Walker conceded the phony budget rationale to Congress, but only after being put under oath and literally forced to admit it. You can see it for yourself, here.
Had he campaigned on his intention, he probably would have lost - - that is the conclusion of a newspaper that endorsed him (the Journal Sentinel) - - but had he campaigned openly and honestly about reversing public sector collective bargaining in Wisconsin, and won, there would have been no recall movement.
Had he accepted the unions' agreement to the economic concessions as they pledged after he "dropped the bomb," there would have been no recall movement.
But that wasn't the way Walker rolled.
He dug the secrecy and the sucker punch.
He wanted the punitive provisions in the plan, like requiring annual union re-certification elections, with such outrageous parameters that a federal judge in Madison said it violated the US Constitution.
Paraphrasing the unguarded Walker in the fake Koch brother phone call - - transcript here - - Walker knocked over the first domino and got off on it.
This is our moment...This is an exciting time.So the recall is on, and no amount of finger-pointing and historical revision on Walker's part avoids the true fact that he brought this on the state, and himself.
And (attention Journal Sentinel) it is not just that he "took his eye off the ball" when it came to creating jobs. His policies led directly to the loss of jobs. When he hit public employees he also hit the communities where they live and spend their now significantly diminished incomes.
ReplyDeleteA plain reading of the testimony makes it clear that the particular part that didn't save any money was the part that allowed workers to decide whether they wanted to join a union or not. An argument could be made that he was answering in terms of what is saved in the STATE budget. Most of the savings came at the local level.
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