Of Protests and Torch Passing

I went to the Wisconsin State Capitol yesterday to participate again in the protests against Governor Scott Walker’s “Budget Repair Bill.” As I was walking up to the doors, I saw John Nichols, from the Capitol Times and The Nation, busy on his cellphone. I smiled, saying quietly, “John, thanks for all your good work!” In surprise, he looked up and said, “Thanks! I really appreciate that.”  When I got close to the building itself, I encountered several groups of protesters marching around, and stopped to take video of them.

Welcome to the People’s House

As I entered the Capitol, a uniformed guard opened the door for me (guards are rarely ever stationed at the doors). Having heard that security would be beefed up today, I was very taken with his gesture of friendliness and hospitality, and I made a point of thanking him. Walking down the corridor toward the Rotunda, I saw the walls plastered with signs and posters about planned events, petitions to sign, and others with pro-workers rights slogans. The sounds coming from the crowd in the Rotunda were impressive. Drums and voices joined in common cause against an imperious Governor.

Mutual Understanding and Respect

The roar grew louder as I entered the Rotunda, and I began taking more video clips. Since it was impossible to get close enough to show the performers in the center, I went up a floor. Alas, I couldn’t get close enough to take an adequate shot looking down. But I got some nice clips of people packing the Rotunda on all four floors. Then I saw signs pointing to the Assembly Visitors Gallery, so I followed them around until I got to the security station and emptied my pockets into the bin. The guard asked if my cell phone was turned off, and I assured him it was, thanking him as I continued down the line. A nice looking young man then scanned me with his wand and allowed me to proceed. I thanked him, secretly hoping for a more thorough check. The friendly, cordial relationship between the protesters and the law enforcement officers has been notable from the very beginning, and even today, with the heightened security, was genuinely in the air. These are well-trained professionals, who know how to go about their duties and keep the goodwill of the crowd. At the same time, the people of Wisconsin showed their civility in the face of an outrageous act by the Governor.

The Iron Hand of the Majority

I sat down in the Visitors Gallery and listened to the deliberations on the “Budget Repair Bill.” The Democrats had submitted over 100 amendments to the bill (also called AB 11), but the immediate question on the floor was to send the bill back to committee. It had already passed a lightning round with the Joint Finance Committee (JFC), but the entire section on abolishing collective bargaining rights and weakening the unions had not received the proper scrutiny of the Workforce Development Committee. And, of course, the Health and Human Services Committee had not had a chance to pass on the provisions to abolish the various Medicaid programs. The GOPers objected mightily, and at the end, Speaker Fitzgerald came out of the back rooms to lambaste the Democrats in an angry speech.

Quality of Deliberation

During the deliberations, I was constantly impressed by the quality of the speeches by the Democrats. They knew what was in AB 11, and were very capable of knocking down the objections of the GOPers. The GOPers, by contrast, had no real grasp of what was in the bill they were defending, and resorted to hostile, menacing, empty threats. Laughably, one “Gentle Lady” read the entire list of workers rights to file a grievance with the state labor board in an attempt to defend Walker’s notion that AB 11 would not take away any rights of workers. A very savvy Democrat probed her with a series of questions. Does that law preserve pay schedules, or promotion criteria, or rules on personal days, sick leave, or any of the multitudes of mutually agreed upon terms in union contracts? She sheepishly had to keep saying, well no, until the point was made. Eventually, the vote was taken, and the motion to submit to the labor committee was defeated on a party line vote.

The Gathering Crowds

From my vantage point in the Visitors Gallery, I had a view down State Street toward the UW campus. This sometimes volatile relationship between the Assembly Chamber and the University has been the subject of commentary since at least the times of Bob La Follette. When I first entered the Assembly Chamber, I was puzzled by a low pitched sound that made hearing the speakers difficult (even over the sound reinforcement system). At first, I thought it might be ice sliding down the dome and onto the roof of the Assembly Wing.  Then I noticed voices mixed in with the rumbling, and I realized that the crowds inside and outside the Capitol were creating this sound. They were making sure that the Assembly was aware of the strong public opposition to AB 11 in the only way left to them. A rally had been scheduled for 2:00 pm and I watched the crowds gather, carrying flags and signs. At 2:00, they unleashed their energy so that no one inside the chamber could be unaware of their passionate opposition to AB 11.

Fireside Threats Conference

At 6:00 pm, Walker had scheduled a “fireside chat” (FDR he is not) for a live statewide telecast. It had none of the atmospherics of a fireside chat, but was a very authoritarian press conference, complete with threats to lay off thousands of state employees if Walker did not get his way. Although I could have tried to attend it, I knew that I would never get anywhere close because of Walker’s paranoid security. I decided to show my personal disrespect for him by staying in the Assembly to listen to more Democrats speak against his wretched power grab of a bill. When the time arrived, the crowd in the Rotunda made as much noise as possible to witness their dissent, and continued until the “chat” was over.  No one in the Chamber could miss that message.

The Torch Has Been Passed and Eagerly Accepted

To close, I should add that the Wisconsin State Capitol has always compelled my admiration. Growing up in Madison, I often walked through the Capitol just to absorb its beauty, usually after taking in a movie at the Orpheum or Capitol theatre, plus a trip to the main library to scoop up a week’s worth of books to read. Now that I have returned to Madison, I do the same, and often take photos. When I left yesterday, I took inside shots at night, taking advantage of the interior illumination. Back in the 50s, studying at East Jr. High, I believed in  the power of government to do great things for its people. Once, I was able to watch a session of the Assembly from the same Visitors Gallery where I watched yesterday. I am appalled at the way the current Governor and majority in the Legislature have subverted the values of Wisconsin and good governance that I believed in half a century ago, but I have seen the unceasing efforts of the new generation of UW students while we all worked on the Feingold campaign. I have great confidence that the people of Wisconsin are in the process of taking back the traditions of Bob La Follette, Gaylord Nelson, and Russ Feingold.

Wisconsin Rises to the Rightwing Challenge

Governor Walker unleashed a whirlwind of public opposition when he announced his “Budget Repair Bill” on Friday, February 11, 2011. The plan was to introduce this bill in a Special Session of the Legislature, called by the Republican Governor, and push it through quickly to a vote by the Republican-controlled Legislature on Thursday. Walker distracted attention by focusing on the increases in state employee contributions to their health care and retirement plans so that no one would notice the far-reaching power grabs in the bill. What follows are my personal observations and reflections on the powerful outpouring of opposition that came from the people of Wisconsin.

Immediate Outrage

People did notice that the bill would abolish the collective bargaining rights of the state employees unions, which included many local employees such as teachers and health care workers. Over the following weekend, protests and marches sprang up all over the state of Wisconsin. On Monday, 2000 UW-Madison students delivered protest messages to Walker’s office in the State Capitol. On Tuesday, 15,000 union members, students, and concerned citizens rallied inside and outside the Capitol to protest the Governor’s proposal. The crowds grew larger with each passing day. By Saturday, an estimated 68,000 people gathered in protest. Crowds of this size have not been seen in Madison since the Vietnam War. The vast majority were from Wisconsin -- from every Assembly and State Senate District in Wisconsin, not just Madison. The Joint Finance Committee (JFC) took testimony from constituents until 3:00 am, when the Republicans left, but the Democratic members remained to listen, and continued the hearing the next morning when the Republicans returned. People brought sleeping bags and camped out in the beautiful marble Rotunda of the Capitol, waiting to testify.

Lies and Deception Mask Bill’s Intent

Like many extreme right legislative initiatives, the title of the “Budget Repair Bill” was deliberately misleading, designed to mask the true intent. In truth, it contains a pork barrel of power grabs by Walker.

• The bill seeks to bust the public employee unions by removing all collective bargaining rights.
• It deprives unions of their funding by stopping the practice deducting dues from paychecks.  
• It allows the Governor to fire any employees who go on strike.
• It requires state employees to contribute more to their health and retirement, thus accepting a mandatory pay cut. 
• The bill also prohibits Madison, Dane County, and Milwaukee from paying any portion of teachers’ retirement funds. 
• It requires annual votes to re-certify the union as the bargaining agent.
• The bill transfers Legislative power to the Executive Branch by allowing the Governor to alter the state laws and regulations on Medicaid without asking the Legislature to change those laws. 
• The Governor could make large numbers of Medicaid recipients ineligible by unilaterally changing the rules, or could reduce their benefits substantially. 
• He could refuse to allow Wisconsin to participate at all in the federal Medicaid program. 
• Another provision allows the Governor to sell off state assets such as power plants to private industry. 

Those are just some of the more obvious highlights of the bill.

Wisconsin Becomes a Pawn in a National Campaign

As events began to play out during the week, the hand of extreme right wing political organizations became increasingly evident. Beyond that, events in Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, and other states revealed that a nationally coordinated union busting plan was being rolled out. Wisconsin was merely the test market, with a weak but ambitious Governor all too willing to cooperate with his bosses. The Governor’s office constantly tried to spin the bill as a simple budget balancing measure, saying that union workers were very greedy to oppose a tiny increase to payments to their own health care and retirement benefits. Most  people saw through this spin because they also knew that the bill took away union negotiating rights, which even non-union people saw as an unfair act. 

Connections to Extremist Organizations

Koch Industries was the second largest contributor to Walker’s campaign. They also gave $1 Million to the Republican Governors Association, which spent heavily on ads bashing his opponent during the campaign. Koch owns several coal mines, paper mills, and pipelines in Wisconsin. They also fund several front organizations for the Republican Party and Tea Party groups. Among them are the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity, both of which have been actively involved in the attempt to push the union busting bill through the Legislature, and are opposed to health care reform. Both the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity had staff present in Madison on Saturday. The Club for Growth sent email to supporters asking them to come to the JFC hearings -- before Walker announced the bill publicly. Assemblyman Gordon Hintz first heard about the bill -- from a radio ad by Club for Growth -- before it was presented to the Assembly.

Unions Call Walkers Bluff

On Friday, the unions called his bluff.  They offered to accept the increases in their contributions to their benefits if the Governor would drop his insistence on eliminating the right to negotiate. The Governor flatly refused the offer, insisting on all or nothing. Under pressure from the press, he let the cat out of the bag: In his next budget (as distinct from the short-term “repair” bill) he plans to cut $1 Billion in state aid to public schools. He needs to get rid of all those contracts and pay schedules and work rules so that the local school districts can reduce the pay for their teachers even more, and lay off as many as they need to. This would make the towns and counties the scapegoats for this severe budget cut, leaving Walker in the clear as a “budget balancer.” It would strike a mortal blow to public education in Wisconsin, another rightwing goal since the term of Tommy Thompson.

At this point, the true intent of the bill came into clear view. This cunningly conceived nest of traps and lies disguised an attempt to bust the unions, take Medicaid coverage away from as many people as possible, dismantle public education, and grab power away from the Legislature. As each layer was peeled away, the ugly truth became still uglier. Given the complexity of the scheme, and the clumsy way that the inept Governor handled it, the bill obviously was drafted by rightwing think tanks in Washington and given to Scott Walker. Walker himself lacks the intellectual depth and sophistication to spawn a plan of this complexity.

The People Speak, Legislature Turns a Deaf Ear

The rallies grew in size each day, and the marathon JFC hearings continued throughout the day and night on Tuesday and Wednesday. Despite overwhelming public opposition, on Thursday, they voted to send the bill to the Assembly and Senate for action. On Friday, the 14 Democratic Senators played the only card left to them: they boycotted the session until the Governor agreed to remove the most extreme parts of his bill, and left the state so that they could not be compelled to attend the session. If only one of them attended, the Senate would have the 20-member quorum needed to vote on and pass the bill. Without that quorum, they could not even debate it. The 14 Senators have vowed to boycott the session until the bill can be modified, and remain out of state. Walker refuses to bend.

At the end of the day on Friday, the Assembly played a devious game. The announced time for voting was 5:00 pm. A few minutes before 5:00 they conducted a voice vote to pass the bill -- before any of the Democratic Assembly Members returned from their caucus. After an angry speech by Minority Leader Peter Barca, the Speaker agreed to take back the vote and return the bill to an amendable stage, with the next session scheduled for the following Tuesday. 

Peaceably Assembled to Redress Their Grievances 

Against this soap opera backdrop of political intrigue, the protests at the Capitol grew larger each day. The building itself was effectively occupied day and night by the people simply because of the long waiting time to testify before the JFC. A sense of community and camaraderie quickly developed. Drum circles formed. People began singing and chanting in the splendidly reverberant Rotunda. Ian’s Pizza sent free pizza to all the protesters one night, and found itself overwhelmed with contributions from individuals to send more pizza and could not accept regular orders for the next several days. Some contributions came from other countries, including Egypt. Friday, Rev. Jesse Jackson led the 8000 people packed inside the Capitol in singing “We Shall Overcome.” At one point, the crowd spontaneously began singing the “Star Spangled Banner.” 

Inside and outside the building, the crowds remained energized in purpose, though peaceful in demeanor. Rightwing media described the assemblage of teachers, health care workers, students, and their families as union thugs. U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan described the event as a “riot.” The Senate Majority Leader called the Capitol filled with people peacefully protesting the bill a “powder keg.”

Koch Party on the Square

On Saturday, the Koch-funded Tea Partiers held a rally outside the Capitol. The Club for Growth managed to bus in less than 2000 supporters for their rally. After about an hour, the lackluster rally was over. But, the 68,000 people protesting the bill stayed through the day and the night, never letting go of their commitment to stop the passage of this bill. The professionalism of the police, along with the civility of the people, made for another peaceful, quiet day with no arrests. Strangely enough, even after the Club for Growth went to considerable expense to create an astroturf crowd, Walker never bothered to show up at their rally and speak to his supporters. Was he afraid to face the citizens of the state he governs? In fact, he was never accessible to the people gathered outside his office during the entire week of protests.

Buyers’ Remorse

Walker handled the entire week awkwardly and incompetently. On Monday and Tuesday he was out of town and out of touch, touring friendly businesses in the northern parts of the state, rather than addressing the important legislation he had just introduced on Friday. He let the unions call his bluff, and then let the cat out of the bag about the real intent of the bill. While he stubbornly refused to negotiate with anyone in the Legislature or the unions, public opinion against him and his legislation built to an unstoppable level. The national media picked up the story and protests spread quickly to other states, particularly those where similar legislation is under consideration. 

Walker’s Washington handlers expected a stealth operation that would push this odious bill through before anyone discovered its true significance. They could then roll it out in other states until it was too late to stop the union busting movement. Instead, Walker’s incompetence caused it to backfire on them. The Koch brothers are undoubtedly suffering buyers’ remorse. They should ask for their money back.

State of the State: Walker's Jobs Deficit Grows

Governor Scott Walker’s State of the State Address sounded more like a campaign speech than a plan for governance. He pulled out all the stops, right down to a live video feed from Dallas, wasting much of his 30 or so minutes on peripheral fluff. When he finally got down to business, he boasted about all the job creation laws passed so far. Walker seemed pleased with himself and proud of his accomplishments during his first 30 days in office. But he lacks the intellectual capacity to understand that his insubstantial plans only dig the hole deeper. He owes the citizens of Wisconsin 5208 jobs for the month of January, and another 5208 for the month of February, and every one of the remaining 46 months of his term of office to fulfill his promise of 250,000 new jobs. So far, he has failed to create any jobs. At the same time, he has chased untold  jobs away in several emerging industries and decreased tax revenues -- not a good start.

Walker’s Jobs Plan

Walker pointed with pride to newly passed laws intended to loosen regulation of corporations and create a more friendly climate for business:

1. Eliminating taxes on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
2. Reducing “frivolous lawsuits” by making it nearly impossible for a citizen to hold a company accountable for damages
3. Tax credits for businesses that relocate to Wisconsin
4. Regulatory “reform” placing control of all agency regulations in the hands of Governor Walker, rather than the Legislature.
5. Rebuilding the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee at a cost of $2 Billion as a means of spurring global commerce. He did not specify the source of the $200 Million in matching funds required from state funds -- an amount equal to the projected deficit the state will have at the end of this fiscal year.
6. A taunting op-ed piece in the Chicago Tribune “inviting” Illinois companies to move to Wisconsin.

The sum total of these laws is a $140 Million loss in tax revenues, every year -- not a great idea when reducing the deficit is one of his major goals. Also, none of these half-hearted measures will lead to more than a handful jobs, at best. Since Wisconsin ranks 24th in corporate taxes, it is not suffering from job losses due to high taxes. Although he made no predictions as to how many businesses he could convince to relocate in Wisconsin because of these improvements in the business climate, the Governor was glowing with pride. These shallow jobs-creating plans are naive and ineffective, but Walker is pleased.

Dismantling Healthcare Programs

Walker then turned his attention to Medicaid and BadgerCare. He never had the courage to say that he planned to make cuts in those programs, but blandly talked about the costs of the programs and the need to make “tough decisions.” The team he has assembled includes Dennis Smith (a national activist who has advocated that the states withdraw from Medicare completely) as his Secretary of Health and Human Services.  His Deputy Chief of Staff, Eric Shutt, was a lobbyist for UnitedHealthcare. Walker turned Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen loose to join the suit seeking to have the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional. We can assume that this team’s most likely goals would be dismantling Medicaid, BadgerCare, and SeniorCare. Drastic cuts would be the most merciful of their plans.

Potential Union Busting and Loss of Benefits for State Employees

Next, Walker attacked state workers and their unions. He has already suggested that he might abolish the unions entirely, and reduce pay. Blaming them for budget deficits, he suggested ending or reducing the benefits for state employees. Walker claimed that state employees paid less for their pensions and health care than private sector employees. What he failed to say is that salary and benefits comprise a package of compensation. Singling out one factor as unfair while not accounting for the rest is disingenuous. 

Of course, he could reduce the state workforce, thus reducing access to services. Or, he could hire less qualified employees at lower wages. In either case, this would not create the business friendly climate he advocates, and would accelerate the departure of existing companies. All of Walker’s antipathy applies to county and local employees whose salaries are subsidized by the state -- teachers, police, firefighters, health care workers. He’s ready to create massive unemployment, and substandard government services in order to make Wisconsin more business friendly.

Zoo Interchange for Global Commerce

Returning to transportation, Walker proclaimed the need for a modern transportation network (after rejecting nearly a billion dollars for a Wisconsin link to a nationwide high speed rail system). He told us that 96% of the global market for Wisconsin goods is outside the US, so we need a modern transportation system. He boasted about the Zoo Interchange project (which was going to be built anyway) as a way to move Wisconsin manufactured products. He failed to explain how this would expedite shipping things to customers in Asia and Europe. 

Granted, the project will generate many jobs, but we could have had the high speed rail funding in addition to the Zoo Interchange. That would have paid for much-needed improvements on tracks that move freight as well as passengers. Only his blind ideology prevented Wisconsin from having both projects. Walker passed up $1 Billion in federal stimulus funding to bolster our economy, create jobs, and generate tax revenues. He didn’t hesitate to take the highway funding, which will cost the state far more in matching funds and maintenance.

Wisconsin Is Open For Business

So, he ended his speech by saying, “We want to lower the cost of doing business in this state — through lower taxation, regulation and litigation costs and more relief from health care costs — so that more employers are able to create jobs for our people.” 

1. Lower taxation makes sense when a state is running a surplus and can afford the loss of revenue. If Wisconsin truly is in the financial crisis Walker claims it is, the state must raise taxes to meet its costs. Reducing spending only partially solves the problem. Taxes raise needed revenue. At 24th nationally in tax rates, Wisconsin suffers no disadvantages.
2. Removing inconvenient regulations from the cost of doing business and making it difficult to sue corporations for damages attract the worst, least ethical, most careless, most polluting companies. 
3. So far, except for eliminating the HSA tax, Walker has provided no relief from employers’ health care costs (although the Affordable Care Act does exactly that). If he guts Medicaid, BadgerCare, and SeniorCare, employers will pay more for health care, if only through higher taxes to provide for those unable to afford care for themselves and their families. And if Dennis Smith and J.B. Van Hollen succeed in having the Affordable Care Act ruled unconstitutional, the burden for health care costs shifts back again to employers, either as benefits or as higher wages. High health care costs have been a major factor in making American manufacturers uncompetitive in the global market.

Rejecting Industries and Future Jobs

Rather than bringing jobs to Wisconsin, Walker has chased emerging high-tech industries out of the state:

1. High Speed Rail 
• The Talgo manufacturing plant would have built rail cars for High Speed rail projects in other states, and provided jobs and tax revenues for many years into the future.
• Our state economy lost all the construction jobs for the immediate project (and still more jobs as the link to the Twin Cities was built).
• Walker refused to accept $1 Billion from the federal government to invest in Wisconsin’s economy and the potential for far more later ) preferring to give it away to other states.
2. Clean, renewable energy 
• Wind power projects were in the works totaling almost $2 Billion, until he proposed a law making proper siting impossible. The law is the most restrictive in the entire country.
• More wind power projects were planned, worth another $4 Billion, but the new law forces wind power companies to leave the state, not expand operations. 
• He forced the abandonment of a biomass energy project at UW-Madison even before he took office.
• He will allow $16 Billion to leave Wisconsin’s economy every year to buy fossil fuels instead of boosting Wisconsin’s economy, creating jobs, and generating tax revenues within Wisconsin.
3. Stem cell research 
• He has opposed stem cell research and advocates legal restrictions to hamstring this emerging new industry. The “business friendly” tax laws also target the industry with unique taxes on essential equipment. 
• Stem cell research, which had its beginnings at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will now gravitate to states that don’t mind the economic stimulus, jobs, and tax revenues. 
• Potential new medications and treatments for diseases will generate enormous profits, but Wisconsin will not share in most of the financial benefits from this emerging new industry.

Shallow, Superficial Short-Term Fixes

What Walker proposed in his State of the State Speech is nothing more than wispy vapors disguising the lack of any meaningful plans to create jobs and reduce the deficit. If we take the plans in this speech as his best effort, we are left with a Governor who is shallow, incapable of analyzing a problem and synthesizing a solution, a Governor who is not intellectually capable of carrying out his duties. His announced plans do little more than throw a few bucks to his wealthy contributors and encourage the bottom-feeder companies that favor lax regulation to move into Wisconsin. Worse, he has stopped or discouraged many development efforts that would have brought billions of dollars, many jobs, and new tax revenues into our state’s economy. 

Walker’s Jobs Deficit Grows

Creating new jobs requires serious efforts at developing new markets and encouraging newly emerging industries. Federal stimulus funds can boost a state’s economy, both directly and indirectly. Walker seems unaware of any approach beyond lowering a few taxes. Where are the jobs? Where are the PLANS to create the jobs? Our Governor seems not to have a clue about retaining existing businesses, much less attracting new ones, or nurturing new industries. No long-term plans for governing our state. No jobs for the citizens of our state. Just the empty rhetoric of campaign speeches. 

Each month that passes without new jobs creates a deficit of 5208 jobs against the 250,000 Walker promised to create. Has Governor Walker lived up to what he so proudly claimed in his State of the State Address? You be the judge:

“As you all know, I was pretty specific on our plans and even on the day I'd start implementing those plans, so I saw no reason to wait a year, or six months or even a month to get to work. Now is the time to take action.”