Corrupt America

Government For Sale or: How The Republicans Stole Democracy

1 in 3 of Walker’s Donations from Out of State

Walker’s latest campaign finance report filed with the state by his campaign committee, Friends of Scott Walker, showed he raised nearly $7.2 million, including nearly $6.6 million from individual contributors. About $4.2 million – or 64 percent – came from Wisconsin donors and nearly $2.4 million – or 36 percent – came from individuals outside the state. 

Looking back further than 2017, Walker raised even more from out-of-state individuals. Since the start of Walker’s second four-year term in January 2015, through December 2017, Walker raised more than $13.9 million in individual contributions. About $8.1 million – or 58 percent – came from out-of-state donors and about $5.8 million – or 42 percent – came from Wisconsin contributors.

Walker’s Hands Dirty on Political Purge

Walker repeatedly refused to offer an opinion on whether Elections Commission administrator Michael Haasand Ethics Commission administrator Brian Bell should be removed from their positions, as the Journal Sentinel’s Patrick Marley recently reported. “I’ll leave that up to them,” Walker said, referring to Fitzgerald and state senators. 

You might think this is the governor deciding not to meddle in a legislative issue. Except that it is just as much the governor’s issue. It was Walker, after all, who, along with Republican legislative leaders, decided to overthrow the Government Accountability Board (GAB). Never mind that Republicans were part of a bipartisan legislative majority that created that entity, with the law getting overwhelming GOP support. Never mind that its board members were retired judges, more than half of whom had Republican backgrounds. Walker, Fitzgerald and other GOP politicians were convinced the GAB was somehow running an anti-Republican agency. 

So the Republicans, with no support from Democrats, replaced the GAB with the Elections and Ethics Commissions, and Walker signed this measure into law. As governor, Walker also appoints two (of six) board members who serve on each commission. These were commissions the governor and legislature structured not to be answerable to legislators or any politicians, but to be independent agencies whose bipartisan boards set policy. Could anything be more important to the Wisconsin governor than the proper functioning of citizen boards entrusted with overseeing the state’s electoral system and enforcing ethical behavior by politicians? 

So why then was Walker staying on the sidelines in this controversy? Recall that the reason for replacing the GAB was because it was assisting the John Doe probe of his campaign. In short, no one had more reason to be angry at the GAB than the governor and more reason to welcome the recent report attacking the Doe investigation by Attorney General Brad Schimel.

So, Big Money is basically buying their talking heads, their puppets. These puppets then perform Big Money's bidding (tax cuts, deregulation, etc.) whilst rigging the game - squelching any push-back or opposition or defeat.

Wisconsin Reading

Minnesota, Wisconsin Diverge As Twin Cities Outpace Northern Peers
Scott Walker Dramatically Rewrites Election Rules In Wisconsin
Wisconsin Ranks 32nd In Five-Year Job Growth Report
Medicaid Expansion Would Save State $1 Billion
Walker's Assault On Open Records
Walker Signs Bills Dismantling GAB, Overhauling Campaign Finance Law

Jiggery Pokery

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More Bad News In The Continuing Sad Saga Of Scott Walker

The Pay-To-Play Allegation Walker's Watchdog Isn't Defending
Secret $1.5 Million Donation Uncovered In Walker Dark-Money Probe
State Of The Union Buster
Walker Ends Freedom Of Contract In Wisconsin
Right-To-Work Laws: Designed To Hurt Unions & Lower Wages
Lawmakers' Priorities For Property Tax Cuts Favor Wealthy
Wisconsin Economy Is Nowhere Near The 'Head Of The Class'
Wisconsin's Middle Class Shrinking Faster Than Any Other State
Wisconsin's Shrinking Middle Class
Walker's Wisconsin Still Lags Nation For Job Growth

Scott Walker: The Opposite of Anything Good

Scott Walker continued his political legacy of claiming his policies are accomplishing the exact opposite of what reality is telling us they are actually doing. He's got Wisconsin open for business, he's cutting taxes, he's growing jobs, etc.

President Barack Obama commented on Scott Walker's passage of right-to-work in Wisconsin:

"Wisconsin is a state built by labor, with a proud pro-worker past," Obama said. "So even as its governor claims victory over working Americans, I’d encourage him to try and score a victory for working Americans -- by taking meaningful action to raise their wages and offer them the security of paid leave. That’s how you give hardworking middle-class families a fair shot in the new economy -- not by stripping their rights in the workplace, but by offering them all the tools they need to get ahead."

Walker replied:

"On the heels of vetoing Keystone pipeline legislation, which would have paved the way to create thousands of quality, middle-class jobs, the president should be looking to states, like Wisconsin, as an example for how to grow our economy...Despite a stagnant national economy and a lack of leadership in Washington, since we took office, Wisconsin's unemployment rate is down to 5%, and more than 100,000 jobs and 30,000 businesses have been created," Walker told National Review Online. 

As usual, all of Walker's boasts are completely bogus! As Politifact reported, regarding Keystone XL, "The State Department expects that the project would only result in only a few permanent jobs that last past construction." Keystone is not only bad for the environment, it is also not the job-creator its proponents claim.

The Journal Sentinel noted, "Wisconsin's job creation remained sluggish in the latest 12-month report."

Speaking of jobs, Jelly Belly Candy is closing their Kenosha operation. Haven't they heard Wisconsin is open for business? And, we're also right-to-work! Businesses should be stumbling over each other trying to get in here, at least according to the (misguided) logic Republicans keep selling.

As a glaring example of Walker's misplaced priorities, even though Walker likes to use the City of Milwaukee as a convenient whipping-boy, City Center - Including Milwaukee - Noted For Growth In New Jobs:

In Milwaukee, the city-center employment gain averaged 1.4% per year — nearly three times the figure for the 41 cities as a whole. The rest of the four-county metropolitan area, meanwhile, lost 1.3% of its jobs annually, according to the report.

Right-to-work - yet another Orwellian-termed boondoggle being sold across the country by Republicans. Common sense tells us we're not going to get better work conditions or better pay by limiting our leverage (strength in numbers).

Florence Jaumotte and Carolina Osorio Buitron wrote, "The decline in unionization in recent decades has fed the rise in incomes at the top."

Also (probably not hard to believe), Unions that backed Scott Walker are faring better than others. Pay-to-play and cronyism are top priorities of the Republican Party platform.

Right-to-work is a pet policy of the Monied Republican Influence Peddlers right now, thus Walker wanted to get on board so he could get the campaign money that goes along with boosterism for right-to-work.

Even John Torinus, conservative and former Journal Sentinel columnist, was taken aback by Walker and the Republicans push for right-to-work:

Another example: a low-key issue during the campaign was right-to-work legislation. Gov. Walker said it would be “a distraction” in his second term. A few legislators teed up the issue in their campaigns. But it was a minor issue at best, even though many voters guessed it would become a major GOP issue if the party controlled both houses and the governor’s chair. 

Even though low priority, it has become a page-one issue. Call it a head fake. It’s now high priority for the GOP, even though only 8% of the state’s private work force is unionized. Non-union high growth startup companies, which will define the state’s future economy, also don’t care.

Jon Peacock discovered "Right to Work" Bill Would Suppress Wisconsin's Already Anemic Wages. He cites recent research by Marquette's Dr. Abdur Chowdhury, economics professor:

The potential net loss in direct income to Wisconsin workers and their families due to a RTW legislation is between $3.89 and $4.82 billion annually. Using a conservative estimate of an impact multiplier of 1.5, the total direct and induced loss of a RTW legislation is estimated between $5.84 and $7.23 billion annually. Based upon the two estimates of lost incomes and an overall effective tax rate of 4.0%, the economic loss in state income taxes is estimated between $234 and $289 million per year...

Right-to-work legislation would provide no discernible overall economic advantage to Wisconsin, but it does impose significant social and economic costs. The benefits of right to work enjoyed by some prospective employers are overshadowed by the costs borne by other employers and the state as a whole. Low wages would weaken consumption. Higher rates of labor turnover and adversarial labor-management relations would decrease productivity. And low-wage employment would burden the state with “mop up” costs (including social services, housing assistance, subsidized day care, school lunch programs, etc).

Even the NFL Players Association issued a press release against Walker's passage of right-to-work legislation:

Devoted food and commercial workers who spend their Sundays servicing our players and fans at Lambeau Field will have their wellbeing and livelihood jeopardized by Right to Work. Governor Scott Walker may not value these vital employees, but as union members, we do. We understand how devastating it would be if they lost the ability to have their workplace conditions and wages guaranteed through collective bargaining. We do not have to look any further than our own CBA to see that a band of workers, joined together as a union, can overcome decades of poor workplace conditions and drastically improve pensions and benefits...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that average wages across all industries in right-to-work states were $4 per hour lower than those in non-right-to-work states. One study determined that Wisconsin would see a net loss of between $3.89 and $4.82 billion annually in workers’ incomes. In fact, Governor Walker’s anti-union efforts have resulted in Wisconsin leading the nation in job losses for two months in a row. 

This proposed legislation unfairly risks the health and safety of employees by depriving them of on-the-job protections that unions have historically defended.

Minnesota's Republican billionaire (heir to the Target fortune) governor taxed the rich and increased the minimum wage. He took office with a $6.7 billion budget deficit and a 7 percent unemployment rate. By late 2013, Minnesota was the 5th fastest growing state in the United States. Forbes ranked Minnesota the 9th best state for business (Wisconsin was 32nd). Minnesota's current unemployment rate in 3.6 percent.

Derek Thompson, at The Atlantic, details one of Minnesota's star cities in The Miracle of Minneapolis:

In the 1960s, local districts and towns in the Twin Cities region offered competing tax breaks to lure in new businesses, diminishing their revenues and depleting their social services in an effort to steal jobs from elsewhere within the area. In 1971, the region came up with an ingenious plan that would help halt this race to the bottom, and also address widening inequality. The Minnesota state legislature passed a law requiring all of the region’s local governments—in Minneapolis and St. Paul and throughout their ring of suburbs—to contribute almost half of the growth in their commercial tax revenues to a regional pool, from which the money would be distributed to tax-poor areas. Today, business taxes are used to enrich some of the region’s poorest communities.

Republicans prefer the opposite strategy - Increasing Taxes on the Poor and Cutting Them for the Affluent. And based on this strategy, the New York Times found, "The bottom fifth of earners pay more than 10 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the top 1 percent pays closer to 5 percent."

Showing his care for women's issues and income inequality, in general, Scott Walker repealed Wisconsin's Equal Pay Law. The gender wage-gap in Wisconsin is predicted to be closed around 2068. Just 53 more year ladies!

If Scott Walker wants to help the economy and increase revenues for Wisconsin he could address our inequitable tax code. The Keystone Research Center and Good Jobs First report Tax Fairness: An Answer to State Budget Problems found, "If the top one percent were taxed at the same rate as the middle 20 percent, states and localities would raise $68 billion per year. Similarly, if the top 20 percent paid the same as the middle 20 percent, states and localities would generate $128 billion each year."

The Wisconsin Budget Project noticed the highest earners in Wisconsin already pay the smallest share of income paid in state and local taxes.

Walker's education cuts and tax cuts for the highest earners have not created anywhere near the number of jobs they claimed they would. In the end, these policies have lost revenue for the State.

Experience and the latest research point a pretty clear path for public policy and job growth in Wisconsin; if we care to actually follow such. Sadly, Scott Walker is only concerned with personal opportunity and the wishes of his paymasters. When it comes to policies that would be best for Wisconsin, Mr. Walker prefers to do the opposite.

Walker Wanted Funds Sent To Wisconsin Club For Growth

Walker wanted funds sent to Wisconsin Club for Growth

Gov. Scott Walker encouraged outside groups and individuals to funnel millions of dollars into Wisconsin Club for Growth — a pro-Walker group directed by his campaign adviser — during the recall elections in 2011 and 2012, according to court documents unsealed on Friday.

Weekend Reading

State To Spend $559 Million More Than It Takes In Next Year
The Top 10 Global Warming 'Skeptic' Arguments Answered
Median CEO Pay Crosses $10 Million In 2013
Does 'Right-To-Work' Create Jobs? Answers From Oklahoma 
Lesson For Other States From Kansas' Massive Tax Cuts
The Polarized Court
In North Dakota, There Will Be Blood
Milwaukee Is A Great Lakes Star
Wife Of Judge That Shut Down Scott Walker Investigation Is A Frequent Walker Contributor

Money Talks

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Walker Campaign, Conservative Groups Subpoenaed, Newspaper Reports

Walker campaign, conservative groups subpoenaed, newspaper reports

Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and more than two dozen conservative groups were recently subpoenaed by a special prosecutor, the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Truly Unfortunate

Scott Walker was recently in California at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum giving a speech about his plans for Wisconsin. The Reagan Library, where the biggest Republican whores go to grovel before their sugar daddies and kingmakers. Yes, what better place to start talking about future Wisconsin legislative plans than in California? But, as they say, you've got to go where the money is.

"We think if we want to continue the economic success we've had over the last year and a half, again one of the best ways to do this is to put money back in the hands of entrepreneurs, more money back in the hands of small business owners, more money back in the hands of our consumers...we're going to continue to lower our property taxes, and we're going to put in place an aggressive income tax reduction and reform in the state of Wisconsin because we believe we can continue to be one of the leaders in the country, not just in reform but ultimately in results." said Walker.

Economic success? Since Walker took over, Wisconsin is near the bottom in job growth among the states.

The Walker plan includes: tax cuts (of course), making Wisconsin's voucher program for private schools available to more students (even though research has shown the program doesn't produce any better results), and to eliminate "unnecessary" state regulations (vague, as usual). Basically, tax cuts and deregulation, alongside funneling more public dollars to unaccountable semi-private entities. Sound familiar? We've heard these recommendations from Republicans for decades now. What has it got us? Stagnant wages, volatile retirements, expensive health care, and increasing inequality.

"It's unfortunate he's going to try to continue to go down this war path of ideology instead of actually trying to address the real problems that we've got. It looks like he's putting his donors above his voters," said Chris Larson.

Truly unfortunate.

Taxes, Voter Fraud & Campaign Finance

For Further Reading:

The Fraudulence Of Voter Fraud
The Myth Of Voter Fraud
The Voter Fraud Hoax
Voter ID Fact Sheet
Voter Identification
The Right To Vote & Voter Suppression
Voter Suppression

Republicans - Wrong About Everything

Republican policy prescriptions over the last four decades have been massive failures. Yet, the party continues to sell the same disproven silliness. And sadly, voters keep buying into this garbage.

The Democrats are partially to blame with their conciliatory and passive demeanor towards politicking. Sitting on the sidelines, saying and doing little until the last minute, when the issue is already heavily polluted and lost.

Citizens are also to blame for idly lapping up the Republican drivel, despite the abundant evidence of negative outcomes due to Republican policies.

But, at the end of the day, we can lay the majority of the blame on the cynical, selfish, power-hungry Republicans. No longer interested in governance, but merely "in it to win it." So they can continue their stranglehold on power, enabling their "vision," whatever that may be on that particular day.

Let's count the numerous failures pushed by Republicans:

Tax Cuts - Income and Capital Gains
GOP Blocks End Of Tax Breaks For Big Oil
GOP's Capital Gains Tax Cut Is Biggest Driver Of Income Inequality
GOP's Multiple-Decade Capital Gains Tax Cut Scheme
The GOP's Tax Cut Trick
Republicans Block Debate On Buffet Rule
Tax Breaks Can Reduce Economic Growth
Ten Things Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Taxes

401(K) - Defined Contribution rather than Defined Benefit
A Brief History Of The 401(K)
Model Retirement Savings
Pensions: The Next Casualty Of Wall Street
Retirement
Retirement Wreck
Traditional Pension System More Cost Effective
Why Its Time To Retire The 401(K)

Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) & Medical Groups
Go Ahead & Die, The Truth About HMOs
Health Services/HMOs
How To Kill HMO Reform
The Republican 10-Point Plan For Health Care

Public Transportation - Roads
The GOP Road To Nowhere
Highways Win, Transit Loses
House Transportation Bill Paves Way For Big Oil
A Lobbying Free-For-All
Mass Transit Takes A Hit In Walker's Budget
Peak Oil, GOP, And Transportation
Progressive Fast Lane Versus Conservative Dirt Road
Republicans Vote To Defund Mass Transit In America
Road To Nowhere
A Terrible transportation Bill
Why Do Conservative Hate Public Transit

Education - Charter, Choice, Voucher Schools
Charter School Riddles
The Myth Of Charter Schools
Quality Doesn't Follow Rise In Voucher School
Voucher School Experiment Is A Failure
Vouchers & Private Sector Accountability
Vouchers & Public School Performance
Vouching For Delusion
Voucher Villainy

Elections - Campaign Financing
Campaign Spending Topped $1 Billion Last Year
Citizens United
The GOP's Campaign Finance Sneak Attack
PACs Rise In Importance
Republicans, Billionaires, Corporations and Campaigns
SuperPACs & Republicans
Wall Street's Huge Bet On Romney
Why Republicans Love Citizens United

Colbert Frightening Mainstream Media

Chuck Todd whines about Stephen Colbert making a mockery of our democracy, media, and legislative system. I guess he's upset that Colbert is exposing this corrupt, inequitable sham (which we propagandize as something fair and noble and in the best interests of the people) for what it truly is.

 

Stephen Colbert's mockery of elections, campaign finance, super PACs, politics, media coverage, and our legal system has been brilliant. He's merely shining a light on the scandal that is big business, political power, and the media that spoon-feeds their storyline.

Republican Election Obfuscation

Wisconsin Republicans want to make the already dirty process of campaigning even dirtier.

Wisconsin bill would roll back funding transparency

Campaign donors wouldn't have to disclose employer

Walker's Lawlessness

Governor Walker Has Violated Campaign Finance Laws More Than 1,000 Times Since 2009

Campaign Finance? ... Anyone? ... Bueller?

Scott Walker A Hypocrite On Out-Of-State Spending On Wisconsin Elections

Americans For Pretense

American's For Prosperity (AFP) is pushing to put and end to Tax Incremental Financing (TIF). They feel this tool of economic redevelopment gives the businesses in the tax incremental districts an unfair advantage over other businesses not in the districts.

I'm not going to discuss TIFs and their viability. (I am also somewhat skeptical of their efficacy and efficiency.) The thing about this situation that jumped out at me is the utter hypocrisy and obliviousness of AFP.

Do Americans For Prosperity feel that their million dollar political campaigns for their causes give them an unfair advantage over others whom can't afford to spend that much? I'm sure now that they've decided TIFs are unfair, they've also realized how unfair our pay-to-play political system is and they will be urging public financing of elections from now on.

I'm sure they now understand that because they can get access to politicians and lobby in favor of their causes, that they have an unfair advantage over those who can't. Seeing they seem so concerned with fairness, I'm sure they will be altering their mission and doing all they can to give a voice to the voiceless and the needs of the underrepresented 99 percent.

Covert Campaign

Shouldn't those investigative watchdogs at the Journal Sentinel be doing a bit more in-depth analysis of the expanding scandal involving our duplicitous governor, Scott Walker?

Fed grants immunity to Walker's former spokesman in ongoing probe.

Update:

I don't consider blurbs in the online Newswatch section of the Journal to be "breaking the story". In a search for "Scott Walker" on the Journal Sentinel website, over the past 30 days, only nine "stories" reference the Cindy Archer debacle. I've seen more information (contextually) provided by Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, and Daily Kos.

I am focusing on the online coverage primarily because that is primarily where people get their news. I've seen a couple of the nine "stories" alongside the headline story on the front page of the print edition. But, isn't the possible headline of "Corruption in the governor's mansion" as important as "Brewer's clinch division"? Yes, I'm being somewhat picky and this is essentially a matter of scale. But maybe because our news focuses on sports and the sideshow more than the substantive stuff, this is why our democracy is in shambles and we no longer focus on shared prosperity, how we ought to live, and matters of quality of life.

Walker has a history of poor decisions and dubious tactics, especially as county executive. How is this not a daily front-page story of a political tool participating in questionable, and possibly illegal, behavior? This should be the lead story. Not the Brewers. Not Frontier airlines. Not Marquette's new boss. But, the story of our (Journal Sentinel-supported) possibly crooked governor. Which seems kind of important considering the massive agenda and changes he is trying to sweep across Wisconsin.

But that's just my (now, hopefully, explicated) opinion. And, my fault for being brief in my initial one-sentence posting.

Aside:

It's also interesting to see the Journal Sentinel belittling recall elections. Proactively, it appears, trying to dissuade readers from giving any momentum to the efforts to recall Scott Walker.

News breakers? More like news manipulators and stiflers.

For Further Reading:
An Introduction to Walkergate
Walkergate: Tea-Parties, E-mails and Cronies! Oh My!

It's Not About The Budget

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