Scott Walker keeps saying that his desire to kill most public employee collective bargaining - - plus piling on wage and benefit restrictions, and the workforce chaos caused downstream at the local level - - is a "modest" plan.
Heck, calling it "modest" reduces it to maybe just an idea, a little itty-bitty notion, perhaps.
Bill Lueders at Isthmus even quotes Walker saying it is a "modest, modest proposal," as if repeating something ridiculous somehow makes it believable.
Like the way you would praise a burger cooked to hockey-puck perfection by a well-meaning neighbor as "really, really good."
And is Walker channeling his inner Jonathan Swift, revealing a wicked sense of humor? Or are we dealing with a talking point destined for the All-Time Clumsy List?
Either way, it's a crazy talking point, though give these guys credit - - they're sticking with it like they're sticking with their no-sense, no-negotiations, no-compromise, no-negotiations stance - - they worked Walker's comments as quoted in Isthmus into a New York Times Op-Ed.
Re Talking Points, I cannot for the life of me comprehend why headlines are not screaming, 'Walker reverses campaign pledge on local control'.
ReplyDeleteVis:
“I’d like to give local school districts more local control,” Walker said. “That in turn will help us ultimately make sure the dollars we do spend are spent in the classroom and not on more overhead, such as wages, salaries, benefits and administrators.”
- Scott Walker; August 25, 2010
Sun Prairie Star (Rachel Wittrock)
My email today to Scott Walker:
ReplyDeleteFebruary 21, 2011
Mr. Walker:
Although you have already forced concessions out of the state public employees, you stubbornly cling to the dogma of union busting. Yes, I know that you prefer to spin this nasty strategy as a “modest proposal” that “gives state and local governments the tools to manage spending reductions through changing some provisions of the state’s collective bargaining laws”.
You and I also know that this is poppycock. Please don’t take me and our fellow Wisconsinites as fools. Your radical, un-American power grab is an assault on the middle class and our state’s standard of living. Sir, you should be ashamed of yourself.
The public employee’s unions have provided you with a way to declare “victory” and save political face with your Tea Party brethren and your Koch Brothers masters.
Now is the time to be smart, and to step back from the brink. Unless you do, you likely face taking this state down a path that you and your political cronies will soon regret.
Wishing you the very best as you decide whether or not to do the right thing and act like an American,
GoyitoMKE