Does that decline in public sector jobs in your graph include ALL government jobs or just federal jobs? It seems to me that the spike looks like census workers and ther following dcline looks like the slope of attrition we have seen at the federal level rather than the sort of layoffs we have had at the state level.
I don’t subscribe to the notion that every government dollar spent is about the same as every other dollar spent. I think government spending has priority over others and i believe that some spending is more of an investment in the future rather than consumption of government services today. I agree that raising some revenue would make some of the necessary cuts in health care spending hurt less than it would without any revenue increases.
Many years ago our school had to go on a split session with high school in the morning and middle school in the afternoon. The building (even with portables) was way over-crowded.) We had SRO at the next PTSA meeting. There were a lot of angry working parents who missed the convenience of “babysitters” for their younger middle school children. The teachers suggested that maybe they should pay teachers babysitters’ wages. That would have been a substantial raise for all of us.
Some areas are already bare bones in their schools. The teachers have been buying supplies for the school for a long time. The school buses have stopped running in some places. Not every sector of government needs to cut back the same amount. Some were cut to the quick long ago.
I’m not from WI, but from what I heard Scott Walker campaigned on everything except a jihad on public employees. Walker then made that his signature issue from the moment he finished speaking his oath of office. Might the citizens of rural, formerly pro-Walker, counties be experiencing buyers’ remorse over pretty much every issue raised in the campaign? What did Walker promise for rural counties? What he deliver - besides tying the state government in knots over a single issue that was never even discussed with voters?
Today’s the day for the recall signatures to be turned in. The necessary amount for a recall is 540k, the expected/hoped for amount by recall organizers was 700k, and the amount being reported that are actually being sent in is over one million. I’d like to think United Wisconsin and other organizers have kicked out all the Mickey Mouse signatures and that this is over 1m of authentic signatures.
AP story here. I’m stunned at how many signatures they’ve collected. The entire state population is only about 5.7 million people, so they collected nearly 1-in-5 residents signatures for this; assuming some will be tossed, it’s still probably more than 1-in-6. For registered voters, the AP story says that it’s close to 23% that signed the petitions.
My favorite lines from the AP story:
“Doubtful” that they’ll be able to successfully challenge that many signatures is an understatement, I’m sure.
I doubt that he’s going to convince many people to retain him, when what he’s gonna be doing is telling them “Keep me governor; lots of rich people from other states like me being in charge here.”
He got beaten by a comfortable margin by a whacko Tea Party candidate who’d never held public office despite having all the advantages incumbency brings.
The Democrats asking him to run for Governor would be like the Republicans asking Rick Santorum to run for the Governor of Pennsylvania.
Problem with this whole thing is that even if Walker loses, he wins. If he gets bounced from office, it means he’ll be able to get his Fox News gig, best-selling book, conservative sanctification and speechifying tour off the ground that much sooner. He’ll be a multi-gazillionaire by the end of 2012. Boo-hoo, poor shamed politician.
There’s really no reason for conservative politicians *NOT *to scorch the earth these days.
Aye, I don’t think the point of the recall petition is to force him to suffer for the rest of his days, just to remove him from the legislative and administrative processes in Wisconsin.
ETA: Although I wouldn’t want to bet against the notion that a lot of people who signed those petitions wouldn’t be displeased if that happened.
Maybe he’ll be happier as a wealthy commentator, like Mike Huckabee. We in VA are stuck with George Allen running for Senator again. He must not have been happy as a millionaire lawyer and consultant.
Back to WI, if Walker wants to stay in office he’s got to arrange another incredible turn-around. This time a turn-around that’s good for him.
I might, repeat might, have some sympathy for that statement if Walker hadn’t intentionally created a budget crisis.
Start: Balanced state budget
Step 1: Lower taxes for wealthy and corporations
Step 2: Discover step 1 leads to deficit
Step 3: Blame deficit on public worker unions, demand cuts
Step 4: Get concessions from public workers, bust unions anyway
Step 5: Holy shit, this upsets people?