However, Walker continues to say that he is not under investigation by the FBI in their John Doe probe (Walkergate) that has resulted in two convictions and four apprehensions on felony charges, all connected to Walker. So, Walker is either lying or he's breaking the law.

Walker stole millions from victims of the mortgage crisis in order to help offset his budget deficit. That's right, Walker has a budget deficit, i.e., he did not balance the budget. Not only that, he used money from the poor and unfortunate to help bolster his budget.

Walker and the Republican leadership killed any hope of jobs or mining legislation by not even compromising within the Republican party to provide what Gogebic Taconite wanted instead of an additional far-right wishlist. The Democrats had a bill that gave the mining company what they wanted without the ideological rollback of environmental protections that Walker wanted, the Wisconsin Way Mining Reform Act. However, the Republicans did everything they could to prevent a vote on the sure-to-pass bill, holding out for their impassable bill and thus killing the Republicans' only jobs plan.

Throughout Walker's term, particularly this spring, Walker signed into law a wide array of secretly corporate-backed model legislation from ALEC.

Policies of the War on Women

Instead of any jobs legislation, Walker amped up the far-right War on Women in Wisconsin.

To start, Walker repealed part of Wisconsin's Fair Employment Act so that women and minorities will find it even more difficult to get the same pay as white men. Republicans in Wisconsin have stated that they believe men should make more than women, and this bill helps to ensure that continues to happen.

Walker banned abortion coverage from future Wisconsin private health insurance plans that will be setup through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. So, women on those health plans, the least fortunate women and many in the middle class, won't have insurance coverage for potentially life-saving abortions.

Walker signed into law a bill that requires women to make unnecessary appointments with their doctors 24 hours before having an abortion. This forced Planned Parenthood to stop offering the morning after pill to rape victims.

Walker then allowed schools to teach the myth that abstinence is the only effective way to prevent pregnancy or STDs and not teach anything about condoms or contraceptives, because Walker doesn't like to use facts so neither should our teachers.

In a blatant sign of Walker's ignorance for women, Walker ignored the bombing of a medical clinic for women in Appleton.

Far-right and Unconstitutional Legislation

Rolling back environmental protections in mining wasn't enough for Walker, he and the Republicans successfully repealed wetland protections in the middle of the night. No jobs were created as a result of the legislation.

Nearly every one of Walker's legislative achievements were found unconstitutional including the Voter Suppression Law, the collective bargaining rights-stripping law and the Republicans' illegal gerrymandering. So, IDs are not required to vote and parts of the union busting law were struck down, but Walker refused to fix the illegal gerrymandering, costing more taxpayer money in court where new maps will now be drawn.

Collective Secrecy

In the previous post, I mentioned video that showed Walker saying he would negotiate with unions during his campaign, contrary to his statements that Wisconsin knew he was going to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers. Walker hadn't made any public statements to that effect prior to releasing the bill.

Now, recently released video shows Walker in January 2011 telling Diane Hendricks, a billionaire heiress who paid $0 in state taxes that year and gave Walker a record $510,000, that he plans to get rid of unions in Wisconsin through a "divide and conquer" plan that begins with the public employees. Walker hid this plan from the rest of us, but gladly told his rich donors who are the only people to gain from such efforts. This divide and conquer plan turned out to be the collective bargaining rights stripping bill that Walker released less than a month later.

Rich Kings and Queens

All the while Walker has been either under investigation or breaking the law, very rich donors have been donating over 25 million dollars to his campaign as well as Super PACs, billboards and TV ads. Nearly all the way up and down Highway 41, you see billboards from rich a**holes who want to buy tax breaks for themselves at our expense. What's not to like about Walker if you're rich? Well, other than the fact that his policies don't improve the economy, Walker hasn't done anything in the open and cordial Wisconsin way.

But money means way more to top Walker donors like Diane Hendricks who doesn't pay any Wisconsin taxes and wants to turn Wisconsin into a unionless state, otherwise known as Right-to-Work. They could care less what happens to us as long as their bank account gets fatter. Heck, they don't even care that Walker is either investigation or breaking the law. Most of all, the lies don't seem to bother these rich donors one bit. Many of the out-of-state donors don't care what happens to Wisconsin as long as Walker's anti-union, anti-women, anti-minority messages prevails here and spreads.

Tea Party Hero, Wisconsinite Zero

Walker is a national hero to the Tea Party crowd, and he's been using his far-right hero status with a rich donorbase by travelling across the nation to raise over 25 million dollars in campaign donations from the aforementioned rich. Compare that to the nearly 1 million that the entire effort against Walker has raised. How dare Walker complain about the "millions from out-of-state union thugs," when that's not happening, and instead he's the one brining in millions from out-of-state. "Out-of-State" Scott Walker has spent so much time travelling the nation that he refuses to tell us how much time he's been out of Wisconsin.

Haven't we had enough of Walker's lies, secrecy and damage to Wisconsin?