Republican lawmakers break ranks on Walker budget

[highplainsdem]

Source: Associated Press

Republican lawmakers break ranks on Walker budget
Mar. 29, 2011
Written by
SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press


MADISON— Republicans broke from their party allegiance to Gov. Scott Walker in the first briefing on his budget plan Tuesday, joining Democrats in questioning the governor’s decisions to cut money for recycling and reshape the University of Wisconsin System.

The meeting was a signal of how difficult it will be for Walker to get everything he wants in the two-year spending plan he delivered to the Legislature earlier this month.

-snip-

Huebsch said that while Walker calls for removing the mandate, many Wisconsin communities would continue to pay for recycling themselves or private companies would fill the void.

-snip-

Huebsch was also asked by Republican Sen. Luther Olsen, of Ripon, to explain why Walker proposes doing away with the requirement that the state conduct a cost benefit analysis before contracting for services outside of state government that cost more than $25,000. He said that would send the wrong message to the public at a time when the state is looking for ways to save money.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20110329/WDH0101/110329102/1580/wdh01/Republican-lawmakers-break-ranks-Walker-budget

---

This is a three-page article, which I hope people will read in its entirety.

I quoted the two later paragraphs above because the one about recycling shows the push for privatization, even in recycling.

And the one about doing away with cost-benefit analyses before contracting for services outside of state government shows that Walker doesn't want ANY studies indicating that he won't be saving the state money when he hands out contracts to his pals and donors.

[lonestarnot]

1. K & R!

[opihimoimoi]

2. You get who you vote for.....Lolo voting gets you Lolo Leaders , who leads to Lolo decisions

which in turn leads to losses, leading to higher poverty level...

[999998th word]

8. I sure as hell didn't get what I voted for, neither did many people I know.

[efhmc]

37. Same here in Texas. Many voted for change, just not

enough.

[russspeakeasy]

46. I didn't get what I voted for either. Rick Scott !

This bastard has already made Florida worse. 10% turnout will
do that..

[1monster]

47. That and vote switching... I voted for Sink.

[lark]

67. Wonder how many Sink votes were switched to Scott

Even though FL does have it's share of teabaggers, even most Repugs that I've talked to didn't vote for him. South FL is Dem territory and I've heard went to the touch screen voting with no tracking at all - easy to hack and steal votes.

[Iggo]

42. Did you vote for George W. Bush? 'Cause you sure got him. (n/t)

[opihimoimoi]

59. Not me...lol ...I just knew he was a FAIL,,,,got it from Molly Ivans summer of

2000...She warned us about Bush....

[PADemD]

43. What is Lolo?

I couldn't find a definition on the internet. Thanks.

[jdadd]

48. Check out number 2

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lolo

[opihimoimoi]

57. Thanks braddah...

[Iggo]

60. I was wrackin my brain...

..Lolo. Lolo. What could that possibly be short for? Low-info, low-turnout?

Now I see it's just its own word. Phew.

[AnneD]

76. From the song...

What ever Lola wants Lola gets... Can't remember the singer...Edie Adams maybe?Clever word play.

[piggy2000]

52. Voting Machines do NOT need to be Privatized!

We should start by taking over the voting machines. As long as they are operated by a private company, we are leaving it up to the private company to decide our fate. Private companies plus apathy for voting = No Democracy

[opihimoimoi]

56. I Agree,,,86 those damn things....its a factor allowing Lolo's into office

[BillyJack]

3. K&R

:kick:

[midnight]

4. Why separate colleges from the state system?

[highplainsdem]

5. Link to a topic posted yesterday about their plans for the University of Wisconsin-Madison:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x760296

[Divernan]

6. Re:governors, PA voted for John Wayne & got the sheriff of Nottingham

Corbett is gutting education, slashing funding to school districts. If the already struggling taxpayers don't agree to massive property tax increases, the schools will be reduced to 1/2 day farces of education. Any parents who can afford to will put their kids into private/charter schools, leaving public schools to educate the proles for jobs at McDonald's and as greeters at Home Depot - or to enlist as cannon fodder in the US's multiple wars on third world countries in its insane push to be the world's military/industrial/complex super power.

[mwb970]

9. OH voted for a clueless far-right ideological man-child - and now we've got him!

:(

[eowyn_of_rohan]

11. Was that really You voting, Ohio? Or was it E-voting?

Just asking, since we really can't be sure...the grand slam of thugs winning governorships in midwest states--Ohio, Wisconsin, Iows, Michigan--plus Wisconsin "voting out" Sen. Feingold, is too much for me to swallow after 8 horrid years of the bu$h regime...and look! They are all using the same playbook!

[Enthusiast]

14. You are right.

We can't be sure. And being sure is the hallmark of fair and free elections.

Something has changed. I don't think the Citizens United decision adequately explains the change. The new Republican governors are very bold in their legislation agenda. It is like nothing I have ever observed. It is almost as if they know they will be reelected no matter how public opinion turns against them. Something is afoot.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

20. "It's almost as if they know they will be reelected no matter how public opinion turns against them"

Yes - this should be a wake up call. Their audaciousness, arrogance, recklessness is alarming!

[MaeScott]

17. Machines with verifiable paper ballots should be the norm. nt

[sybylla]

25. It is in Wisconsin

This debate is moot here. Are there other ways to fuck with the system, sure. But fucking with the ballots in Wisconsin is not easily done.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

34. Hmmm.... Not moot. Who counts the votes in Wisconsin? A private RW company

Even if we use paper ballots (such as with Optiscan) there is also no way to see the completed ballots unless there is a recount. Do you know how difficult it is to GET a recount?

Wisc uses primarily ES&S equipment. And who is tabulating the votes from those ballots with their "trade secret" code? ES&S....a private, FAR RIGHTWING-CONNECTED corporation, which just bought out Diebold (and previously bought out Sequoia which also has a long and sordid history).

DU'er Peace Patriot writes, "It's the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, which can turn one of the most progressive states in the country, Wisconsin, into an icon of fascism. With these machines 'counting' our votes with 'TRADE SECRET' code, we have no chance to reverse things--no matter how hard we work to elect good people.

Our most basic rights and power as a people, and the bottom line of democracy--voting--has been PRIVATIZED. It has been taken out of the public venue. That WAS the coup d'etat."

I'm not trying to be an alarmist or make excuses for those who do NOT turn out to vote but if we seek reform and transparency this cannot be dismissed.

[jeff47]

38. Except that in all elections, random precincts are hand-counted

to verify the electronic system hasn't been tampered with.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

40. that's somewhat reassuring.

Thanks for posting this.

After each November general election, The State Elections Board will randomly select fifty (50) reporting units across Wisconsin which will be subject to municipal audit, including a minimum of five (5) reporting units for each voting system used in Wisconsin.
Voting System Audit Requirements, Wisconsin State Elections Board, November, 2006

I'm still skeptical, however, considering I don't trust State Elections Board supervisor, Kevin Kennedy. Which precincts did he order counted in 2010, and who counted them? Wonder if we could find this out - I'll do a little digging.

[sybylla]

49. Actually, there were lots of recounts in November

None of them turned up any foul play.

In fact, the only swing in the numbers that resulted came from badly marked ballots.

It's not difficult at all to have a recount in Wisconsin. A candidate can request one after any election. It's on the local government's dime if the results show the loser within a certain percentage of the winner - .5% IIRC.

In the Eau Claire area alone, there were three legislative recounts last November. All recounted in part by a Democratic County Clerk (in Eau Claire). I know of several others scattered around the state. No regularities were reported.

Believe me, I've been part of the Black Box Voting movement since its inception. I'm with you on this. But I also know several Democratic County Clerks who are the eyes and ears on the ground. If shit were happening, they would know.

And we would know.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

51. Thanks for your post

Though I am still skeptical, I am encouraged that there is positive news about our election system in Wisco.

[Jackpine Radical]

61. I think the bigger problem was the flooding of the airwaves

with People United money. The barrage was incessant and negative against the Dems. For example, when phone banking, I had a lot of people tell me they were voting against Feingold because he sold them out on the bank reform bill. Indeed, Russ voted against that bill, but only in protest that it was too tepid in its measures. So right-wingers, who opposed bank regulation, used Russ's vote against a weak bank bill to turn people who, like Russ, favored stronger regulation, against him.

[LisaM]

65. But there was some evidence of vote caging in Wisconsin

The votes in Wisconsin were close. Just a small amount of suppression can turn the trick.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/09/20/voter-caging-scheme-uncovered-in-wisconsin/

[sybylla]

70. How can you have caging when you have same day registration?

That will soon change, however.

If you're calling voter intimidation "caging," then I suppose it qualifies, but with same day registration, so long as voters know their rights, there's no problem.

[Left_Is_Right]

23. I never thought I would say this...but...

the state of the education system in the US is obscene. At least in the military...kids will get a pretty good education...but if this president doens't stop putting our soldiers in harms way...they also could get the shit blown out of them...

[LynneSin]

31. I knew Corbett would be a mistake but I'll blame Catherine Baker Knoll for that one

Instead of having a strong Lt Governor that could run for office after Rendell's terms were done PA was stuck with a Lt. Governor that was in her 80s who would not be able to run for Governor at the end of Rendell terms (well she could if she lived but she was in her mid'80s at that time).

So the race was a free-for-all with a no-name democrat running against a well known republican in a year that favored republicans. Had Knoll stepped down and allowed someone else to serve we might have had a chance.

[PADemD]

44. +1

[shraby]

7. The recall drive is having an early effect. Imagine that!

[tcaudilllg]

33. How is it coming along?

Any figures?

[shraby]

45. I think they plan to have enough signatures by May. It looks like

they already have enough for Hopper.

[AllyCat]

54. We have enough for Kapanke. Darling's recall is working along nicely.

The current estimates are we have a reasonable chance at recalling 6 of the 8. Grothman will stay, but many have been willing to sign in his bloody red district.

[fasttense]

10. I think some RepubliCONS are afraid of being recalled.

That's a funny thing about real democracy. If you implement laws that most voters object to, you don't get to remain in office very long. It's the one thing the corporate aristocracy really, really hates about democracy. People like the Koch brothers and Walker would fit perfectly into Chinese style communism. Democracy is what they really hate.

[charmay]

12. I totally agree!

The republicans will give a small voice to a few concerns to distance themselves from Walker. It's all about the recalls and the 2012 election.

[HereSince1628]

22. Exactly, While everyone said we lost because the charade moved the bill

through the house and senate, another reality was happening: WE WON A Huge (as in HUGH11!111) PSYCHOLOGICAL BATTLE. We put fear in the hearts of the ALEC directed lamebrain republican legislators.

Democrats have known for years that the conservatives are highly motivated by FEAR. And the presentation of between 3/4 and 1 million people protesting on Capitol Square gave the assembly and senate fear for their jobs.

The bill (it shouldn't be called a law at this point) is still contested in the courts, and Walker has chosen to make it a Wisconsin constitutional issue by doing the end run around the Secretary of State.

So now, instead of just having pushed an unpopular bill, the Walker administration has created a constitutional crisis for the state by claiming that the governor and the legislature cannot be held accountable to the courts for violation of the constitution. That's just mind-blowing!

I don't know how even a right-leaning court could accept that. I've never seen an elected official (and WI supreme court justices are elected) willingly give up any power, and in this case, it' power that is critical to the maintenance of the traditional checks and balances that make our republican form of democracy function.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

13. Bill also includes proposed $800 million cut to school aid.

My nephew is a Junior in a Madison area high school who hopes to attend art school after he graduates. He called me last night, very upset, to tell me their principal announced Monday that all drama and advanced level art classes were being eliminated, as well some music, English and social studies classes. She told them this was being implemented to cooperate with the governor's new bill. This is a known RW principal. Some of the students' parents are supposedly considering a lawsuit against the school...

[Enthusiast]

15. Imagine the long term consequences

of these Republican objectives. They have ramped up the dummying down of America. At the very moment in history when we desperately needed to enhance education they have decided on the unwise course of undermining it.

[crim son]

19. Oh, they want the kids to be able to read and add,

but they'd rather those same kids don't understand what they're reading or why they're adding. Eliminate all courses that encourage free, creative thinking and creativity in general and this is neatly accomplished. Repugs will deliver mindless drones to the workforce, come hell or high water.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

36. You nailed it. -nt

[Avant Guardian]

58. One republican I work with told me the goal is medieval christianity

Seriously, he says they want to revert to medieval times. Burning witches at the stake, church control of everything, and capitalistic feudalism.

[lark]

68. Actually, they want far worse than that

In the middle ages trade unions were VERY robust and respected, they were the 3rd leg of the 3 legged chair - nobles, merchants & unions, & serfs. Repugs want to go back to the Roman era where there was only soldiers, nobles & serfs. Soldiers were for the most part slightly better fed serfs, so really there were only 2 classes and that's the goal of the Koch's, Scaiffe's, Murdoch etc.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

21. Adding - How can this principal implement these changes when there is a court order ...

...against implementation of this bill? I find this very intriguing.

[sybylla]

29. There's no court order blocking the budget

Only the "Budget Despair Bill" which made changes to the previous budget.

What will happen, which will only make Walker happier, is that they will give the appearance of allowing schools to replace the money they are taking away in the budget with the union-busting "tools" they are pretending they already passed.

Then they will pass the budget with the full proposed cuts (fooling the puke legies into supporting it because they think the tools will make up the dif). And the courts will strike down the tools, leaving the giant, gaping hole in school budgets that can only be made up by making stiff cuts.

There are a lot of school boards and administrators who've been stabbed in the back by pukes in this state before. They are making big cuts and laying off teachers because they know, if Walker has a chance, he will piss down their backs and make the kids pay for it. No school district can afford to find out after the fact that they are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars (millions in some large school districts).

[sybylla]

28. He's lucky - that stuff disappeared from smaller schools a decade ago.

The funding formula instituted by Thompson in this state was all about making public schools die a slow death. Now Walker has his fist on the throat and many small and mid-sized schools, already on death's door, will be out of business in the next couple of years. Busing kids for two hours one way to school is going to become the norm.

Wait until you see the rush of referenda on the ballot next year - that's if Walker doesn't ban referenda.

[MaeScott]

16. K and R

[beac]

18. K&R! Your last sentence sums up Walker's agenda perfectly.

Sounds like some GOPers fear the recall more than not getting their share of the spoils! :applause:

[myrna minx]

24. K&R n/t

[TxVietVet]

26. The kockroach Walker doesn't want any transparency on his trasactions.

All he wants to do is what HE wants to do regardless of costs or especially the truth coming out.
He's a kockroach who is afraid of the light of truth.

Step on the kochroach and hear him pop. :rofl:

[Left_Is_Right]

27. Pass it around...

Lefty,

[spedtr90]

30. Questioning doesn't mean opposing

Republicans taking a step back by asking questions is as much a reason for suspicion as for hope.

[RufusTFirefly]

39. Right. And Rethugs are "questioning" the low-hanging fruit

Wisconsin Rethugs can appear to be compromising while keeping the most devastating elements of the bill intact. At worse, the bill would go from obscene to merely outrageous.

Remember how Republicans in Congress "compromised" by extending unemployment benefits? Every Congress, Democratic or Republican, has extended those benefits in similar economic hardship, but the current Rethugs made it seem as though they were making a huge concession.

A bullshit detector is almost as valuable as a Geiger counter in this day and age.

[AllyCat]

53. They will stop questioning just in time to vote for Walker's proposals

These Repugs are all the same. Nowadays, they are all the same. And they will vote lockstep for the corporate leaders they serve.

[tcaudilllg]

32. They realize Walker will not survive.

[Action]

35. Don't forget Michigan

Folks here voted for Rick Snyder. They really didn't know what he was going to do. Our state is hurting more than any other. Voters thought Snyder was a moderate so they took a chance. Now we see he is going to finance the tax breaks to his buddies on the backs of the working poor and pensioners. He will take over cities and towns with emergency managers and nullify the folks the voters voted in.

Snyder ran slick ads. Held hand picked Town Hall meetins. Took no hard questions from reporters. Only debated the Dem candidate Mayor Verg Bernero one time.

Buyers remorse? Big time. Recent polls show that if the election were held today, Bernero would have won.

We are fighting back and will start the recall in July.

www.firericksnyder.org

[Snoutport]

41. KR...do your reading people! good article nt

[bucolic_frolic]

50. 1st Step to Privatizing UWisc and Filling it with NeoCons

Just extrapolate forward .... What he's doing to public education will be extended to University levels ... sell off to private companies, allow for-profits colleges to bid on the assets, fire all the Unionized faculty, bring in business faculty .... This is a dangerous power grab ...

[benld74]

55. I for one, AM SO SICK of seeing Walker's picture I could puke!!!

HOW anyone COULD HAVE VOTED for him IS BEYOND me!!

[louis-t]

62. Sounds like it's time for the Koch Bros. to up the ante.

Get the checkbook, boys. This isn't about budgets, it's about privatizing everything. It's about a massive giveaway of publicly owned property and services. It's about dismantling our states and selling off the assets at a fraction of the value. Question for the lurking teabaggers: what happens when the repugs run out of shit to sell? The bills they're ramming through will do very little to balance any budgets. What will happen to the roads you drive on?

[iwishiwas]

73. These Repugs just want a piece of the pie.

[Uncle Joe]

63. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, highplainsdem.

[drm604]

64. Maybe those recall drives have gotten their attention.

:applause:

[PatrynXX]

66. ha. used to work there until I lost my fingertip

and their insurance (Travelers ) didn't want to sue Quipp for an unguarded chain link. Had 2 lawyers both tell me I had a big case, but Travelers didn't want to pursue it. No union there at the time to IRONIC. Never notice you need a union until there's a safety issue. Heard later from someone another employee had his hand stabbed by one of the inserting machines. He was a nice guy too. Wind storm went thru Wausau in 99 and I think we worked 19 hours on that because most of it was standing around in the dark waiting for the the plates to get to Green Bay, by that time the power came back. (not at our hourse. 6pm? maybe ) coming home in the early morning hours without the stop lights on was spookie..

WDH always came off as a bit Right Wing so surprising they'd post this. All I can say is at the time Wisconsin had a heck of a workers comp policy.

[Blue Owl]

69. K&R

:kick:

[RedCloud]

71. Recall them anyway, for they are just breaking wind!

[glinda]

72. Hope WI peeps don't fall for anything any Republican says though.

[Beartracks]

74. Right! Cost/benefit analyses create paper trails. n/t

[midnight]

75. Beartracks great message: wages needs to be high

so consumers can buy.... It seems so obvious....

[Beartracks]

77. Thanks! The image is a link btw...

... It's in my Zazzle shop.

:patriot:

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