President Obama thrust himself and his political operation this week into Wisconsin's broiling budget battle, mobilizing opposition Thursday to a Republican bill that would curb public-worker benefits while planning similar action in other state capitals.
Obama accused Scott Walker, the state's new Republican governor, of unleashing an "assault" on unions in pushing emergency legislation that would nullify collective-bargaining agreements that affect most public employees, including teachers.
The president's political machine worked in close coordination Thursday with state and national union officials to mobilize thousands of protesters to gather in Madison and to plan similar demonstrations in other state capitals.
Their efforts began to spread, as thousands of labor supporters turned out for a hearing in Columbus, Ohio, to protest a measure from Gov. John Kasich (R) that would cut collective-bargaining rights.
By the end of the day, Democratic Party officials were working to organize additional demonstrations in Ohio and Indiana, where an effort is underway to trim benefits for public workers. Some union activists predicted similar protests in Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Under Walker's plan, most public workers - excluding police, firefighters and state troopers - would have to pay half of their pension costs and at least 12 percent of their health-care costs. They would lose bargaining rights for anything other than pay. Walker, who took office last month, says the emergency measure is needed to save $300 million over the next two years to help close a $3.6 billion budget gap.
"Some of what I've heard coming out of Wisconsin, where they're just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like more of an assault on unions," Obama told a Milwaukee television reporter, taking the unusual step of inviting a local station into the White House for a sit-down interview. "I think everybody's got to make some adjustments, but I think it's also important to recognize that public employees make enormous contributions to our states and our citizens."
Remember, Walker's first order of business when faced with the state's budget problems was to cut taxes in January on "98% of small businesses, freeing them up to create jobs" (which PolitiFact called him out for lying on) thus creating the "emergency" to "necessitate" going after state employees. Walker has indeed cut taxes and has only made Wisconsin's fiscal situation worse, and he's doing it to force an "emergency" to hit state workers in the pocketbook.
Other Republican controlled states are following suit. The Dems are calling them out, and it's about damn time.
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President Obama is weighing in on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's "emergency" plan to strip public employees of bargaining rights,...
Good thing it's Friday. Another easily debunked lie from Zandar; see the part in the quoted article where bargaining can still be done for pay. Take a drink.
President Obama seems to be trying to foment riots, a la Frances Fox Piven and Saul Alinsky. The "protesters" are thugs threatening the lives of Republicans, intimidating their families, and using all kinds of violent and hateful "eliminationist rhetoric". These "protesters" are also depriving poor children access to free food at the schools that are now closed. Good job.
Don't elections matter? Apparently not to Obama and his union puppets.
Those protesting aren't "public employees". They quit their jobs.
And we go from your anti-Semitism and ignorance on Israel to your pathological lying about Scott Walker in Wisconsin.
First, you say Walker's $115 million in tax cuts created the shortfall. As Steve AR pointed out yesterday, the shortfall is $3.6 billion, and that's in the article you quote. That's your first lie on this.
Second, your claim Wednesday that Gov. Walker was threatening protesters with the National Guard is such complete and utter bullshit that even Politifact called "Pants On Fire" on it!
Are you genetically capable of ever telling the fucking truth? It sure doesn't seem like it.
Still waiting on your explanation and your retraction of your lies.
But then again you're a proven pathological liar, a bigot, a racist, an anti-Semite, an anti-Christian, a hate monger, a dangerous fanatic and you're mentally unstable.
You're a danger to yourself and anyone you know.
Your FBI file is getting pretty long. Hopefully they'll put a stop to you an this blog very, very soon.
yes because saying untrue things on a private blog is illegal and the fbi should arrest people who lie
Oh, and while we're on Politifact, note that Scott Walker's claim that Wisconsin state workers are paying only 6% of the cost of their health insurance premiums, far less than not only Wisconsin private sector employees but far less than state employees in other states is 100% true.
Wisconsin state employees pay 6% of the total cost of their health insurance premiums. The Wisconsin taxpayer picks up the rest. no wonder the state is broke. the unions are costing the state billions.
ZCP, you're projecting like an arclight.
When you can come here and provide citations and backup for the zombie fallacies and knee-jerk contradictions you regurgitate day after day, then maybe someone other than Steve will take you seriously.
Zandar's "credibility" comes from the citations to actual journalists and objective news reports. Each of his posts is a response to a real news story.
Yours are more like Mr. Creosote at a turd buffet. Keep gorging.
Here, have a wafer thin mint...
Really?
Because the "journalists" that Zandar links to are left-wing propaganda mills like Think Progress, Talking Points Memo, Huffington Post, Raw Story and other leftist blogs full of bullshit.
Wisconsin has a $3.6 billion shortfall. This is a FACT. Both Zandar and Brian Beutler are LYING when they say Walker's tax cuts created the shortfall.
Zandar is LYING when he says Walker threatened to use the National Guard on demonstrators.
Zandar is LYING when he says the left doesn't resort to Hitler comparisons and overt threats.
Zandar is LYING because that's what he does, he is a pathological LIAR.
So spare me your bullshit about "journalistic integrity" because Zandar has none, and neither do the professional leftist propaganda rags he links to.
bughunter:
Zandar's "credibility" comes from the citations to actual journalists and objective news reports. Each of his posts is a response to a real news story.
ZCP is right. Zander makes it a point to link to lefties. Look at the Raw Story piece he linked to in his post on Israel; the article was from yesterday, but the news was already obsolete.
Neither he or any other lefty "journalists" have covered the hate-spewing garbage coming out of the jerk "protesters" who walked off their jobs. And not because it isn't happening, but simply because it would go against the left's narrative that only the right would do such things (which isn't true). The left is the picture of hypocrisy.
By the way, they may have moments of journalism, but the Washington Post is still part of the liberal media.
And now we see Obama's army of union thugs are spreading terror to Ohio and Indiana.
How many schools will end up being closed because of this nonsense? How many people will get hurt? How many tax dollars will be wasted in stopping this idiocy?
The Democrats are bringing their armies to bear in the streets now. We see what happens when people stand up to King Obama, union thugs appear in your hometown to rough people up and scare the hell out of voters.
But he has people like Zandar to lie for him.
After all, in Ohio Zandar is on the side of useless toll booth collectors that make $66,000 a year that can do what a machine does for much less.
I'm betting that's substantially more than what Zandar makes in a year, so much so that I have to ask if he's spewing out lies on a daily basis in order to try to get a cushy government job like this.
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