Scott Walker’s Revolution: The Sequel
It has been two years since Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker came into office in dramatic fashion. With a slim majority in both houses of the state legislature, Walker led a fiscal revolution and a one-man crusade to return fiscal sanity to public employment and open the doors of Wisconsin to business creation.
Despite Wisconsin’s ten electoral votes going for President Obama in November, something miraculous is continuing to unfold in America’s Dairyland. Republicans actually regained control of a state legislature they had lost briefly in April of 2012. They now have a 3-seat advantage in the Senate and a 21-seat majority in the Assembly. Scott Walker now has the tools he needs to continue the “Cheesehead Revolution.” Amazingly, he is up for relection already in 2014. Long before then, however, he will face for the first time a new and much stronger adversary which threatens to derail his aggressive and much-needed reforms and agenda — the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Despite facing a 2012 recall election funded by unions across the nation, in less than a year Walker slew the dragon. In a state dominated by public employee unions just a few short years ago, he turned a $3.6 billion state deficit into a surplus. For the first time since 1996, school tax levies actually decreased, keeping an extra $228 million in Wisconsin taxpayers’ pockets. Walker protected seniors and needy families by investing $1.2 billion in new state funds for a Medicaid program in peril due to the loss of one-time federal stimulus funds and unsustainable program expansions. He balanced the state budget while still offering state employees generous pension plans unheard of in the private sector. He gave school districts the tools to balance their own budgets, and Wisconsin saw new-teacher hires outnumber layoffs and non-renewals by 1,799 positions. The teacher to student ratio in Wisconsin public schools dropped from 15.6 to 13.3.
Walker saved the state $4.8 million in 2010 alone by ending abusive overtime practices which allowed sate employees who call in sick to collect overtime if they work a shift on the exact same day. School districts can now do what is best for education rather than unions, like managing staffing based on merit rather than union seniority. Tens of millions of dollars were saved the state by allowing school districts to shop around for the best deal in health insurance rather than being forced by union contracts to use the significantly more expensive and union-owned WEA Trust. In balancing the budget, Walker paid off $831.7 million of debt left over from the previous Democrat administration, including:
• $235 million to the state’s Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund as a result of an unconstitutional raid by a previous legislature
• $176.5 million Medicaid shortfall
• $58.7 million to Minnesota for income tax collected from Wisconsin residents who work in Minnesota (accruing interest – $4,584/day)
• $20 million to the state Department of Corrections
• $341.8 million in lapses left over by the previous administration
A net loss of nearly 150,000 jobs in the three years prior to Walker taking office has been turned into a 25,411 increase in jobs in 2011 — despite the Obama-ravaged economy. But this is only the beginning. Governor Scott Walker recently hinted at some of the reforms he has in store for the rest of his first term.
On November 19, Walker gave a major speech at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, unveiling new policy initiatives which include decreasing taxes, expanding the school choice voucher program, and tying funding for the University of Wisconsin and technical college systems to how well those schools prepare students to take available and needed jobs in Wisconsin. Not surprisingly, the speech was not carried or even covered live by Wisconsin media.
With the power given to Scott Walker by the significant Republican majority in the state legislature, there is a unique opportunity for ground-breaking legislation. An effort to scale back same-day voter registration is likely to surface. A new mining bill to create good-paying union and non-union jobs — rejected by public employee unions and every Democrat in the legislature the last time around — is also a given. Walker understands that there is no sense in having power if you are not going to use it. Sequels are rarely better than the original, but the new slate of reforms Governor Walker has planned might be one of the exceptions.
– of state contributions barred?
This article illustrates perfectly the problems associated with getting an agenda legally passed in the legislative process – and with the will of the people behind that process (aren’t elections supposed to have consequences?) – only to see it shot down by these G-D activist judges who neither know nor care about what the Constitution might have to say about the legality of those laws that have been passed. Isn’t there some process where a judge gets tossed from the bench if they are overturned on appeal just one time too many? There should be such a process. Think about this if Feckless Won gets to replace just one ‘conservative’ judge to the Supreme Court. I’m sure his pick won’t be liked by most of the PJM crowd. The buck stops at the Supreme Court – if it’s filled with loons – we are done for!
This above all else is why I voted for Romeny. I grew up with the legacy of the Warren Court.
A state judge living in the fantasy world which is Madison has substituted his singular opinion for the collective will of Wisconsin voters. Again. And now a single Supreme Court election will likely determine the outcome of a conservative political reform movement which seeks to take root around the country.
Courts: where American law goes to die.
Standing Wolf, the leftist court system is the bane of every patriot’s existence, in the US and in Israel too. The laundry list is too long and depressing to delineate. Suffice it to say, they behave as social engineering fiefdoms, as opposed to adjudicators, according to precedent/stare decisis.
And it is not as if Americans don’t have enough reason to worry, with a gang of revolutionaries at the helm. And the chief gangster is the Radical/Liar/Pyromaniac/Islamist-in-Chief.
Hold onto your seats…your sanity…and most of all, your assets -http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/12/02/obama-regime-gunning-for-our-retirementinvestment-plans-how-dare-they-addendum-to-fellow-capitalists-hold-onto-your-retirement-assets-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
And those who will benefit from the leftist cabal – in every sphere of gov’t – are people who have nothing to begin with, only too thrilled to feed off of citizens who are productive!
http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/12/02/obama-regime-gunning-for-our-retirementinvestment-plans-how-dare-they-addendum-to-fellow-capitalists-hold-onto-your-retirement-assets-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
Maybe the “Stupid Party” could do a better job of passing a blizzard of small incremental laws instead of logrolling everything into big bills that are an easy target. For example, pass a small bill to make union dues for police and firemen voluntary instead of government collected, but don’t touch benefits. Pass another law requiring voter registration 20 days before the election, same as adjacent Minnesota. Shift poll closing time from 8pm to 7pm to give one less hour to bus people to the polls. Pass a voter ID law identical to the Indiana law that was ruled constitutional by the US supreme court, but with fairly generous conditions to accept provisional ballots. Republicans can do 100s of small changes in a way where it’s hard to unify opposition and attract media attention.
OT, a warning:
This happens when you tax “the rich”:
In the 2009-10 tax year, more than 16,000 people declared an annual income of more than £1 million to HM Revenue and Customs.
This number fell to just 6,000 after Gordon Brown introduced the new 50p top rate of income tax shortly before the last general election.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9707029/Two-thirds-of-millionaires-left-Britain-to-avoid-50p-tax-rate.html
I happen to know one of them. He emigrated to Australia.
It’s really a pleasure to hear Scott Walker speak.
He actually says something when he opens his mouth.
Can’t say that about many politicians.
Does anyone happen to know if there are polls or surveys indicating how the 160,000 black voters in Milwaukee that were determined by the Democrats to have either disappeared or never existed voted on Nov 6? Betcha it was 99.9% for The Won.
No, but I did read that in something like 59 Pennsylvania precincts, the vote was 100% for Barack Obama.
Not one single vote for Mitt Romney.
Seems impossible, if true.
No, its true.
Voter fraud and Philadelphia go together like Obama and the media….
Philadelphia is a sh*t hole, just across the Delaware River from the OTHER sh*tholes of Camden and Trenton.
Folks mistakenly think Philly is “better” than those two, but thats like saying Obama is “better” than Carter….
The “you are posting comments too quickly…” thing is getting old! Trying again -
This is first an argument against elected SC justices. Yes, appointment to a specific term is a two-edged sword but at least it avoids having a generally moronic electorate in the big cities deciding on the qualifications of a potential SC justice.
This scenario is the standard union/lefty playbook when the unenlightened electorate does things they don’t like; tie it up in court and try to buy a new governor/legislature/court. Even in states far more Red than WI, the Democrats can generally find some Democrat hack judge at the trial court level who’ll give them an injunction and let them string out the case being heard until after the next election. Even if they can’t get it to the election, losing at the trial court level just lets them string it out by appealing it. Any pending appeal is just trade goods in the election. In most cases it is simply a matter for the Attorney General’s discretion as to whether to continue a pending appeal. Even if the politics is such that a new Governor/AG can’t just drop the case, it is VERY easy to “lose” a case and then just find yourself convinced of the rightness of the decision and not appeal it.
I don’t know the solution to the politicization of both the legal system and the courts themselves. At the state level perhaps a “Solicitor General” type position appointed to a specific term and who can only be removed for cause during that term is the best way to handle cases involving the state itself. With such a position, a new governor or AG purchased by an interst group can’t just give the state’s position away to that interest group on the change of administration. That, of course, wouldn’t be perfect because even a person with a guaranteed term is corruptible and may succumb to promises of re-appointment or dismissal at the end of the term if s/he doesn’t see things the new administration’s way. The real issue is that government is too pervasive and there is entirely too much money riding on the decisions of judges, hearing officers, and arbitrators.
Why not have President Scott Walker in 16?
Ok, GOPers in the other 29 “red” states-git yer lazy behinds in gear and follow Walker’s lead. NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!NOW!
I remember the first time I heard about public-sector unions. Much younger then, but even then my first thought was, “If the government works for us, doesn’t that mean their employees have unionized to protect their interests first?” I also wondered how we could fight against the expansion of government, when public-sector unions could organize to protect their turf.
We are building two classes, the one being government workers with the ability to take more of our earnings, regulate our behavior and indoctrinate our children. With the public sector controlling education and increasingly healthcare, they control the means to indoctrinate and to control decisions at every stage of life. They have grown adept at using fear to maintain their power. A suggested cut is never a cut in waste and fraud; oh no, it is always a cut in necessary services.
When Romney’s 47 percent comment was made public I hoped these issues might become part of the discussion. Well, what would be the point? A sizable portion of our population has been brainwashed by government education to indorse the expansion of government. Any other message is scary. Honestly, they said it. “Romney scared me.”
All of this is merely to say that we need Scott Walker, and anyone else who will stand firm.
During his recall election I sent a donation. This was the first time that I sent money outside my own state. Here in SC we have virtually one-party rule. I figure, put money where it will accomplish the most. Go Scott Go!
Will he run for president in 2016?
I’ve met Scott Walker 3 times. I am a huge supporter — in enthusiasm, not money. The man was an Eagle scout as a youth, and is the son of a minister. He is as close as you can get to a “boy scout” in a politician. His Wauwatosa, WI home is only approximately 1 mile from mine, and he doesn’t come from a wealthy family.
I would support him for President in 2016, if he chose to run…but then, I would be torn, because the big reformer who has been hounded and maligned since 2008, Sarah Palin also may run. Here’s the REFORM ticket for 2016…Palin/Walker.
Mom in Wisconsin