What Gov. Walker Won’t Tell You

[Babylonsister]

What Gov. Walker Won’t Tell You

Posted on Feb 21, 2011

AP / Andy Manis

The Wisconsin governor, elected in November’s GOP wave that also gave control of the state Assembly and Senate to Republicans, set off the protests by pushing ahead with a measure that would require government workers to contribute more to their health care and pension costs and largely eliminate their collective bargaining rights.

By Stanley Kutler


There is a kernel of truth in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s claim of a “budget shortfall” of $137 million. But Walker, a Republican, failed to tell the state that less than two weeks into his term as governor, he, with his swollen Republican majorities in the Wisconsin Legislature, pushed through $117 million in tax breaks for business allies of the GOP. There is your crisis.

The state Legislature’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau—Wisconsin’s equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office and a refuge for professional expertise and nonpartisanship—warned Walker and the Legislature that the measure would create a budget gap. There is your shortfall—and not one resulting from established public employee benefits. Before the tax giveaways, the fiscal agency predicted a surplus for the state.

Now the governor has offered a proposal simple and clear in its intent, and patently dishonest. Walker wants state workers to contribute to their pension fund and is calling for an increase in their payments for medical insurance. Make no mistake: The governor’s “budget repair bill” has little to do with a budget shortfall and everything to do with breaking unions, starting with public employees and then perhaps moving on to others as well.

more...

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/what..._20110220/

[Cha]

I fume when I read the facts about this shortfall caused by republicon hypocrites..I can imagine how it affects those who the Scheming governor walker in Wisconsin wants to make pay for his fascist moves.

[firedupdem]

$117 million in tax cuts! These republicans are just plain evil! I don't understand their followers at all!

[Cha]

(02-22-2011 08:15 PM)firedupdem Wrote:  $117 million in tax cuts! These republicans are just plain evil! I don't understand their followers at all!

Totally agree except "evil" doesn't even cut it.