Wisconsin Senate to vote on anti-union bill

[Guest Guest]

Must be thinking about your guys who were owned in November. I know it sucks your guys lost, but get over it already.

were they local rent a center woodchuck like you?

[Guest Guest]

were they local rent a center woodchuck like you?

 

 

Douchebag Lib can't think of any other terms other than this lame ass one from decades ago.

[Guest Guest]

All rhetoric, no substance. At the end of the day Wisconsin still needs to pay for that 3.6 billion dollar deficit. You can blame the rich, which I think is absurd, but that doesn't really matter. The amount of money being spent is more than the amount of money collected, by 3.6 billion. Wisconsin already has one of the highest total state/local tax rates, at 10% of income. The government of Wisconsin needs to live within its means. That's the bottom line.

 

 

WTF? Blah, blah, blah. Talk about rhetoric???

You didn't respond to a single thing I said, WHICH ENCOMPASSES THE BIG PICTURE.

You're focusing on a tree --- not surprisingly, like the Squirrel that you are.

 

THE REASON THERE'S SUCH A DEFICIT IS BECAUSE THE GREEDY RICH WIPED OUT MOST OF THE MIDDLE CLASS, AND NOW NOBODY IS PICKING UP THE SLACK!!!

 

Before that, we were all working along like maniacs, because that's what we had to do, and this shit snuck up on us. How can you not see that???

[Guest Guest]

WTF? Blah, blah, blah. Talk about rhetoric???

You didn't respond to a single thing I said, WHICH ENCOMPASSES THE BIG PICTURE.

You're focusing on a tree --- not surprisingly, like the Squirrel that you are.

 

THE REASON THERE'S SUCH A DEFICIT IS BECAUSE THE GREEDY RICH WIPED OUT MOST OF THE MIDDLE CLASS, AND NOW NOBODY IS PICKING UP THE SLACK!!!

 

Before that, we were all working along like maniacs, because that's what we had to do, and this shit snuck up on us. How can you not see that???

 

There's a deficit because the greedy rich people sent the jobs offshore? How the heck does that relate to the state of Wisconsin having a deficit? A deficit means they are spending more money than they take in - as in not having fiscal responsibility. So, let's say the average worker in that state pay's 15% of his heathcare premium, has not received a raise in 5 years, and is working 52 hours a week w/o extra compensation because economic conditions suck, they are just glad to be working - the union says TOUGH COOKIES, our members will pay 0% towards their healthcare cost, get a 5% raise every year, and work 36 hours a week and get overtime for anything above that, and no layoffs or job share irregardless of the state being broke...the credit card still works, right?

 

Living in fantasy land is what caused the problem, nothing else. What were these teachers doing out of school for a 2nd day? Wanna bet they got paid for it? You try leaving for 2 days in most jobs...would you get paid? You'd be walking the sidewalk on the 3rd day.

[Guest Guest]

Fire them all. The arrogance of them and their lackeys in government is appalling.

[Guest Guest]

There's a deficit because the greedy rich people sent the jobs offshore? How the heck does that relate to the state of Wisconsin having a deficit? A deficit means they are spending more money than they take in

 

NSS! Do you NOT realize how this all came to pass?!?!? Do you NOT realize the DEFICIT is there because middle class jobs no longer covered what they were supposed to???

Because they were NO LONGER THERE???

FOREST FOR THE TREES?!?!?

[Guest Guest]

How many of the banks have paid back all of their loans? How many have failed? Considering GM's profitability it may take them a few years but as with the half they have paid back, it will be at a profit to the lender. And they don't owe $50 billion. That was the original loan amount.

 

Again, it will only be a profit to the lender if GM stays in business to pay the loan back over who knows how many years of payments. Given their past track record, there's no guarantee of that. Meanwhile, the financial TARP fund bank repayments, $243 billion, have almost surpassed total disbursements of about $245 billion. That will not be years or wishful thinking there. The bulk of money that's owed comes from GM, Chrysler, GMAC and AIG.

[Guest Guest]

Remember that SWISHING sound after NAFTA ? That was all the jobs leaving the USA. And they were not government jobs. You took our jobs, take our money, now it's time to turn those communists OUT.

[Guest Guest]

NSS! Do you NOT realize how this all came to pass?!?!? Do you NOT realize the DEFICIT is there because middle class jobs no longer covered what they were supposed to???

Because they were NO LONGER THERE???

FOREST FOR THE TREES?!?!?

 

Take a look at the Wisconsin state budget over the last 10 years you idiot. That state budget didn't explode because of the rich.

[Guest Guest]

Take a look at the Wisconsin state budget over the last 10 years you idiot. That state budget didn't explode because of the rich.

 

 

It's pretty clear who the idiot is. ^^^

[Guest Guest]

It's pretty clear who the idiot is. ^^^

 

Hey rollyeyes, either way liberals lose. States are reaching unsustainable deficits and will continue to do so in the coming years. No amount of taxes will keep up with the rate of spending increases in their budgets, bloated by out of control pension and health care plans. So, voters can either vote in tax & spend liberals who will do nothing do reduce the budget and collapse their government OR they can elect fiscal conservatives and attempt to get their budgets under control. Your fate is sealed.

[Guest Guest]

Hey rollyeyes, either way liberals lose. States are reaching unsustainable deficits and will continue to do so in the coming years. No amount of taxes will keep up with the rate of spending increases in their budgets, bloated by out of control pension and health care plans. So, voters can either vote in tax & spend liberals who will do nothing do reduce the budget and collapse their government OR they can elect fiscal conservatives and attempt to get their budgets under control. Your fate is sealed.

 

 

Hey, Asshole. I'm not a liberal nor a teacher. This problem didn't come to a head until Corp American Greed F-ED over the private sector middle class, and now are coming after what's left. You jackasses make it easy for them.

[Guest Guest]

Hey, Asshole. I'm not a liberal nor a teacher. This problem didn't come to a head until Corp American Greed F-ED over the private sector middle class, and now are coming after what's left. You jackasses make it easy for them.

 

Suuuuuuuuure you aren't. wink wink

[Guest Guest]

There is no such thing as greed in the free market.

 

All decisions are made to maximize profit.

[Guest Guest]

Hey, Asshole. I'm not a liberal nor a teacher. This problem didn't come to a head until Corp American Greed F-ED over the private sector middle class, and now are coming after what's left. You jackasses make it easy for them.

 

You're not very smart either. You can't even admit to the double digit increases in the Wisconsin budget as a big part of the problem. Yeah right, it's all corporate America's fault. You say we are making it easy for them. So what are ya gonna do about it, tough guy?

[Guest Guest]

You're not very smart either. You can't even admit to the double digit increases in the Wisconsin budget as a big part of the problem. Yeah right, it's all corporate America's fault. You say we are making it easy for them. So what are ya gonna do about it, tough guy?

 

 

Did you actually see why they suddenly increased in budget? It's because the new governor stepped in and dumped a bunch of pork into the budget to pay back the people who helped get him elected. Without the new programs he created the state would still be about budget neutral.

[Guest Guest]

Suuuuuuuuure you aren't. wink wink

 

 

If I was, I'd say I was. How fucking retarded and nasty do you have to be? Not everyone is like you, thankfully.

[Guest Guest]

Did you actually see why they suddenly increased in budget? It's because the new governor stepped in and dumped a bunch of pork into the budget to pay back the people who helped get him elected. Without the new programs he created the state would still be about budget neutral.

 

Proof?

[Guest Guest]

Unions aren't to blame for Wisconsin's budget

By Ezra Klein

Let's be clear: Whatever fiscal problems Wisconsin is -- or is not -- facing at the moment, they're not caused by labor unions. That's also true for New Jersey, for Ohio and for the other states. There was no sharp rise in collective bargaining in 2006 and 2007, no major reforms of the country's labor laws, no dramatic change in how unions organize. And yet, state budgets collapsed. Revenues plummeted. Taxes had to go up, and spending had to go down, all across the country.

 

Blame the banks. Blame global capital flows. Blame lax regulation of Wall Street. Blame home buyers, or home sellers. But don't blame the unions. Not for this recession.

 

Of course, the fact that public-employee pensions didn't cause a meltdown at Lehman Brothers doesn't mean they're not stressing state budgets, and that the pensions they've been promised don't exceed what state budgets seem able to bear. But the buildup of global capital that overheated the American housing sector and got packaged into seemingly riskless financial products that then brought down Wall Street, paralyzing the economy, throwing millions out of work, and destroying the revenues from state income and sales taxes even as state residents needed more social services? The answer to that in not to end collective bargaining for public employees. A plus B plus C does not equal what Gov. Scott Walker is attempting in Wisconsin.

 

In fact, it particularly doesn't work for what Walker is attempting in Wisconsin. The Badger State was actually in pretty good shape. It was supposed to end this budget cycle with about $120 million in the bank. Instead, it's facing a deficit. Why? I'll let the state's official fiscal scorekeeper explain (pdf):

 

More than half of the lower estimate ($117.2 million) is due to the impact of Special Session Senate Bill 2 (health savings accounts), Assembly Bill 3 (tax deductions/credits for relocated businesses), and Assembly Bill 7 (tax exclusion for new employees).

 

In English: The governor signed two business tax breaks and a conservative health-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax revenues. The new legislation was not offset, and it turned a surplus into a deficit. As Brian Beutler writes, "public workers are being asked to pick up the tab for this agenda."

 

But even that's not the full story here. Public employees aren't being asked to make a one-time payment into the state's coffers. Rather, Walker is proposing to sharply curtail their right to bargain collectively. A cyclical downturn that isn't their fault, plus an unexpected reversal in Wisconsin's budget picture that wasn't their doing, is being used to permanently end their ability to sit across the table from their employer and negotiate what their health insurance should look like.

 

That's how you keep a crisis from going to waste: You take a complicated problem that requires the apparent need for bold action and use it to achieve a longtime ideological objective. In this case, permanently weakening public-employee unions, a group much-loathed by Republicans in general and by the Republican legislators who have to battle them in elections in particular.

 

If you read Walker's State of the State address, you can watch him hide the ball on what he's doing. "Our upcoming budget is built on the premise that we must right size our government," he said. "That means reforming public employee benefits -- as well as reforming entitlement programs and reforming the state’s relationship with local governments." Not a word on his actual proposal, which is to end collective bargaining for benefits.

 

If all Walker was doing was reforming public employee benefits, I'd have little problem with it. There's too much deferred compensation in public employee packages, and though the blame for that structure lies partially with the government officials and state residents who wanted to pay later for services now, it's true that situations change and unsustainable commitments require reforms. But that's not what Walker is doing. He's attacking the right to bargain collectively -- which is to say, he's attacking the very foundation of labor unions, and of worker power -- and using an economic crisis unions didn't cause, and a budget reversal that Walker himself helped create, to justify it.

 

And it's not as if public employees aren't hurting. In the Wisconsin budget report I quoted earlier, the state's fiscal bureau goes on to survey the state of the economy. "Going forward, Global Insight expects private sector payrolls to grow by 2.1 million in 2011, 2.6 million in 2012, and 2.5 million in 2013. Projected cutbacks in the number of public sector employees, however, are expected to partially offset those private sector gains. In 2010, the number of state and local government employees fell by an estimated 208,000 positions. In 2011, those cutbacks are expected to total an additional 150,000 positions." In other words, private jobs are coming back, but state and local jobs are still being lost. Public-employee unions are on the mat. Walker is trying to make sure they don't get back up.

[Guest Guest]

Proof?

 

 

Google? Spend 3 minutes friggin doing your own research if you're going to have an opinion?

 

But here...

 

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/Misc/2011_01_31Vos&Darling.pdf

 

* $25 million for an economic development fund for job creation, which still holds $73 million because of anemic job growth.

So dumping 25 million into something that still has 73 million in it creating costs

 

* $48 million for private health savings accounts

Crappy plan if you actually read about it

* $67 million for a tax incentive plan that benefits employers

On paper it looks great, expect that it provides about a 30 cent a day tax break for each worker hired under the plan (about 1k a year) which won't spur any growth.

[Guest Guest]

Unions aren't to blame for Wisconsin's budget

By Ezra Klein

Let's be clear: Whatever fiscal problems Wisconsin is -- or is not -- facing at the moment, they're not caused by labor unions. That's also true for New Jersey, for Ohio and for the other states. There was no sharp rise in collective bargaining in 2006 and 2007, no major reforms of the country's labor laws, no dramatic change in how unions organize. And yet, state budgets collapsed. Revenues plummeted. Taxes had to go up, and spending had to go down, all across the country.

 

Blame the banks. Blame global capital flows. Blame lax regulation of Wall Street. Blame home buyers, or home sellers. But don't blame the unions. Not for this recession.

 

Of course, the fact that public-employee pensions didn't cause a meltdown at Lehman Brothers doesn't mean they're not stressing state budgets, and that the pensions they've been promised don't exceed what state budgets seem able to bear. But the buildup of global capital that overheated the American housing sector and got packaged into seemingly riskless financial products that then brought down Wall Street, paralyzing the economy, throwing millions out of work, and destroying the revenues from state income and sales taxes even as state residents needed more social services? The answer to that in not to end collective bargaining for public employees. A plus B plus C does not equal what Gov. Scott Walker is attempting in Wisconsin.

 

In fact, it particularly doesn't work for what Walker is attempting in Wisconsin. The Badger State was actually in pretty good shape. It was supposed to end this budget cycle with about $120 million in the bank. Instead, it's facing a deficit. Why? I'll let the state's official fiscal scorekeeper explain (pdf):

 

More than half of the lower estimate ($117.2 million) is due to the impact of Special Session Senate Bill 2 (health savings accounts), Assembly Bill 3 (tax deductions/credits for relocated businesses), and Assembly Bill 7 (tax exclusion for new employees).

 

In English: The governor signed two business tax breaks and a conservative health-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax revenues. The new legislation was not offset, and it turned a surplus into a deficit. As Brian Beutler writes, "public workers are being asked to pick up the tab for this agenda."

 

But even that's not the full story here. Public employees aren't being asked to make a one-time payment into the state's coffers. Rather, Walker is proposing to sharply curtail their right to bargain collectively. A cyclical downturn that isn't their fault, plus an unexpected reversal in Wisconsin's budget picture that wasn't their doing, is being used to permanently end their ability to sit across the table from their employer and negotiate what their health insurance should look like.

 

That's how you keep a crisis from going to waste: You take a complicated problem that requires the apparent need for bold action and use it to achieve a longtime ideological objective. In this case, permanently weakening public-employee unions, a group much-loathed by Republicans in general and by the Republican legislators who have to battle them in elections in particular.

 

If you read Walker's State of the State address, you can watch him hide the ball on what he's doing. "Our upcoming budget is built on the premise that we must right size our government," he said. "That means reforming public employee benefits -- as well as reforming entitlement programs and reforming the state’s relationship with local governments." Not a word on his actual proposal, which is to end collective bargaining for benefits.

 

If all Walker was doing was reforming public employee benefits, I'd have little problem with it. There's too much deferred compensation in public employee packages, and though the blame for that structure lies partially with the government officials and state residents who wanted to pay later for services now, it's true that situations change and unsustainable commitments require reforms. But that's not what Walker is doing. He's attacking the right to bargain collectively -- which is to say, he's attacking the very foundation of labor unions, and of worker power -- and using an economic crisis unions didn't cause, and a budget reversal that Walker himself helped create, to justify it.

 

And it's not as if public employees aren't hurting. In the Wisconsin budget report I quoted earlier, the state's fiscal bureau goes on to survey the state of the economy. "Going forward, Global Insight expects private sector payrolls to grow by 2.1 million in 2011, 2.6 million in 2012, and 2.5 million in 2013. Projected cutbacks in the number of public sector employees, however, are expected to partially offset those private sector gains. In 2010, the number of state and local government employees fell by an estimated 208,000 positions. In 2011, those cutbacks are expected to total an additional 150,000 positions." In other words, private jobs are coming back, but state and local jobs are still being lost. Public-employee unions are on the mat. Walker is trying to make sure they don't get back up.

 

 

Good article!!! But don't expect the rabid villagers with torches to pay any attention.

They're not smart enough to get it.

[Guest Guest]

Public unions are obsolete and counter productive. Their only function is to take as much money from the taxpayers as they can. Public unions should be eliminated.

[Guest Guest]

Break time's over. Go bag the groceries.

[Guest Guest]

Break time's over. Go bag the groceries.

 

the retort of an unprepared local rent a center woodchuck

[Guest Guest]

Corporations are obsolete and counter productive.Their only function is to take as much money from the consumer as they can.Corporations should be eliminated.