The current showdown in Madison, Wisconsin has generated a good deal of verbiage and rightly so: The newly elected Republican governor and the large Republican majorities in both state houses have proposed a draconian measure for dealing with a projected budget deficit of $137 million for the current fiscal year. The bill would essentially require state employees (members of AFSCME, which was formed in Madison in the 1930s, the state teachers' union and other state employees to pay for the deficit by having their pension and health care benefits cut by as much as $12,000 per individual per year; but the biggest issue is that the bill effectively curtails the collective bargaining rights of state workers and would require annual votes by workers to endorse their union and its leadership over the small remants that would be negotiated in the state employees' contracts.
When Scott Walker was elected in November, with big corporate funding courtesy of Citizens United, he called for a special session of the legislature to pass tax breaks for those coporations who'd helped him by ads. In fact, the money spent in these tax expenditures is almost exactly the size of the deficit that Walker is trying to pay for on the backs of state workers. Teachers in Madison called in sick in huge numbers on Thursday and Friday, and today, the crowds grew to a size of about 70,000, most of them supporting the workers but some, bussed in today by Tea Partiers and the Club for Growth, supporting the governor. Given the record number of Republicans elected to state gubernatorial and legislative offices in November, the situation in Wisconsin is duplicated elsewhere or is on the docket, waiting to see what happens in the Dairy State. Prostests by teachers and state workers are in the offing for tomorrow in Indiana and Ohio. Given the upper distribution of wealth in fewer and fewer hands over the past 12 years, and the prolonged recession that has depleted state treasuries, these states have become the new battlefield for the soul of our politics. If Wisconsin goes the way of the governor, the middle class members of the public service sector will be everywhere under threat. In a post Citizens United World these unions are the only political foroces standing between complete corporate control of the campaign cash playing field and the uneven playing field we already have.
Seldom do our politics get so graphically displayed and the class warfare that has been concealed by most press accounts of the past ten years get the exposure that Wisconsin's case provides. It's a big deal.
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I see the situation in Wisconsin as the product of the me first attitude that is plaguing this country. Citizens are screaming that they should be able to spend their money on whatever they want and taxes become a civil rights violation. Corporations are demanding they have the ability to exercise their right to fully support whoever they want.
ReplyDeleteThis leads to underfunded and overwhelmed governments who are forced to abandon rationale in the face of a more demanding society that does not have to sacrifice anything for the well-being of the greater good. So while a few individuals propser, the rest and most are left to suffer from the drastic measures governments take to please those with the most influence but the least interest in the overall situation.
Wisconsin could be the first of many states to show very strong disagreement to their Government's measures to deal with the strained economy. The world has erupted with protest and it seems to be almost contagious. The unwillingness of Scott Walker and his administration to compromise with the state workers is shocking. With all the breaks going to the well-off, I'm taken back by the load that is placed on the state workers. I hope Terry Branstad is watching, and if something like this happened in Iowa I hope our state would respond with the same energy.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, this is a very important and emotional event we are witnessing. Walker stated what I was thinking about as well...the contagious effect the Middle East has had on the Midwest. In addition to the importance of the cause, I would claim that "average citizen" all over the world are inspired by the Middle East. Did we forget how powerful the multitude can be if only united?
ReplyDeleteWait..the wealthy and the corporations who supported Scott Walker were actually given tax breaks? And now the burden is being put on middle class citizens and in particular on teachers? I think there's something seriously wrong right there. Is education being undermined for money? I think people tend to forget that education is the key to the future and the failing educational system could be worse off with the cutting of benefits. Coming from a country with a literacy rate of about 54%, I will say that the scope of education is huge and I think people in most developed societies take it for granted. It is widely known that what is going on in Madison is beyond that, and that it is in fact a good sign that the unions are protesting.
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