LESSONS FROM WISCONSIN

What lessons are there to be learned from the recall elec­tions in Wisconsin if any?

Tea Party installed Governor Scott Walker took a hatch­et to the rights of ordi­nary work­ers to orga­nize and have col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing. One could rea­son­ably argue that at a time when there are eco­nom­ic con­di­tions which mil­i­tates against large pay increas­es and ben­e­fit pack­ages, this is not nec­es­sar­i­ly a bad thing. After all, states, like indi­vid­u­als, must learn to live with­in their means . Those are per­fect­ly legit­i­mate argu­ments to make. Personally I nev­er quite under­stood why gov­ern­ment, from coun­ty up to the fed­er­al lev­el, con­tin­ue to run large deficits. Each and every house-hold have to man­age their fis­cal respon­si­bil­i­ties. It is unfair and bur­den­some for Government to main­tain bloat­ed waste­ful bureau­cra­cies, then force already over-bur­dened tax­pay­ers to take on even more taxes.

It is not unrea­son­able in my view, that ordi­nary work­ing peo­ple expect their gov­ern­ment to adopt strict dis­ci­pline in the way it han­dles its fis­cal house, after all every American fam­i­ly is expect­ed to live with­in its means.

SO THEN, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH WHAT WALKER DID ?

Scott Walker

In order to under­stand what the fuss was , and con­tin­ue to be, regard­ing Scott Walker’s approach, one need to peel back the entire façade which envelopes the Scott Walker persona.

Walker came to office backed by the Tea Party, as we have point­ed out before the Tea Party con­tin­ue to parade as a grass-roots orga­ni­za­tion. That is the far­thest thing from the truth.

The new tea Party came into exis­tence at about the same time Barack Obama was elect­ed pres­i­dent of the United States at the end of 2008. they argue that they are con­cerned about The expan­sion of the fed­er­al bureau­cra­cy, and run away spending. 

Again were those philo­soph­i­cal pure objec­tives I would be a Tea Party activist. The truth is there are a few things that bear some scrutiny.

(1) When did these things come to the fore? 

As I inti­mat­ed the Tea Party came into being at around the time pres­i­dent Obama was elect­ed to the pres­i­den­cy, so those prob­lems are not new ones which just hap­pened on the scene November 2008

(2) When did the issues dear to the Tea Party become an issue?

Big Government is noth­ing new, The last Republican Administration expand­ed the fed­er­al bureau­cra­cy, to include , Home-land security.

(3) When did the fed­er­al debt become an issue?

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has always been a big spender, the last pres­i­dent had a sur­plus and a bal­anced bud­get on assum­ing office. He left a ruined econ­o­my, two unfund­ed wars, large tax-cuts for the rich­est Americans and sky-rock­et­ing deficits.

(4) So why are these issues now that Obama is president?

Well the out­rage of the Tea Party start­ed before Barack Obama even could enact one pol­i­cy, which may not cause con­ster­na­tion to the aver­age no-repub­li­can , but it does cause me some heart-burn.

President Bush 43^rd actu­al­ly did the first stim­u­lus, lis­ten­ing to Obama’s crit­ics one would be hard-pressed to hear any men­tion that pres­i­dent Obama inher­it­ed big gov­ern­ment and bal­loon­ing deficits.

(5) So then what’s the real issue?

I’m glad you asked. 

The Obama Administration reg­u­late banks, the Obama admin­is­tra­tion looks out for the envi­ron­ment, the Obama admin­is­tra­tion care about the aver­age American.

So why would the Tea Party have a prob­lem with those issues?

Well again I’m glad you asked this ques­tion, we have now come full cir­cle. There are peo­ple behind the Tea Party’s right-wing pop­ulism who need the legit­i­ma­cy of what many would have you believe is a grass-roots movement.

Enter Billionaire broth­ers David and Charles Koch, both men are American Industrialists who own and oper­ate com­pa­nies rang­ing from Oil to lum­ber to paper prod­ucts. Heavy tax­a­tion by gov­ern­ment cuts into their bot­tom-line, reg­u­la­tions lim­its their abil­i­ty to destroy the envi­ron­ment, and Unions are anti­thet­i­cal to what the Koch broth­ers want.

Those are the rea­sons so much mon­ey was poured into Wisconsin to keep Scott Walker in pow­er. Those are the rea­sons the Koch broth­ers give so much mon­ey to Carl Rove’s super-pac American cross­roads. That goes to the heart of Scott Walker’s response to a wealthy female donor when he cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly stat­ed that his desire is to divide and con­quer, that’s why Walker was bust­ed when he thought he was talk­ing to one of the Koch broth­ers on the phone. 

So the desire of the peo­ple of Wisconsin to see fis­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty in gov­ern­ment caused them to val­i­date Walker. The only prob­lem is that the repub­li­can/tea-par­ty’s plan is noth­ing more than a Trojan Horse.