Probing the Details of Scott Walker's Budget

[shraby]

This is an alarming analysis of Walker's budget..brought over from DailyKos. Well worth the read. Too bad I can only post a few paragraphs.

<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/05/952918/-Probing-the-Details-of-Scott-Walkers-Budget>

I was reading Governor Walker’s budget proposal last night – yes, that’s what constitutes a fun Friday evening for me these days – and among its provisions I noticed that nearly $100 million was allocated for something called the “Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation”.

Much of the budget is transparently appalling, witness the nearly $900 million in education cuts, so that the Corporation at first glance seems benign. According to the budget proposal, it “supports new business start-ups, business expansion and growth by providing economic programs that supply business support, expertise and financial assistance to companies investing and creating jobs in Wisconsin.” A seemingly noble enterprise, but given Walker’s radical agenda in all other areas I thought I should take a closer look.

It turns out that the Corporation is set to replace a large chunk of the Department of Commerce, which Walker in fact eliminates entirely, with its 336 employee positions, in his budget proposal. The most telling sentence is this one:

Statutory authority related to most programs at the Department of Commerce have been eliminated and will be replaced by the by-laws of the corporation in an effort to insure maximum flexibility.

[Scuba]

1. Thanks, I blatantly cut and pasted to JSOnline blogs... Scuba

[shraby]

2. That was a good thing you did!! I didn't even think of it.

[Scuba]

3. Appreciate your support....

... we need to keep posting there to counter the Koch-paid trolls.

[Scuba]

4. Oh yeah, thanks also for your time and energy in reading that piece of garbage. n/t

[ladjf]

5. Corporation = license to colonize and exploit it's host locale and

citizens. nt

[ladjf]

6. The results of the recent National election, has led the Republicans

to believe that they are in the final phase of completely taking over the Govt. so that the money
heist can continue for years with NO restrictions from the Govt. or the people.

The question is, and I don't know the answer, are the Republicans overstepping the mandate of their recent election gains?

[starroute]

7. That word "flexibility" is becoming as evil as "reform"

I caught Walker using it somewhere as an explanation of why he needs to kill collective bargaining even though the public workers are willing to make concessions.

It's much like the term "flex-time," which started off meaning adjustments to the employee's benefit and ended up being entirely under the control of the employer.

By now, "flexibility" has come to mean something like "the ability of the bosses to do whatever they want whenever they want, without regulation or oversight, and screw everybody else." And our spidey-sense should start tingling anytime we see it.