Wisconsin Matters

guardian.co.uk — Governor Scott Walker emerges from Wisconsin, a state that invented Progressive Era Republican rule in the 19th and early 20th centuries under such exemplars as Robert LaFollette. Under their tenure, rent-seeking from the public domain and similar insider corruption were checked by a strong public sector anchored in integrity. The state's long history of reforms nurtured a prosperous middle class and made it a model of clean government, solid infrastructure, trade unionism and high value-added industry managed by socialists and the LaFollette Progressives. Fast-forward to Scott Walker today. Representing a new breed apart from Wisconsin's earlier Republicans, he is seeking to re-open the asset-grabbing Gilded Age style. A plague of rent-seekers is seeking quick gains by privatising the public sector and erecting tollbooths to charge access fees to roads, power plants and other basic infrastructure.

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washingtonpost.com — Consider the contrast between two groups of Democrats, in Wisconsin and in the nation's capital. Washington Democrats, including President Obama, have allowed conservative Republicans to dominate the budget debate so far. As long as the argument is over who will cut more from federal spending, conservatives win. Voters may think the GOP is going too far, but when it comes to dollar amounts, they know Republicans will always cut more. In Wisconsin, by contrast, 14 Democrats in the state Senate defined the political argument on their own terms — and they are winning it.

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washingtonpost.com — The battle between Republicans and labor unions in Ohio, Wisconsin and other states is ostensibly about public workers' pay, benefits and bargaining rights. What is really at stake, however, isn't labor's income. It's labor's influence - not just in the American workplace but in American politics. Critics of unions cast them as exclusive clubs for which the rest of Americans pay the dues. It's certainly true that unions aggressively pursue their own interests. But unions play another role, too — one more like that of civic groups than private associations. Although they want "more" for their members, they also want to make good middle-class jobs the norm. And the most important way they pursue this larger goal isn't by demanding concessions at the bargaining table, but by operating as a counterweight to the demands of corporations and Wall Street in the corridors of power. That is precisely why opponents of organized labor are seizing upon state fiscal troubles to try to destroy its remaining clout.

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aworldofprogress.com — Get rid of public jobs and your taxes go down, right? The private sector can pick up the services and then we don’t have to pay those high wages and benefits, plus it’s more efficient. Only if you think Halliburton and the other no-bid contractors have saved us money in Iraq and Afghanistan. When you privatize public services, the union workers lose their jobs and are replaced with people making a whole lot less money and often receiving few, if any, benefits. Meanwhile costs for the same services go up. There’s less oversight, which is just what the right wants. Public sector jobs are jobs. If you fire public workers, you have that many more unemployed. The only reason the right is attacking public workers is because they haven’t been able to bust those unions, yet.

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huffingtonpost.com — America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich. Today just 400 Americans, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, have more wealth than half of all Americans — 155 million Americans — combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.

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washingtonpost.com — If you want to get national attention as a governor these days, don't try to be innovative about solving the problems you were elected to deal with — in education, transportation and health care. No, if you want ink and television time, just cut and cut and cut some more. Almost no one in the national media is noticing governors who say the reasonable thing: that state budget deficits, caused largely by drops in revenue in the economic downturn, can't be solved by cuts or tax increases alone. There is nothing courageous about an ideological governor hacking away at programs that partisans of his philosophy, including campaign contributors, want eliminated. That's staying in your comfort zone.

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grist.org — This is not about public sector versus private sector or union versus non-union. It's about preserving and growing our middle class rather than widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots. It's about standing up to corporations like BP and Peabody Coal and their political cronies. It's about challenging the continued tax breaks and giveaways to dirty energy companies and Wall Street banks while working people's wages and benefits are slashed. And it's about realigning our budget priorities so the aim is to build healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities with quality career jobs, not to coddle politically connected corporations.

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thenation.com — “Care about educators like they care for your child.” It was impossible to miss the thousands of signs with that message in the sea of 100,000 protesters who gathered at Wisconsin’s Capitol on February 26. Since the start of the protests, teachers have been an integral part of the resistance to Governor Scott Walker’s union-busting budget repair bill. The fight against Walker’s bill is now entering its third week, and the governor has already announced that his 2011–13 budget will include more than $800 million in cuts to schools. It is a frightening time for Wisconsin’s public school teachers — and students — and this is only the beginning. The outcome of this standoff will undoubtedly influence the way state governments across the country negotiate with organized labor.

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