Sunday, February 27, 2011

Meet The Press: First Impressions - - Walker Pushing "No" As Leadership

Tough questions from David Gregory.

From Walker, slick answers, but he continued to say "no" to negotiating with unions, which, in Walker World, constitutes leadership.

I laughed out loud when Walker said how difficult it was for him to consider layoffs - - especially since the Milwaukee County Courthouse security people he did throw out are all getting their jobs back with lost wages because that firing was illegal.

So when he says collective bargain has costs - - his weak response to Gregory's tough questions - - he forgot to mention that there are costs when you blow up collective bargaining, too.

Walker also wants credit for standing up and telling the truth - - whopper right there - - about how other administrations kicked the can down the road, and then managing to say he's going to cut a billion dollars from local governments and school boards.

Walker dodged the questions about whether his proposals require shared sacrifice, and whether his exempting police and firefighter unions was picking winners and loser, or dividing workers.

In fact, by exempting these unions, Walker is picking winners - - the exempted unions all endorsed him for Governor - - and is making financial and program choices for local governments far more difficult because public safety employee costs make up a majority of municipal payroll costs.

Which means the sacrifices elsewhere in local budgets, programs and payroll, will be distorted at Walker's behest.

Talk about Big Government mandating reality at the local level, sending huge problems someone else's way.

8 comments:

  1. This site is reporting that 3 republican senators may be willing to listen to reason http://www.facebook.com/#!/WiscWorkersRights
    They are:
    Senator Randy Hopper - (608) 266-5300 Sen.Hopper@legis.wi.gov
    Senator Luther Olsen - (608) 266-0751 Sen.Olsen@legis.wisconsin.gov
    Senator Dale Schultz - (608) 266-0703 Sen.Schultz@legis.wisconsin.gov

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  2. Thank you for covering this so well. I couldn't bear to watch Walker repeating that the electors sent him to Madison to end collective bargaining. He is smooth, but then the liars are. He campaigned on lies of omission and will govern the same way.

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  3. Walker said that he couldn't afford to negotiate with the unions because the concessions would be for only for a year, while changes he imposed would be permanent.

    Perhaps he's unaware that we have elections every two years (and perhaps a special one next year), and a future legislature or governor could reverse these changes.

    Does he think we can't afford that either? Perhaps our financial crisis means we can't afford elections any more.

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  4. Mr. Walker is demonstrating the same bold stubbornness and lack of the ability to admit his mistakes and overreaches as another hero of the GOP, George W. Bush.


    GoyitoMKE

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  5. Walker is smarmy.

    smarmy: Hypocritically, complacently, or effusively earnest; unctuous.

    (Source: American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition.)

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  6. Too bad the $121 million budget surplus which was turned back into a deficit by Walker & Co's corporate tax giveway of $140 million didn't come up in the interview.. . . To say nothing of the gabillions of Wisconsin taxpayer dollars soon to be reaped by road builders and developers.

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  7. A really tough question would have been, "Mr. Walker, do you think you would have been elected governor if voters had known you intended to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers?"

    Or,"Given the public outcry over your so-called 'budget repair bill' and all of the protests in Madison and around the country, do you fear being recalled by the voters of Wisconsin?"

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  8. The Republicans can afford to lose the fight in Wisconsin -- or a substantial part of it. They've won a strategic victory whether or not they win that particular battle. So have we fans of small government. People like Huckabee and Romney and the old guard "compassionate conservatives" have had the oxygen sucked out of the room. US Senate Dems have lost the battle to make any shutdown over budget cuts look like the Republicans' fault -- so some cuts will happen. And FL, OH, and a couple other states have introduced similar measures to limit public employee collective bargaining.

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