-
The GOP Can Win the Budget Battle Without a Government Shutdown
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2011 CommentAt almost 5 a.m. on Saturday morning, the House passed their version of the FY2012 budget. Riding the conservative, Tea Party wave, newly elected Republicans succeeded (for the most part) in slashing spending on hundreds of government departments, agencies, and projects. Although many complained the cuts didn't slice deep enough, all but three Republicans voted in favor of the bill.
-
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Is Aiming at Unions, Not the Budget
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2011 Comment (32)The standoff between the Wisconsin governor’s office and the state’s public employees is the most recent, and perhaps the ugliest, confrontation stemming from the budget troubles states are experiencing. But do not be fooled into thinking that the demands Gov. Scott Walker is making have anything to do with closing the state’s budget deficit.
-
Jonathan Franzen Goes to Jail (for a Book Talk)
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2011 Comment (4)The author of The Corrections and Freedom went to jail in Washington. He left impressed with the "seriousness" level of conversation, compared to meeting with young people on the other side of the tracks.
-
Poll: Voters Oppose Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in Union Standoff
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2011 Comment (72)Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has become an instant conservative darling and national figure with his standoff against his state’s public worker unions. But a new poll suggests his no-compromise, union-busting approach is not playing well in the historically progressive state.
-
Bachmann, 'All In' for 2012, Wants Glenn Beck to Fix the Deficit
Tweet Share on Facebook February 22, 2011 Comment (10)Sounding an awful lot like a presidential candidate (“I’m in”), Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann came up with a novel solution for the budget crisis: Let Glenn Beck figure it out.
It was one highlight in what the Minnesota Independent (h/t Washington Monthly) describes as “one of her most fiery stump speeches to date,” to a Republican group in South Carolina. Given that her normal standard is flame-thrower it's remarkable the Palmetto State is still standing.
-
The Republicans' Fundamentalist Approach to Spending and Jobs
Tweet Share on Facebook February 21, 2011 Comment (16)We all know the aphorism that “it’s the economy, stupid.” I don’t think anyone would argue with that notion--that the biggest thing driving voters (especially at a time like this) is the state of the economy. Unfortunately the economy varies in the eye of the beholder.
-
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's Newt Gingrich Moment
Tweet Share on Facebook February 21, 2011 Comment (32)When Scott Walker first thought about running for governor of Wisconsin in 2005, I was working for then-Gov. Jim Doyle. Walker spent several months riding around on his motorcycle trying to explain how his experience guiding Milwaukee County to the brink of fiscal collapse (he was county executive) was just the thing Wisconsin needed in the state house. Eventually he dropped out, saying it was “God’s will” that he not run.
Four years later, he’s governor. His move to strip many state workers of their collective bargaining rights has drawn national attention. Conservatives are hailing his bold leadership. He’s managed to put himself, at least for a day or two, at the center of the political universe.
Heady days. But if history is any guide, he should enjoy them while they last....
-
House Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood Over Abortion
Tweet Share on Facebook February 18, 2011 Comment (23)Late Friday the U.S. House of Representatives voted to add to the continuing resolution that would fund the U.S. government through September 2011 a measure that “zeros out” federal funding for Planned Parenthood which, by some estimates, is the nation’s largest provider of abortion.
-
Greenpeace Launches Unfounded Attack on the Koch Brothers
Tweet Share on Facebook February 18, 2011 Comment (18)It was the late Saul Alinsky who developed the tactics the modern left so often uses when engaged in political conflicts. As he used to advise it was always important to “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.”
-
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Unfairly Demonizes Teachers
Tweet Share on Facebook February 18, 2011 Comment (54)Madison, the state capital of Wisconsin, is also known as "Mad City"--not for nothing this week. My hometown's uprising on the shores of Lake Monona, in and around the state capitol, made the front page of the New York Times in the nation's most riveting political drama: a showdown between a new Republican governor and public union workers protesting the pain of big budget cuts at their expense. Wisconsin is first to yelp in protest, but may not be last.
Skating on thin ice, Gov. Scott Walker has evinced not a shred of human sympathy as he calmly goes about his business, which is to demonize and demoralize state workers. It's all part of a larger pattern. First it was public school teachers that got the broadsides, snide suggestions they aren't up to snuff. Now it's state public workers, with their pensions and healthcare as fair game. These people are public servants who should not be shrugged off so lightly and rudely. Attention must be paid to them, too, not just the military--which is the mighty whale (or sacred cow) of our federal budget woes, hands down.
