I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

Wisconsin's GOP Gov. Scott Walker seems to have terrible trouble defining the term "compromise" in any meaningful, recognizable way.

Walker warned of "dire consequences" if the AWOL Senate Democrats -- who left the state last week to prevent the Senate from getting the necessary quorum to vote on Walker's budget bill -- don't return to Madison immediately.

The people who will suffer if the Democrats stay away, Walker said, will be the very state workers they say they're trying to protect.

"Failure to act on this budget repair bill means at least 1,500 state workers will be laid off before the end of June," he said. "If there's no agreement by July 1, another 5-6,000 state workers as well as 5-6,000 local government employees would also be laid off."

Walker said that if the Democrats don't come home soon, the responsibility for those potentially 10,000 plus layoffs will fall squarely on their shoulders.

Walker again made it clear that he was not going to be the one to back down or yield to compromise.

"We're broke in this state because, time and time again, politicians of both political parties ran away from the tough decisions and punted them down the road for another day," he said. "We can no longer do that."

To recap, Walker gets what he wants -- stripping state employees of most of their collective bargaining rights -- or he's going to lay off thousands of them.  Keep in mind that the state employees' unions have agreed to Walker's pay cut demands already.  Stripping their bargaining rights will not resolve Wisconsin's budget problem, the action is purely punitive in nature.

And America doesn't exactly back Walker on this.

Americans strongly oppose laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. The poll found 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to such a proposal in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law.

Even Republicans are evenly split on this.  Democrats and independents overwhelmingly are against what Walker's doing.   Again, Wisconsin state employee unions have agreed to take an 8% pay cut.  But Walker refuses to listen.  It's his way or the highway.

But this is what Republicans mean by compromise:  You do 100% of what we say, and in turn you agree to enjoy being screwed over by it.  Does anyone think that when Walker releases his budget plan next week that those thousands of state employee layoffs won't be part of his plan to close the gap?

Of course the whole fight over union bargaining rights is to pull crap like this when nobody's watching.

Madison – Today, Governor Scott Walker signed Special Session Assembly Bill 5 which requires a 2/3s vote to pass tax rate increases on the income, sales or franchise taxes.

“I went to work today, met with my cabinet, and signed legislation that will help government operate within its means,” Governor Scott Walker said. “Wisconsinites can’t turn to raising taxes to balance their own family budgets when times get tough. This bill will ensure that we don’t kick the can down the road for a quick budget fix only to slap a long-term tax hike on the backs of Wisconsin taxpayers. I thank Senator Leah Vukmir and Representative Tyler August for their leadership on this issue.”

You know what other state requires a 2/3rds super-majority to raise taxes?  California.  So now that raising revenue is impossible in Wisconsin, guess where every dollar of that $3.6 billion shortfall is going to come from, Wisconsin?

Enjoy your Tea Party governance, folks.