Gov. Scott Walker has plans for you

His policies have been an economic disaster for the state of Wisconsin. And if you enjoy collective bargaining rights and would like to keep them, the Governor, Scott Walker, should be way up high on your list of enemies. From the moment he was elected governor, Walker pushed through a bill to eliminate collective bargaining for all state workers but he exempted police and firefighters. But once the bill passed, even the cops can no longer bargain over their health insurance plans. The bill prompted massive demonstrations in Madison with tens of thousands of angry protestors showing up day after day.

But Scott Walker is one crafty bastard, you gotta give him that. In order to strip state, county and municipal employees of their previous right to collective bargaining by making it a so-called “right to work” state, he gave cops and firefighters a pass. After all, Walker knew he’d need the cops to deal with protestors furious about a Koch Bros. coup d’etat. It’s basically Divide and Conquer 101.

It’s well known that Walker lied about his intentions before becoming governor regarding organized labor. He told voters he had no intentions of putting Wisconsin unions out of business. Then he did just that. So he’s definitely a liar. That’s why no one should be surprised if he sells out the very folks he spared the first time around. When you dance with the devil the devil don’t change – you do.

At the end of July, just two and one half years after serving in office, Walker said he is open to the idea of limiting cops and firefighters’ ability to bargain.

“I think now having seen that the world didn’t come to an end for all your municipal employees and county employees, there might be a greater opening going forward because they’d say, ‘Hey, things worked out,'” Walker said.

If you have any doubts about Walker’s intentions listen to him get punked on a phony phone call? He thinks he’s talking to David Koch and let’s it all loose about his real intentions for all of Wisconsin’s public employees.

The new law known as Act 10, all but eliminated collective bargaining for most public workers. Unions are reduced to negotiating over base wages but that’s it. Raises can be no higher than the rate of inflation. The state’s employees have lost their right to negotiate over working conditions, overtime, health care, sick leave and vacation.

Mike Tate on the Daily Kos website had this rundown of Walker’s busy first term.

* He cut $1.6 billion from education, and now school districts across the state are cutting classes, stuffing kids in classrooms and experiencing diminished results.

* He’s led a full-scale assault on health care access, recently turning down $4.4 billion in Medicaid expansion over 20 years and kicking working families off our successful BadgerCare program, and our national rankings have slipped.

* He cut the state’s successful vocational technical education budget by 30 percent, dragging it back to 1989 levels, and now Wisconsin faces a historic skills gap.

* He gave $2.3 billion in giveaways to special interests — and now Wisconsin is facing a record budget debt.

* And, most damning, Scott Walker has turned his back on real solutions amid the Great Recession and now, Wisconsin is ranked dead last in economic indicators in the Midwest, ranking 44th in job-creation and 2nd-worst in jobs prospects for the foreseeable future.

* Walker is the first governor in Wisconsin history with a criminal defense fund, with six close associates convicted, as well as other ethical lapses bubbling up in every corner of this administration.
And this past January Wisconsin police and firefighters charged that Walker was engaging in blackmail. Officials with the state’s biggest police union, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA), told the Associated Press that its members are being threatened with health insurance cost hikes if they don’t pay into their retirement funds—an ultimatum the WPPA said is tantamount to blackmail.

“These employers tell their officers that unless you agree to pay this, we will make health insurance nearly unaffordable for you and your families,” said WPPA executive director Jim Palmer.

And the latest news? Scott Walker may run for president in 2016.

If you have any ideas how Scott Walker and like-minded governors in Florida, Michigan and other states can be stopped, we’d love to hear from you. Leave your comments in the space below.