Watch: Rachel Maddow Interviews Defiant Democratic Wisconsin Senator on the Union Protests
Wisconsin is in turmoil as legislation to restrict public workers' collective bargaining rights has sent thousands to the streets, and a group of Democratic senators to neighboring Illinois.
In a last-ditch effort to stop the passage of Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial budget repair bill by depriving the Senate of a quorum, all 14 Senate Democrats staged a walkout Thursday, leaving the state to avoid a forced return to the Capitol and a doomed vote against the bill.
The missing legislators traveled across the state line, spending at least part of the day at the Clock Tower Resort in Rockford, Ill. — far enough away that state troopers could not force them to return. They then spent the afternoon in a cat-and-mouse game with members of the media, sometimes speaking by cell phone but not revealing their locations.
Rachel Maddow explained that the situation is really about Republicans vs. Democrats ("This is an existential fight for the Democratic party"), and spoke with Senator Jon Erpenbach from an undisclosed location.
Watch her excellent report, AFTER THE JUMP....
Teabagger Governor Scott Walker says Wisconsin Republicans won't be "bullied" by the Democrats.
Expect this issue to get a whole lot bigger:
Even as Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin fled their own state in an attempt to stall a vote in the Republican-controlled state senate, Mr. Obama decried the tactics of Mr. Walker as “an assault on unions.”
That prompted House Speaker John Boehner to rip into Mr. Obama, accusing him of having “unleashed the Democratic National Committee to spread disinformation and confusion in Wisconsin.”
Mr. Boehner, in a statement, praised Mr. Walker and other Republican governors for making the tough decisions to cut spending. And he chided the president for siding with the wrong side in the contentious Wisconsin debate.
The protests are spreading to Ohio...
And: "Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New Mexico are among the two dozen other states considering narrower but substantial changes in how government treats its workforce."
Watch Maddow's report, and a YouTube clip of the Democratic senators getting harassed by a Tea Party supporter, AFTER THE JUMP...
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Rachel's interview with Senator Jon Erpenbach:
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Maddow talks to Ed Schultz in Madison:
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Wisconsinites: Help repeal the governor.
http://www.facebook.com/RecallScottWalker
Posted by: wisconsinpatriot | Feb 18, 2011 1:31:32 PM
This is best handled by referendums. I doubt the people of any state support retirement at 50 at half pay with full health coverage and allowance for multiple pensions from multiple state jobs for as little as two year service for their state workers. Largely because for similar work they don't receive anywhere near the same benefits. However, it always is politically impossible to make any changes like this within state legislatures. Also, such votes must be tied to the necessary tax increases to show what the people are really voting for.
Posted by: anon | Feb 18, 2011 2:11:42 PM
Are you serious? Retirement at age 50 with full benefits? Multiple pensions? You're dreaming if you think that's what the lives of state workers are like.
When times are tough, it's a lot easier to take out frustrations on people whose only political power is through their union, rather than the hyper-rich ultra - connected corporate entities whose flagrant bullshit shenanigans caused the trouble to begin with. Yes, the public pays public employees. They pay a shitload more for the welfare payments to banks and for the fact that the majority of businesses in Wisconsin don't pay any corporate taxes whatsoever.
I get it... businesses are part of our community too. As such, they need to pay their fair share of support to make our communities work. If their only plan is to pay shitty bennies and less than a living wage and pay no taxes, then that's not much better than having that business leave the state. And frankly if Mr. Walker is that concerned about losing Wisconsin jobs then he would have supported the thousands of construction jobs provided through the high speed rail efforts. But no. Instead his first act as governor was to eliminate those jobs and return the money to Washington ... which were promptly snapped up by Illinois.
Posted by: the milkman | Feb 18, 2011 2:28:59 PM
Are you serious? Retirement at age 50 with full benefits? Multiple pensions? You're dreaming if you think that's what the lives of state workers are like.
When times are tough, it's a lot easier to take out frustrations on people whose only political power is through their union, rather than the hyper-rich ultra - connected corporate entities whose flagrant bullshit shenanigans caused the trouble to begin with. Yes, the public pays public employees. They pay a shitload more for the welfare payments to banks and for the fact that the majority of businesses in Wisconsin don't pay any corporate taxes whatsoever.
I get it... businesses are part of our community too. As such, they need to pay their fair share of support to make our communities work. If their only plan is to pay shitty bennies and less than a living wage and pay no taxes, then that's not much better than having that business leave the state. And frankly if Mr. Walker is that concerned about losing Wisconsin jobs then he would have supported the thousands of construction jobs provided through the high speed rail efforts. But no. Instead his first act as governor was to eliminate those jobs and return the money to Washington ... which were promptly snapped up by Illinois.
Posted by: the milkman | Feb 18, 2011 2:30:00 PM
If you're a working person, who's working week to week just to get by, Governor Walker's actions -- as part of a giant national strategy -- has made things very clear: The GOP is out to get you. They must be resisted to the bitter end. I don't think the protesters in Wisconsin should stop until Walker is forced to resign.
Posted by: Ryan | Feb 18, 2011 6:20:14 PM
Rachel Maddow's assertion of a budget surplus for Wisconsin' current fiscal year is actually completely false. You can see the proof here: http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/18/rachel-maddow/rachel-maddow-says-wisconsin-track-have-budget-sur/
The problem is that she did not read the entire report from the state fiscal bureau, particularly the part about $258 million in unpaid bills. Has she retracted the story yet?
Posted by: Trevor | Feb 18, 2011 7:37:10 PM
Trevor it doesn't matter. Eliminating unions won't reduce any state deficit . It's a power grab plain and simple. And it's unamerican.
Posted by: the milkman | Feb 18, 2011 7:40:13 PM
the only sure way to reduce a deficit is raise taxes
plain and simple
Eisenhower had it right with 90% tax on every $ over 1 mill a year and he was a repub. Whatever happened to those kinds of repubs
Posted by: mstrozfckslv@yahoo.com | Feb 18, 2011 9:15:59 PM
"What's really astounding is how blatantly the new governor took a budget surplus and created a deficit by giving money to special interests and then used that deficit as an excuse to bust unions
Back in 2005 in Wisconsin, a fiscal bureau memo showed a similar surplus, but lawmakers approved a major fix of a Medicaid shortfall that would have eaten up that projected surplus.
In 2009, federal stimulus money was used for the budget because of the shortfall. There was no surplus! What that fiscal bureau decided not to calculate were unpaid bills, and expected losses from state medical services which was $174 million alone. Also the state of Wisconsin owes 58 million to another state.
Also, the $200 million owed to the state’s patient compensation fund, a debt courts have declared resulted from an illegal raid on the fund under former Gov. Jim Doyle!
As far as busting the union, it's not a bust rather it's restricting their power. Public employees will have an option to pay dues, on a yearly basis. Plus, unions can still bargain for wages, not benefits. Are the workers without representation in benefits? No, lawmakers represent them in that part of the bargaining.
Also, lawmakers should stop their illegal activity by fleeing the state and face the music, the increase in health care is half what the private sector pays, and pensions is nowhere near what the public pays!
Posted by: Michael | Feb 19, 2011 4:38:32 PM
Jesus...where to begin:
Our big business, too big to fail, Corpocracy have been bum raping the average American for years. BOTH main political parties, and ALL presidents and congresses for at least the past 40 years have been on the same page as far as this is concerned. They're all in bed with each other.
Public sector unions should never have been allowed to begin with. GROSS conflict of interests for both the union, public employees and politicians [who receive a lot of campaign contributions and 'Help' from unions that they are responsible for overseeing and negotiating with.]
We now have a situation where the Corpocracy [A.K.A. WALL St.] and big unions [ESPECIALLY public sector unions] are bleeding us [the average, majority American] dry. They get away with this because their money and influence with politicians at local, state, and the national level is omnipotent. This evil conspiracy [it is a bona-fide conspiracy] must be broken, but it may already be too late.
The WORSE things to happen in the U.S. over the last half century are:
Neoliberal economics [supply-side,A.K.A Reaganomics.] It really started before Reagan though.
Globalization and especially 'Free' trade, and in particular our giving China a gigantic free pass.
The 1965 Immigration 'Reform' Act. It has flooded the U.S. with uneducated immigrants most of whom are incompatible with a our post-modern, post-industrial society. They have devastated our homegrown working class and middle class, lowered wages and benefits levels, created a large, pernicious under-class and unemployment level. They have also bankrupted our social services. And because social services are the largest single cost for state and federal governments, it has contributed hugely to the present dire financial situation. I won't even go into crime, etc., Ironically, both Dems and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, for their own selfish reasons, benefit from their presence. Again, the average majority American does not benefit.
Posted by: ratbastard | Feb 19, 2011 5:56:28 PM
I should have included also our out of control so-called Military-Industrial Complex. But it isn't the Pentagon who're to blame for this, it's Congress. Congress, and the billions [trillions over the decades] in defense related pork they fight over, is to blame.
Posted by: ratbastard | Feb 19, 2011 6:07:36 PM
It's not a surprise that the middle class american incomes have been stagnant for forty years with the steady decline of collective bargaining power.
Since government employees make about fifteen per cent less than their private sector counterparts with similar education (and teacher income has been steadily declining), attacking this in the name of "budget shortfalls" is a tactic of division. It's like attacking public jobs on the federal level--the go to strategy to of the republicans to destroy the middle class by making it eat itself--when payroll accounts for less than five per cent of the budget. It's working given the salary freeze implemented by obama. None of it matters, it won't impact the deficit at all, and it's a distraction promulgated by thieves and liars.
Anyway, there's very little hope...enthusiasm of the deranged, sure...but they've got nothing else or are getting paid to pump up the stupid and ignorant.
Posted by: TANK | Feb 19, 2011 6:46:12 PM
But by all means, blame unions for bleeding america dry somehow when less than twelve per cent of the workforce is union.... There are legitimate criticisms of unions...but that they're somehow "bleeding america dry" and on a par with the outright criminals that manage hedge funds is a sad, though common theme amongst utterly ignorant peasants.
Posted by: TANK | Feb 19, 2011 6:51:17 PM
Tank,
The public pensions, benefits [which, on average, are FAR better than comparable private sector bennies], early retirement, etc., have bankrupted states and municipalities.
And public teachers on average make excellent salaries and benefits.
I'm not anti-union or collective bargaining at all. But the public sector has become totally broken and is hemorrhaging $. Our private sector is also f'ed up.
Posted by: ratbastard | Feb 19, 2011 7:24:51 PM
Hmmm, let's take your average public school teacher's pension. It's around $19,000 per year. More secure than a 401k, but not equivalent. As to them bankrupting states and municipalities, why is it that states that don't allow bargaining power to teachers (and other state employees), like nevada, have tremendous budget deficits compared to states that do? Clearly that indicates that it's not the public pension program that's bankrupting these states, but horrendous management by incompetent fools and lack of basic budget making skills. You're going to tell me that something that, on average, costs a fraction of a fraction of a state budget is bankrupting it? You're a useful idiot, and there's no other way to cash it out.
Public teachers on average make excellent salaries? Well, let's look at the BLS and find out what constitutes "excellent." However, the teacher salary in wisconsin starts at about 22k cutting off at about 46.5, and the average nationally for a public primary after working for about fifteen years is 43k. Excellent? Nah.
Posted by: TANK | Feb 19, 2011 7:50:41 PM
And don't get me wrong...I'm no fan of public education in this country...it has failed generations of americans. the competition is good because competition is good crowd think public funding of charter schools are a way to improve the fundamentals (and we need more than fundamentals). Not necessarily, especially when you consider the percentage that would send their spawn to an inferior religious indoctrination camp. There are lot of stupid public school teachers--I know some of them...and aside from the science teacher, they're retarded...good people, but dumb as sh it. The teacher's union protects the jobs of a lot of extremely unqualified people, but it helps a lot of qualified people, too. The way of decreasing ineptitude has never been to slash salaries or the mechanism by which salary levels are sustained and improved upon....even republicans opposed to capping executive salaries agree to that much.
Posted by: TANK | Feb 19, 2011 8:10:36 PM
Everything's relative Tank. Cost of living in most of Wisconsin is a lot cheaper than say NYC, L.A. or metro Boston. Statistics can be very deceptive, especially concerning 'Averages.' I have zero doubt public sector salaries for the typical public employee like a public H.S. teacher is competitive with their comparable private counter-parts,job security at least until very recently better, benefits better.
And there's zero question extravagant public pensions, very generous heath insurance plans are bankrupting public treasuries.
Posted by: ratbastard | Feb 19, 2011 8:36:01 PM
Once again, the numbers reveal that your dogma is false....to repeat, pensions for primary public teachers is about $19k a year, and if you're like most people, you don't save a lot of money...so you live on under thirty k a year. That's an extravagant pension, is it? Are you calling that extravagant? Maybe if cat food is gourmet. Should I remind you that this is the united states and not, say....somalia?
Yeah, and a garbage collector in hoboken could live like a pasha in bangledesh on his salary... I would imagine that you think you've got a point by arguing about the varying costs of living between states like new york and wisconsin...oh, wait...new york city and wisconsin...as if that in any way reflects a national average.
Posted by: TANK | Feb 19, 2011 8:45:33 PM
"And there's zero question extravagant public pensions, very generous heath insurance plans are bankrupting public treasuries."
AND, as a bonus, you can repeat yourself and be wrong until you're blue in the face...but that doesn't mean that you're anything but wrong. This isn't true. "generous" health insurance plans, pensions, and the right to collective bargaining don't exist in states with crippling deficits that are absent from the balance sheets of states with generous health insurance plans and pensions...and offer collective bargaining to state employees. So what could possibly explain this amazing discrepancy, dr.? It couldn't be that "generous" (everything you say is suspect form here on out given the volume of false statements you generate on a day to day basis) cadillac health insurance plans, pensions (next you'll be screaming about welfare queens that live in mansions) have little to nothing to do with the budgetary shortfalls these states face due to mismanagement, or perhaps that we're in a terrible recession and state revenue is down across the board? No...no...it's the little guy's fault....
Alright, that's it...I'm sick of running circles around idiots like you.
Posted by: TANK | Feb 19, 2011 8:58:26 PM
WI rules. Lets follow Egypt's lead and take to the streets to demand:
1. End to wars of occupation in Iraq etc;
2. Universal Health Care like ever other
industrialized country;
3. End bailouts of Wall St, and start criminal proceedings against the Street;
4. Freeze military aid to Israel-Palestine, and other regimes;
5. Jobs, Jobs, and living wages now!
Cheers, JAM, Washington Green, T
Posted by: Joseph A. Mustich | Feb 20, 2011 7:37:26 AM
Multi- national corporations have already left the state and country with tax payer money...
Wake up and smell the coffee and take to the streets, literally and figuratively...
And pressure Brand Obama now..
Posted by: Joseph A. Mustich | Feb 20, 2011 7:39:28 AM