By Jeff Simpson
Many on the right who claim to be "libertarians", justified the big government overreach of ACT10 as needing to stop teachers unions from buying off elected officials. Of course, as they so often are, were incredibly misinformed and their logic was non-existent. All it did(which it was intended to do) was weaken republican opposition. It made an uneven playing field even more tilted to the right! This also makes sense because when your going to focus on Vagina's and not jobs, you need all of the help fixing the game that you can get! However that is a story for another time.
What really happened here, was bait and switch. The group that is ACTUALLY extremist AND buying legislators is Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce(WMC)! As Sourcewatch points out:
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) is a business association formed through a merger of the Wisconsin Manufacturers Association, the State Chamber of Commerce and the Wisconsin Council of Safety.
They are a big business lobby group that has unlimited dark money to spend to elect republicans. The problem though, is their track record is akin to Don Morton's. The last two elections, they have gotten almost everything they have wanted, in all branches of government!
It is no coincidence, that the immense success of WMC policies have paralleled the quick downfall of the Wisconsin economy.
And then there’s the other data. In March of this year, Wisconsin plunged to 44th in private sector job growth. Also, Wisconsin came in as the fifth worst in terms of the erosion in private-sector wages.
Forbes named Wisconsin one of the “worst states” for business in December of 2012. Wisconsin is 44th for overall economic performance and 39th for business climate.
Well they are back and if this is not the most telling condemnation of the Governor's Budget, I do not know what is. Here four ex-republican aides and current WMC lobbyists, tell us how great the Governor's budget is and they do it with a passion that is hard to match:
H/T Jack Craver :
“Gov. Walker introduced his budget in February and, really from our perspective, introduced a pro-growth budget that makes an investment in personal income tax reductions, continues his freeze on property taxes and makes critical investments in our state’s infrastructure system,” said Scott Manley, the group’s vice president of government relations, to begin the video, before asking his colleagues to explain a number of economic policies that he described the organization as being "very excited" about.While I do not think this video will pull "Gangnam Style" numbers, it marks WMC's initial efforts into Social Media. What it really shows is the fact that they feel that they have put enough impediments up actual democracy that they can come out of the shadows and not worry about a voter revolt! It isalso sad that these are four of the people who are pushing for right-to-work(for less) and merit pay legislation!
For the record, what the budget really means to you:
If Wisconsin had representative democracy that reflected the will of the people – via proportional representation – the state would have a very different Assembly. And a very different budget.
As it is, the Assembly that was elected with a minority of the vote has enacted a budget that fails the majority of Wisconsinites.
Of course this budget is even more devastating to public schools than the last one:
The plan that Gov. Scott Walker introduced in February had little added funding for public schools; no increase in their revenue limits, which means their budgets couldn’t grow; an expansion of the voucher program, in which state money is used to send students to private schools, based on a flawed formula and a new rating system for public schools; a new voucher program for special-needs students, despite overwhelming opposition from their parents; and a new board that would oversee charter schools, including an opening for independent charter schools, which aren’t connected to public school districts and could be run by for-profit companies.
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