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.
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