Scott Walker

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's banner story today was about Gov. Scott Walker's breathtaking effort to gain unilateral power to sell state buildings and other public property. You can read this well-reported story yourself at the link below. Walker wants the power to sell state-owned power plants, unused lands -- even University of Wisconsin campus buildings that were paid for with dedicated private donations or student fees. Bye-bye, Kohl Center, maybe, or perhaps UW-Madison's student union. They'd fetch a fine price, dontcha know.

The story documents how some state property sales might make bad economic policy. Sure, the sales would bring in some quick cash to help the governor balance his budget. But in the long run, operating costs to the state might very well increase. Worse, the governor wants power to arrange sole-buyer deals without first seeking public bids.

The ultimate example of conservative heads exploding:

A public employee union representing faculty, counselors and professional staff at the Milwaukee Area Technical College negotiated a one-year agreement with the school, which the MATC board approved. Officials say the deal will save the school $122 million over the next 25 years, due to long-term reductions in early health benefits that will go forward. A one-year deal that saves a nine-figures amount of tax dollars ... Now THAT is good government. Unless, of course, you're a Republican.

Conservative reaction (summarized): This deal is an outrage! Schools can't negotiate with defrocked public employee unions, even if a judge rules they can! The Wisconsin Republican Party made it so!

Conservative action: Sue MATC! That'll make things better, oh yeah.

What do the two most iconic economists of the 20th century have in common?  Both John Keynes and Milton Friedman would tell you if they were alive today that when you are in the midst of a severe recession, the government has got to spend money to get the economy back on track. 

Unfortunately, Governor Scott Walker never took Economics 101 and instead of increasing spending, he made deep budget cuts.  In fact, his cuts to education were the deepest in state history.  This sent a state that was on the verge of climbing out of the deep hole known as the Great Recession back into the hole, AKA a double-dip recession.

What Walker should have done is borrow money to fill the budget holes.  Instead, he took any question of borrowing off the table and instead decided to demonize teachers and other public servants as "the haves" that were living the high-life while everyone else suffered. This was equivalent of dozens of Janesville GM plants closing across the state, suddenly yanking millions out of local economies and contracting the Wisconsin economy.

Now, with Wisconsin 44th in job growth and a re-election just around the corner, Walker is desperate to get the economy going, so he is doing in 2013 what he should have done in 2011:  Borrowing money to spur the economy.  He has all kinds of explanations about how this is free money, how its different because its for capital projects, ect, but at the end of the day, he is following basic economics principals that the failed to follow in 2011.

You can always tell if an organization or think tank is trying to pick your pocket if it has “free market” in it's title or as one of it's goals. Organizations like the Club for Growth, The Heritage Foundation, Wisconsin's own McIver Institute:The Free Market Voice of Wisconsin, and of course the ghost writer of all of Wisconsin's Republican Legislation, The American legislative Exchange Council. Their policies are benefiting an ever shrinking minority of people who control an ever growing majority of America's wealth.

Bangladesh, The Ultimate “Right-to-Work” State

Scott Walker, the Club for Growth, The McIver Institute, ALEC, the Heritage Foundation and other 'Free Market' think tanks continue to make villains out of unions and pressure states to become “right-to -work” states. Walker did promise Diane Hendricks (one of his Plutocrat co-owners) that he would “divide and conquer” the Wisconsin's middle class in his determination to make Wisconsin a “right-to-work” state. He has done this successfully, with the help of right-wing radio, and now Wisconsinites are pitted against each other, private employees are pitted against public employees and rural against urban dwellers. But, no reduction in wages and workers rights will satisfy the plutocrats who own Walker. As long as there is a 14 year girl in Bangladesh who they can force to work for $38 a week, these billionaires will not be happy with American workers making anything more than minimum wage. In fact, Ron Johnson, our Senior Senator recently told a constituent that he supports the lowering of the minimum wage as a stimulant to job creation. Just as there is no end to their greed and no amount of money or profit that will satisfy the free market folks, there is no limit to the sacrifice that they will expect from labor and workers to increase their profits.

Everyone knew long before the recent news of the "Vote For Me For President" book, that Scott Walker was running for president in 2016.  But, according to Republican strategists I have spoken with, there is a very real possibility that Walker may skip his 2014 re-election to focus on winning the GOP nomination.

Yesterday's post here about Scott Walker's misguided conclusion that Wisconsin needs to better match skills to unfilled jobs covered the particular example of welders. New developments have since emerged. They suggest even more strongly that the real issue isn't a supposed skills mismatch, but rather in at least some cases the unwillingness of businesses to pay equitable wages.