Republican Obstruction & The Filibuster

Correcting The Right-Wing Myths About Detroit

Don’t buy the right-wing myth about Detroit

In the wake of Detroit’s bankruptcy, you may be wondering: How could anyone be surprised that a city so tied to manufacturing faces crippling problems in an era that has seen such an intense public policy assault on domestic American manufacturing? You may also be wondering: How could Michigan officials possibly talk about cutting the average $19,000-a-year pension benefit for municipal workers while reaffirming their pledge of $283 million in taxpayer money to a professional hockey stadium? ...

It’s a straightforward conservative formula: the right blames state and municipal budget problems exclusively on public employees’ retirement benefits, often underfunding those public pensions for years. The money raided from those pension funds is then used to enact expensive tax cuts and corporate welfare programs. After years of robbing those pension funds to pay for such giveaways, a crisis inevitably hits, and workers’ pension benefits are blamed — and then slashed. Meanwhile, the massive tax cuts and corporate subsidies are preserved, because we are led to believe they had nothing to do with the crisis. Ultimately, the extra monies taken from retirees are then often plowed into even more tax cuts and more corporate subsidies.

Just How Generous Are Detroit's Worker Pensions for Retirees?

"My basic takeaway was that [Detroit's] pension system itself was not overly generous," said Jean-Pierre Aubry, assistant director of State and Local Research at Boston College's Center for Retirement Research... 

Retired general city workers, such as librarians or sanitation workers, received average payments of $18,275 a year in 2011, according to the Detroit General Retirement System... 

While retired Detroit firefighters and police officers receive more generous pension checks than auto workers -- checks averaged almost $30,000 a year in 2011 -- they often don't receive the added bonus of Social Security payments.

We Need A Federal Bailout for Detroit's Pensions

Does $1,500 a month after hauling garbage cans your whole adult life really sound like a fortune? ...

Retired Detroit employees didn't cause the financial crisis of 2008, which hit the pension plan's investment fund hard. Yet they're being handled as if they were morally equivalent to the Wall Street creditors who did. As the New York Times reports, the unelected city manager's plan would "treat bondholders the same as retirees" and ask them both to sacrifice... 

The average Detroit city pension is slightly less than $19,000 per year. For police and firefighters, pensions are their only source of retirement income. (They don't have Social Security.)

Five myths about Detroit

The real culprit in the city’s decline has been federal policies that put corporate health ahead of community health, such as free-trade agreements that sacrifice U.S. jobs for foreign trade...

Detroit’s major financial problem is that its shrinking tax base has meant years of declining revenue. Remember, the city has lost more than 1 million residents since its population peaked in the 1950s. Those who blame pensions confuse cause and effect — like blaming a personal bankruptcy on a pesky car loan after one’s salary was cut in half. The difference, of course, is that getting rid of a car you can no longer afford isn’t the same as reneging on a promise to 21,000 retirees.

Republican Anti-Intellectualism

The Republican War On Data

This is part of a long-term effort to eliminate data collection or pervert it so that policy is biased toward Republican priorities. For example, Republicans have:

• Forced the Internal Revenue Service to drop a program called the Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program in order to make the extent of tax evasion harder to calculate. This has made it easier to cut the IRS budget. 

• Abolished the Office of Technology Assessment and the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations because they often produced widely respected data that conflicted with Republican dogma on issues such as global warming.

• Prohibited the federal government from collecting data on the cost of gun-related injuries and death in order to prevent it from being used by gun control supporters.

• Are currently attempting to defund a Census Bureau program called the American Community Survey. Among other things, it would eliminate the government’s ability to properly calculate the unemployment rate. Republicans claim it is too intrusive.

The Odd Couple: Scott Walker & Public Policy

The playbook is still the same, Scott Walker's Budget To Lower Income Tax Rates, Freeze Local Aid.

As suspected, Much Of The Savings From Scott Walker's Proposed Cut Would Go To The Top 20%.

How does Scott Walker plan on paying for this? Walker's Massive Borrowing Scheme.

Large tax cuts for the wealthy don't improve economic growth nor do they cause these same rich people to move to avoid such taxation. The Myth Of The Rich Who Flee From Taxes.

In fact, austerity - cutting budgets and spending, especially during our present sluggish economy- tends to make matters worse. Budget Cuts Seen As Risk To Growth Of The U.S. Economy.

So, what do we get for all this austerity, cutting, slashing, and freezing. Average Income Tax Cut Under Governor Walker Budget: $83.

Are these measures, at least, creating jobs? States' Private Sector Job-Creation Slowed, Census Data Shows.

Fisching For Answers

What makes Rebecca Kleefisch a suitable Lieutenant Governor? Just wondering. In all the upheavals Wisconsin has seen over the last few years, I was just realizing that Kleefisch has hardly been mentioned, interviewed, or discussed anywhere.

A former television personality ... that's a qualification for running a state? She was a reporter in Rockford, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As Wikipedia details, "Kleefisch's first attempt at politics began when she ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2010. She declared her candidacy live via webcam from her kitchen table, expressing concern for the future of her children and touting her 'kitchen table common sense.'"

Since Scott Walker has taken office, we've barely heard a word from Kleefisch. What does she do? What are her opinions? What are her priorities? Does she have any pet projects? What are her goals? Is there anything she specifically wants to accomplish in her role?

As citizens and voters (and this question primarily is for the right-wingers whom voted for the Walker/Kleefisch ticket) what about Kleefisch made you feel she was good Lieutenant Governor material? Governor material? Does she have an area of expertise? She's a UW-Madison graduate with a degree in journalism and mass communication. This seems appropriate for a television news personality, but Lieutenant Governor?

[Yes, there are many unqualified and, what would appear, uninterested political operatives participating in public service. These same doubts and suspicions can be leveled at them.]

Walker's opinions, although I feel they are reckless and uninformed, are at least somewhat well-known. (And, at least Walker started out as an state assemblyman, working his way up the political ladder.) Sure, Kleefisch is a Republican. I understand she'll parrot the party-line. But what else do we know about any of her positions? Has she ever spoken at length, showing actual in-depth knowledge, regarding specific policies?

Take a look at her State website. There's practically nothing there. Why even bother having the website? The site is completely absent of information and substance. With a yearly salary near $77,000, most would expect a clearer set of job duties, alongside more frequent public appearances, for a lieutenant governor.

The more I think about Kleefisch's sudden rise to the second most powerful position in Wisconsin, the more perplexing it gets.

Goldman Sachs Rules The World

Republicans: Blatantly Corrupt

Scott Walker and his Republican cronyism has run amok.

Walker has now appointed, as register of deeds for Marinette County, "a Republican campaign worker with no experience with land record and vital records."

The article goes on to note, "He [Walker] passed over three candidates with detailed knowledge of how the office of the register of deeds works, including two deputies who have worked in the office for years."

This is a disgrace! Is it any wonder the government seems to function less-than-efficiently under Republicans? Republicans don't like government, they belittle it every chance they get, and, when they're in power, they appoint people who know nothing and have no interest in governing.

Recall Scott Walker!

Government Is The Solution

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Lyin' Ryan

In a reoccurring 'why does the media present certain persons as experts able to comment on specific issues when there is clear evidence to discredit their ideas' theme of mine, the Journal Sentinel recently (yet again!) gave Paul Ryan a platform to purvey his platitudes and fallacious "ideas."

There is a lot about grandchildren, crushing debt, opportunity, job creation, and the usual Republican cliches which are spewed when they are trying to appear seriously concerned about governing.

He mythologizes right from the start, "Each generation applying our timeless principles to the challenges of the day, has worked to ensure that the next generation would inherit an America that was stronger, more prosperous, and more secure. "

What challenges have we met lately? Climate, poverty, unemployment, or health care? Wages for workers have stagnated since the 1970s. The economy has grown, but only a select few have shared in the bounty. We are involved in war, strifes, and turmoil all over the world. This flag-waving triteness appeals to our emotions, but it doesn't accurately portray reality nor give us the policies for a shared prosperity.

He goes on to inflate the notion of a vacuous "crushing burden of debt". Ronald Reagan tripled our debt, George W. Bush doubled it. Unbridled free market adulation, as practiced by the Republicans, has left this country increasingly in debt. So, sorry if I could care less when a Republican starts to feign seriousness when discussing debt. When they are cutting taxes and starting unnecessary wars, simultaneously talking about a lack of revenues for programs, and concurrently concocting new breaks and giveaways to business, the earnestness of their concern about debt is in question. Republicans are not serious public servants. But they are seriously organized in their devotion to the needs of their corporate masters.

Paul talks about unsustainable health care and retirement. President Obama's health care reform is predicted to save $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years. Yet Republicans are against these reforms. The Republican-favored 401Ks have increased instability in retirement. Plus, the most stable and solvent program, Social Security, is one right-wingers want to privatize. Here again, the supposed seriousness of the Republicans regarding these issues is in question.

Ryan even specifically states that whatever we do about anything, we cannot have policies that force citizens to reorganize their lives. Under no circumstances must American citizens be asked to change their behavior. We must not acknowledge the realities of: income inequality, the failure of deregulation and tax cuts, nor climate change. Consume all you can, drive whatever you like, and run-up your credits cards buying unneeded waste. Lead the disposable life because, now, you're the disposable American.

But, and this isn't debatable, we can't allow the government to govern in the best interest of the majority of citizens. Especially if it might affect the quarterly statements of the Fortune 500. This, again, shows Republicans' trivialization of reality.

He erroneously claims debt is discouraging job creation. Republicans seem willfully ignorant, and happy to pass on that ignorance, about the recession we're in. People are out of work, they don't have money to spend, therefore, demand is down. When people aren't buying as many things, businesses do not increase capacity. Right-wing, pro-business policies are a never-ending spiral of cruelty aimed at sucking every last productive gasp out of workers. A race ever-faster toward the bottom.

In a final spewing of desperation, Ryan blames retirees with decent health care and retirement plans for the trouble of our "proudest industries". This is top-down, class warfare, misdirection. The 'entitlements' of the working class are too onerous on business. A healthy workforce with the ability to retire after decades of service is too much. Absent from the discussion is the proper context which would include a deliberation about income inequality and the vast sums a select few of very well-connected persons disproportionately control. Harley-Davidson CEO, Keith Wandell, made $6.4 million in 2010. His one-year compensation is the equivalent of 134 median-earning union workers.

These aren't thoughtful policy platforms with the gravity necessary of each specific issue. This is the same old Republican snake-oil in its latest configuration. Don't buy it.

We Want Our Government Back

Turnabout is fair play

Recall Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans

h/t Crooks & Liars

Robbing Peter To Pay Paul

Scott Walker's idea of job creation is spending almost $17,000 per job to lure a marketing company from Illinois to Wisconsin. (Which achieves no net gain for the region.)

Rather than putting over $1 billion in investment to work - enabling rail, high-speed internet, and alternative energy (wind turbines) - our governor would rather steal from teachers and bus drivers to give handouts to a company to relocate.

This is bad politics, business, and governance.

For Further Reading:

The Failure of Economic Development Incentives

Putting Budgets & Wealth In Context

We had $160 billion to give to 6 corrupt and insolvent banks. Those same banks paid their CEOs over $100 million collectively in 2009. The banks also spent over $24 million, combined, on lobbying in 2009. The bank and CEO examples simply illustrate the absurd context of this whole debate - the idea that no one can afford to pay for services any longer. The combined budget deficit of the states is roughly $125 billion for 2011. This represents .008% of the America's $15 trillion economy. And yet, the media, Republicans, and greedy free marketeers, have exploded this myth of a nationwide crisis in an attempt to pass even more oppressive social legislation alongside more regressive economic policies.

"Wisconsin's $3.6 billion shortfall represents 13 percent of state revenues, well below the average shortfall among all the states of 20 percent," as the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities reported. Hardly a crisis. Plus, tax revenue has actually increased 11.4% from July 2009 to September 2010. Putting the recently-available investment dollars to work could have added to this momentum, created demand, and increased purchasing power. This is what a recovery would look like. Instead we see an ideological zealot, Scott Walker, manufacturing a crisis to ram through a discredited partisan platform, which in no way qualifies as good public policy or good governance.

The New York Times has editorialized about Walker's hollow cry of broke. "Scare tactics[s] employed for political ends. A country with a deficit is not necessarily any more broke than a family with a mortgage or a college loan...Much [budget shortfall] is because the recession has driven down tax revenues." Even PolitiFact can see the whole "we're broke" canard for what it truly is.

As Andrew Reschovsky explains, "The benefit reduction in the so-called budget repair bill saves only $30 million. Additional revenue could be raised by eliminating any of a large number of exemptions, deductions, or exclusions from the Wisconsin tax system. Fees, underused in Wisconsin, could be raised. Wisconsin's budget woes are considerably less severe than those of many other states. As the best public sector workers leave, the result will be lower quality public services. In the long run, unless Wisconsin can retain a high-quality public sector labor force, the state's ability to compete in the global economy will be jeopardized."

Kelly Nolan reveals a few more details, "While Wisconsin does face a $3.6 billion deficit in its spending cycle over the next two years, that is equivalent to about 0.75% of its economic output over than time...Wisconsin's $1.8 billion deficits for fiscal 2012 is just 12.8% of its current fiscal year budget." For comparison, Illinois' deficit for 2012 is 45% of its current fiscal year budget. California's is almost 30%.

Mark Zandi's latest research warns that such cuts and austerity - as being proposed by Republicans on the federal, state and local levels - will derail the recovery. Proposals would reduce 2011 GDP growth by 0.5 and 2012 by 0.2 percentage points. This equates to 400,000 fewer jobs in 2011 and 700,000 less in 2012. Alec Phillips, economic forecaster for Goldmann Sachs, thinks the GOP plan will slow economic growth by 2%. Even the bankers know this strategy of cutting off our nose to spite our face is counterproductive.

These are policy choices. These are the reasons - fairness, social justice, equality of opportunity - we elect people to legislate on our behalf. That's what public service is supposed to be - service in the interest of the majority. Jon Perr found some explanatory data which elaborates the disconnect between opinion and actual economic interest, "The Census Bureau's 2011 Statistical Abstract shows per capita income and median household income is worst where GOP's laissez-faire crowd finds its strongest support." The Republicans have a lot of people fooled about whose side they're really on. As union numbers have declined this Republican manipulation has been increasingly effective.

Joe Conason reminds us of some of the rights we can thank unions for,"Law's provisions prohibiting child labor and mandating minimum wages, safe working conditions, overtime pay." He continues with some thoughts on the conservative worldview, "Their core belief is that the state should never interfere with capital...Their ultimate project is to return this country to the absolute dominion of the wealthy that existed before the rise of the Progressive Movement and the New Deal." Conason next outlines the connection between unions and quality of life, "The United States enjoyed a far better distribution of income and a steady improvement of our productivity and power when the labor movement was strong...As labor's power diminished, income and wealth skewed upward."

Sima Gandhi has a helpful list of corporate giveaways we could end and thus bring billions back into government's coffers to be put to more productive use and broadly-based benefit. Farm, oil & gas, timber, luxury items, and capital assets, to name a few. Again, there is plenty of money out there. Plenty of money for Medicaid, for Social Security, for pensions, and for living wages. We just need to redistribute it from the Haves to the Have-Nots. This involves getting money out of politics and unions having a bigger seat at the policy-making table.

Union decline mirrors corporate tax revenue as a share of GDP. (Corporate tax revenue has fallen from 6% in the early 1950s to just over 1% today.) The government has collected less and less in taxes from corporations over the years, and this has occurred alongside an eerily similar decline in unionization. As labor has gotten weaker, corporations have filled the political gap and used that power to avoid paying their fair share. Of 19 countries, the average corporate tax rate of the U.S. ranked 15th. The continual drum-beating for more corporate tax cuts as some sort of panacea is at odds with reality. The neutered revenue-generating ability of the corporate tax, and its already comparatively low burden, make the pleas of the right-wing for more cuts, as the solution to our problems, a blatantly selfish slap to our collective face. Even more so when they're doing this while also telling working Americans they have to pay more and get by with less.

For Further Reading:

America's Trade Policy of The Absurd

Budget Crisis? Duh, Tax The Rich!

The Hollowing Out of Wisconsin

Weekend Reading

Do The U.S. Have A Fiscal Crisis?

Goldman See Danger In U.S. Budget Cuts

How The Wisconsin Uprising Affects You

Plutocracy: What Wisconsin Is All About

Serious Ethics Violations By Scott Walker

Walker's Conservative State Governance

Walker's Troubling Statements

Only A Massive Uprising Will Change Our Politics

Our Economic Pain Is The Fault Of CEOs, Not Public Sector Workers

Reagan's Forgotten Tax Record

The Little People Pay Taxes

Set To Fail

An ode to Scott Walker...