Yes, he is. He turned a deficit into a surplus, he didn’t have to raise taxes doing it, and he kicked unions in the teeth while he did it. What’s not to love?
It shows that I support Scott Walker, as do a majority of Wisconsin voters.
What else do you contend it shows?
Do you have a cite for this that comes from any source other than Walker’s campaign?
Walker did some things that apparently hurt his state’s fiscal situation right when he took over, but overall I think the only people who are really adamantly against him must not really understand any of the issues involved.
On the issue of public sector unions in the first place, the process of collective bargaining cannot be transplanted into the public service. It is a grave disservice to all of society and all citizens for public sector unions to exist and have collective bargaining rights. If you go into public service you cannot embed yourself into the essential working parts of our governments and then hold that government hostage for greater benefits and wages. It’s highway robbery of the worst sort, and when they are ensconced with various protections against ever dismissing them or even saying no to their demands for more money you see how these public sector unions become an albatross on society. The process of collective bargaining cannot be transplanted into the public service.
The unions that Walker fought are not good unions, they do a disservice to the public and apparently, a disservice to their members. In the wake of making union dues not mandatory do you know how many of these employees who are pissed at Walker and who are obviously in love with their union kept paying their dues? Not many, their dues paying membership dropped from 62,000 to 28,000.
From an article in the Wall Street Journal you’ll find that the Reason-Rupe Poll finds over 70% of people favor making public sector employees increase their pension contributions from 1% to 6%, over 70% of people favor making public sector employees pay 12% of their healthcare premiums instead of the 6% they paid before Walker (even at 12% it is far less than most private sector employees pay.)
Virtually no one with a mind in their skull could support much of what the Wisconsin teacher’s union has done over the years. They sued to prevent the firing of teachers who viewed pornography at school on their work computer, in one Wisconsin school district a principal was involved in selling drugs to many of his teachers for years. It went undetected because the Wisconsin teacher’s union prevents any drug testing of its members, people we entrust to act as temporary guardians of our children.
Public sector unions are injurious to the public good, they can infiltrate themselves into the workings of the bureaucracy and essentially give themselves vast power and clout that is totally unaccountable and unassailable–unless brave and great men like Scott Walker take them to task. They are far more pernicious than ordinary special interests like corporate PACs–PACs help buy advertising which can help sway opinion and get legislator and other politicians to support your cause, but you are fighting against lots of other interested parties also spending lots of money at cross purposes with you. Public sector unions, as they were set up in Wisconsin, were virtually legally insulated from any form of opinion. It did not matter, until Scott Walker was elected, how the public at large felt about the benefits and pay of public sector unions, as long as they had the inviolable right to strike and shut down our very government they were far more unaccountable than the worst Koch-brothers sponsored right wing boogeyman you guys would care to conjure up.
I wouldn’t make such a bold claim, because the deficit Walker turned into a surplus was created by some actions he took early in office, but Wisconsin does have a surplus now.
Further, Wisconsin has been able to lower property tax rates by 0.4% for the first time since 1998, and many Wisconsin private sector employers have started hiring in far greater numbers than they were before, many when polled indicate they plan to hire more employees in the future.
Walker has mostly been good for the state of Wisconsin and bad for the public sector unions. By the way, we have to pay public sector employees a fair wage, I don’t think they should be forced to bear sometimes years-long wage freezes as inflation and increasing medical payments erode their quality of life. But I also don’t believe they should ever be able to shut down the government. The government must serve the entirety of its people and not give preference to serving the interests of the people who work for the government.
I should actually say Walker exacerbated the deficit early on, in moves many Democrats argued he took to further justify what he ended up doing to public sector unions. But it’s not correct to say Walker single-handedly created a $3.6bn deficit (and it was my loose words that implied that incorrectly.)
Anyway, if you check politifact it is essentially accepted as true that he eliminated the deficit of $3.6bn, under the cash accrual accounting system that was in use when he became Governor and that is still in use. One part of the controversy is Walker promised to start using the GAAP accounting system that is more typically seen by businesses and, for example, required by law for most local governments in Wisconsin aside from the State government itself–under GAAP I don’t believe he has eliminated the deficit, but in his defense the original $3.6bn was the cash accrual deficit both Democrats and Republicans in Wisconsin have been using for years.
The second part “eliminated without tax increases” depends on how you define taxes.
According to Ballotpedia, only two state governors in U.S. history have successfully been recalled (Lynn Frazier (R), North Dakota, 1921; Gray Davis (D), California, 2003).
That he kicked unions in the teeth.
That’s your opinion. In my view, public sector unions are not a force for good.
I concur. We are konw by the friends we keep. I consider Walker to be in a class with RM Nixon.
The fact that Wisconsin voters were given a chance to recall him, and didn’t, must truly baffle you.
What an insular life you must lead. “Walker can’t have won! None of my friends voted for him!”
FWIW, I voted about 3 PM on the near west side of Madison, and was in and out in 5 minutes. No waiting, no line (well, I had to wait behind one guy to sign the voting book).
Madison will be heavily anti-Walker of course, I’d guess 75-90%. But there’s not enough of us. If Milwaukee has a huge turnout though, that could make the difference.
The deficit faced by Democratic governor Doyle in 2009 was far larger, close to twice as large.
Budget numbers are “scare figures” wherein each department asks for the moon and then gets pared down to something affordable. Just the usual game. Walker brags about fixing $3 billion and Doyle fixed over $5 billion.
The budget reconciliation bill in February 2011 was to fix a couple of minor (almost rounding errors) budget shortfalls.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/38612192.html
Wisconsin can be puzzling. Voted for Joe McCarthy and gave George Wallace 34% in a 1964 presidential primary.
(Of course, these days the segregationist 1964 George Wallace would be on the left hand side of the GOP.)
Some of the exit polling I’m seeing is favorable for Walker, from CBS:
Is that how you characterize a home refinance?
That sounds like a fine deal to me.
There has been a long history of anti-union violence. An ancestor of mine may have participated in some, and his colleagues certainly did. If the unions bought eggs to a gunfight - a sniping, really - I think you can figure out the results.
I get that you don’t like unions. Put on your lawyer hat for a second and think about your responsibilities if you sign a contract with a union - even after protracted negotiations. As a non-lawyer I have to ask what would the state of contract law be if one party could ignore any contract at will without consequence?
nytimes… walker 58% barrett 40%
13% in