23.) No Degree at Marquette U.
Scott Walker left Marquette University thirty-four credits short of graduation. He since has used the failure to graduate as a badge of honor, pointing to prominent people, especially businessmen, who have been very successful without a college degree. It is unlikely, however, if millions of mothers and fathers would like to have a president who denigrates the value of a college degree.
Scott Walker has claimed that he left Marquette University only to take a job as a Red Cross fundraiser but John Nichols, a close watchdog of Walker, has found that Walker was spending much of his time gathering signatures to challenge an incumbent for a seat in the state legislature.
24.) Mixing Government and Political Work
Scott Walker was the Milwaukee County executive from 2002 to 2010. Part of Walker's duties was overseeing Operation Freedom, a charity that raised money for veterans and their families. Tim Russell, called the third most powerful person in Milwaukee County government, put in charge of Operation Freedom by Walker, was sentenced to two years in prison for embezzling $20,000 from Operation Freedom. Kevin Kavanaugh, a Walker appointee, was sentenced to two years in prison for embezzling $51,000 from the same charity.
The initial John Doe investigation centered on the discovery that members of Walker's county staff had routinely engaged in political activity on official time. Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker's deputy chief of staff, used a private email system while exchanging more than 1,000 messages with Walker's campaign staff. She was sentenced to six months in prison for working for a candidate for lieutenant governor while she was Walker's deputy chief of staff. Darlene Wink received one year of probation for mixing campaign and county work. Bill Gardner got two years of probation for laundering tens of thousands of dollars while working on Walker's first campaign for governor. Brian Piesick, a domestic partner of Russell, was fined and given community service for sending lewd messages to a 17-year-old boy. Piesick was listed for a time as the registrant for Walker's guv.website. Scott Walker, himself, used his campaign email to conduct county business.
Until the last few weeks, Scott Walker has insisted that he is not the John Doe listed as a target in an investigation of what went on during Walker's eight-year tenure as the Milwaukee County executive. If that was so, why did Walker set up a legal defense fund and hire a bevy of defense lawyer?
25.) Campaign Coordination with Donors
Francis Schwitz, the special prosecutor investigating Scott Walker's coordination with campaign donors, has maintained that under Wisconsin law, when a nonprofit group spends money on issue advocacy in coordination with a candidate's campaign committee, the nonprofit must report spending as a contribution to it or the candidate.
When Judge Frank Easterbrook, acting on behalf of the U.S, Court of Appeals for the Seventy District, sent back the Walker case to be resolved by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, he wrote: "If campaigns tell potential contributors to divert money to nominally independent groups that have agreed to do the campaign bidding... contribution limits become porous, and the requirement that politicians' campaign committees disclose the donors and amounts become useless."
Added to what Judge Easterbrook wrote, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly said that government is entitled to regulate coordination between candidates' campaigns and purportedly independent groups.
That the Walker campaign was not following established law was encapsulated in a June 20, 2011 email to Walker from Kelly Rindfleisch, who was serving as coordinator of fundraising for Walker on behalf of the Wisconsin Club for Growth. "Stress that donations for WiCFG are not disclosed and can accept corporate donations without limits, and let them know that you can accept corporate donations and it is not reported."
Further confirmation on how the Walker campaign worked was revealed in a document dump, disclosing an September 7, 2011 email from Kate Donor, sent to Walker and top campaign staff. Kate Donor was a fundraising consultant to the Walker campaign. Donor wrote: "Take Koch's money." "Get on a plane to Vegas and sit down with Sheldon Adelson. Ask for $1 m now." "Corporations. Go heavy after them to give."
In the 2012 recall election, the Wisconsin Club for Growth contributed 49.1 million to Walker's campaign; also, it gave more than $2.5 million to Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, which gave $4.7 million to Walker.
26.) The Wisconsin Supreme Court Bails Walker Out
Here is what John Nichols has to say about how Governor Walker and his allies have manipulated the Wisconsin Supreme Court to achieve partisan political goals. "Walker's allies have poured money into election campaigns for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where a conservative majority has steadily upheld the governor's most controversial moves -- including those weakening the political hand of the state's once-powerful labor unions. Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, a stickler for judicial independence, refused to dance to Walker's tune, so his legislative allies crafted a constitutional amendment rewriting the rules for choosing the chief justice, his corporate allies funded a campaign to enact it; and Abrahamson was removed from her powerful office in April Two months later, when the court shut down an inquiry into alleged wrongdoing during the governor's recall election -- and, in so doing, effectively trashed the state's remaining campaign-finance laws -- Justice Abrahamson warned that the decision would usher in an era of 'anything goes' politics. That was just fine by Walker, who immediately moved to shut down the state agency that enforced election and ethics rules."
How did the Supreme Court shut down the investigation of Walker? It simply rewrote Wisconsin law. The then-existing law said "issue advocacy." The Supreme Court rewrote the law to read "express advocacy." In other words, as long as a group does not say "Vote for ___________" or "Vote against ___________," it can tout any and all of the preferred candidate's major policy issues. Justice Michael J. Gableman, who wrote the 4-2 decision, had been narrowly elected and probably would have lost if he had not received $2.75 million from the Wisconsin Club for Growth and the U.S.Chamber of Commerce. Given how crucial the WiCFG was to Governor Walker winning his recall election, Justice Gableman should have recused himself. Not content with shutting down the investigation, the court ordered all records of the investigation to be destroyed.
There is now real fear among campaign regulation advocates that the Wisconsin decision may be used to try to shut down all election campaign regulations across the nation. Strengthening these regulation should be an imperative action.
27.) Walker's War on State Agencies
Governor Walker has gutted the power of the elected state treasurer and the secretary of state; also, he has moved to shut down the state agency that enforced election and ethics rules. He has also waged a so far losing battle to strip the superintendent of public instruction of major powers. .
Governor Walker and his legislative comrades have so successfully gerrymandered the state that in the 2012 election for the State Assembly, Democratic candidates received 174,000 more votes that the Republican candidates, yet the GOP retained a huge 60-19 majority in the state chamber.
The latest campaign of Governor Walker is to do away with tenure in colleges and universities, and maybe even at the K-12 levels. Walker is following the lead of David Horowitz, who has enlisted students to take notes on their professors to try to reveal their efforts at indoctrinating students into liberal beliefs. Horowitz is implicitly saying that the more education you get, the more likely you are to be a liberal. This seems to be a case of leading from weakness, not strength.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Scott Walker Changes Positions More Often Than a Chameleon Changes Colors (continued)s
15.) Budgetary Deficits/Tax Cuts (continued)
I have done some more research on the Wisconsin budgetary deficit under Governor Scott Walker and have found some items that further illuminate the situation. In the November 21, 2014 Wisconsin State Journal, a article is entitled "State faces $2.2 billion deficit heading into 2015-17 budget cycle." The deficit is thirteen times higher than the $171.4 million deficit projected for the 2013-15 budget in November 2012. The great difference in projected deficits illustrates the deeply flawed accounting methods used in the Walker administration. The Journal accounts for part of the large discrepancy in projected deficits by reporting that "spending in the current fiscal year is expected to exceed revenues by about $650 million." The Journal also points out that the projections for the next biennium call for a five percent increase in revenues but in the first quarter the rate is 2.3 percent below projections.
A big dispute in Wisconsin is how to fund a $1.3 billion transit .plan. Governor Walker wants to fund it though borrowing the money. The GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has called this scheme to load up on debt: "Irresponsible."
In my recent research I also ran across an account of the devious lengths Governor Walker is willing to go to misstate the state's budgetary position to achieve desired policy goals. The 2010 federal health care law requires a state to maintain health coverage levels and not drop people from coverage .programs for the needy unless the state can show it has a budget deficit. By declaring a deficit, the state of Wisconsin could drop about 53,000 people from health care coverage. Thus, while the Walker administration was telling the federal government that Wisconsin had a $3 billion deficit, it was telling Walker's donors and residents of Wisconsin that he had balanced the budget. On December 29, 2012, the state administrative secretary wrote a letter advising the Department of Health and Human Services that Wisconsin would be running a deficit from January 1, 2013 through June 2013.
16.) Stand Your Ground
Governor Walker has boasted that he brought the Castle Doctrine to Wisconsin. The Castle Doctrine is based on the proposition that "my home is my castle" and a homeowner has an obligation to defend that castle. The Castle Doctrine has been legislatively renamed Stand Your Ground and extends self-defense claims beyond the home.
The American Bar Association says thirty-three states have enacted Stand Your Ground in the last decade. The Tampa Bay Times newspaper has reviewed 235 Stand Your Ground cases since the law was enacted in Florida in 2005. Nearly seventy percent of the cases did not result in any punishment. Charges were more likely to be avoided if the victims were black.
Researchers at Texas A&M found that homicide rates went up eight percent in Stand Your Ground states. The American Bar Association has translated this eight percent increase into 600 additional homicides per year. Moreover, the increase in homicides in states like Florida, was larger than any relative increase in the last forty years, nor was the increase attributable to other causes.
The ABA's National Task Force on Stand Your Ground Laws advised states with the laws to repeal them if they "desire to reduce their overall homicide rates," or "desire to reduce or eliminate racial disparities in the criminal justice system."
The upshot of the above is that by bringing Stand Your Ground to Wisconsin, Governor Walker has saddled the state with additional homicides that wouldn't have happened without having a hard-to-disprove self-defense claim for killing another person. Juries and judges have been given the difficult task of trying to read the mind of someone who has killed and is making a self-defense claim in a trial.
17.) The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
After Donald Trump proposed to repeal the birthright citizenship in the 14th Amendment, Scott Walker quickly voiced his agreement with Trump. Nearly a week after Walker said he wanted to end birthright citizenship and he would not say whether he agrees with the 14th Amendment, Walker told "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos that he would not try to alter the 14th Amendment. Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed Walker: "You're not seeking to repeal or alter the 14th Amendment?" "No," Walker answered. "I point out in any discussion that goes beyond securing the border and enforcing laws are things that should be a red flag to voters out there who for years have heard lip service from politicians and are understandably angry." The day after the "This Week" interview, Walker said he supports birthright citizenship but then later in the day he said that the problem cold be addressed by enforcing other laws. The next day Walker told a donor, Stanley S. Hubbard, a conservative billionaire who owns a radio station in Minnesota, that he would not do away with birthright citizenship On Friday of the very confusing week, Walker said he didn't have a position on the issue.
18.) Same-Sex Marriage
On June 7, 2015, Governor Walker told ABC News that he supports amending the U.S. Constitution to allow individual states to decide the legality of same-sex marriage. Given the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage and polling that shows a clear majority of Americans support same-sex marriage, Walker's position can only be described as quixotic.
19.) Gambling
While a state representative in 1999, Scott Walker favored a ban on political contributions from the gambling industry, because it would bring corruption to Wisconsin. Since that time, Walker has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, from gambling owners and CEOs.
20.) Job Creation/Fact Checks
When asked during the first GOP debate among presidential contenders why Wisconsin had created only a little more than one-half of the 250,000 additional jobs he initially promised, Governor Walker gave a convoluted answer about a reduction in unemployment claims. In the 2012 campaign to recall Governor Walker, he took a beating on the job numbers. He produced a higher set of numbers, calling them "the final job numbers." The fact-checking site, Politifact, rated the numbers claim as a "pants-on-fire" lie.
Politifact did almost 150 fact checks on Walker's assertions, and rated forty-nine percent as "false," "mostly false," or "pants-on-fire" lies.
21.) Consultations With Legislative Leaders
As illustrated above in some instances, Governor Scott Walker will even lie about matters that are not of major policy consequence, Walker lied about his consultations with legislative leaders since he started running for president. On July 22, 2015, Walker told Steve Cochran of WGN AM 720 that he has met with "all the legislative leadership in both chambers and both parties every week." The Democratic minority leaders in both chambers say that Walker has met with them a total of six times and three meetings were cancelled.
22.) Walker's Favorable and Policy Ratings
The University of Marquette Law School has periodically rated Governor Walker on favorable. The polling has never found his rating to be over fifty-one percent. The most recent rating was forty-one percent. and fifty-five percent disapproved of how he is handling his job.
Th most recent polling has found that seventy-eight disapprove of his cutting aid to public schools and seventy percent disapprove of his cutting $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System. Walker has recently told reporters that he expected to prevent the cut to public schools and reduce the cut to the University of Wisconsin. On extending vouchers to schools, thirty-seven favor and fifty-four percent oppose. On right-to-work, forty-four approve and fifty percent oppose.
Governor Walker has made a big thing about winning three elections for governor in a blue state. In the first place, the fact that one of the U.S. senators, the governor and both houses of the state legislature are held by Republicans, make it a stretch to call Wisconsin a blue state. Walker ran as a moderate in his 2010 run for governor, hiding, for instance, his plan to cripple collective bargaining rights. Once more, 2010 was a year of big Republican gains throughout the United States. In his recall election in 2012, Walker spent about seven times a much as his opposition, also, many Wisconsinites were against trying to recall a sitting governor --a factor that probably alone saved Walker from defeat. In the 2014 campaign for governor, Walker outspent his opponent, Mary Burke, by about $12 million. Although Mary Burke had been the state's commerce secretary and was the president of a bicycle company, she had far less name recognition than Walker. Finally, the 2014 election was a national runaway for the Republican Party.
I have done some more research on the Wisconsin budgetary deficit under Governor Scott Walker and have found some items that further illuminate the situation. In the November 21, 2014 Wisconsin State Journal, a article is entitled "State faces $2.2 billion deficit heading into 2015-17 budget cycle." The deficit is thirteen times higher than the $171.4 million deficit projected for the 2013-15 budget in November 2012. The great difference in projected deficits illustrates the deeply flawed accounting methods used in the Walker administration. The Journal accounts for part of the large discrepancy in projected deficits by reporting that "spending in the current fiscal year is expected to exceed revenues by about $650 million." The Journal also points out that the projections for the next biennium call for a five percent increase in revenues but in the first quarter the rate is 2.3 percent below projections.
A big dispute in Wisconsin is how to fund a $1.3 billion transit .plan. Governor Walker wants to fund it though borrowing the money. The GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has called this scheme to load up on debt: "Irresponsible."
In my recent research I also ran across an account of the devious lengths Governor Walker is willing to go to misstate the state's budgetary position to achieve desired policy goals. The 2010 federal health care law requires a state to maintain health coverage levels and not drop people from coverage .programs for the needy unless the state can show it has a budget deficit. By declaring a deficit, the state of Wisconsin could drop about 53,000 people from health care coverage. Thus, while the Walker administration was telling the federal government that Wisconsin had a $3 billion deficit, it was telling Walker's donors and residents of Wisconsin that he had balanced the budget. On December 29, 2012, the state administrative secretary wrote a letter advising the Department of Health and Human Services that Wisconsin would be running a deficit from January 1, 2013 through June 2013.
16.) Stand Your Ground
Governor Walker has boasted that he brought the Castle Doctrine to Wisconsin. The Castle Doctrine is based on the proposition that "my home is my castle" and a homeowner has an obligation to defend that castle. The Castle Doctrine has been legislatively renamed Stand Your Ground and extends self-defense claims beyond the home.
The American Bar Association says thirty-three states have enacted Stand Your Ground in the last decade. The Tampa Bay Times newspaper has reviewed 235 Stand Your Ground cases since the law was enacted in Florida in 2005. Nearly seventy percent of the cases did not result in any punishment. Charges were more likely to be avoided if the victims were black.
Researchers at Texas A&M found that homicide rates went up eight percent in Stand Your Ground states. The American Bar Association has translated this eight percent increase into 600 additional homicides per year. Moreover, the increase in homicides in states like Florida, was larger than any relative increase in the last forty years, nor was the increase attributable to other causes.
The ABA's National Task Force on Stand Your Ground Laws advised states with the laws to repeal them if they "desire to reduce their overall homicide rates," or "desire to reduce or eliminate racial disparities in the criminal justice system."
The upshot of the above is that by bringing Stand Your Ground to Wisconsin, Governor Walker has saddled the state with additional homicides that wouldn't have happened without having a hard-to-disprove self-defense claim for killing another person. Juries and judges have been given the difficult task of trying to read the mind of someone who has killed and is making a self-defense claim in a trial.
17.) The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
After Donald Trump proposed to repeal the birthright citizenship in the 14th Amendment, Scott Walker quickly voiced his agreement with Trump. Nearly a week after Walker said he wanted to end birthright citizenship and he would not say whether he agrees with the 14th Amendment, Walker told "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos that he would not try to alter the 14th Amendment. Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed Walker: "You're not seeking to repeal or alter the 14th Amendment?" "No," Walker answered. "I point out in any discussion that goes beyond securing the border and enforcing laws are things that should be a red flag to voters out there who for years have heard lip service from politicians and are understandably angry." The day after the "This Week" interview, Walker said he supports birthright citizenship but then later in the day he said that the problem cold be addressed by enforcing other laws. The next day Walker told a donor, Stanley S. Hubbard, a conservative billionaire who owns a radio station in Minnesota, that he would not do away with birthright citizenship On Friday of the very confusing week, Walker said he didn't have a position on the issue.
18.) Same-Sex Marriage
On June 7, 2015, Governor Walker told ABC News that he supports amending the U.S. Constitution to allow individual states to decide the legality of same-sex marriage. Given the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage and polling that shows a clear majority of Americans support same-sex marriage, Walker's position can only be described as quixotic.
19.) Gambling
While a state representative in 1999, Scott Walker favored a ban on political contributions from the gambling industry, because it would bring corruption to Wisconsin. Since that time, Walker has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, from gambling owners and CEOs.
20.) Job Creation/Fact Checks
When asked during the first GOP debate among presidential contenders why Wisconsin had created only a little more than one-half of the 250,000 additional jobs he initially promised, Governor Walker gave a convoluted answer about a reduction in unemployment claims. In the 2012 campaign to recall Governor Walker, he took a beating on the job numbers. He produced a higher set of numbers, calling them "the final job numbers." The fact-checking site, Politifact, rated the numbers claim as a "pants-on-fire" lie.
Politifact did almost 150 fact checks on Walker's assertions, and rated forty-nine percent as "false," "mostly false," or "pants-on-fire" lies.
21.) Consultations With Legislative Leaders
As illustrated above in some instances, Governor Scott Walker will even lie about matters that are not of major policy consequence, Walker lied about his consultations with legislative leaders since he started running for president. On July 22, 2015, Walker told Steve Cochran of WGN AM 720 that he has met with "all the legislative leadership in both chambers and both parties every week." The Democratic minority leaders in both chambers say that Walker has met with them a total of six times and three meetings were cancelled.
22.) Walker's Favorable and Policy Ratings
The University of Marquette Law School has periodically rated Governor Walker on favorable. The polling has never found his rating to be over fifty-one percent. The most recent rating was forty-one percent. and fifty-five percent disapproved of how he is handling his job.
Th most recent polling has found that seventy-eight disapprove of his cutting aid to public schools and seventy percent disapprove of his cutting $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System. Walker has recently told reporters that he expected to prevent the cut to public schools and reduce the cut to the University of Wisconsin. On extending vouchers to schools, thirty-seven favor and fifty-four percent oppose. On right-to-work, forty-four approve and fifty percent oppose.
Governor Walker has made a big thing about winning three elections for governor in a blue state. In the first place, the fact that one of the U.S. senators, the governor and both houses of the state legislature are held by Republicans, make it a stretch to call Wisconsin a blue state. Walker ran as a moderate in his 2010 run for governor, hiding, for instance, his plan to cripple collective bargaining rights. Once more, 2010 was a year of big Republican gains throughout the United States. In his recall election in 2012, Walker spent about seven times a much as his opposition, also, many Wisconsinites were against trying to recall a sitting governor --a factor that probably alone saved Walker from defeat. In the 2014 campaign for governor, Walker outspent his opponent, Mary Burke, by about $12 million. Although Mary Burke had been the state's commerce secretary and was the president of a bicycle company, she had far less name recognition than Walker. Finally, the 2014 election was a national runaway for the Republican Party.
Monday, August 24, 2015
Scott Walker Changes Positions More Than a Chameleon Changes Colors (continued)
11.) ISIS/Syria
At the Conservative Action Conference on February 26, 2015, Governor Scott Walker said: "If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world." Walker was referring to the estimated 100,000 Wisconsin residents who assembled at the state capitol to protest Walker's crippling of collective bargaining rights for public sector union members. Walker was explicitly equating the protesters in Wisconsin with the ISIS insurgency movement in the Middle East. Walker later tried to spin that statement into an illustration of how he would handle a tough situation. The problem with that approach is that you can't unring a bell. There is an interesting parallel with how Walker handled the phone call from a hoaxer pretending to be Charles Koch. The hoaxer recommended that Walker infiltrate his own people into the massed protesters to cause chaos. Walker didn't take the opportunity to defend the right of the people to peacefully protest; he merely said he had other ways to handle it.
On February 1, 2015, appearing on ABC's program, This Week. Walker stated he would not rule out deploying U.S. soldiers to fight ISIS -- Walker has made a similar statement in regard to the civil war in Syria. Walker just said we must be "prepared." He didn't give any indication of the number of troops, the timelines involved, nor the urgency of taking the action. Other than these few unspecific statements, Governor Walker has not made conflict in the Middle East a major issue in his campaign.
12.) Air Traffic Controllers' Flap
Governor Scott Walker has made the claim that Ronald Reagan's take down of the air traffic controller's union was one of the greatest foreign policy successes in history. His claim is that the toughness he displayed through that action impressed the leaders of the Soviet Union that they must began to take Reagan seriously. Walker further claimed that there were documents that would prove the great impact the Reagan action had. The archivist of Soviet documents at Georgetown University has said that no such documents exist; also, Jack Matlock, the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union at the time, has labeled Walker's claim as "nonsense." Reagan's disbanding of the air traffic controller's union is widely seen as a major blow against organized labor in the United States, not as a major foreign policy success.
13.) Iranian Nuclear Development Deal
At the first debate of GOP presidential candidates, Scott Walker said one of the first actions he would take would be to kill the nuclear development deal with Iran. He therefore revealed himself to be a leader who doesn't avail himself of informed input before making such a major decision. A reflective leader would have said that he/she would seek a wide array of informed opinion before making such a decision. Given that renegotiation is highly unlikely to work and harsher sanctions imposed by the U.S. are also highly unlikely to be followed by other nations, military action would become the only viable option.
14.) President Obama's Stimulus Spending
Governor Scott Walker has portrayed himself as "one of the few elected officials in the country to not submit a wish list of projects from the federal stimulus funds." The stimulus being referred to is in the Americans Recovery and Reinvestment Act. When, however, the Milwaukee County Board requested some funding, Walker, as the county executive, submitted his own wish list of projects to be funded by the national government.
15.) Budgetary Deficits/Tax Cuts
In his first state budget for 2011-13, Governor Scott Walker proposed tax cuts for corporations,businesses, manufacturers and investors, among other groups. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated the value of the cuts as $2.33 billion over ten years.
In an analysis of the latest Wisconsin state budget, the Chicago Tribune outlined how the current $2 billion deficit would be handled. Revenues are expected to exceed sending by $161 million in the next year and fall short by $30 million in the second year. State agencies must find $1 billion in unspecified cuts and revenues must grow by four percent in each of the next two years. The Tribune took a rather uncritical look at the budgetary assumptions; however, it should have looked at what happened to the assumptions in the 2014 tax cut.
In March 2014, Governor Walker signed a $541 tax cut bill -- the third one in the previous year -- to cut taxes on property and families. The new law eliminated all state income taxes for manufacturers in the state.The expectation was that growing tax collections would give the state a $1 billion surplus in June 2015. Although tax rates were cut across the board, the average taxpayer was projected to get a cut of $46 in income taxes ad a property tax decrease of $131. These very modest tax cuts would hardly make a dent in the average family's standard of living.
Mary Burke, then the state commerce secretary and later the Democratic candidate for governor, claimed that the tax cuts would mean a loss of income to 114,000 Wisconsin families. The reason for this was that the companion cut in the Earned Income tax Credit would exceed the reduction in the income tax. PoliticalFact Wisconsin analysed the Burke claim and rated it half-true. Thus, a lot of families would be a little poorer off as a result of the tax changes.
Earlier this year, Governor Walker's own financial advisers put the state deficit at $2.2 billion. Jon Peacock of the Wisconsin Budget Project agrees. He says that Walker has made a "self-inflicted wound," through massive tax giveaways and a struggling economy. The point to be made here is that since budget projections made in the 2014 tax cut have proved to be far off the mark, why should budget and deficit projections made in 2015 for the next two years, be given much credence?
At the Conservative Action Conference on February 26, 2015, Governor Scott Walker said: "If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world." Walker was referring to the estimated 100,000 Wisconsin residents who assembled at the state capitol to protest Walker's crippling of collective bargaining rights for public sector union members. Walker was explicitly equating the protesters in Wisconsin with the ISIS insurgency movement in the Middle East. Walker later tried to spin that statement into an illustration of how he would handle a tough situation. The problem with that approach is that you can't unring a bell. There is an interesting parallel with how Walker handled the phone call from a hoaxer pretending to be Charles Koch. The hoaxer recommended that Walker infiltrate his own people into the massed protesters to cause chaos. Walker didn't take the opportunity to defend the right of the people to peacefully protest; he merely said he had other ways to handle it.
On February 1, 2015, appearing on ABC's program, This Week. Walker stated he would not rule out deploying U.S. soldiers to fight ISIS -- Walker has made a similar statement in regard to the civil war in Syria. Walker just said we must be "prepared." He didn't give any indication of the number of troops, the timelines involved, nor the urgency of taking the action. Other than these few unspecific statements, Governor Walker has not made conflict in the Middle East a major issue in his campaign.
12.) Air Traffic Controllers' Flap
Governor Scott Walker has made the claim that Ronald Reagan's take down of the air traffic controller's union was one of the greatest foreign policy successes in history. His claim is that the toughness he displayed through that action impressed the leaders of the Soviet Union that they must began to take Reagan seriously. Walker further claimed that there were documents that would prove the great impact the Reagan action had. The archivist of Soviet documents at Georgetown University has said that no such documents exist; also, Jack Matlock, the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union at the time, has labeled Walker's claim as "nonsense." Reagan's disbanding of the air traffic controller's union is widely seen as a major blow against organized labor in the United States, not as a major foreign policy success.
13.) Iranian Nuclear Development Deal
At the first debate of GOP presidential candidates, Scott Walker said one of the first actions he would take would be to kill the nuclear development deal with Iran. He therefore revealed himself to be a leader who doesn't avail himself of informed input before making such a major decision. A reflective leader would have said that he/she would seek a wide array of informed opinion before making such a decision. Given that renegotiation is highly unlikely to work and harsher sanctions imposed by the U.S. are also highly unlikely to be followed by other nations, military action would become the only viable option.
14.) President Obama's Stimulus Spending
Governor Scott Walker has portrayed himself as "one of the few elected officials in the country to not submit a wish list of projects from the federal stimulus funds." The stimulus being referred to is in the Americans Recovery and Reinvestment Act. When, however, the Milwaukee County Board requested some funding, Walker, as the county executive, submitted his own wish list of projects to be funded by the national government.
15.) Budgetary Deficits/Tax Cuts
In his first state budget for 2011-13, Governor Scott Walker proposed tax cuts for corporations,businesses, manufacturers and investors, among other groups. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated the value of the cuts as $2.33 billion over ten years.
In an analysis of the latest Wisconsin state budget, the Chicago Tribune outlined how the current $2 billion deficit would be handled. Revenues are expected to exceed sending by $161 million in the next year and fall short by $30 million in the second year. State agencies must find $1 billion in unspecified cuts and revenues must grow by four percent in each of the next two years. The Tribune took a rather uncritical look at the budgetary assumptions; however, it should have looked at what happened to the assumptions in the 2014 tax cut.
In March 2014, Governor Walker signed a $541 tax cut bill -- the third one in the previous year -- to cut taxes on property and families. The new law eliminated all state income taxes for manufacturers in the state.The expectation was that growing tax collections would give the state a $1 billion surplus in June 2015. Although tax rates were cut across the board, the average taxpayer was projected to get a cut of $46 in income taxes ad a property tax decrease of $131. These very modest tax cuts would hardly make a dent in the average family's standard of living.
Mary Burke, then the state commerce secretary and later the Democratic candidate for governor, claimed that the tax cuts would mean a loss of income to 114,000 Wisconsin families. The reason for this was that the companion cut in the Earned Income tax Credit would exceed the reduction in the income tax. PoliticalFact Wisconsin analysed the Burke claim and rated it half-true. Thus, a lot of families would be a little poorer off as a result of the tax changes.
Earlier this year, Governor Walker's own financial advisers put the state deficit at $2.2 billion. Jon Peacock of the Wisconsin Budget Project agrees. He says that Walker has made a "self-inflicted wound," through massive tax giveaways and a struggling economy. The point to be made here is that since budget projections made in the 2014 tax cut have proved to be far off the mark, why should budget and deficit projections made in 2015 for the next two years, be given much credence?
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Scott Walker Changes Positions More Often Than a Chameleon Changes Colors (continued)
6.) Ethanol
During his unsuccessful run for governor of Wisconsin in 2006, Scott Walker took out radio ads stating he was against ethanol mandates. He said he would consider incentives -- while not identifying any -- but he didn't want a government mandate. At the time there was a bill pending in the Wisconsin legislature, which provided for a ten percent ethanol fuel mix.
Upon becoming a candidate for president of the United States and campaigning in Iowa, Walker changed his tune and came out in favor of ethanol mandates. He tried to dull the sharpness of his position reversal by saying he would like to phase them out; however, he gave no timeline for the phase-out.
7.) Climate Change/Environmental Protection
One of the more questionable appointments Governor Walker has made in his tenure in office was that of naming Mike Huebsch to the state Public Service Committee. Huebsch said the explosion of one volcano would offset the emissions of every automobile in the country. Scientific consensus is that human activity generates about 35 gigatons of greenhouse gases per year, while all the world's volcanoes spew out about 0.13 to 0.44 gigatons per year --human activity may be 80 to 270 times greater than that of volcanoes.
Huebsch also questioned the continuation of the renewable portfolio standard of ten percent for renewable energy. A number of states have more ambitious goals for renewable energy.
Governor Walker signed the Americans for Prosperity "No Climate Tax" pledge and joined the lawsuit on the Environmental Protection Agency's new regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Walker also wrote a letter to President Obama -- dated May 21, 2015 -- warning that unless changes were made, Wisconsin would not comply with the EPA's Clean Power Plan. At Florida Governor Rick Scott's Economic Growth Summit on June 2, 2015, Walker proposed reforming the EPA by removing many of its powers and placing them in the hands of the states. Fifty states with fifty sets of regulations would make it very difficult for companies to do business. Environmentalists have accused the Walker administration of prohibiting the state's Board of Commissioners of Public Lands from doing any work on climate change.
On the more nitty-gritty level of budgetary expenditures, Walker has proposed cutting $8.1 million from a leading energy research center in the state. He also has proposed a $4 million cut from municipal recycling programs, which actually is an improvement from his first budget, which didn't have any funding for such programs. In 2011, he proposed a bill to restrict where wind turbines could be built. In a rare action, the GOP-dominated state legislature killed this attempt at micro-managing.
A major public issue in Wisconsin during Walker's tenure has been the proposal by Gogebic Taconite LLC to build a large open-pit iron ore mine. In 2012, the company gave $700,000 to the pro-Walker Wisconsin Club for Growth. Governor Walker pushed through a bill relaxing environmental mining standards, paving the way for the project if it passed a review by federal regulators. It was all for naught, as the company abandoned the project, citing onerous federal regulations.
Kerry Schumann of the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters has passed judgment on Scott Walker by saying that he "has gone after every piece of environmental protection."
8.) Common Core
In a very recent interview at an Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition event, Governor Walker said he "effectively repealed" the Common Core standard in Wisconsin. He said: "I oppose it." "I like high standards. I think high standards are a good thing." Common Core is a set of standards for English and mathematics unveiled in 2010, that came out of discussions between private nonprofit groups and state education departments.
In June 2010, Wisconsin adopted the Common Core State Standards for mathematics and English Language Arts and also adopted Standards of Literacy in All Subjects standards. The new standardized state test -- named the "Badger Exam" -- was legislatively aligned with Common Core. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Website states that Common Core is part of the "framework" for the state's assessment of students. The state's independently-elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Evers, is a strong proponent of Common Core. All but one school district in Wisconsin is reported to use Common Core standards. It is clear, therefore, that Common Core is deeply embedded in the Wisconsin public school system.
PoliticalFactWisconsin says that Governor Walker issued an announcement on July 17, 2014, which read: "Today, I call on the members of the state Legislature (sic) to pass a bill in early January [2015] to repeal Common Core and replace it with standards set by people in Wisconsin." Looking back to Walker's first budget as governor, the DPI was instructed to come up with a new standard test for school children which would have to "measure mastery" of the Common Core standards. In January 2012, the state Read to Lead Task Force, chaired by Governor Scott Walker, recommended that the state's early learning standards be aligned with Common Core. Thus, until at least January 2012, Governor Walker's actions were to align the state's school policy with Common Core.
When Governor Scott Walker said in his January 2025 State of the State Address that he wanted legislation that said no school district be required to use Common Core, he added: "Going forward, I want to eliminate any requirement to use Common Core," meaning that he was not proposing elimination at that time. The strongly anti-Common Core organization, Truth in American Education, accused Walker of advocating opt-out, not repeal.
Critics have pointed out that both Walker and the GOP-controlled state legislature seem to be mesmerized by Tony Evers. They could strip him of his power to set broad .public school policy but might be afraid of strong public reaction. Walker has tried to trim some of his powers but has lost that effort.
9.) Gun Control
On April 10, 2015, while speaking at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting, Governor Walker said he has "an A+ rating from the NRA as governor and had an A rating as a state legislator." The A rating as a legislator is surprising, because the NRA regularly opposes any attempt, no matter how minor, to regulate the purchase and possession of firearms. In 1994, Scott Walker successfully pushed through two measures: a,) a bill prohibiting any person who commits the equivalent of a felony from possessing a firearm; and b.) prohibiting anyone who was involuntarily committed as a minor from possessing a firearm. Walker briefly sponsored a bill in 1995 making it illegal for any federally licensed gun dealer in the state to sell a weapon that wasn't secured with a trigger lock and also made it illegal to buy one. Even that brief sponsorship should have drawn the NRA's ire.
Governor Walker's A+ rating is probably based on the fact that Wisconsin now has a concealed carry law.
10.) The Patriot Act
On Fox and Friends (June 3, 2015), Walker said he didn't support any of the GOP-sponsored amendments to the Patriot Act. The entire GOP Wisconsin delegation voted for the Sensenbrenner bill. Therefore, if Scott Walker is elected as president, we may see the return of bulk collection of records by the government, ironically done by a small-government proponent.
ADDENDUMS
*In an appearance on Radio Iowa on April 25, 2015, Walker came out in favor of a national right-to-work law. This should not be confused with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
*Besides what Governor Walker told the Wausau Daily Herald editorial board about seeing a pathway to citizenship by illegal aliens, Walker told a private dinner crowd at the Golden Door Restaurant in Bedford, New Hampshire that he supported the idea of allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. and eventually get citizenship.
*Regarding President Obama's executive order blocking a large number of immigrant families from deportation, in a July 19 conversation with a family in Plainfield, Iowa, Walker said of the executive order: "I'm not blocking it. I'm governor. I don't have anything to do with the federal government." A day earlier, at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, he touted his support for the lawsuit, joined by twenty-four other states, to block Obama's order.
During his unsuccessful run for governor of Wisconsin in 2006, Scott Walker took out radio ads stating he was against ethanol mandates. He said he would consider incentives -- while not identifying any -- but he didn't want a government mandate. At the time there was a bill pending in the Wisconsin legislature, which provided for a ten percent ethanol fuel mix.
Upon becoming a candidate for president of the United States and campaigning in Iowa, Walker changed his tune and came out in favor of ethanol mandates. He tried to dull the sharpness of his position reversal by saying he would like to phase them out; however, he gave no timeline for the phase-out.
7.) Climate Change/Environmental Protection
One of the more questionable appointments Governor Walker has made in his tenure in office was that of naming Mike Huebsch to the state Public Service Committee. Huebsch said the explosion of one volcano would offset the emissions of every automobile in the country. Scientific consensus is that human activity generates about 35 gigatons of greenhouse gases per year, while all the world's volcanoes spew out about 0.13 to 0.44 gigatons per year --human activity may be 80 to 270 times greater than that of volcanoes.
Huebsch also questioned the continuation of the renewable portfolio standard of ten percent for renewable energy. A number of states have more ambitious goals for renewable energy.
Governor Walker signed the Americans for Prosperity "No Climate Tax" pledge and joined the lawsuit on the Environmental Protection Agency's new regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Walker also wrote a letter to President Obama -- dated May 21, 2015 -- warning that unless changes were made, Wisconsin would not comply with the EPA's Clean Power Plan. At Florida Governor Rick Scott's Economic Growth Summit on June 2, 2015, Walker proposed reforming the EPA by removing many of its powers and placing them in the hands of the states. Fifty states with fifty sets of regulations would make it very difficult for companies to do business. Environmentalists have accused the Walker administration of prohibiting the state's Board of Commissioners of Public Lands from doing any work on climate change.
On the more nitty-gritty level of budgetary expenditures, Walker has proposed cutting $8.1 million from a leading energy research center in the state. He also has proposed a $4 million cut from municipal recycling programs, which actually is an improvement from his first budget, which didn't have any funding for such programs. In 2011, he proposed a bill to restrict where wind turbines could be built. In a rare action, the GOP-dominated state legislature killed this attempt at micro-managing.
A major public issue in Wisconsin during Walker's tenure has been the proposal by Gogebic Taconite LLC to build a large open-pit iron ore mine. In 2012, the company gave $700,000 to the pro-Walker Wisconsin Club for Growth. Governor Walker pushed through a bill relaxing environmental mining standards, paving the way for the project if it passed a review by federal regulators. It was all for naught, as the company abandoned the project, citing onerous federal regulations.
Kerry Schumann of the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters has passed judgment on Scott Walker by saying that he "has gone after every piece of environmental protection."
8.) Common Core
In a very recent interview at an Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition event, Governor Walker said he "effectively repealed" the Common Core standard in Wisconsin. He said: "I oppose it." "I like high standards. I think high standards are a good thing." Common Core is a set of standards for English and mathematics unveiled in 2010, that came out of discussions between private nonprofit groups and state education departments.
In June 2010, Wisconsin adopted the Common Core State Standards for mathematics and English Language Arts and also adopted Standards of Literacy in All Subjects standards. The new standardized state test -- named the "Badger Exam" -- was legislatively aligned with Common Core. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Website states that Common Core is part of the "framework" for the state's assessment of students. The state's independently-elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Evers, is a strong proponent of Common Core. All but one school district in Wisconsin is reported to use Common Core standards. It is clear, therefore, that Common Core is deeply embedded in the Wisconsin public school system.
PoliticalFactWisconsin says that Governor Walker issued an announcement on July 17, 2014, which read: "Today, I call on the members of the state Legislature (sic) to pass a bill in early January [2015] to repeal Common Core and replace it with standards set by people in Wisconsin." Looking back to Walker's first budget as governor, the DPI was instructed to come up with a new standard test for school children which would have to "measure mastery" of the Common Core standards. In January 2012, the state Read to Lead Task Force, chaired by Governor Scott Walker, recommended that the state's early learning standards be aligned with Common Core. Thus, until at least January 2012, Governor Walker's actions were to align the state's school policy with Common Core.
When Governor Scott Walker said in his January 2025 State of the State Address that he wanted legislation that said no school district be required to use Common Core, he added: "Going forward, I want to eliminate any requirement to use Common Core," meaning that he was not proposing elimination at that time. The strongly anti-Common Core organization, Truth in American Education, accused Walker of advocating opt-out, not repeal.
Critics have pointed out that both Walker and the GOP-controlled state legislature seem to be mesmerized by Tony Evers. They could strip him of his power to set broad .public school policy but might be afraid of strong public reaction. Walker has tried to trim some of his powers but has lost that effort.
9.) Gun Control
On April 10, 2015, while speaking at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting, Governor Walker said he has "an A+ rating from the NRA as governor and had an A rating as a state legislator." The A rating as a legislator is surprising, because the NRA regularly opposes any attempt, no matter how minor, to regulate the purchase and possession of firearms. In 1994, Scott Walker successfully pushed through two measures: a,) a bill prohibiting any person who commits the equivalent of a felony from possessing a firearm; and b.) prohibiting anyone who was involuntarily committed as a minor from possessing a firearm. Walker briefly sponsored a bill in 1995 making it illegal for any federally licensed gun dealer in the state to sell a weapon that wasn't secured with a trigger lock and also made it illegal to buy one. Even that brief sponsorship should have drawn the NRA's ire.
Governor Walker's A+ rating is probably based on the fact that Wisconsin now has a concealed carry law.
10.) The Patriot Act
On Fox and Friends (June 3, 2015), Walker said he didn't support any of the GOP-sponsored amendments to the Patriot Act. The entire GOP Wisconsin delegation voted for the Sensenbrenner bill. Therefore, if Scott Walker is elected as president, we may see the return of bulk collection of records by the government, ironically done by a small-government proponent.
ADDENDUMS
*In an appearance on Radio Iowa on April 25, 2015, Walker came out in favor of a national right-to-work law. This should not be confused with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
*Besides what Governor Walker told the Wausau Daily Herald editorial board about seeing a pathway to citizenship by illegal aliens, Walker told a private dinner crowd at the Golden Door Restaurant in Bedford, New Hampshire that he supported the idea of allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. and eventually get citizenship.
*Regarding President Obama's executive order blocking a large number of immigrant families from deportation, in a July 19 conversation with a family in Plainfield, Iowa, Walker said of the executive order: "I'm not blocking it. I'm governor. I don't have anything to do with the federal government." A day earlier, at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, he touted his support for the lawsuit, joined by twenty-four other states, to block Obama's order.
Friday, August 21, 2015
Scott Walker Changes Positions More Than a Chameleon Changes Colors
I have previously written on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walkers frequent changes of his positions on policy issues; how he has brazenly misinformed; and even lied to his Wisconsin constituents. I was still astounded by how extensive have been these character manifestations throughout his political career, as I recently dug much deeper into my research. Beginning with this blog, I will present this examination of Walker on a topic-themed basis.
1.) Collective Bargaining and Right-to-Work
Days after being inaugurated as governor of Wisconsin on January 1, 2011, Scott Walker traveled to Beloit, Wisconsin to meet with Diane Hendricks, the billionaire who would become his most generous campaign donor. Hendricks asked him: "Any chance we'll ever get to be a completely red state, and work on those unions, and become a right-to-work [state]?" Walker didn't hesitate: "Yes...we're going to start in a couple of weeks with our budget-adjustment bill." "The first step is, we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public-employee unions, because you use divide-and-conquer...." (See John Nichols's article in the August 17/24, 2015 The Nation magazine.)
Shortly before the 2012 recall election, the video of the meeting became public. Knowing he was in trouble, Walker explained that he wasn't talking about divide-and-conquer; he was explaining to a billionaire donor how to reduce the influence of "a handful of special interests." Walker said of the anti-labor legislation: "It's not going to get to my desk. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure it isn't there."
One week before the 2010 election for governor, Walker told the Oshkosh Northwestern editorial board that he would negotiate with the public sector unions. Within weeks, Walker introduced the anti-union Act 10. In February 2011, Walker said: "I campaigned on [Act 10] throughout the campaign." Even Walker supporters can't come up with a single instance in the campaign that Walker said anything about addressing collective bargaining rights.
In October 2014, Scott Walker told the New York Times that: "We're not going to do anything with right-to-work." When asked during the 2014 campaign for governor, Walker said he had ":no interest" in enacting right-to-work. When Walker signed the right-to-work bill after being successfully re-elected, he put the onus on state legislators for sending him the bill.
2.) Abortion
During the 2014 election campaign, the Walker camp ran a 30-second ad in which Walker said he supported legislation that would "leave the final decision [on abortion] to a woman and her doctor." He declined to say if he believed that abortions should be prohibited after twenty weeks, even though he had previously filed legislation to do just that. Earlier this year, Governor Walker signed legislation to ban abortions after twenty weeks, with no exception for rape or incest.
In an interview with conservative talk show host Dana Loesch on May 22, 2015, Walker described a mandatory ultrasound as "lovely" and "a cool thing." MSNBC's Steve Benen said that Walker had put himself between the patient and her doctor. Walker knows or should know that a mandatory ultrasound is designed to make a pregnant woman think twice about having an abortion. Also, why should a small government advocate, as Scott Walker describes himself, want to insert the government into what should be a medical decision made between a patient and her doctor.
.
Governor Scott Walker is an extremist anti-choice proponent, who opposes exceptions to abortion for rape, incest, or even to save the life of a pregnant woman. When asked in the first presidential debate among GOP candidates what he would propose if the life of the expectant mother was in acute danger, he offered the lame answer that there were other provisions to do that but he gave no specifics.
3.) Immigration
In 2013, Governor Walker told the Wausau Daily Herald editorial board that he supported a pathway to citizenship for undocumented aliens, and he added that the debate should focus on improving legal immigration, not on building security. Walker has since strenuously argued that he didn't say that to the board. This is not a case of "he said, she said," it is a case of "they said, he said," as none of the board members has supported Walker's denial of what was said.
Governor Walker was interviewed by Glenn Beck on April 20, 2015, in which Walker said that immigration policy should be based "first and foremost" on protecting American workers and their wages.
Frank Luntz, the GOP point person on focus groups, assembled one for the first GOP presidential debate. I was impressed that when a member said that Walker's position on immigration had evolved to his satisfaction, another member immediately jumped in and said that his new position had come in March of this year. Whatever position Walker had as of March, it has been superseded already, as after Donald Trump announced his new position on undocumented aliens, Walker endorsed Trump's position on building a wall and on the Fourteen Amendment's provision basing citizenship on birth on U.S. soil. Rewriting the Fourteenth Amendment would be a herculean challenge and would throw into doubt those whose citizenship is based on birthplace.
Donald Trump has proposed building a wall both above and below ground. I recently read an article that described how Mexican drug cartels build tunnels. They have built them as far as seventy feet down. Trying to stop tunneling with an underground barrier would massively increase the cost of building a wall.
4.) Restrictions on Voting
When asked in his 2014 election debate with his Democratic opponent, Governor Walker was asked about estimates that the photo ID law that he championed could disenfranchise as many as 300,000 otherwise qualified Wisconsin voters. Walker revealed his sense of values when he answered that he didn't want his vote to be cancelled by a fraudulently-cast ballot. Walker didn't even try to make the case that voter impersonation was rampant in Wisconsin. Various studies have shown that voter impersonation is extremely rare in the United States.
The voter ID law is not the only way that Governor Walker has tried to limit voting by those unlikely to vote for him: he has been able to limit early voting days and even change election dates.
5.) The Reagan Library Visit
The fact that Scott Walker will lie, even about what are fairly insignificant matters, is illustrated by how he described his visit to the Ronald Reagan Library. He said how honored he was by Nancy Reagan making him the first person to ever handle the Bible Reagan used in his first inaugural. The archivist for the library said there was nothing unique about that, because many visitors had been allowed to touch the Bible. The archivist also disputed Walker's claim that Nancy Reagan arranged the press conference in which Walker displayed the Bible, as he said that it was Walker who was insistent on having a press conference.
I will continue with this dissection of Scott Walker's character and performance in subsequent blogs.
.
1.) Collective Bargaining and Right-to-Work
Days after being inaugurated as governor of Wisconsin on January 1, 2011, Scott Walker traveled to Beloit, Wisconsin to meet with Diane Hendricks, the billionaire who would become his most generous campaign donor. Hendricks asked him: "Any chance we'll ever get to be a completely red state, and work on those unions, and become a right-to-work [state]?" Walker didn't hesitate: "Yes...we're going to start in a couple of weeks with our budget-adjustment bill." "The first step is, we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public-employee unions, because you use divide-and-conquer...." (See John Nichols's article in the August 17/24, 2015 The Nation magazine.)
Shortly before the 2012 recall election, the video of the meeting became public. Knowing he was in trouble, Walker explained that he wasn't talking about divide-and-conquer; he was explaining to a billionaire donor how to reduce the influence of "a handful of special interests." Walker said of the anti-labor legislation: "It's not going to get to my desk. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure it isn't there."
One week before the 2010 election for governor, Walker told the Oshkosh Northwestern editorial board that he would negotiate with the public sector unions. Within weeks, Walker introduced the anti-union Act 10. In February 2011, Walker said: "I campaigned on [Act 10] throughout the campaign." Even Walker supporters can't come up with a single instance in the campaign that Walker said anything about addressing collective bargaining rights.
In October 2014, Scott Walker told the New York Times that: "We're not going to do anything with right-to-work." When asked during the 2014 campaign for governor, Walker said he had ":no interest" in enacting right-to-work. When Walker signed the right-to-work bill after being successfully re-elected, he put the onus on state legislators for sending him the bill.
2.) Abortion
During the 2014 election campaign, the Walker camp ran a 30-second ad in which Walker said he supported legislation that would "leave the final decision [on abortion] to a woman and her doctor." He declined to say if he believed that abortions should be prohibited after twenty weeks, even though he had previously filed legislation to do just that. Earlier this year, Governor Walker signed legislation to ban abortions after twenty weeks, with no exception for rape or incest.
In an interview with conservative talk show host Dana Loesch on May 22, 2015, Walker described a mandatory ultrasound as "lovely" and "a cool thing." MSNBC's Steve Benen said that Walker had put himself between the patient and her doctor. Walker knows or should know that a mandatory ultrasound is designed to make a pregnant woman think twice about having an abortion. Also, why should a small government advocate, as Scott Walker describes himself, want to insert the government into what should be a medical decision made between a patient and her doctor.
.
Governor Scott Walker is an extremist anti-choice proponent, who opposes exceptions to abortion for rape, incest, or even to save the life of a pregnant woman. When asked in the first presidential debate among GOP candidates what he would propose if the life of the expectant mother was in acute danger, he offered the lame answer that there were other provisions to do that but he gave no specifics.
3.) Immigration
In 2013, Governor Walker told the Wausau Daily Herald editorial board that he supported a pathway to citizenship for undocumented aliens, and he added that the debate should focus on improving legal immigration, not on building security. Walker has since strenuously argued that he didn't say that to the board. This is not a case of "he said, she said," it is a case of "they said, he said," as none of the board members has supported Walker's denial of what was said.
Governor Walker was interviewed by Glenn Beck on April 20, 2015, in which Walker said that immigration policy should be based "first and foremost" on protecting American workers and their wages.
Frank Luntz, the GOP point person on focus groups, assembled one for the first GOP presidential debate. I was impressed that when a member said that Walker's position on immigration had evolved to his satisfaction, another member immediately jumped in and said that his new position had come in March of this year. Whatever position Walker had as of March, it has been superseded already, as after Donald Trump announced his new position on undocumented aliens, Walker endorsed Trump's position on building a wall and on the Fourteen Amendment's provision basing citizenship on birth on U.S. soil. Rewriting the Fourteenth Amendment would be a herculean challenge and would throw into doubt those whose citizenship is based on birthplace.
Donald Trump has proposed building a wall both above and below ground. I recently read an article that described how Mexican drug cartels build tunnels. They have built them as far as seventy feet down. Trying to stop tunneling with an underground barrier would massively increase the cost of building a wall.
4.) Restrictions on Voting
When asked in his 2014 election debate with his Democratic opponent, Governor Walker was asked about estimates that the photo ID law that he championed could disenfranchise as many as 300,000 otherwise qualified Wisconsin voters. Walker revealed his sense of values when he answered that he didn't want his vote to be cancelled by a fraudulently-cast ballot. Walker didn't even try to make the case that voter impersonation was rampant in Wisconsin. Various studies have shown that voter impersonation is extremely rare in the United States.
The voter ID law is not the only way that Governor Walker has tried to limit voting by those unlikely to vote for him: he has been able to limit early voting days and even change election dates.
5.) The Reagan Library Visit
The fact that Scott Walker will lie, even about what are fairly insignificant matters, is illustrated by how he described his visit to the Ronald Reagan Library. He said how honored he was by Nancy Reagan making him the first person to ever handle the Bible Reagan used in his first inaugural. The archivist for the library said there was nothing unique about that, because many visitors had been allowed to touch the Bible. The archivist also disputed Walker's claim that Nancy Reagan arranged the press conference in which Walker displayed the Bible, as he said that it was Walker who was insistent on having a press conference.
I will continue with this dissection of Scott Walker's character and performance in subsequent blogs.
.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)