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The best single-state comparison for Scott Walker's Wisconsin is Minnesota.
Both are upper Midwestern states with similar populations, similar demographics, similar urban/rural splits - they are each more like each other than they are like any other state in the country. And both elected a new governor in 2010.
In Wisconsin, Scott Walker slashed taxes. In Minnesota, Governor Dayton raised them. He also implemented a minimum wage. Now, we all know the conservative mantra - Tax hikes (and minimum wage hikes) kill revenues by stifling productivity and hindering growth, while tax cuts spur an economic boom which results in revenue booms!.
The reality of massive deficits of the 1980s and 2000s after tax cuts by Reagan and Bush 2, along with a revenue glut in the 1990s after tax hikes under Bush 1 and Clinton, did nothing to dissuade them from the wondrousness of their ideological dogma.
Yup, really awesome record, huh? Yet the right wing media will keep talking about "Wisconsin's turnaround" and what a great mind Walker has for "pro-business policies". Meanwhile, the state is considering repealing prevailing wage laws, because clearly what is needed is further punishment of the working class!
Maybe Governor Walker can duplicate this "success" for the rest of the country!
Talk about Walker's administration having their head in the sand!
Quote:
Newson points to that data and the fact that overall job growth is up. Wisconsin added 35,759 jobs in 2014. He did not offer any explanation for rapid spike in layoffs this year.
"What I'm hearing from employers is they have job openings and opportunities," said Newson.
Easy for "Mr. Unintimidated" to pass big bold agendas when his party has the majority of the WI Representatives and Senate. Harder to pass big bold agendas when the majority is of the other party. But it is a total loser who cannot get his budget passed when his own party has the majority!
Quote:
Walker, in his budget, proposed borrowing $1.3 billion for transportation projects. Republicans who control the Legislature agreed that was too much, but have squabbled for weeks on how much to reduce it and which projects should be delayed as a result of the reductions.
Lousy governor with a lousy proposed budget that Walker cannot get passed by his own party!
Quote:
There are numerous provisions in our Wisconsin State Budget for 2015-17 which are creating dysfunctional public policies, including, to my mind, the reductions in educational funding at all levels, reductions of taxes on the wealthiest citizens of Wisconsin, borrowing for road construction rather than increasing gas tax to let users (you and me) to pay for our use of the roads. I am OUTraged by the policies of our Republican controlled legislature and Republican governor. These real fiscal decisions are BAD for WE THE PEOPLE of WI.
EVEN WORSE are the numerous NON-fiscal – POLICY – actions put into the budget. I encourage you to read the summary of the Joint Finance Committee’s “WRAP-UP” motion which is 24-pages stuffed with 67 diverse items with many benefiting special interests. The provisions in this motion include: cutting by $1.1 million over the next two years a tax that applies to cigarette manufacturers, marketers and distributors. REDUCING TAXES ON TOBACCO PRODUCTS! WHY?! I understood that our WI public policy was to curtail the use of tobacco, did YOU?
Walker became governor of an exceptional state and is doing his best to destroy everything that made WI exceptional.
Quote:
After months of uproar over provisions to slash hundreds of millions of dollars from state universities and strip the values of “truth” and “service” from their mission, lawmakers in Madison missed their July 1 deadline to pass the budget.
In the ensuing scramble, Governor Walker and his allies in the statehouse used the 4th of July holiday weekend to insert several more controversial provisions into the massive document, which local press called “a grab bag of pet projects:”
1- gutting of the state’s open records law
2-censor information about police shootings
3-scrap factory workers’ right to one day off per week
4-completely eliminate the state’s 100-year-old definition of a “living wage,”
Yup. He's completely against things that help the working class. Some of his diehard supporters are finally waking up to that fact, but I fear it may be too late. Wisconsin sadly may have some rough times ahead.
Yup. He's completely against things that help the working class. Some of his diehard supporters are finally waking up to that fact, but I fear it may be too late. Wisconsin sadly may have some rough times ahead.
Just imagine if Walker had the opportunity to do damage to the working class of our entire country as he has done to the working class of Wisconsin.
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