Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

[Master Shake]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

"Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is refusing to accept his own share of responsibility for the state’s $137 million shortfall. Just last month, he and the Legislature gave away $117 million in tax breaks, mostly for businesses ... and for private health savings accounts.... Had it not been for those decisions, according to the state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state would have had a surplus."

"Wisconsin had been managing better until Walker took over.... In its Jan. 31 memo to legislators, the Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.... Then Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups.... Walker is manufacturing a fiscal 'crisis' in order to achieve political goals."

Link?

[sunskyfan]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

BUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ... is their a humming in the air?

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

Link?

http://www.realitychex.com/

Scroll down until you see the heading "Local News" in the left column.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

Fun watching the cheddarheads get all riled up though...

They do have a political spirit to be proud of. The Packers are the only publicly held football team. The NFL long ago made sure such a "radical" thing would never happen again.

[snakela]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

and while interest groups fight over scraps nobody sees the thieves sneaking off with the juicy loot.

[Bill_G]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

This is a political power play, nothing more. Not all labor unions are in the Governor's cross-hairs. Police and firefighters - untouched by the cuts and proposed co-pays into health and pensions.

It is tragic watching us all fight over the few remaining morsels "trickling down" to the broad populace. We are starting to look much more like Mexico and the banana republics of south american in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

We are starting to look much more like Mexico and the banana republics of south american in the 1970s...

Yee hah!

"Democrats on the run in Wisconsin avoided state troopers Friday and threatened to stay in hiding for weeks.... even though the Wisconsin Constitution prohibits the arrest of state lawmakers while the Legislature is in session, except in cases of felonies, breaches of the peace or treason."

AP

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[tim916]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

The "global financial crisis" is the best thing that ever happened to the 1%'ers. So much money is made by corporations based in this country, where the f**k is it all going?

[charliebrown]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

These number don't make sense. In 2008 Wisconsin's budget was around 13.8B. 121 million is less that 1%.
And look some of the that money is going into health savings accounts. I read your post about a hip replacement in Thailand.
costing 10K. Well here in the U.S. if your kid gets just gets a little sick it will cost you $400.00. My kid had a sinus infection last year. One visit to the doctor, a bottle of anti-biotics, a return checkup. We are getting killed here with health care. I have heard that the miracle obama man has raised the floor of deductibility of health care expenses from 7% of agi to 10% Not many middle class families can afford to have 10% taken off their gross without major pain. 10% gross = 20% disposable income. And that is a floor. If you make 50k and have $5001 dollar in medical expenses only 1$ is eligible for the deductibility.

Now I don't like the tax breaks to business. They are usually targeted and the targets are political insiders. Why not just lower the corporate tax rate on all businesses? Could be 5% to 4.999 in this case, but at least it is fair.

I don't know how wisconsin runs their state, but in illinois the neighboring state, we just can't afford the public employees anymore. state and local taxes to pay for all of this are higher than my federal tax burden. I'm well off, but i'm sure that the
next few tax increases are going to force the marginal middle class out of their homes. And again, I'm one job loss away from
being lower middle class.

Private jobs are losing health care, pensions, 401k and other perks. There have been no raises for a decade. All we are asking for is small give backs from the public sector and its sounds like a "chorus of scortched cats"

[iyamwutiam]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

I do think the time has come for people to actually 'do the math' =as long as a large brunt of the middle class was not asked to disproportionately put in their income (like the poor) - 'it was all good'.

There is no doubt that as in all plans -some over users of benefits pile on the cost for the whole population. Along with these over users are complicit institutions and personnel who eagerly test away with expensive toys looking for arcane discorders (in many cases) -MRI's, etc -either in the name of 'defensive' medicine or 'to be thorugh'. What emerges is a scattershot algorithmic approach to a patient steeped in biophysical models of the human body.

This is the issue. And it is only one arena where ethical, community, religious differences are causing fragmentation to solving the over-all problem and also appropriately tax -the industries involved with augmenting certain chronic diseases -food industry. IN short -the banking, pharma, construction and nutrition business are increasingly fraudulent in as increasing evidence is supporting.

It is only the 'publics' assertion of the common good that can re-enforce the moral code necessary for capitalism to be a positive force on society. In short any process needs regulation so that its outcome is optimal to the greater whole -this is particularly true for systems that must act in concert.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

Private jobs are losing health care, pensions, 401k and other perks. There have been no raises for a decade. All we are asking for is small give backs from the public sector and its sounds like a "chorus of scortched cats"

I keep hearing that. It's not true. The undereducated make more in the public sector. The more highly educated loose.

The labor market is the same for both sectors. They cannot get that far out of line with one another. For Wisconsin the data shows 2% higher total compensation on the public side, with all of it going to those with less than a high-school education:



As long as they can separate and divide the middle class into warring private and public sector parts, we are all doomed. The governor is working to give your taxes to the banks. He will lower them by 10% on bankers and by 1% for you after he takes it out of your check. The real battle isn't between the coffee shop owner and the fireman. The real battle is between the financiers and everyone else. Remember that.

[Raz]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

dcarrigg wrote: "The real battle isn't between the coffee shop owner and the fireman. The real battle is between the financiers and everyone else. Remember that".

Absolutely correct.
And I will remember that.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

Fifty-seven thousand per year for a full-time teacher in Wisconsin, and I should have sympathy for their so-called "suffering"? As usual, Starving Steve is lost.

I worked part-time as a substitute teacher in California, and worked full-time, every day of the week. My pay was about $15 per hour. My pension is about $300 per month after approximately 14 years of such work. And yes, I had a real and professional teaching credential, plus I could speak Spanish as well as English. I also had a Masters Degree.

Sympathy for school administrators and senior teachers?????????? Sympathy for civil servants????????? Sympathy for ecologists and global warming "experts"???? I am totally lost.

I think it is time for government to demand roll-backs in compensation packages.

Unions? Since when did the teachers union ever help me????????? Without a contract, the teachers union doesn't help anyone, and no-one but the "chosen" few get a teaching contract. If you are a standardized and timed-tester, you are part of the chosen few. If you support English-only, you are "in". If you support dead-quiet classrooms and teaching to-the-drill and to-the timed-test, and you are "in"......... Teach for real-world meaning and application, and you are out.

[photon555]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

I heard that the teacher getting 57K in salary also got over 43K in bennies, for a total of over 100K.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Wisconsin is the new Egypt?

Fifty-seven thousand per year for a full-time teacher in Wisconsin, and I should have sympathy for their so-called "suffering"? As usual, Starving Steve is lost.

I worked part-time as a substitute teacher in California, and worked full-time, every day of the week. My pay was about $15 per hour. My pension is about $300 per month after approximately 14 years of such work. And yes, I had a real and professional teaching credential, plus I could speak Spanish as well as English. I also had a Masters Degree.

Sympathy for school administrators and senior teachers?????????? Sympathy for civil servants????????? Sympathy for ecologists and global warming "experts"???? I am totally lost.

I think it is time for government to demand roll-backs in compensation packages.

Unions? Since when did the teachers union ever help me????????? Without a contract, the teachers union doesn't help anyone, and no-one but the "chosen" few get a teaching contract. If you are a standardized and timed-tester, you are part of the chosen few. If you support English-only, you are "in". If you support dead-quiet classrooms and teaching to-the-drill and to-the timed-test, and you are "in"......... Teach for real-world meaning and application, and you are out.

Steve, you miss the point. The union teacher misses the point (if they complain about what the small business owner makes). The middle class suffers as a result. You will both continue fighting for scraps like stray dogs in an alley. Don't say I didn't warn you.