Like a big brother that beats you up and then bribes you so he won't get in trouble, Wisconsin's fine Republican legislators are offering crumbs, really, now that their recall butts are on the line. After the merciless pounding the Walker-run legislature gave worker rights in this state (rights, Walker finally admitted under oath , had no direct fiscal bearing on the budget, but rather were union-busting), Republican legislators are saying--all of the sudden now that recall papers have been served up-- "Hey, you know what? Um, maybe this part of the budget could be changed, after all."
If the Democrats had not delayed the quorum for the budget-repair bill, and got people thinking about and actually reading things, for goodness sakes, the Republicans would have passed the 2011-2013 budget, no questions asked (Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester gushed about it), as they would have budget-repair.
So now GOP legislators, even those that are--surprise--up for recall, are "breaking" with Walker and making nice with Wisconsinites through lip-service against budget items including Walker's removing income limits for school voucher families, splitting UW from the UW system, removing recycling, and using general funds for transportation.
But really it's just b.s. window-dressing. The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau says there are still "more than 40 non-fiscal policy items in the governor's budget...proposals that aren’t absolutely essential to balancing the books," something that Walker campaigned against doing (Superior Telegram, 4/27). And there are still numerous, equally-vile budget items remaining (drastic cuts to education and communities, for instance). Oh, yeah, and Republicans may insert the court-stalled, anti-collective bargaining bill into the budget, as well.
Make sure your friends and neighbors don't fall for these little bribes to win back public favor.
The damages the Republican legislature has inflicted, and will inflict, on this state are far too serious to let them buy us off.
No comments:
Post a Comment