Scott Walker’s new budget is so brutal even Republicans are afraid of it

[Katashi_itto]

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s new budget has such major slashes that even the GOP is getting nervous about it. Of course it does sport a number of characteristics one would expect Republicans to champion, like cuts to environmental programs and schools, but with the first votes looming on Walker’s two-year plan, it seems that local Republicans think he’s finally pushed too far when it comes to the disabled and the elderly.

The budget hacks away at some of Wisconsin’s most important programs for seniors. Walker is looking to cut $15 million from SeniorCare, a prescription drug assistance program for residents who are 65 and older. The program assists over 85,000 Wisconsin residents at low cost, but Walker wants to shift pharmaceutical costs to Medicare Part D, which would be more costly for those enrolled in the program.

Walker has accepted federal money to help fund Medicare Part D, but has refused to take money to fund Medicaid.

“The hypocrisy is piping hot on this one,” Rep. Andy Jorgensen told a local media outlet. That same story quoted 73-year-old Judith Joslin-Crary, whose household has to pay for six separate prescriptions for her and her husband. The couple have already sold their house in an effort to free up more money for medicine. “They talk about going from steak to hamburger, but at this age most of us are already at hamburger and we’re looking at going without,” she said, “You jump for joy when you have a program like SeniorCare come along and you just cross your fingers and you hope that they don’t mess with it.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/scott-walkers-new-budget-is-so-brutal-even-republicans-are-afraid-of-it/

[Lifelong Protester]

1. Making a lot of folks retire from teaching

and other stat jobs. There are over 46 vacancies for school superintendents (District Administrators) out of 426 or so districts. That is highly unusual. And Walker is to blame.

[yourout]

2. Our son is in his 4th year of teaching 3rd grade and is looking to get out....

He likes teaching and is damn good at it but 6 years of school and making 30K just won't cut it.

Thanks Walker you prick.

[Lifelong Protester]

3. It is a real shame.

My profession is being demeaned by too much top down meddling-and good teachers, like your son, cannot really soar. The testing, along with the lack of funds, is really squeezing us.

[appalachiablue]

36. How this hurts children and disadvantages them & society is very telling. It's really bad.

And what jobs will the teachers move into? Same with teacher/education depts. at colleges. Neo feudalism decline. There are 4 generations of teachers in my family.

[Caijoe]

44. hamburger?

“They talk about going from steak to hamburger, but at this age most of us are already at hamburger and we’re looking at going without,”

Edit: “They talk about going from hamburger to cat food, but at this age most of us are already at cat food and we’re looking at going without,” there, fixed!

[n2doc]

4. Until they say no I call bull

So far the repubs in the Wisc lege have given snotty Walker everything he (or rather, the Koch's) has wanted. And the Good folk of Wisconsin gave them all the seal of approval just 6 months ago.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

[99Forever]

6. Precisely.

Hard to feel much sympathy for a state that repeatedly votes this asshole into office.

[StarzGuy]

22. Just like the state of Arizona

The few voters who actually cast ballots here in Arizona are "mostly" assholes. I put "mostly" in quotation marks to mean that the majority of Arizona voted for Rethugs and the Douche Bag (Ducey) governor that will match Walker cut for cut...It's hell here in Arizona politically speaking. We haven't seen a democratic governor or legislature in so many decades now.

[KamaAina]

35. I thought it was "Duncey".

[DesertDawg]

54. For the most part

The voters are one and the same. All the Wealthy Midwestern retires voting in garbage like Walker are the same ones (illegally) registering to vote in AZ as well and tipping the scales in Arizona to the far right as well.

[Pharaoh]

27. the election was stolen IMHO

the numbers don't add up.

[99Forever]

30. Perhaps.

Watching from right next door, I would have thought there would have been such a landslide as to make that impossible.

[Enthusiast]

18. I cannot understand this Wisconsin support for Walker.

Maybe you can explain it to me.

[n2doc]

21. Propaganda works

Channeling everyone's frustrations with how things are deteriorating into hatred of Democrats and Unions and Teachers. The Murdoch's and Koch's of the world are very good at it. And so long as the vote can be kept close, they are also good at making the needed votes for success appear.

Look at Kansas. The voters there knew they were being screwed by Brownback, had a very reasonable alternative, and still voted Brownback in. It seems like propaganda and fear mongering has gotten so effective that even completely catastrophic leadership doesn't get voted out.

[Enthusiast]

24. I gave the people of Wisconsin too much credit.

[Cosmic Dancer]

31. You are so correct even intelligent people fall for this B.S.

"I will provide a propagandistic casus belli. Its credibility doesn't matter. The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth." 

Adolf Hitler

[MillennialDem]

50. It's called minorities and college kids not voting in midterm elections.

[Enthusiast]

52. I would think that college kids would be aware that Walker has proposed huge cuts to education.

WTF?

[MillennialDem]

53. That would make logical sense, but it doesn't seem to apply. Put it this way

Walker votes in 2014:

1,259,706 vs approx 1,110,000

Walker votes in 2012 recall:

1,335,585 vs approx 1,100,000

Walker votes in 2010:

1,128,941 vs approx 1,000,000

Romney votes in 2012:

1,407,966 vs 1,620,985 for Obama

1.4 million votes is about the republican limit in Wisconsin and Walker always gets close to that, it seems. The difference is another 600,000 vote in presidential elections and they always heavily break democratic.

[Still In Wisconsin]

55. Walker also promised (and delivered) a tuition freeze.

Never mind the effects on quality of education. Many of the students I teach in the UW system only care about getting that piece of paper as soon as possible, as cheaply as possible. It is sad but true.

[edhopper]

5. The good people of WI

have had two chances to get rid of him.

Someday they may wake up, until then, they reap what they sow.

[Lifelong Protester]

38. and the rest of us

get to suffer.

[edhopper]

39. Yep

that's how democracy works.

The whole country suffered under the GOP, and they still put them back in power. We write our own doom.

[bullwinkle428]

7. Heard this morning that Walker is now pushing the "I'm not JUST a union-buster!"

theme as the driving force in his presidential campaign.

[Faux pas]

8. The Devil in

a blue suit.

[Doctor_J]

9. a week of propaganda from Wisconsin hate radio and it will sail through

Want things to improve? Start thinking in terms of, er, neutralizing the right wing propaganda machine. Think outside the box.

[appalachiablue]

45. Countering RW propaganda control is critical; it's 4th quarter for democracy.

An alternative, accessible and independent Media is imperative now. The corporate dominated US Media consolidation by 6 giants has gone on for 20+ years, and look at the damage. What's it going to take? Pressure the FCC and enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Break up the Media Monopolies. Quality, affordable programming in several formats is desperately needed. Even conservatives and regular people would be incensed if they knew what is going on. Reality and truth in news reporting are being withheld from us. Populist Media is the only way, because it's now Extreme Conservatism 80: Democracy 20. Much more difficult challenges have been faced and overcome.

[Greybnk48]

10. Our state is quickly becoming a smoldering ruin.

How he could ever be a serious contender for higher office with the record he has here is a real head scratcher. He is destroying a formerly vibrant state. How is that a recommendation for anything?

[Katashi_itto]

11. Help make America great again on the Global Playing field Vote Walker!

People will buy it.

[Still In Wisconsin]

37. It's not about performance anymore. It's about "checking the right boxes."

Tax cuts for the super rich and corporations? Check.

Union busting legislation eg. "right to work?" Check.

Austerity budgets for public education? Check.

Roll back environmental regulations? Check.

NRA pandering gun laws? Check.

Voter ID? Check.

Anti-choice stance and anti same-sex marriage positions? Check.

State economy at or near the bottom in almost every meaningful indicator? Well, yeah, but who's counting things like that anymore?

[JDPriestly]

43. Great post!

[notadmblnd]

12. If I met that man on the street, I'd think he was mentally deficient.

I don't know why everyone can't see it. Or do they just overlook it out of sympathy? I'm not talking about the average ignorant voter, I'm talking about the people who have paid him to do their bidding. Scott Walker, the conservative's useful tool.

[lobodons]

16. GOP Ventriloquists are not the Dummies

GOP "Powers that be" Ventriloquists are not the Dummies. Cheney knew what he had in Bush. So to do the Kochs know what they have in Walker.

[StarzGuy]

23. Sounds like a guy named Bush to me...hahaha

[notadmblnd]

26. you know, rumor has it that they are distant relatives

[ND-Dem]

29. i wondered about that angle

[MisterP]

13. this is actually important in stopping the country's rightward careen

Republicans ARE starting to squirm about their own machinery and about the consequences of what they've been selling for seven decades

also these Pubs shouldn't migrate to the Dems, that helps nothing! NOTHING

[AgingAmerican]

14. He is a psychopath

He takes pensions and medical care from elderly people and gives it away to the super rich as tax cuts.

[Enthusiast]

19. But see, the elderly are undeserving useless eaters while the super rich are job creators.

Very simple.

[AgingAmerican]

25. Gold plated door knob...

...or chemotherapy for a single mother with cancer. Apparently the doorknob is more important.

Sickening.

[Jack Rabbit]

15. One can depend on sociopathic ideologues to be lousy poker players

I'm not talking about Governor Walker. He can't visit the john without permission from the Koch brothers.

I am talking about Dave and Charlie Koch. They've tipped their hand too early by telling Walker to push a budget that only a couple of old men nurtured on the poisonous milk of Birch Society ideology could even think is palatable. They really think either that We, the People will accept our own demise or that they already control the situation to the point that it doesn't matter what We think.

[pansypoo53219]

17. what do his ELDERLY parents think?

[Initech]

20. Scott Walker is a terrorist.

And he has the support of the billionaires who are keeping him in office.

[Still In Wisconsin]

28. I think the Repubs in the State Legislature are realizing that Walker doesn't give a damn

about Wisconsin, or about them. Some (but not all) of them are smart enough to realize that Walker's hyper-austerity budget will not lead to good economic results, and that they might take the blame (or at least some of the blame) for that.

It is clear that Scott Walker is perfectly willing to leave the University of Wisconsin in flames, and the rest of the state covered with smoking craters where public schools, wetlands, and farms used to be, so long as HE gets to be PRESIDENT!

[Buenaventura]

32. Scooter’s views on education are a lot like those of Al-Shabaab. n/t

[geretogo]

33. The ignorant voters will still vote for him again .

[polichick]

34. This guy seems insane.

[MerryBlooms]

40. IL better be paying attention because Rauner wants IL to follow Walker's plan.

Rauner has said more than once, Walker is a hero.

[appalachiablue]

46. That is a scary possibility for Illinois.

[blkmusclmachine]

41. Walker to Wisconsin: "Die, you g*ddamn f*cker, DIE!"

[AngryDem001]

42. Look at that evil SOB.

God.

[Miigwech]

47. Looks like Walker bites his nails

Look a the finger he is pointing .... nail biter

[Midnight Writer]

48. The Kochs are the only Republicans that matter to him

[4dsc]

49. Turning Wisconsin into another Kansas

And it would appear that other states are going to follow Kansas if we don't get out and vote in 2016.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

51. Guess maybe folks shouldn't have blocked his recall.

And re-elected him.

[Katashi_itto]

56. Exactly!