Scott Walker Is A Creep

Koch Brothers Group Applauds Walker On Welfare Bills
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Signs New Limits On Welfare Programs Into Law
Walker Signs Bill Sought By Landlords
Walker Signs Restrictions On Pro-Worker Rules

Subsidizing Billionaires

Comedian Sarah Silverman Absolutely Destroys Billionaire Jeff Bezos For Post On Lavish Vacation

"Official statistics suggest that 11.8 percent of Amazon's 6,000 Ohio workers might receive food stamp benefits," Snopes has reported. 

"In five out of these six states, Amazon cracked the top 20 list of companies with the most employees enrolled in the SNAP program," The Intercept reported, using the acronym for food stamps. 

The numbers show that the company relies disproportionately on the program even accounting for its size: Amazon was the 28th largest employer in Arizona last year, but it ranked fifth for the number of employees enrolled in SNAP. It held the fifth slot in Pennsylvania as well, though it’s only the 19th largest employer. In Kansas, where Amazon isn’t even among the top 50 largest employers, it still ranked 17th for the number of employees using SNAP at the beginning of this year. Similarly, the company ranked 53rd in overall employment numbers in Ohio last year but 19th when it came to employees using SNAP. In Washington, where Amazon’s headquarters employ many white-collar workers, its employees were still the 17th most reliant on SNAP over the past four years.

For Further Reading:
Economic Development, Tax Incentives and The Plutocracy It's Creating

What Would Jesus Do?

According to Scott Walker, Jesus would:

• require able-bodied parents of children on food stamps to work or get training to receive more than three months of benefits
• increase the existing work requirement for all able-bodied adults from 20 hours a week to 30

Walker added, "“With more people working in Wisconsin than ever before, we can’t afford to have anyone on the sidelines: we need everyone in the game. We want to remove barriers to work and make it easier to get a job, while making sure public assistance is available for those who truly need it."

Maybe instead of "training" and "removing barriers," Walker should be helping to create family-supporting jobs. Like the 250,000 he promised. Instead, he seems more interested in cutting taxes on the rich, gutting regulations for his donors, and lavishing subsidies on his cronies.

Such good Christians those Republicans. Those god-fearing, god-abiding moral pillars...as long as you're not poor.

Their blatant disregard for most humans and the environment, alongside their unwavering support for their rich campaign financiers, one has to ask Why Do Republicans Hate America?

For Further Reading:
Why Claims of Skills Shortages in Manufacturing Are Overblown

The Fake Skills Shortage

After All the Talk About a Skills Shortage in the U.S. Job Market, the Real Problem May Be an Employer Shortage

Scott Walker signs bill easing regulations on high cap wells

Wisconsin, under Scott Walker, no longer leads in conservation

Stripping wetland protections to have consequences, intended or not

Wisconsin Foxconn Deal Waives Environmental Regulations

Four disastrous pro-pollution policies from Scott Walker and Wisconsin GOP you haven't heard about

Scott Walker Cuts Higher-Ed Budget, Funds Corporate Welfare

Scott Walker’s $3 billion fraud

Walker shows his priorities with $250 million subsidy to NBA billionaires
Water Pollution Skyrockets Under Walker

Deep-Fried Dick

Wisconsin Reading

Scott Walker's Food Stamp Cuts Are Coming To A State Near You
In Wisconsin, Little Conserved By Radical Conservatives
Fewer Teachers, Less Experienced Teachers Mean Challenges for Wisconsin's Public Schools
Wisconsin's Public Sector is Leanest in Two Decades
Wisconsin Has Far Fewer State Employees Than Most States
Scott Walker Signs Bill Limiting Doe Probes As Records Are Released
The Use and Disclosure of Personal Email in the Walker Administration
"Wisconsin is Moving in the Right Direction"
Wisconsin Government Revenue is Not Out of Line
Slay The Wisconsin Gerrymander
Wisconsin Not High in Taxes, Spending
WEDC May Have Illegally Awarded $21 Million in Tax Credits
Wisconsin's Position Again Inflated in a Tax Ranking
Discovery of Census Flub Tempers State's Tax Hell Status

More Scott Walker Shenanigans

Scott Walker Sues Feds Over Food Stamp Drug Testing
Doug LaFollette Sues Scott Walker Over State Budget Measures
Wisconsin Deserved Better Than This Budget
The Attack On Government Pensions
Walker And GOP Just Took Away The Weekend
Scott Walker Strips Wisconsin Workers Of Living Wage In New State Budget
Walker Supports Boy Scouts' Ban On Gay Adults Because It 'Protects' Children
Who Is Scott Walker?
Scott Walker's Revolt Back Home
Behind Scott Walker, A Longstanding Conservative Alliance Against Unions
Scott Walker And The Fate Of The Union

Gov. Scott Walker Wants Drug Testing For Public Aid Recipients

Gov. Scott Walker wants drug testing for public aid recipients

Few details were included on the new proposals, but advocates for the needy said the drug testing proposal for jobless and food stamp benefits would violate federal law — a complication that killed a similar proposal promoted by Republican lawmakers in 2011. Walker himself acknowledged the potential for conflict but said the move was still right for the state.

Since Scott Walker wants all those receiving public aid to be drug tested, I assume we will be testing the Brewers, the Bucks, Harley Davidson, the developers whom have received public aid for their private construction projects, and the numerous other private entities awarded public aid?

Or (in typical Republican fashion) does this only apply to the poor?

How About Giving Your Employees A Raise, You Deluded Nitwit?!

Fox News Welfare Academy

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Wisconsin Roundup

Corporate Welfare Is Good:

• City May Provide $1.2 Million To Keep Downtown Boston Store Open
• Wisconsin ranks ahead of 33 other states, and the District of Columbia, in corporate welfare payments to business...roughly 10 percent of Wisconsin's budget, or $1.53 billion, is spent on incentives for businesses, or roughly $270 per capita.
• Warren Buffett, Waltons Get Welfare From Wisconsin Taxpayers
• Wisconsin spends at least $1.53 billion per year on incentive programs
• Wisconsin Farm Subsidies
• Corporate welfare in wisconsin
• Wisconsin's Walker and GOP: reward rich friends, punish everyone else

"Living" Wages Are Bad; Punishing The Poor Is Good:

• Wisconsin Bill Banning Local 'Living Wage' Laws Concern Barrett, Abele
• Wal-Mart Relies On Taxpayers To Subsidize Low Wages
• If Republicans Want a 2016 Nominee Who Will Punish The Poor, Scott Walker Is Their Man
• Scott Walker Finds Another Way To Punish The Working Poor
• Scott Walker’s 2016 Pitch: Who Has Punished The Working Poor More Than I Have?
• How opting out of Medicaid expansion punishes the poor
• Food stamp cuts punish people for being poor

And, Scott Walker Is A Crook:

• More Evidence That WI Gov. Scott Walker Is Under Investigation
• Scott Walker Investigated in Secret Wisconsin Probe
• Investigation targets Scott Walker recall campaign, political groups
• Evidence Mounting that Walker Campaign Is at Center of Criminal Probe
• Special Prosecutor Named In Investigation Of Possible Criminal Activity Surrounding Scott Walker Recall Election
• There's a New Secret Investigation Roiling Wisconsin's Turbulent Politics

Weekend Reading

1 In 10 Watersheds Is Stressed
Government Jobs Are (Still) The Problem
Why U.S. Health Care Is Expensive, In 12 Charts
Scott Walker, WMC Offer Misleading Data On Wisconsin Economy
Polls Show Opposition To Mine 
Cheat Sheet On Inequality
Global Warming Takes Back Seat In Wisconsin
1% Took Home Largest Share Of Income Since 1928
Wisconsin, Land Of The Plutocrats
Republicans: We Were Too Nice To The Hungry, We've Fixed That
David Clarke The False Conservative

"Compassionate" Conservatism

House Votes To Cut Food Stamps By $40 Billion

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Video Archive

Let The Poor Eat Mexicans

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Video Archive

Income Inequality

Did Sprawl Kill Horatio Alger?
A Tale Of Two Rust Belt Cities
Will SCOTUS Voting Rights Ruling Yield A Blue State Refund?

Without State Spending There'd Be No Google Or GlaxoSmithKline
Econ 101 Is Killing America
McDonald's Budget Plan Leaves Out Corporate Welfare
The Case For Paying People More
Mr. President, Have Pity On The Working Man
How Intellectual Property Reinforces Inequality
Is Productivity Being Translated Into Pay Increases?
Higher Productivity Used To Mean Higher Wages. Has That Broken Down?

Wages Fall At Record Pace
Walmart One Of The Major Welfare Recipients In America
Who's Dependent On Food Stamps? Cheapskate Corporations
Inequality In America: The Data Is Sobering

Walker's Boondoggle Emporium

Jason Stein and Patrick Marley, of the Journal Sentinel, recently wrote, "Scott Walker wants to invest nearly $100 million to build a faster system to track jobs data, tie technical school and university funding to filling high-demand professions and require nearly 76,000 people to train for work to collect food stamps."

Don't we already have job tracking systems? Employment-wanted ads? Guidance counselors? Advisors? Internships? Consultants? Private headhunters? Employment centers? Or does this have more to do with Walker wanting to have his own [duplicitous] metric(s) for job tracking so he can [falsely] claim he is actually creating jobs?

Will professions (and the degrees related to such) deemed to not be "high demand" simply no longer be taught? Also, how can schools (and their curriculum) possibly predict the exact worker-skill needs of the mobile, evolving, ever-changing economy (and the many sectors and businesses in it)?

During this period of high unemployment, Walker really wants to get tough on food stamp users? Yes, this exorbitant gravy-train must stop. And, what exactly does he plan on training them for? If there were jobs available, they'd be working. Yet another solution looking for a problem.

Surely some training responsibility must fall onto the actual employer (as was common practice until the job training and workforce development shams were implemented in the 1980s). What ever happened to businesses training their own workers? Or, how about just telling the businesses to pay prevailing wage rates to attract workers to the jobs?

Walker's proposals (as highlighted by the article) sound seemingly laudable, but they are so vague that they are realistically just meaningless rhetoric.

For state universities, Walker is proposing awarding $20 million for programs that help the economy, develop a skilled workforce and make higher education more affordable...

Walker's budget would also seek to increase the number of doctors and dentists in Wisconsin.

Yes, an educated, skilled workforce is a good thing. And, more doctors and dentists sound good, too. But we actually need citizens with insurance and/or money who can actually go to a doctor or a dentist. Plus, this would also mean more students would need to be able to afford medical and dental school.

For a guy that supposedly wants smaller government, Walker sure does like creating new committees and/or departments. As part of his Wisconsin educational system overhaul, Walker would like to, "Create a four-person state Office of Skills Development to coordinate the scattered worker-training systems of the state and adapt them to the needs of employers."

How much better would the job prospects (and future) of Wisconsin be if Scott Walker hadn't refused over $800 million in funding for upgrading the Hiawatha train? Now, for needed upgrades to the line (plus possible Talgo lawsuit claims), rather than being covered by the $800+ million Federal grant, it could cost the State of Wisconsin over $100 million.

Taken together, state taxpayers' share of the Hiawatha capital costs that would have been covered by the federal grant could total as much as $99 million, significantly more than the $30 million they would have paid for 20 years of operating costs on the Milwaukee-to-Madison segment.

The platitudes and bromides Walker (and Republicans, in general) spews are just that, sweeping generalizations which are too loosely operationalized to be actionable and/or too idiotically simplistic to be taken seriously as well-planned, thoughtful proposals.

For Further Reading:
Government Spends More On Corporate Welfare Than Social Welfare
Employers Whose Workers and Their Dependents are Using State Health Insurance ProgramsWalmart Is The Largest Food Stamp Recipient

The Real Food Stamp President(s)

"Setting the record straight. Can you guess which president owns the first chart, about the increase in people who get food stamps, and which president owns the second one, about the rising cost of the program. I'm not going to tell you the answers, but I will give you two hints. There is a father and son in the answers, and neither is named Barack Obama."

h/t Crooks & Liars