The Badger Awakens, Part 6

GOP Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin's failure on his controversial "emergency budget fix" bill is now complete, as even Walker admits that the measure will not save the state money.  The man who grilled Walker in front of Congress and the country?  Go figure.  Dennis Kucinich.

KUCINICH: Let me ask you about some of the specific provisions in your proposals to strip collective bargaining rights. First, your proposal would require unions to hold annual votes to continue representing their own members. Can you please explain to me and members of this committee how much money this provision saves for your state budget?

WALKER: That and a number of other provisions we put in because if you’re going to ask, if you’re going to put in place a change like that, we wanted to make sure we protected the workers of our state, so they got value out of that. [...]

KUCINICH: Would you answer the question? How much money does it save, Governor?

WALKER: It doesn’t save any. [...]

KUCINICH: I want to ask about another one of your proposals. Under your plan you would prohibit paying union member dues from their paychecks. How much money would this provision save your state budget?

WALKER: It would save employees a thousand dollars a year they could use to pay for their pensions and health care contributions.

KUCINICH: Governor, it wouldn’t save anything. [Goes on to present letter from LRF and is denied unanimous request for it to be placed in the public record by Issa]

But...but...conservatives like Col. Mustard told us that this measure was necessary, absolutely vital, in order to save Wisconsin taxpayers from the predation of greedy union thugs and their immoral bosses!

There will be no groundswell of support for public sector unions, even as people feel a connection to public sector employees.  The reason is that not much really has changed for public sector employees or the public, other than putting Wisconsin's ship of state on a proper fiscal course.

Wisconsin has been a devastating blow to public sector union power and pocketbooks, but it was not a blow to public sector employees whose jobs now are more secure because layoffs will not be needed to balance the budget.

But gosh, you mean the whole thing was just a plan to reduce the power of Democrats and unions in the state, and had nothing to do whatsoever with saving taxpayers money?  It was just a cynical ploy to manipulate people into once again supporting Republicans destroying the middle class?

Perish the thought.  Republicans full of crap, lying to voters, only interested in maintaining their own power.  It doesn't save taxpayers a dime.  That of course was never the point.

So, what do you plan to do about it, Wisconsin?