Stand with Wisconsin Women, Middle-Class, Elderly, Teachers, LGBT, Children, Poor, Minorities, and More

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been recalled, and now it's time to replace him. In the year since taking office, Walker has fought hard against just about everyone in Wisconsin besides rich white males. The alleged criminal Walker repealed Equal Pay for Equal Work for women and minorities, discriminated against minorities in unconstitutional redistricting, reduced education funding more than any time in Wisconsin history, reduced teacher and public worker pay and benefits, killed any hope of jobs, banned hospital visitation for same-sex couples, raised BadgerCare premiums and reduced other healthcare help, repealed rights of middle-class workers, and a whole lot more. So, for us in the middle-class and the poor, we're getting far less for our tax dollars, while corporations and the rich are paying far less in state taxes.

Everyone agrees that to fix education, we need to pay teachers well. We all know the main reason that many good, intelligent people choose not to become teachers is because they can get significantly more money in other jobs. Why then do people think it's OK to reduce the already low pay for teachers? If you think this won't hurt our children, you need some education yourself.

And Walker's done it all under the banner of job creation, even though Wisconsin has lost more jobs than any other state since Walker took office and continues to bleed jobs with 6,200 more in April. Walker and the Republicans have refused to make any real effort towards job creation.

Instead of real job creation, Walker gave huge tax breaks to his campaign donors, the rich who are funding his 25 million dollar campaign, the billboards you see all over Wisconsin and TV ads. Walker did this even though there's every reason to believe tax breaks for the rich are bad for the economy. Even a Republican policy wonk recently wrote in the New York Times that taxes don't affect the employment rate one way or the other, particularly now with our taxes already as low as they are. The rich can't create jobs if the middle-class doesn't have the money to spend on the products and services the rich provide. We're the real job creators.

The rich clearly don't need more money, with the millions they can donate to Walker and use for billboards and TV ads all over Wisconsin. If they paid even half that much in taxes, we'd probably solve most of our budget problems. But instead they're using it to help Walker, because they know they'll save much more in taxes. And we suffer.

It's time Wisconsin starts sifting and winnowing again to find the best solutions to our problems, not partisan and ideological goals pushed by millionaires. We need a governor who will stand up to the demands of the rich few like Diane Hendricks (who inherited her great wealth from her husband).

If you stand with Walker, you stand with rich white supremacy and nothing more. Not jobs, morals or anything else. Show me otherwise, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

Vote for your economic interests and your neighbors'. Vote Tom Barrett. Early voting has already begun.

Ron Johnson Thinks The Budget Deficit Is Your Problem, Not His

Today, the U.S. Senate voted to consider a non-binding resolution (a bill that says something but does nothing) to say that the budget deficit should be fixed through shared sacrifice, not just on the backs of the poor and middle-class. The motion was agreed to with 74 yes votes, but Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin voted no.

Why would Ron Johnson vote against even considering the bill when so many Wisconsin families are struggling and all Johnson can talk about is holding up the Senate in order to reduce the deficit*? Even a majority of Republicans voted to consider the resolution. So why not Mr. Johnson?

A read of the very short bill (S. 1323) may provide some insight.

(a) Findings- Congress makes the following findings:

1. The Wall Street Journal reports that median pay for chief financial officers of S&P 500 companies increased 19 percent to $2,900,000 last year.
2. Over the past 10 years, the median family income has declined by more than $2,500.
3. Twenty percent of all income earned in the United States is earned by the top 1 percent of individuals.
4. Over the past quarter century, four-fifths of the income gains accrued to the top 1 percent of individuals.

(b) Sense of the Senate- It is the sense of the Senate that any agreement to reduce the budget deficit should require that those earning $1,000,000 or more per year make a more meaningful contribution to the deficit reduction effort.

This appears to be the critical sentence - "It is the sense of the Senate that any agreement to reduce the budget deficit should require that those earning $1,000,000 or more per year make a more meaningful contribution to the deficit reduction effort."

One may remember that Mr. Johnson received ten million dollars in compensation from his company, Pacur, earlier this year. If Mr. Johnson voted for this bill, later he would have to vote to increase his own taxes (unless he flip-flops) since the bill says those making at least a million dollars should pay more taxes.

Ron Johnson is perfectly happy to vote to eliminate Medicare, but he won't even vote to agree on a motion to consider a non-binding resolution that says at some later time he'll vote to increase his own taxes. Mr. Johnson thinks the budget deficit is a big enough problem to halt all other Senate business, but he doesn't think it's a big enough problem to require a little bit more of his $10,000,000.00. He'd rather take money from the poor, elderly, disabled and from the programs every middle-class American pays for and counts on.

It's your big problem, not his.

*The first effort Johnson's put forth is to further slow a Senate which is on track to be one of the least productive Senates in decades.

Wisconsin Senate Republicans Pass Radical Budget Without Change

Late tonight, the Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted to pass the radical far-right budget passed by the Assembly Republicans very early this morning without change. As a Republican act of class warfare, the budget actually increases spending over the previous year, while taking millions in tax breaks from the middle-class and poor and giving them to corporations instead. All 8 amendments offered by the Democrats were rejected, and thus none of the Democrats voted for the budget.

The Democrats offered an amendment that would have restored collective bargaining rights to all workers in Wisconsin, not just employees of corporations. However, all of the Senate Republicans voted to reject the amendment and keep those rights out of the reach of most of our public workers, even though we know stripping those rights "doesn't save any" money.

Some of the changes that the Democrats tried to make in both the Assembly and Senate:

• Increase investment in Wisconsin businesses through the Wisconsin Growth Fund
• Remove all WiscNet wording from the budget
• Remove tax increases on the poor and middle-class by removing the changes to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Homestead Credit
• Remove the $50 reduction in unemployment benefits
• Remove changes to child labor laws that allow employers to make children work more hours during school (more than 40 if they're over 16)
• Increase public school funding by $365 million and remove expansion of the choice program
• Restore funding for gifted and talented programs and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) grants
• Fund the Wisconsin GI Bill and increase financial aid when tuition increases
• Require the state to continue operating the SeniorCare program
• Remove the enrollment cap on the FamilyCare program
• Prohibit the administration from making changes to BadgerCare without legislative approval
• Restore funding for services such as fire, police and garbage collection
• Remove the significant weakening of rules on payday loans that also allow auto title loans in Wisconsin again
• Restore funding for recycling

None of these changes were accepted. No changes were accepted. There was absolutely no collaboration or compromise from the Republicans.

Thanks to WisPolitics Budget Blog for detailing much of this information! (Senate Democrat Amendments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 - collective bargaining)

The Republicans aren't as fearful of the recall elections, because they've now passed just about every far-right and corporate wishlist item from the past 50 years. Let's make sure the Republicans get what's coming to them, and vote in the July 12 and 19 recall elections (if they're in your district).

Unfortunately, far fewer people have been showing up to protest all of these radical changes than showed up during ice and snow to protest. As Governor Walker signs the budget, we could really use one last massive protest to show the Republicans just how much Wisconsin is against their far-right ideals.

I'm putting my voice in for a protest this Saturday that we all must attend!

Wisconsin Assembly Republicans Increase State Spending With New Budget Passed To Senate

Another vote in the deep dark night. The Wisconsin Assembly Republicans voted for their budget just after 3:00am Thursday morning. All of the Democrats voted against it, and all of the nearly 40 amendments offered by the Democrats were rejected. The massive, oddly-named "simple amendment" by the Republicans was adopted without debate and without any Democrats voting in favor.

The Republicans' mantra this past year has been that spending is out of control. Rep. Dean Kaufert said just before voting for the budget, "We have been living on the credit card for a long time." Unfortunately, Kaufert and the rest of the Assembly Republicans just voted to increase our spending, as this budget spends more money than the previous Democrat budget. So, if not decreased spending, what are Republicans for?

It's very clear that the Republicans don't care about spending, at least not when it's for corporations. The Republican budget takes tax breaks for the middle-class and the poor and gives them to corporations. If the Republicans give any reason for this, it is that it will help create jobs, but their logic is flawed. One look at the stock market's performance since 2009, and you'll see that corporations aren't having any cash flow problems. The Federal government already gave them huge bailouts and tax breaks, and Governor Walker gave them a $117 million tax break within the first few weeks he was in office. A little extra cash won't motivate them to hire any more than they already aren't. Yet, real Wisconsin citizens depend upon the money that's being taken away from them. The Republicans are playing the part of Robin Hood's evil twin.

Rather than decreasing spending, the Republicans are more concerned with things such as making sure the poor have more abortions by reducing their access to contraceptives. The Republicans fought for nearly 30 minutes to cut state funding for Planned Parenthood. Contrary to what the Republicans think, the majority of Planned Parenthood's services are in preventative care and contraceptives, not abortion. In fact, abortions account for less than 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's services. The net effect of reducing contraceptives, more abortions!

The radical budget is a Republican act of class warfare, but not just via their redistribution of wealth through tax breaks. It significantly reduces funding to our public schools, while providing more funding to charter and voucher schools which are held to a lower standard. The reduction in funding to our public schools reduces access to high quality education for poor and middle-class children by condensing the reach of our high-quality schools to a few. The budget also reduces funds for healthcare to seniors and the poor, significant cuts to local government services such as police and fire, among a number of other far-right and corporate wishlist items.

I'm not the only Wisconsinite up this late with concern for my state and its people, and Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca knows it, 

"The middle class is awake. They're angry. They don't like being treated in this fashion."

Don't forget The People vs. Scott Walker Capitol rally today at noon!

Thanks go out to the WisPolitics Budget Blog for staying up late and blogging nearly every detail of the last 12 hours!