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On Two Nights in Madison's Capitol: The Great Class War Sleepover

Look, if you can explain to me in a way that I understand how it's an American value to take away people's legal rights to organize and collectively bargain for anything that they want, then I'll agree that the Koch brothers are good, Walker is a hero, and the Unions are bloodsuckers. Not saying you should get everything you want.

Anyone who can make the argument that taking away organized groups' rights to negotiate for what they want for themselves doesn't quite understand how a democratic society works; you start with basic rights and then you can't abrogate them when it's convenient for you to do so.
Perhaps the unions should incorporate, become for-profit companies, demand no-bid contracts from the governor — then perhaps the Kochs and Republicans would be in favor of them. But the way it looks to me is that Walker isn't actually all that interested in solving the state's budget crisis — just in expanding his power and becoming a Republican hero.

Posted on February 26, 2011 at 8:28 am 1

On The Selling of Wisconsin: Enter Koch Brothers' Bag Man Jeffrey Schoepke

Well, if you're following the story, you'll see that there area couple of things at play:

1. Unions agreed to concessions (i.e., paying more to continue getting the same benefits).
2. Scott Walker wanted more from them (i.e., for them to give up the right to bargain for anything other than wages).
3. Scott Walker refuses to raise taxes (i.e., increasing "revenue" to decrease possible cuts).
4. Scott Walker has also proposed changing the budgeting process such that any tax increases must now have a 2/3 majority to pass, which (if CA is any guide) means that there will be no tax increases and permanent government failure because future legislators will only ever be able to cut taxes and you can't go lower than no taxes.

So, for all its outward appearance of a "man just trying to get a break so that he can fix a system that's broken," this is really just an idealogical game of chicken. The crisis here could be easily dealt with by:

a) allowing people to continue to have their rights to organize.
b) not forever screwing every future lawmaker into only cutting taxes.

If you believe that government has a role to play in maintaining the public sphere and that role isn't strictly to provide defense, then I'd imagine you'd be against what Governor Walker is doing.

Posted on February 23, 2011 at 11:48 pm 0