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It's Official: Wisconsin Gov. Walker Signs Bill Taking Away Public Worker Collective Bargaining Rights.
While the signature of Governor Walker to the Bill that had passed both the Senate and the Assembly, was inevitable, it is now also history. The first shot across the bow at America's unions is now official. What happens in Wisconsin next is anyone's guess. Probably nothing much. And any union member who may consider protesting today should carefully evaluate whether they should be doing so at the Senate building or on Wall Street/D.C. where the root of America's insolvency, and all of its financial problems stems from.
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Not in a fiat system. You are incorrect.
The only way all boats rise is if we have money creation. Money creation cannot exist in perpetuity.
This is the failure of the fiat system
and thus to rollover and take cuts to save it(hahaha) is something only a sheep or a fool would do.
meaningless, there's no way to save the system anyway, the course was established long ago, but it doesn't mean that we soak tax payers for union contracts on the way down the shitter.
this was a win for tax payers who never had an opportunity to sit at the table during the bargaining. sorry to mess with someone elses party but it had to happen.
I don't agree with any of the bailouts but I voiced my distaste then and much to my dismay my rep voted for that trash anyway.
The ultimate coffer for all bailouts / subsidies etc is the tax payer, so your real criticism is that for these folks they weren't allowed to bilk the tax payer further? That is a joke.
Gene: All politicians, including Walker, are owned by the wealthy. The only reason politicians will take a saw to their employees is that they are forced to. As pointed out early, the big giveaway will be in utilities and land. Walker is not doing any favours to the middle class workers of Wisconsin, but the wealthy are eagerly awaiting the selloff of public utilities.
I need an elaboration / supporting info on your last sentence.
I don't disagree with your points about TBTF and how angry we should be about that, it's just that in the case of WI I think the two need to be seperated as different issues. Yes they both are tax payer fundings, but the end results of either are different.
Still can't figure out that reply button, huh?
I'd say that he's cutting costs which would otherwise have to be picked up by the tax paying working people/middle class. To me, that sounds like he's doing them a favor. Every state should try to spit the bit that the public sector unions have put in their mouths
"Favours"? Where are you writing to us from?
Walker is serving the people who own him - the banker-gangsters. Nothing could be more transparent.
His owners know that the last vestige of working class strength rests with the public sector unions. After all, they've already obliterated organized labor everywhere else.
So crushing them is the priority of the ruling class. They're fighting a class war aimed at mass casualties. And when things really move on this front, one thing is certain: for all their hot rhetoric, the Keyboard Cowboys happily carry water for the banker-gangsters.
They're owned, just like Walker.
casey - Gene - karzai
It would be interesting if the ip's of those were made available.
Huh? What do you want to know? I have nothing to hide. I'm sitting at my desk on my lunch break here in Boston.
I believe you, I'm more interested in casey and his aide karzai.
I doubt the government is the only one working on/has come up with the capability to manage multiple online persona.
+1
I am writting today from Kansas in the USA.
My IP changes a fair bit as I have many devices and some other means.
I have never been a part or a supporter of a union and never will.
My bro is in one and has been for the last 30 years.
We don't speak of it.
My point is if i were in A UNION i would not accept anything that forces me to pay or support others under this corrupt scam of a system.
I would rather see all stop sending tax money to the states or FEDs than take a penny of cuts.
My IP today for this session is 75.92.253.132.
Which public library meangene is at is for him to say!:)
I am not anyone on this sites aid.
However you may continue to kiss meangenes ass and/or post up your detail and we could then continue perhaps on a new basis.
What are your details Joe or are your minders going to allow that here?
I love the cowards that call out and then junk.
Coward midget lightweight.
I laugh.
I didn't junk you.
But I can if you'd like.
You want my information?
I take this shit very seriously!
If anyone ever attempted to harm my family, it would be lights out for them.
I am tired of the bitching. Just get out and make it happen. Stand outside the FED and refuse to leave until they are shut down.
Withdraw your consent entirley from the system. Buy Gold and Silver. Arm yourself. Get a water filter.
I know Hedge Fund Hyenas lurking here benefit from the inflationary holocaust going on... TOUGH SHIT!
You must be prepared to die for what you believe. I am prepared.
My heart has accepted what my eyes could never have belived
The Founding Fathers risked their lives giving us liberty!
Today we have nothing but ROT.
The doom is unhealthy, but I know what is coming thanks to Zero Hedge.
I am only 20, ripe for the impending draft... into World War 3
I would rather stop the FED (peacefully) before they are allowed to start another WAR funding both sides.
This is really not that hard guys... but nothing ever happens. NOTHING WILL CHANGE
Not only was there a housing bubble but also thousands of other bubbles all ready to fall like domino's.
In 1964 walking liberty silver .50 cent piece was worth .50 cents.
In 2011 same coin is worth $12.5
In 1964 Gas was .27 cents
In 1964 $.50 could buy ( $.5 / $.27 ) =1.85 gal. of gas
Today that same $.50 can buy 3.57 gal. of gas ( 91% more gas )
Min wage in 1964 $1.25 today federal = 7.5 )
Gal. of gas $.27 to $3.5 = 12.96 times
To maintain same standard of living ( 1.25 x 12.96 ) = 16.20 min. wage, = 32,400 / yr
The standard of living has been falling for a long time, and now breaching the middle classes breaking point. When two people can't provide for the family theres trouble coming.
CHECKMATE
I think you are bringing up the right points. I missed out on growing up with one parent working but it wasn't that long ago. How and why have wages (working person) deteriorated so much over the past decades?
So the obvious, logical thing to do is cut working class wages further at every imaginable turn, right?
Especially when the proceeds for doing so can buy Ken Lewis another YACHT, baby!
Yep. Well, the hard working TAXPAYERS of Wi. will at least get a break from this. I wonder if ANYBODY would be opposed to unions if it wasn't so obvious that in their modern form they are just fronts to raise money for politicians, lefties mainly though not always, who just run cover for the banksters and other elite slime?
And we just attack each other over stupid fucking 'workers rights' and other bullshit that unions and their crony politicians and banksters could care less about.
Sad really.
It appears that the main complaint is that the union workers were not allowed to bilk the tax payers like the TBTF banks did. And apparently the justification for this is that since the system is going to fail anyway we all ought to feed at the trough like pigs.
The 150k Firefighters can take their pensions and SHOVE IT!
Once again, the Founders were ahead of their time!
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/philadelphia/fire.htm
AND THEY DID IT FOR FREE!
Actually, it appears the main complaint is that the Governor and the Republican Senate are passing laws that benefit the Koch Brothers at the expense of the state. I don't agree with $150K firefighters and other such abuses but it pales in comparison to the abuses that the richest 1% are committing on this country and it's people. A little discussed paragraph in this budget bill seems to have gone unnoticed. It's on page 19 of the bill if you care to look it up.
Here is the essence of it:
16.896 Sale or contractual operation of state−owned heating, cooling, and power plants. (1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).
The Kock Brothers should make a killing off of this.
You won't get any argument from me on this point, nothing that I had read, which wasn't much, on the WI issue talked about this. That reads very oddly indeed.
Unfortunately that's not the basis of many of the complaints I've read here.
Yes, it got lost in this whole debate about the unions. I think most folks are reasonable people. Unfortunately, most folks are often not as loud as the minority -- on either side. I grew up in a union town - Las Vegas where I experienced first hand their extortionist activities and I grew up hating unions. Even today we often make the paper nationally on how much our firefighters and police are making (many over $200K/yr). It would be interesting to know how much policemen in Wisconsin are getting paid seeing how they were exempted from the no collective bargaining agreement and seeing how they were among the unions who supported Walker. Having said that as a reasonable person I can't see where teachers unions are invovled in the same abusive behavior and knowing who is behind the bill and the governor is enough for me to know that this bill is not about the benefit of the taxpayer but more about the benefits of the Koch Brothers and other big business.
Keyboard Cowboys conflate those who wrecked the economy with home aid workers, farmers and fire-fighters who have suffered the effects of economic dislocation. This is hardly surprising, given how blame-the-victim mentality is pervasive among greed heads.
This lie underpins the whole crusade waged by the Morgue's ZeroHedger groupies against people who work for a living. The LIE situates them alongside Jamie Dimon and against working people on the barricades of this relentless Class War.
Any effort to pin ANY responsibility for the current Capitalist meltdown on ANY institution other than those run of, by, and for the banker-gangsters who CAUSED the crisis is pure, unadulterated deception and financial propaganda.
The same for the Afghan war, which is ongoing. If the Afghan war lasts as long as the Pentagon says it needs to, the cost will be a multiple of the cost of the Iraq war.
There is not enough non-military discretionary spending in the budget to cover the cost of the wars even if every dollar is cut. As long as the $1,200 billion ($1.2 trillion) annual budget for the military/security complex http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175361/ is off limits, nothing can be done about the U.S. budget deficit except to renege on obligations to the elderly, confiscate private assets, or print enough money to inflate away all debts.
The other great contribution to the US deficit is the offshoring of production for US markets. This practice has enriched corporate management, large shareholders, and Wall Street, but it has eroded the tax base, and thereby tax collections, of local, state, and federal government, halted the growth of real income for everyone but the rich, and disrupted the lives of those Americans whose jobs were sent abroad. When short-term and long-term discouraged workers are added to the U.3 measure of unemployment, the U.S. has an unemployment rate of 22%. A country with more than one-fourth of its work force unemployed has a shrunken tax base and feeble consumer purchasing power. To put it bluntly, the $3 trillion cost of the Iraq war, as computed by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, is 20% of the size of the U.S. economy in 2010. In other words, the Iraq war alone cost Americans one-fifth of the year’s gross domestic product. Instead of investing the resources, which would have produced income and jobs growth and solvency for state and local governments, the US government wasted the equivalent of 20% of the production of the economy in 2010 in blowing up infrastructure and people in foreign lands. The US government spent a huge sum of money committing war crimes, while millions of Americans were thrown out of their jobs and foreclosed out of their homes.
The bought-and-paid-for Congress had no qualms about unlimited funding for war, but used the resulting “debt crisis” to refuse help to American citizens who were out of work and out of their homes.
The obvious conclusion is that “our” government does not represent us.
The US government remains a champion of offshoring, which it calls “globalism.” According to the US government and its shills among “free market” economists, destroying American manufacturing and the tax bases of cities, states, and the federal government by moving US jobs and GDP offshore is “good for the economy.” It is “free trade.” Where is all this leading?
It is leading to the destruction of Social Security and Medicare.
Republicans have convinced a large percentage of voters that America is in trouble, not because it wastes 20% of the annual budget on wars of aggression and Homeland Security porn-scanners, but because of the poor and retirees. Andrew Sullivan also has no concept of reductions in military/security subsidies: “they’re big babies I mean, people keep saying they don’t want any tax increases, but they don’t want to have their Medicare cut, they don’t want to have their Medicaid [cut] or they don’t want to have their Social Security touched one inch. Well, it’s about time someone tells them,you can’t have it, baby.”
Niall Ferguson thinks that Americans are so addicted to wars that the U.S. government will default on Social Security and Medicare.
Republicans tell us that our grandchildren are being saddled with impossible debt burdens because of handouts to retirees and the poor. $3 trillion wars are necessary and have nothing to do with the growth of the public debt. The public debt is due to unnecessary “welfare” that workers paid for with a 15% payroll tax.
When you hear a Republican sneer “entitlement,” he or she is referring to Social Security and Medicare, for which people have paid 15% of their wages for their working lifetime. But when a Republican sneers, he or she is saying “welfare.” To the distorted mind of a Republican, Social Security and Medicare are undeserved welfare payments to people who over-consumed for a lifetime and did not save for their old age needs.
America can be strong again once we get rid of these welfare leeches.
Once we are rid of these leeches, we can really fight wars. And show people who is boss.
Republicans regard Social Security as an “unfunded liability,” that is, a giveaway that is interfering with our war-making ability.
Alas, Social Security is an unfunded liability, because all the money working people put into it was stolen by Republicans and Democrats in order to pay for wars and bailouts for mega-rich bankers like Goldman Sachs.
What I am about to tell you might come as a shock, but it is the absolute truth, which you can verify for yourself by going online to the government’s annual OASDI and HI reports. According to the official 2010 Social Security reports, between 1984 and 2009 the American people contributed $2 trillion, that is $2,000 billion, more to Social Security and Medicare in payroll taxes than was paid out in benefits.
What happened to the surplus $2,000 billion, or $2,000,000,000,000.
The government spent it.
Over the past quarter century, $2 trillion in Social Security and Medicare revenues have been used to finance wars and pork-barrel projects of the US government.
The subsidy to the US government from the payroll tax is larger than the $2 trillion in excess revenue collections over payouts. The subsidy of the Social Security payroll tax to the government also includes the fact that $2.8 trillion of US government debt obligations are not in the market. If the national debt held by the public were $2.8 trillion larger, so would be the debt service costs and most likely also the interest rate. The money left over for war would be even smaller. More would have to be borrowed or printed.
The difference between the $2 trillion in excess Social Security revenues and the $2.8 trillion figure is the $0.8 trillion that is the accumulated interest over the years on the mounting $2 trillion in debt, if the Treasury had had to issue bonds, instead of non-marketable IOUs, to the Social Security Trust Fund. When the budget is in deficit, the Treasury pays interest by issuing new bonds in the amount of the interest due. In other words, the interest on the debt adds to the debt outstanding.
The robbed Social Security Trust Fund can only be made good by the US Treasury issuing another $2.8 trillion in US government debt to pay off its IOUs to the fund.
When a government is faced with a $14 trillion public debt growing by trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, how does it add another $2.8 trillion to the mix?
Only with great difficulty.
Therefore, to avoid repaying the $2.8 trillion that the government has stolen for its wars and bailouts for mega-rich bankers, the right-wing has selected entitlements as the sacrificial lamb. We owe the end-time situation that we face to open-ended wars and to an unregulated financial system concentrated in a few hands that produces financial crises by leveraging debt to irresponsible levels.
The government of the United States does not represent the American people. It represents the oligarchs. The way campaign finance and elections are structured, the American people cannot take back their government by voting. A once proud and free people have been reduced to serfdom.
by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23612
Fuck the unions...
That's a nice business you got there. Pity if anything were to happen to it if, say, you didn't toe the line and denounce Governor Walker like we're asking nice-like.
March 10, 2011 Mr. Tom Ellis, President Marshall & Ilsley Corporation 770 N. Water Street Milwaukee, WI 53202 SENT VIA FASCIMILE AND REGULAR MAIL Dear Mr. Ellis: As you undoubtedly know, Governor Walker recently proposed a “budget adjustment bill” to eviscerate public employees’ right to collectively bargain in Wisconsin. .. As you also know, Scott Walker did not campaign on this issue when he ran for office. If he had, we are confident that you would not be listed among his largest contributors. As such, we are contacting you now to request your support. The undersigned groups would like your company to publicly oppose Governor Walker’s efforts to virtually eliminate collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin. While we appreciate that you may need some time to consider this request, we ask for your response by March 17. In the event that you do not respond to this request by that date, we will assume that you stand with Governor Walker and against the teachers, nurses, police officers, fire fighters, and other dedicated public employees who serve our communities.In the event that you cannot support this effort to save collective bargaining, please be advised that the undersigned will publicly and formally boycott the goods and services provided by your company. However, if you join us, we will do everything in our power to publicly celebrate your partnership in the fight to preserve the right of public employees to be heard at the bargaining table. Wisconsin’s public employee unions serve to protect and promote equality and fairness in the workplace. We hope you will stand with us and publicly share that ideal. In the event you would like to discuss this matter further, please contact the executive Director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, Jim Palmer, at 608.273.3840. Thank you in advance for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you soon. James L. Palmer, Executive Director Wisconsin Professional Police Association Mahlon Mitchell,President Professional Professional Fire Fighters Jim Conway, President International Association of Fire Fighters Local 311 John Matthews, Execuctive Director Madison Teachers, Inc. Keith Patt, Executive Director Green Bay Education Association Bob Richardson, President Dane County Deputy Sheriffs Association Dan Frei, Prersident Madison Professional Police Officers Association
And fuck your insistence that derivatives remain totally untaxed.
and fukk your stupid ideology.
Federal and state governments are the largest:
Employers, consumers, lenders, borrowers, landlords, renters, real property owners in the nation,
and people wonder why the nation is so fukked up.
You idiots standing up for the largest gangsters in the land called the governments. They make the most off of everything, Madoff, oil, mortgage fraud, derivatives, Enron, Global Crossing, they are the largest profiteer in every single fukking thing mindless big government bot.
Can't cut gov't in good times , can't cut gov't in bad times just ask the stupid ideological big gov't bots.
IT is not a spending problem it is a taxing problem, just ask the mindless big government bots,
but Europe has much higher taxes and is mostly broke too.
The avg gov't drone spends to a budget for fear if they don't said budget will be cut next time around, it is complete and total perversity of the human race.
They could raise taxes to 95% of commerce and the government would still outspend their revenues, cause that is what they do mindless big government bots.
What, you didn't get the lefty talking points fax/email that says Walker must be destroyed for standing up for taxpayers? C'mon, get with it - don't be thinkin, just follow the game plan man.
Some dude is prolly buyin a yacht right now because of this bill passing......... doesn't that bother you????
my guess it's old slimebag Herb Kohl that's buyin it but that wasn't in the talking points......
you are just really dumb?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkmEZs_Kcms
Yea really, really dumb. Europe really isn't mostly broke and bigger goverment is the solution just ask the ZN resident marxists.
Good job supporting the biggest criminals the world has ever seen called the government.
Divide and conquer.
Public unions,bankers, insurance companies, welfare, any industry who games the government, the government itself et al all on one side vs the normals on the other.
Not sure why figuring out whom is on their team is so difficult for the neo marxist.