A year of living dangerously under Walker

A column by Brett in The Capital Times:

2011 will be remembered as the year Gov. Scott Walker and his corporate-funded legislative allies divided our state and attacked the middle class families like never before, and the people fought back. As we reflect on 2011 under Walker and the corporate-backed power grabs, many songs and movies come to mind.

The Great Train Robbery

Even before being sworn in, Walker started killing jobs by giving $810 million in federal train upgrade money to other states, resulting in a loss of 2,300 construction jobs for six years. Recently the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that this giveaway will cost Wisconsin taxpayers millions more for our current train service from Milwaukee to Chicago, one of the most popular routes in the heartland. GOP governors in Indiana and Michigan appreciate our money and the Los Angeles Times was grateful: “Thanks a billion, cheeseheads.”

But Walker didn’t stop there, giving away almost $500 million more in health care and Internet upgrade money to other states, costing thousands of jobs and lost health care for our citizens.

Will You be My Valentine?

Walker celebrated Valentine’s Day by moving to take away workers’ freedoms and mandating a pay cut for public sector workers. This action sparked record numbers of people to converge on the Capitol and prompted our Democratic senators to travel to Illinois in search of clean government. Assembly Democrats debated the bill a record 62 hours before Republicans shut down debate and voted in 17 seconds.

Walker revealed his true motives when talking to someone he thought was a sweetheart big corporate donor, billionaire David Koch. When “Koch” suggested planting some troublemakers in the crowd, Walker responded: “You know, well, the only problem with that — because we thought about that — my only fear would be if there’s a ruckus caused is that maybe the governor has to settle to solve all these problems …”

It’s sad that Walker didn’t put troublemakers into the crowd because he might have to meet with workers and “settle to solve all these problems” that he created.

To Have and to Have Not

Walker’s budget cut state investment for job training, public schools, health care, local governments, the University of Wisconsin, recycling, and many other things. That while increasing taxes on homeowners and middle class families and giving $2.3 billion in tax breaks to corporations over 10 years. Walker broke his promises not to raise taxes, to use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and actually increased spending $1.1 billion, making the deficit worse, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel PolitiFact.

Gone With the Wind

Good jobs, that is. Jobs left our state as Walker supported stricter wind energy rules, cut millions for energy efficiency, signed a bill to buy renewable energy from Canada, and cancelled a UW biomass plant. All these ensure Wisconsin’s energy imports, costing us $12.5 billion a year, will increase, resulting in a loss of thousands of jobs.

But that was not all. Walker’s “Open for Business” slogan failed to create jobs.

“Wisconsin has the worst job creation record in the nation and much worse than neighboring states,” said Steven Deller, UW professor of applied economics. “Economic modeling shows that the extreme cuts to state and local programs cost thousands of jobs and put Wisconsin in a weak position to create jobs.”

Like Rhett Butler, Walker doesn’t seem to give a damn, about really creating jobs anyway.

Doctor, Doctor

Walker wants to celebrate the holidays by taking health care away from 65,000 people, including 29,000 children. That is like taking health care from almost everyone in the city of Waukesha or Eau Claire It’s immoral any time, especially right after Christmas.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s editorial said Walker’s health care cuts “risk hurting too many of Wisconsin’s poor — especially kids.” Check out my ad with a mother and child whose lives were saved by BadgerCare at www.Brett4us.org. We need to protect health care for families, farmers and children, not pay for more Walker corporate handouts and power grabs.

Coal Miner’s Daughter

Walker aims to weaken our state’s already weak mining laws to allow an out-of-state mining company in. He finally got a bill introduced just before Christmas written partly by mine and polluter lobbyists. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel opposes it:

“And there is no question that the Assembly bill introduced last week to make it easier to permit such a mine is a travesty of legislation that will significantly weaken environmental protections and reduce citizen participation in the permitting process. It’s almost as if children had replaced Republican legislators and had dared each other to see just how outrageous they could make this bill.”

Ouch. We should say no to Walker’s strip mine giveaway bill.

Total Recall

And we end with hope for 2012 with the total recall of Walker and enough of his Senate colleagues to restore honor and balance to Wisconsin government. Walker and his corporate-backed colleagues ignored the laws of the land and physics, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

The best hope for 2012 is to retire Walker and his corporate-controlled cronies to get Wisconsin working again. He could use some time in the private sector to really appreciate how important public servants are.