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Local and State Governments Giving Away Billions to Corporations

by John Lawrence from the San Diego Free Press

Paradise Point is one of the big winners in San Diego.

States, counties and cities are in a race to the bottom because they are giving away taxpayer dollars to provide incentives for corporations to locate withing their boundaries. There's a fierce competition going on and corporations are playing one region off against another. Whichever one comes up with the largest package of cash grants and loans, sales tax breaks, income tax credits and exemptions, free services, and property tax abatements wins. Corporations hire people whose job it is to get them the best package. Mayors and Governors desperate for jobs for their citizens are giving away the store with the consequence that schools, parks and police and fire services are underfunded. City employees are forced to take pay and pension cuts in order that corporations can report to shareholders that they got the best possible deal.

And there is no guarantee that once these corporations have received said financial incentives that they will ever provide the jobs or that they won't pull up stakes after a short period in order to take advantage of even better incentives elsewhere. According to a New York Times investigation, states, counties and cities in the US are giving up more than $80 billion per year in order to get corporations to build plants or even offices in their areas. The beneficiaries encompass oil and coal conglomerates, technology and entertainment companies, banks and big-box retail chains - even dental offices, architect firms and wineries!

There are mayors and governors who are desperate to create jobs and who don't have the expertise to negotiate with corporations or even fact check what they are telling them. Corporations demanding subsidies threatened to move jobs overseas if they did not get subsidies in the United States. The state of Texas awards more incentives, over $19 billion a year, than any other state. As a consequence, Texas has the most underfunded school system in the whole country. Recently there was a border war between Kansas and Missouri. Last year Kansas recruited AMC Entertainment away from Missouri. This required a move of only a few miles from one side of the border to the other. In return Missouri lured Applebee's headquarters across the border from Kansas. The workers just had a littler farther to commute, that's all.

General Motors pushed hard for tax breaks in Ypsilanti Township, Mich. Some $200 million later, this is what remains.

The main victims of these wars between states and municipalities are the school systems which become underfunded by virtue of the loss in tax revenues because money is diverted from public education to corporations. Last year states cut public services and raised taxes by a collective $156 billion. Politicians want to be able to claim that they've brought new jobs into their state. The government of South Carolina recently took on a $218 million debt in order to get Boeing to locate a plant there and gave the company tax breaks for ten years. The state of Michigan gave General Motors $779 million in tax credits in 2009 just a month after GM received a $50 billion Federal bailout and decided to close seven plants there. These are just a few samplings of the horror stories out there that result from the absurd competition going on among various political entities and jurisdictions.

Cabela's sporting goods chain put the Mom and Pop sporting goods store, Weaknecht's, out of business in Hamburg, Pennsylvania based on tax giveaways. They had the local politicians in surrounding counties in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey competing with each other to see who was willing to pay the most in tribute to the sporting goods chain. They wanted at least $32 million. At this rate subsidies would cover more than half the cost of construction. Cabela's wanted an exemption from paying property taxes. But that wasn't all. They also wanted to pocket all the sales tax. According to David Cay Johnston in the book, Free Lunch:

"The tribute Cabela's demanded from Hamburg amounted to roughly $8000 for each man, woman and child in town. Hamburg was not a unique example, but part of a strategy to build Cabela's stores across the country. Multiply the tribute in Hamburg by as many struggling little towns off the interstates as Cabela's has plans for retail stores and the figures balloon. Cabela's plans to build stores until, like Holiday Inns, it is everywhere. Imagine how many of those towns are run by burghers who could be persuaded to opt for hope and forget about reason. To become the dominant outdoor retailer Cabela's would need only to find a few dozen or, if it could, a few hundred towns whose political leaders were willing to pay tribute. By doing so it could cut the risks of expansion and gain an advantage over business owners like Jim Weaknecht who offered better service and lower prices. Mining local and state governments for tribute could even turn into a business more lucrative for Cabela's than actually selling sporting goods."

President Bush and Dick Cheney campaigned at Cabela's in 2004 and Dick Cheney let on that it was his favorite place to shop. Presumably, it's where he bought the gun that shot his hunting companion in the face. Dick and Mary Cabela gave $11,000. to the Bush campaign.

Since he closed his store, Jim Weaknecht has worked as an assistant manager at a grocery store chain. He holds down a second job to in order to make ends meet, and sent his wife out to work for the first time instead of caring for the children. Cabela's offered him a job for $13.50 an hour.

In California Twitter cashed in on $22 million in payroll taxes after it threatened to leave San Francisco last year. It really didn't need the money. A Saudi prince invested $300. million and a private consortium, another $800. million. But Twitter was able to report to shareholders that it had made them as much short term money as it possibly could have. While the two investors got Twitter equity, the city of San Francisco got a hollow promise that Twitter would stay put. Of course there would be no consequences if it didn't. The

A playground in the Manor school district in Texas. In the background is a plant owned by Samsung, which has been awarded more than $231 million in incentives.

New York Times reported :

Like many places, San Francisco has been cutting its budget. Public parks have lost about $12 million in recent years, though workers at Twitter will not lack for greenery. The company’s plush new office has a rooftop garden with great views and amenities. Enjoying the perks, one employee sent out a tweet: “Tanned on Twitter’s new roof deck this morning as some dude served me smoothie shots. This is real life?”

Rick Perry likes to brag about all the jobs he's creating in Texas even though the state has the third highest proportion of hourly jobs paying at or below minimum wage and the 11th highest poverty rate among states. 

During a visit to San Diego, he bragged to local officials that about a third of the companies moving to Texas were from California according to Ruben Barrales, the chief executive of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Barrales said that Rick Perry visited San Diego quite often and let companies know that if they chose to relocate, Texas would greet them with open arms.  When he was asked if he had qualms about taking jobs from other states, Rick Perry said, “Competition is what drives this country.”

California spends at least $4.17 billion per year on incentive programs, according to the most recent data available. That is roughly:

• $112 per capita
• 5¢ per dollar of state budget

California's incentives and subsidies include:

1. $2.29 billion in Corporate income tax credit, rebate or reduction
2. $1.44 billion in Corporate income and personal income tax breaks
3. $386 million in Sales tax refund, exemptions or other sales tax discounts

Twitter and Tesla Motors got a combined $42 million in corporate income tax credits, rebates or reductions from the state. Northrop Grumman got $9.8 million in 13 free services from the state. Hyatt Corporation got $3.07 million for 2 free services statewide. Raytheon got $2.74 million for 6 free services. The National Alliance of Business has received $1.08 million for two free services. Dunn-Edwards Corporation received $809,030 for 4 free services. Exxon Mobil received $596,596 for 1 free service.

The following is a not even an exhaustive list of subsidies to corporations in San Diego County:

Foundation College, LLC has received two grants worth $2.95 million for free services.  Aetna, Inc has received $2.82 for 4 free services. Foundation Foods LLC has received $2.35 million for 3 free services. Comprehensive Training Systems has received $1.17 million for 4 free services. Prime Healthcare Services received $749,658 for 2 free services. BAE Systems received $688,563 for 5 free services. General Dynamics received $583,364 for 1 free service. Rohr, Inc received $459,432 for 2 free services. Invitrogen Corporation received $387,810 for 1 free service. Coxcom, Inc received $343,477. for 1 free service. Calloway Golf received $338,016 for 2 free services.

The following have received subsidies for various amounts of free services:

San Diego Paradise Point Resort - $331,760. MSS Technologie Inc -  $304,709. Pharmingen - $301,252. San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council - $278,700. Remek Defense and Space Inc - $192,190. Southwest Marine Inc - $190,320. Geico - $149,682. Ericsson Wireless Communications - $90,320. Elgar Corporation - $171,984. Unisys Corporation - $163,475. Technology Integration Group - $143,691. Viasat Inc - $141,911.

Avail Medical Products Inc - $133,816. Cubic Defense Applications Inc - $114,525. Harbor Packaging - $110,235. Gemini Plastics Inc - $89,896. Sempra Energy - $89,136. Booz Allen Hamilton - $81,844. Spa Builders Support Group Inc - $81,150. Eaton Leonard Inc - $77,586. General Atomics - $76,963. San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau - $76,640. Stillman Seal Corporation - $66,560. Hughes Network Systems - $64,350. Z Microsystems Inc - $63,084. CSA Travel Protection - $60,343.

Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation - $59,241. Taylor Guitars - $54,860. Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce - $52,783. Sumitomo Metal Mining USA Inc - $50,684. Nextbio Inc - $49,140. Diversa Corporation - $48,685. Sony Electronics Inc - $44,213. Taylormade Golf Company Inc - $42,666. Standard Pacific Homes - $41,613. Natural Alternatives International Inc - $40,866. Nu Visions Manufacturing Inc - $36,791. National University - $32,654. Kyocera America Inc - $30,706.

Finally, Energy Innovations got $3.5 million in cash grants, loans or loan guarantees from the city of Poway and then went out of business costing 70 employees their jobs.

And it goes on and on for 90 pages! There are dental groups, sheet metal fabricators, platers, architects, cab companies, office products companies, engineering companies, bamboo companies, filter companies etc. You name it! If you're a corporation and you're not getting a piece of the government pie, you're a total LOSER.

One notable exception to this list - Qualcomm, San Diego's largest employer and a Fortune 400 company. I guess they figure they're profitable enough to pay their own way, but that hasn't stopped the likes of Exxon Mobil or Chevron from seeking and accepting taxpayer subsidies. My hat's off to Qualcomm for not picking the public's pocket.

Whew!!! When you add all this up, pretty soon you're talking about real money! Money that could have been spent on schools, parks and public services - and this is only a partial list! I challenge a commenter to add it all up and come up wth a total for San Diego County. I don't have the time or patience to do it.

This represents corporate welfare or another term for it is corporate socialism. So much for the free market. Do you think that this amount of money could have been spent on schools, parks, police, firemen and filling potholes instead? Why the San Diego Free Press would be happy to receive $50,000 in free services. Do you think that's possible? Don't bet on it.

The only solution to this mess is a national economic policy that would prevent this race to the bottom and ridiculous competition among states and local governments. The US should have an industrial policy that would promote trade and restrict competition for plant location. Obama has mentioned a cabinet level position of Secretary of Business. That might be a good start.

Way To Go Ohio! A Huge Victory For the 99%

from the OB Rag

by Jim Miller on November 14, 2011 · 2 comments

in Election, Labor, Politics, Under the Perfect Sun

Last Tuesday citizens of the bellwether state of Ohio handed Republican John Kasich a crushing defeat as they voted overwhelmingly to repeal Senate Bill 5 that would have undermined collective bargaining rights for public sector workers.  This and other Republican losses across the country last week has excited many Democrats who are hoping these elections are a signal that the Tea Party wave has crested and the gloomy horizon for President Obama and his party may be brightening.

As the New York Times reported, Brad Woodhouse, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, claimed that, “Republicans were rebuked for their partisan overreach and their anti-worker, anti-middle class, anti-immigrant and anti-women policies.”  The same article then noted, “For more than a year, Democrats have been wringing their hands about the prospect that their voters are weary and lack enthusiasm. Party leaders have wondered: Can they be fired up again? And if so, how?  . . . The Ohio vote could spell good news in that respect. A huge effort by national labor unions to fire up their workers was joined by a largely unnoticed push by Mr. Obama’s campaign to organize his supporters in the state. The result, Democrats said Wednesday, was proof that Mr. Obama’s supporters can be revved up and turned out.”

The problem with this line of thinking is that it assumes that Ohio’s overwhelmingly pro-union vote is evidence of a renewed enthusiasm for Obama and a Democratic Party that has been taking working and middle class voters for granted for far too long.

This is also true of much of the mainstream media analysis of Occupy Wall Street, a movement that might seem to be good for Democrats, but one that should also make the corporate donkeys uncomfortable since OWS is driven by anger at BOTH parties because of their subservience to Wall Street, corporate interests, and the rich.

Perhaps the folks in Democratic Party Headquarters ought to stop talking about the need for voters to get “revved up” and think instead about how they might actually start standing for something other than austerity-lite.

In a recent Harpers piece about the need for a 21^st century WPA, Thomas Frank adeptly diagnoses what ails the Democrats, noting that his list of populist economic programs like those implemented by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is not “not radical or complicated”:

They are, however, extremely unlikely to be enacted.  Even among Democrats, there is little agreement on the desirability of federal jobs programs, for the most part, the party long ago accepted the small-government ideal of the G.O.P., outsourcing, downsizing, and deregulating with relish when it was their turn to rule in the 1990s.  Over the past two years, they have tried to bring about recovery with tax breaks, bailouts, and big paydays for private contractors.  Even the president’s Council on Jobs is filled with CEOs.

…the choice between shitty and catastrophic fails to inspire the masses.

Indeed, across the country we see Democrats as well as Republicans attacking unions, imposing austerity budgets, and then flinching when it comes to challenging corporations and the rich to be held accountable or pay their fair share in taxes.  Encouraged by the Obama Administration, Democrats and Republicans in Congress just voted for a new slate of crappy trade deals that will only help speed the race to the bottom for workers while further enhancing capital flight and corporate profits.  The president wants workers to head to the phone banks to wage war for him, but his response to Governor Walker’s war against unions in Wisconsin was tepid at best. Democrats have put Social Security and Medicare cuts “on the table” in the super committee negotiations.  The list goes on . . .

What the Democrats saw in Ohio and elsewhere last week was the beginning of a wave.  And if they want to ride that wave, they are going to have to abandon the course they have been on since they threw labor (and much of non-union working America) under the bus in the nineties and embraced neoliberal economic policies.  They need less Bill Clinton and more FDR.

And while I am aware that there are still many solid progressives in the Democratic Party, they desperately need to take it back from the corporate interests that now dominate it.  Otherwise, more and more Americans will be legitimately skeptical about whether there is much difference between the parties on economic matters.

Of course there are important differences between how the two parties are proposing to cut budgets at all levels, but the Democrats have ceded more and more ground to the Republicans. Hence the whole game is being played on the turf of the Right.  People start to wonder whether the Democrats stand for anything at all anymore.  Bluntly put: the choice between shitty and catastrophic fails to inspire the masses.

Thus what the election in Ohio vote signifies is not so much a swing back to the Democrats as it is a vote in favor of the rights of workers.  It is a huge victory for unions in the face of an unprecedented corporate-funded national assault.  If anything, it is big victory for the 99% against the interests of the 1%.  It is a recognition that, in America’s bellwether state, people would rather stand with unions than plutocracy.  So, from here deep in the Wisconsin of the West, I say: way to go, Ohio!

Thousands of Public Employees Laid Off in 2010

Published on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 by Rueters

Local and state governments axed more than 200,000 jobs in 2010, according to U.S. Census data released on Tuesday that showed the growing threat of public employee layoffs to the economic recovery.

A man carrying a stack of job listings listens to a discussion at the One Stop employment center in San Francisco, California, August 12, 2009. (Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith) According to the Census, local and state governments had 203,321 fewer full-time equivalent employees in 2010 than in 2009 and 27,567 fewer part-time employees.

Most local governments cut full-time jobs in 2010, with the biggest decline in Rhode Island, where the workforce shrank 7.7 percent. Those in North Dakota, one of few states to go through the 2007-09 recession unscathed, added jobs in 2010, with its full-time workforce growing 7.5 percent in 2010.

It was the second year local governments lost part-time employees, with cities, counties and authorities in California shedding the most, 47,620.

The job losses have continued this year. John Lonski, chief economist for Moody's Capital Markets Research told Reuters this month that "we are looking at the worst contraction of state and local government employment since 1981."

Analysts polled by Reuters expect a report on Friday to show governments dropped another 30,000 jobs in August, marking the ninth consecutive month of contraction.

Public employees outnumber those in manufacturing, health and other areas typically considered engines of the economy. Local government provides the bulk of those jobs. In 2010, local governments had 12.2 million full-time equivalent employees, while state governments had 4.4 million.

The housing bust, financial crisis and recession devastated state and local tax revenues. For more than three years, states, cities and counties have cut spending, hiked taxes, borrowed and turned to the federal government for help in keeping their budgets balanced.

Texas has weathered the economic maelstrom better than many states. Its governor, Rick Perry, is extolling its employment health as he runs for president. In a recent editorial, he touted Texas as home to nearly 40 percent of the net new jobs created in the country since June 2009.

Census data showed Texas also boosted employment. The Lone Star state had the biggest percentage increase in state workers, 5.9 percent, from 2009 to 2010. That represented a gain of 17,800 full-time jobs.

Local governments in Texas also added the most part-time jobs of all cities, counties and towns, 24,731.

"Most state governments saw small decreases in full-time or full-time equivalent employment between 2009 and 2010," the Census said.

Rhode Island, Idaho and Connecticut state governments had the largest declines, each losing 5 percent of their workforces.

The tiny state of Rhode Island has endured pension funding problems and other budget headaches. Earlier this month its city of Central Falls filed for bankruptcy. Now the New England state is recovering from Hurricane Irene.

Most state governments increased their part-time workforces, especially Wisconsin, which picked up 5,063 jobs. Florida shed the most part-time positions, 3,555, or 7.5 percent of the jobs.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Andrew Hay)

© 2011 Reuters

Scott Walker Cuts State Health Services, Then Rejects Health Reform’s Public Health Grants

By Igor Volsky on Aug 5, 2011 at 12:08 pm from ThinkProgress

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) has rejected more than $9 million in grants from the Affordable Care Act that would have “focused on fighting drug and alcohol abuse; assessing health impacts of public policies; and signing up state residents who qualify for state health programs.” State health commissioners are outraged by the move, pointing out that the state is turning away money “at a time when there is a proliferation of illicit drugs and documentation of binge drinking and drunken driving in the state.” “Wisconsin would put its head in the virtual sand and not go after this funding,” Bevan Baker, commissioner of health for the City of Milwaukee said.

Walker’s administration claims the grants “duplicated existing efforts,” despite making significant cuts to health care programs in the state’s recently-passed state budget. Walker slashed $500 million from Department of Health Services and instituted a $1.6 billion reduction in public school funding.

In fact, some of the budget cuts specifically targeted drug and alcohol prevention programs in schools, while others will allow the health department’s secretary, Dennis Smith, “sole authority to make cuts to whatever programs he likes — or doesn’t like.” Smith hasn’t yet offered a finished proposal, but wouldn’t rule out cuts to addiction services.

Wisconsin is also near the very bottom of states for public health funding, ranking 49th in the nation for state funding of prevention services per capita.

Minnesota Government Shuts Down As Republicans Refuse To Raise Taxes On Millionaires

By Marie Diamond posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Jul 1, 2011 at 10:42 am

Minnesota’s government will be shutdown over the Fourth of July weekend as the state’s Republican-controlled state legislature and Democratic governor failed to reach an agreement to close a $5 billion budget deficit before midnight. To close the deficit, Gov. Mark Dayton (D) proposed raising taxes on people making over $1 million a year. Republicans, who took control of both houses last November and campaigned on a platform of no tax increases, are digging in their heels and insist on reducing the deficit through major budget cuts.

This state battle closely mirrors the one on the national stage over the debt ceiling:

Without a two-year budget agreement in place, state parks and the Minnesota Zoo will be shut for the July 4 holiday weekend, nonemergency road construction will halt and thousands of state workers will be furloughed.

Government functions deemed critical by a county judge on Wednesday will keep operating, including the state patrol, prisons and the Medicaid health-insurance program for the poor. Courts will stay open, and welfare and food-stamp payments will continue.[...]

Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, a Republican, said late Thursday that the state’s health and human-services budget was a sticking point in the negotiations.

Ms. Koch was interrupted several times by protestors in the Capitol chanting, “Tax the rich!”

The effects were reportedly already being felt hours ahead of the deadline, as people rushed to get driver’s and fishing licenses, and “park officials began warning campers to pack their gear and leave.”

Dayton is standing by his plan to raise taxes on millionaires in order to spare cuts in services to the most vulnerable residents. He told reporters late Thursday, “This is a night of deep sorrow for me because I don’t want to see this shutdown occur. But I think there are basic principles and the well-being of millions of people in Minnesota that would be damaged not just for the next week or whatever long it takes, but the next two years and beyond with these kind of permanent cuts in personal care attendants and home health services and college tuition increases.”

This is Minnesota’s second government shutdown in the last six years. The first occurred in 2005 under then-Governor Tim Pawlenty (R), and lasted only a few days. However, this year’s shutdown is “expected to become the broadest shutdown of state services in its history.”

PA Gov. Corbett Slashes Education and Health Care, Refuses To Tax Natural Gas Drilling

From ThinkProgress on Jul 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) signed a disastrous state budget last night that favors the natural gas industry at the expense of the state’s children and least fortunate citizens. The $27.15 billion budget does not raise taxes, but cuts health care for more than 100,000 of the state’s poorest residents. It did this by slashing Medicaid contributions by $280 million, which will result in a $425 million loss in matching federal funds. State universities and community colleges have announced the largest tuition hikes in state history as education funding took a heavy, $863-million hit.

Yet, state Republicans and Corbett did not have to punish children and the neediest to plug a $4 billion budget deficit. Several variations of natural gas drilling taxes were proposed this year, and an extraction fee tacked onto the budget by the state Senate last week would have raised $310 million. However, Corbett threatened to veto any tax, and he strong-armed the state House into withdrawing a vote on the tax this week just hours before it was scheduled to be debated. Corbett’s obstinacy continues even though Pennsylvania is the only major gas producer that does not tax its use.

So why is Corbett very friendly to natural gas, despite its documented dangers? It may be because the governor owes part of his political career to the industry, having accepted almost $1.3 million in campaign contributions from drillers. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported this week on the cozy relationship between Corbett and Chesapeake Energy, the state’s largest natural gas driller, which began during Corbett’s first statewide campaign for attorney general.

“For much of the fall of 2004, polls showed a slight lead for the Democrat. … Then, in the final weeks of the race, came a game-changer…$450,000 in campaign checks from Aubrey McClendon, CEO and chairman of Chesapeake Energy…The influx of cash helped Corbett narrowly win the closest attorney general’s race in Pennsylvania history and propelled him toward the governor’s mansion, where he has now pledged to turn the Keystone State into ‘the Texas of the natural-gas boom.’”

Chesapeake is one of the worst environmental offenders, having racked up fines of $900,000 and $188,000 in the last few months. They are also currently being sued by the attorney general of Maryland. Despite this, representatives from Chesapeake initially served on Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission. Since his election, Corbett has also favored the industry by lifting a moratorium on new drilling on public lands, and by requiring his office’s approval before any regulations against natural gas companies can be enforced.

– Sean Savett

TX GOP Slashes Funding For Agency Battling Wildfires, While Also Blasting Obama For Not Spending More

From ThinkProgress, May 21, 2011

by Marie Diamond

For months, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has berated President Obama and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for not giving the state more federal money to combat historic wildfires that have so far burned 2.5 million acres. Despite the fact that the administration has offered 26 different kinds of federal assistance to combat the fires, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) claimed that Obama is waging “a war on Texas.” After months of blaming the President for not doing enough, Reuters reported yesterday that Perry is poised to sign a budget that slashes funding for the state agency that is battling the wildfires.

Republicans control all three branches of government in Texas and are close to an agreement on a budget that makes deep cuts to the Texas Forest Service during an unprecedented and destructive wildfire season:

The Texas Forest Service faces almost $34 million in budget cuts over the next two years, roughly a third of the agency’s total budget. The cuts are in both the House and Senate versions of the proposed state budget. [...]

Assistance grants [for volunteer fire departments] are likely to take the biggest hit. Volunteers — two of whom were killed in fighting this year’s fires — make up nearly 80 percent of the state’s fire-fighting force and are first responders to roughly 90 percent of wildfires in Texas.

Chris Barron, executive director of the State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association, says the funding on the chopping block is indispensable. Many volunteer fire departments already have worn-down equipment, and without funding for new equipment, “response times will almost certainly increase.”

Perry’s recent boast that Texas is “a model for the nation in disaster preparedness and response” is especially ironic in light of his approval of cutting Forest Service funds when the agency most needs them. Meanwhile, the governor, who one Texas political columnist notes “has made almost a religion of blasting everything Obama does and doesn’t do,” has accused the president of pursuing a political vendetta against Texas.

“Why are you taking care of Alabama, why are you taking care of other states,” Perry said at a press conference this month, adding, “The letter [requesting federal aid] didn’t get lost in the mail.” Perry carried his public blame game so far that he even refused to meet with the president when he visited Texas last week to deliver an immigration address.

One recent Fort Worth Star Telegram editorial called out Perry for his posturing:

Their feigned outrage and indignant messages to the White House about recent Texas wildfires and the administration’s refusal to declare practically the entire state a disaster area are acts of political grandstanding rather than true concern for the safety and welfare of fellow Texans. [...]

[Perry] knows full well that his request for a disaster declaration was overstated and that his insistence that FEMA is denying help is a gross exaggeration. [...]

Even if we assume, or desperately want to believe, that the federal government has not done enough to help Texas in this crisis, does anyone believe that all but two of Texas’ 254 counties should be declared a disaster area because of wildfires? That’s preposterous.

Despite the fact that FEMA’s manpower and money have been stretched thin by a series of disasters, they’ve been deeply involved in the effort to fight the Texas fires and have given the state aid that “covers 75 percent of Texas’s costs for emergency response work, such as evacuations, equipment, field camps and meals for firefighters.”

Mitch Daniels, Architect of US Debt Crisis

Published on Monday, May 16, 2011 by Consortium News

by Robert Parry

To hear Official Washington tell it, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is the new “serious” Republican presidential contender. He’s praised as a “fiscal conservative” who isn’t obsessed with the Right’s divisive social agenda nor marred by the crazy “birther” conspiracy theories.

Mentioned only in passing is a key fact that – in a saner world – would disqualify him from holding any government office: Mitch Daniels was President George W. Bush’s original budget director in 2001.

In other words, the “fiscal conservative” Daniels oversaw the federal budget as it was making its precipitous dive from a $236 billion surplus – then on a trajectory to eliminate the entire federal debt in a decade – to a $400 billion deficit by the time he left in June 2003.

Plus, because of proposals developed on Daniels’s watch – such as tax cuts favoring the rich and unpaid-for projects, including the invasion of Iraq and a new prescription drug plan – the fiscal situation of the federal government continued to sink over the ensuing years, plunging to a trillion-dollar-plus annual deficit by the time Bush left office in 2009.

Though Daniels was surely not at fault for all the elements in this budgetary catastrophe, he was a central player in the early stages of the process. A former political operative for Ronald Reagan and an Eli Lilly pharmaceutical executive, Daniels was the salesman who pitched and defended Bush’s plans.

Certainly, Mitch Daniels was no David Stockman, President Reagan’s first budget director who sounded the alarm two decades earlier when he saw an ocean of red ink looming in the nation’s future.

And it wasn’t as if Daniels and other figures in the Bush administration weren’t warned about the need for continued fiscal discipline.

President Bill Clinton, in his farewell address to the nation on Jan. 18, 2001, noted how his administration had managed to turn what were then record deficits – left over by Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush – into record surpluses.

“We’ve been able to pay down $600 billion of our national debt – on track to be debt-free by the end of the decade for the first time since 1835,” Clinton said, adding that a debt-free America would enjoy many economic benefits including lower interest rates and the capacity to address “big challenges,” such as the retirement costs from the “baby-boomers.”

However, with Daniels at the budget helm, the Bush administration quickly veered off-course and onto the rocks of a worsening debt crisis. Much of the expected surplus was squandered with huge tax cuts, leaving the nation vulnerable to unexpected economic and policy shocks like those that followed the 9/11 attacks.

In the 10 years since Clinton left office, the projected $2 trillion surplus by 2011 gave way to today’s $10 trillion debt, what the Washington Post recently called “a $12 trillion detour.”

The Post’s May 1 story by Lori Montgomery began, “The nation’s unnerving descent into debt began a decade ago with a choice, not a crisis. … Voices of caution were swept aside in the rush to take advantage of the apparent bounty. Political leaders chose to cut taxes, jack up spending and, for the first time in U.S. history, wage two wars solely with borrowed funds.”

Iraq Miscalculation

Daniels, who had very little experience in budgeting and was most adept at policy promotion, directly contributed to one of those budget blunders, the gross underestimation of the cost of the Iraq War.

In 2002, Daniels famously low-balled the war’s cost at $50 billion to $60 billion and joined in the repudiation of Bush’s economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, who had ventured an estimate as high as $200 billion. Daniels called Lindsey’s price tag “very, very high.”

But it turned out that even Lindsey’s estimate, which led to his firing later that year, was very, very low. As of fiscal 2011, the Congressional Research Service reported that the Iraq War had cost $806 billion, with estimates putting the eventual total cost of the conflict at over $1 trillion.

Though Daniels’s defenders say it is unfair to blame him for all of Bush’s policy decisions, Daniels was “a key figure in the administration, helping design policies and pressing publicly for their enactment,” Salon.com’s Brendan Nyhan reported in a Feb. 12, 2002, article.

Besides citing Daniels’s political role in pushing through Bush’s deficit-oriented policies, Nyhan noted that Daniels’s appointment to run the Office of Management and Budget marked an important evolution in the role of budget director from accounting wonk to political marketer.

“It is another sign of the importance P.R. tactics play in American politics,” Nyhan wrote. “The OMB director — once a budget expert — is now an operative chosen for his political skills, particularly his ability to sell the administration’s economic proposals in the media.

“In August [2001], Daniels admitted as much, telling the Wall Street Journal that ‘[t]o the extent I bring anything … to this job, maybe it’s an ability to think about how a product, whether it’s Prozac or a president’s proposal, is marketed.’ Predictably, he has displayed a disturbing tendency to make dishonest claims for political advantage on federal budget issues.”

For instance, Nyhan noted that Daniels first promoted the Bush tax cuts as a way to “share some of this large overcharge [the surplus] with the American people,” but later he repackaged it as an economic stimulus. He also blamed the sudden $1.345 trillion drop in the projected surplus on various economic and technical factors, but the Congressional Budget Office cited the tax cut’s $1.7 trillion price tag.

In his hard sell for Bush’s policies, Daniels also was not above hitting his opponents below the political belt. In December 2001, he denounced Democratic “tax and spend extremists” as “people for whom taxes can’t be high enough and we can never spend too much government money.”

Cooking the Books

Daniels also was ready to stoop to accounting trickery to make Bush’s budgets seem less irresponsible.

“In the federal budget process, [Daniels’s] OMB has employed a number of accounting devices and misleading assumptions to conceal the true costs of tax cuts, restore budgets to balance artificially and otherwise tried to achieve political ends by tricky budgetary means,” Nyhan wrote.

“In the Bush budget plan, for example, the administration projects a return to surpluses in 2004 or 2005, but this ignores the cost of extending a provision protecting millions of middle income taxpayers from a tax increase under the individual alternative minimum tax. …

“It is a matter of serious public concern that the federal budget director has become just another spinner dragging down public debate. Though he is a political appointee heading an executive agency, Daniels is also a public official with a larger responsibility to promote honesty in federal budget debates.

“But after more than a year at his position, he still frequently makes deceptive claims often without challenge. Daniels may not recognize the difference from his previous job [as a pharmaceutical executive], but we must. It is unacceptable to market our nation’s economic policies like Prozac. “

Yet, Daniels continues to lead a charmed life as far as Official Washington is concerned. From Fox News to MSNBC, he is praised as a “fiscal conservative” who would uplift the debate over the nation’s debt crisis. He is widely praised for his work as Indiana’s governor and – although his title as Bush’s budget director is mentioned in passing – his work on some of the most reckless budgets in U.S. history escapes scrutiny.

Much more attention has been spent on his supposedly uncharacteristic deviation as Indiana’s governor into enacting some of the nation’s harshest anti-abortion rules and other right-wing social legislation. There’s also been some coverage of his off-again-on-again marriage and whether his wife wants him to seek the White House.

But Daniels stands today as the latest Republican hailed for his wisdom and courage regarding budget issues.

He follows Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, the House Budget Committee chairmen whose inside-the-beltway reputation as a “serious” thinker only collapsed when the voters got a look at his plan for “saving” Medicare – by killing the current government-run system and replacing it with a private-sector voucher approach – while demanding still more tax cuts for the rich.

The fact that the Republicans, including Daniels and Ryan, were major supporting players in George W. Bush’s diversion of the United States from its course a decade ago toward a debt-free government – indeed one with a sizeable surplus — to one burdened with the largest debt in the history of the world is never mentioned.

Like Ryan, Daniels remains “a fiscal conservative,” at least in the boilerplate judgment of Washington’s conventional wisdom.

© 2011 Consortium News

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat. His two previous books are Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'.

Texas Governor Rick Perry Who Wants to Drown Federal Government in Bathtub Now Whining That Feds Won't Throw Texas a Life Preserver

by John Lawrence

There is nothing like a would be secessionist like Governor Rick Perry of Texas, a global warming denier and a man who complains relentlessly about his disdain for the Federal Government, now whining that the Federal Government won't declare Texas a disaster zone and send Federal aid. But this isn't the first time that this hypocrite has called for Federal aid out of one side of his mouth while calling for secession out of the other. In 2009 less than two weeks after raising the prospect of seceding from the union, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called on the federal government to come to his state's aid in the midst of the swine flu outbreak. Perry isn't the only southern politician who is a global warming denier and Federal government hater. And irony of ironies, the southern states which are the most virulent in their denuinciation of the Federal government are also the ones being hardest hit by tornadoes, floods, wildfires, oil spills and hurricanes. These are the states that always vote Republican, who subscribe to Republican doctrines like they don't want any redistribution of wealth and that the government is broke and needs to cut spending, that government doesn't work and needs to be made smaller. Here's an idea for a spending cut: cut all Federal aid to states who denounce the Federal government. This would include Governor Rick Perry's Texas for sure.

Republican strategist Grover Norquist notably has said, "I want to get the Federal government so small that you could drown it in a bathtub." While subscribing to Norquist's theories and predilections, Rick Perry wants the Federal government to throw Texas a life preserver while he's in the process of drowning it. Of course, these nitwits don't stop to think about the fact that it is they themselves who might some day need the Federal government's help. And that means that they might need the help of taxpayers in states that aren't suffering from some godawful crisis. They might need help from the northern liberals who aren't global warming deniers and who aren't hell bent on the penchant for lowering taxes at all costs. Maybe we taxpayers from unaffected states should just say, "Sorry, southern states. We feel your pain from all the tornado destruction and flash flooding, but we just can't afford to bail you out. We just don't have the money. We have a debt crisis on our hands. There is just no money for unwarranted expenditures. You are completely on your own. And besides your philosophy of rugged individualism means that you want everyone to take responsibility for themselves and not be asking the Federal government for handouts."

In an article entitled, 

Texas Gov. Rick Perry Blasts Obama for Not Helping with Wildfires

 we find:

"Texas Governor Rick Perry seems to have a habit of talking out of both sides of his mouth. The staunch states' rights conservative, who frequently blasts Obama and "big government," is apparently upset that the federal government has not given him money to help with the wildfire disaster. Wait, what? Mr. Perry, you can't have it both ways. You believe that anything not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution is the realm of state responsibility, and yet you're mad the federal government has not yet stepped in to help in what is, clearly, a state matter? The Governor's tirade is the result of President Obama's trip to tornado-lashed Alabama, where the destruction was not limited to one area. Entire towns were destroyed, such as Hackleburg, whose Wrangler plant and high school were among the victims of the F5 tornado. The president immediately declared the state a disaster area and vowed to provide assistance. The death toll for the storms just keeps rising, and dead bodies continue to be pulled from the rubble. Admittedly, the state has been hit hard with a series of wildfires, with hundreds of thousands of acres burned and hundreds of buildings destroyed. In Possum Kingdom Lake, an area in western North Texas, 90 percent of the recreation area was burned and destroyed about 160 of the 3,000 homes. Most of those were weekend houses and not permanent residences. Thankfully, this fire has been contained. In far West Texas, a wildfire that has destroyed 310,000 thousand acres continues to burn. It has destroyed 41 homes. Firefighters from four states have come to give assistance, many of them are federal firefighters. Governor Rick Perry's constant confrontational attitude towards the president seems to know no bounds. First, he wants to secede, then he refuses federal funds from the stimulus, and then he takes it. Of course, the money he got that was supposed to be used for educational purposes was diverted into the general fund. And now, when an entire state like Alabama has entire towns completely leveled, Perry is crying like a baby because he hasn't gotten his share. Perhaps the governor's hair got in the way of his brain function, because, according to Rachel Racusen, the spokesperson for FEMA, Texas has gotten 22 federal grants to help fight the fires. A total of 16 of those came in April alone. In an interview last week with a Dallas/Fort Worth television station, President Obama took a swipe at Perry's criticism. He said: Governor Perry helped balance his budget with about $6 billion worth of federal help - which he happily took—and then started blaming the members of Congress who had offered that help. The federal funds the President was referring to was the 2009 federal stimulus package, which Perry threatened to refuse but ultimately accepted."

Regarding the Federal Government, Governor Rick Perry has said, "“I believe the federal government has become oppressive. I believe it’s become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of its citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state.” Well, let's relieve the Federal government from intruding into the affairs of the state of Texas by telling Governor Rick Perry, "You can deal with your own damn wildfires!"

 

After Pledging To Not Raise Taxes, Walker Proposes Hiking Taxes And Fees On The Poor And Students

by Zaid Jilani

from ThinkProgress, April 16, 2011

One of the most important ideological commitments of the modern conservative movement is an opposition to tax increases. It is with this ideology that then-Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker signed Americans For Tax Reforms’ “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” a vow not to raise taxes on the people of his state.

Yet in his newly proposed budget, now-governor Walker appears to have already broken this pledge. While the budget would lower taxes overall — it includes $83.3 million in tax cuts “primarily for businesses and investors” — it would make up for lost revenue by eliminating tax credits and exemptions that primarily benefit the poor and even some in the middle class.

Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau — the state’s equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office — finds that this would amount to a $49.9 million tax increase on people who receive these credits over the next two years:

Low and middle income people would lose tax credits worth about $49.4 million over two years, the new Legislative Fiscal Bureau report said.

Those affected most by Walker’s proposal would include low-income families who qualify for the earned income tax credit program, and low-income homeowners who receive tax rebates under the homestead tax credit.

In addition to eliminating these tax credits, Walker also has proposed a spate of new fee increases. The “bulk of the fee increases are for tuition at University of Wisconsin campuses, totaling more than $105 million over two years.”

It appears that Walker is less committed to keeping taxes down on everyone than he is to cutting taxes for some of society’s most fortunate members, while raising them on some of its most vulnerable. He joins many other conservative state legislators across the country who are cutting taxes on the richest while slashing services and raising taxes for Main Street America

Breaking News: Democrat Ousts Incumbent in Wisconsin Election to Supreme Court in a Rebuke to Gov. Scott Walker's Union Busting Initiatives. Significance: Democrats Have Majority on Supreme Court and Will Have Final Word

Challenger wins in Wisconsin proxy union fight

from Reuters

Wed Apr 6, 2011 5:10pm EDT

* Election for judge seen as referendum on union law

* Democratic-backed candidate claims win, recount expected

By Jeff Mayers

MADISON, Wis, April 6 (Reuters) - The Democratic-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court judge claimed victory on Wednesday in an election seen as a referendum on a law curbing union power with implications for cash-strapped U.S. states.

Challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg beat Republican-backed incumbent Judge David Prosser by slightly more than 200 votes out of 1.4 million cast on Tuesday, according to local media.

"We owe Justice Prosser our gratitude for his more than 30 years of public service," Kloppenburg said. "Wisconsin voters have spoken ... . I will be independent and impartial and I will decide cases based on the facts and the law."

Prosser, a former Republican leader of the Wisconsin legislature seeking his second full 10-year term, said there was "little doubt" there would be a recount with the vote totals within half a percentage point of each other. The state would pick up the cost of a recount.

Tuesday's election was the first statewide vote since Republicans passed restrictions on the union rights of public workers and the race became a rallying point for supporters and opponents of the law.

Voters turned out in large numbers in what is usually a quiet election for judge because of the heat generated over the law backed by Republican Governor Scott Walker.

"The 50-50 split proves how evenly divided the state is over the Walker agenda. And the turnout shows how deep the feelings run," said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

SPENDING RECORD

The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School, which monitors campaign ad spending, said $3.5 million had been spent on TV ads in the campaign, making it the most expensive contest for judge in Wisconsin's history.

The supreme court's makeup will carry added significance because it may take up how the union bill passed the legislature last month, which was challenged by Democrats.

A lower court judge has temporarily blocked implementation of the law on the grounds the Republican majority in the legislature may have violated the state's open meetings law in maneuvering to pass the measure. Democratic senators had fled the state to try to deny Republicans a vote.

Republicans have appealed the judge's ruling, and an appeals court said the case belongs with the state supreme court where Prosser is part of the court's 4-3 conservative majority. Kloppenburg would give liberals a majority on the court when she takes the post in August.

The bill sharply restricted workers' collective bargaining rights and increases employee contributions for health care and pensions. Anti-union bills have also passed in Indiana and Ohio where Republican dominate the legislatures.

Union supporters view the measures as disguised efforts to undermine a key Democratic constituency, while Republicans said the laws are needed to control costs as states cope with gaping deficits. The acrimony sparked huge protests and recall efforts against veteran Wisconsin state senators from both parties.

Kloppenburg, a longtime assistant attorney general, and Prosser have said they would not prejudge any decision on the law.

Governor Walker signed a companion measure to the union law -- part of the "budget repair bill" he introduced in February -- that closes a deficit in the current budget. (Additional reporting by David Bailey; Writing by James B. Kelleher and Andrew Stern; Editing by Xavier Briand)

US Labor Department Demands Refund in Maine Mural Dispute

Published on Monday, April 4, 2011 by the Bangor Daily News (Maine)

US Labor Department Demands Refund in Maine Mural Dispute

WASHINGTON  — If Maine Gov. Paul LePage doesn’t wish to display a mural depicting the state’s labor history, then the federal money used to create it should be returned, the U.S. Department of Labor says.  

 

Protesters rally at the State House in Augusta, Maine demanding the return of the labor mural that Maine Gov. Paul LePage ordered removed from the Labor Department headquarters, on Monday, April 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach)

The department said Monday that LePage violated the terms of federal laws governing money used to pay for most of the mural’s $60,000 cost when he removed the artwork from state offices last month.  

The demand came in a letter to state labor officials from Gay Gilbert, administrator of the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Unemployment Insurance. The letter was obtained by The Associated Press.  

Gilbert’s letter is the latest twist in a growing national dispute over LePage’s decision to remove the 36-foot mural from the state Labor Department headquarters. LePage, a Republican, said it was biased toward organized labor at the expense of his pro-business agenda.  

The removal has prompted a federal lawsuit against LePage and two others.

The mural, in place since 2008, depicts scenes that include a paper mill strike in the town of Jay, a strike at a shoe plant in Lewiston, women shipbuilders at Bath Iron Works and former U.S. Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, a native of Maine.  

Adam Fisher, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Labor, said officials are reviewing the letter and “assessing what it may mean for the agency moving forward.”  

LePage’s removal of the mural attracted attention as lawmakers in Wisconsin and other states moved to restrict collective bargaining by public workers. Labor advocates, artists and others say the mural depicts an important part of Maine history and belongs at the state’s Department of Labor office.  

LePage spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said last week that the mural is in storage and awaits transfer to “a suitable venue for public display.” She did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the demand for repayment of federal money.  

About 63 percent of the mural’s cost came from money in the state’s account in the federal unemployment trust fund. Gilbert’s letter said the state would have to return 63 percent of the fair market value of the mural to that account, which is supported by federal employer taxes.  

“Alternatively, the state could again display the mural in its headquarters or in another state employment security building,” the letter said.  

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has not commented publicly on the mural dispute. Her spokesman, Carl Fillicio, said she “has monitored the situation and asked staff to look into it.”  

LePage’s decision to remove the mural was prompted in part by an anonymous letter to the governor’s office — signed by “A Secret Admirer” — that said the mural was propaganda in line with “communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses.”  

LePage also directed that the agency’s conference rooms, which are named for labor leaders, be renamed for something considered unbiased.  

Several hundred people attended a rally in the State House on Monday demanding the return of the labor mural to the state Labor Department headquarters.  

Don Tuski, president of the Maine College of Art, said the removal of the mural is censorship.  

“It’s very simple: Just put it back,” Tuski said. The crowd then loudly chanted, “Put it back, put it back,” over and over.  

Associated Press writer Clarke Canfield contributed to this report from Augusta, Maine. 

© 2011 Bangor Daily News

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal Proposes Massive Tax Cuts For The Rich, Big Tax Hikes for Middle Class

by Zaid Jilani

From Think Progress, April 3, 2011

One of the organizing principles of the conservative movement revolves around always cutting taxes and resisting any moves towards raising revenues. Hundreds of conservatives have even signed Grover Norquist’s pledge to never, under any circumstances, support a tax increase.

Gov. Nathan Deal (R-GA) made tax cuts a major part of his campaign promise last fall. In an ad put out by his campaign in February 2010, Deal bragged about running on “tax-cutting policies.” Watch it:

 

 

Now that Deal is Governor, the state legislature is currently drafting major tax legislation. Deal has been a guiding hand in the negotiations over the bill, and stands behind the latest version of the bill being debated among senate and house legislators. The bill does, as Deal promised, cut many taxes.

For example, it lowers the state personal income tax rate from 6 to 4.5 percent. Yet at the same time, the bill is being touted as being revenue neutral — meaning that revenue has to come from somewhere. Georgia Republicans, under the leadership of Deal, have decided to make up the difference by eliminating a whole host of tax exemptions and increases in sales taxes. The end result? Georgians making over $180,000 would see steep tax cuts while middle class Georgians making between $20,000 and $180,000 would see tax hikes. This chart compiled by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jay Bookman using data from Georgia State University’s Fiscal Research Center illustrates this:

 

 

While negotiations over the tax bill are far from over, it appears that Deal and his Republican colleagues are standing behind a template that is becoming all too familiar for right-wing legislators: cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans and then demand that middle class and working class Main Street Americans pay out more in tax hikes or in reduced spending to health care, education, and other important investments. As ThinkProgress previously reported, at least a dozen states are currently pursuing corporate tax cuts while at the same time increasing burdens on working families.

Update Georgia Politico's Brett Johns has more details about how the GOP's plan is sizing up to slam the middle class and enrich the already wealthy

Ohio Union Bill Signed Into Law By John Kasich

From Huffington Post

First Posted: 03/31/11 03:15 PM ET Updated: 04/ 1/11 12:44 AM ET

 
(AP) CLEVELAND - Gov. John Kasich on Thursday signed into law a limit on the collective bargaining rights of 350,000 public workers, defying Democrats and other opponents of the measure who have promised to push for repeal.

His signature came a day after the measure was approved by the state House and Senate, which are led by his fellow Republicans.

The measure prompted weeks of pro-labor protests by thousands of people amid a national debate over union rights, keyed by a similar bill passed in Wisconsin and signed by the governor there.

The 350,000 public workers covered under the law can still negotiate wages and certain work conditions - but not health care, sick time or pension benefits. The measure also does away with automatic pay raises and bases future wage increases on merit.

It applies to teachers, nurses and many other government workers, including police and firefighters, who were exempt in the Wisconsin measure.

Kasich, a first-term governor, has said his $55.5 billion state budget counts on unspecified savings from lifting union protections to fill an $8 billion hole. He and his GOP colleagues argue the bill will help city officials and superintendents better control their costs at a time when they too are feeling budget woes.

Democrats opposed the measure but offered no amendments to it. Instead, they delivered boxes containing more than 65,000 opponent signatures to the House labor committee's chairman.

Many Democrats, along with other opponents, have vowed to lead a ballot-repeal effort if the measure passes. Backers of a ballot challenge have 90 days after Kasich signs the bill to gather 231,148 valid signatures from at least half Ohio's 88 counties to get it on the ballot.

The bill signing comes two days after a House labor committee added GOP-backed revisions that make it more difficult for unions to collect certain fees.

The committee changed the bill to ban automatic deductions from employee paychecks that would go the unions' political arm. They also altered the measure to prevent nonunion employees affected by contracts from paying so-called "fair share" fees to union organizations.

Unions argue that their contracts cover those nonunion workers and that letting them not pay unfairly spreads the costs to dues-paying members.

‘Fiscal Conservative’ Richard Shelby Forces NASA To Spend $1.4 Million A Day On Program It Doesn’t Want

by Zaid Jilani

from Think Progress, March 24, 2011

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) is a “self-professed fiscal conservative” who often rails against government spending and the supposed fiscally imprudent policies of his progressive opponents. He recently put out a statement that said, “Washington must put its fiscal house in order. American taxpayers are rightly infuriated by the federal government’s disregard for the same economic principles that govern every household and business budget.”

Yet when it comes to pork barrel spending for his home state, he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to waste taxpayers’ money. The Chicago Tribune reports today that a provision Shelby inserted into the 2010 budget that has survived both recent continuing resolutions is costing taxpayers more than a million dollars every single day. The “Shelby provision,” as it is called, forces NASA to spend $1.4 million daily on the Constellation moon program, which it already canceled and doesn’t even want:

Congress has again failed to rid a temporary spending bill of language forcing NASA to waste $1.4 million a day on its defunct Constellation moon program. [...]

This so-called “Shelby provision” — named for U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, who inserted it into the 2010 budget — is expected to cost NASA roughly $29 million during the three-week budget extension through April 8. It has already cost the agency nearly $250 million since Oct. 1.

Unfortunately, this isn’t Shelby’s only act of defending his home state’s pork. He previously forced NASA to spend $500 million on the Ares 1 shuttle program, which was also canceled by the agency and considered defunct.

This comes at a time when Shelby and his Republican colleagues are voting to cut billions of dollars out of Pell Grants, slash funding for community health centers, send thousands of veterans into homelessness, force the firings of tens of thousands of teachers, gut funding for cancer research and the National Institute of Health, and de-fund public broadcasting. It appears that Shelby is intent on cutting spending as long as it hurts Main Street Americans, but not if it sacrifices his pork barrel and thus electoral interests.

Will “Bitches” and “Turds” Decide the Fate of Wisconsin?

Published on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by PRWatch.org

by Mary Bottari

Last week, a local court issued a stay temporarily blocking the implementation of Governor Scott Walker’s radical proposal to do away with most collective bargaining rights for public workers and cripple labor's ability to collect union dues. The court put a halt to the publication of the bill (an act performed by the Secretary of State), so there could be a hearing on whether or not the Wisconsin Senate violated the state’s strong open meetings law in its rush to ram the bill through.
 
This week, Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen charged into court in defense of secret government. He argued that when legislators break the law -- the courts can’t do anything about it. Apparently legislators, like Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, have  “immunity” from the enforcement of their very own laws.
 
Welcome to Fitzwalkerstan, where novel interpretations of long established law is a daily occurrence and the billable hours are stacking up.
 
Pleadings from Fitzwalkerstan
   
Wisconsin's open meetings law requires 24 hours' public notice of meetings or two hours in emergencies. The amended collective bargaining bill was given less than two hours. As word spread via Facebook and Twitter that legislators were pulling a fast one, hundreds of citizen’s showed up at the Capitol but could not get in to watch proceedings. Shut out, they were forced to chant “shame, shame, shame,” under Senate windows.
 
Yesterday, the Wisconsin Attorney General filed a motion on behalf of the Secretary of State Doug La Follette to void the stay. Bizarrely, his client was never consulted. Indeed, the Secretary of State had delayed publication of the law because of his own concerns regarding the legality of the Senate’s unprecedented action.
 
This is just the latest legal madness from Fitzwalkerstan. To ram the astonishingly unpopular proposal though the Governor and his henchmen had to finagle:

• A five second roll call vote at 1:30 a.m. The move was so abrupt, over 20 legislators never had a chance to vote in the Assembly.
• An unprecedented warrant for the arrest of 14 missing Democratic Senators and the deputization of a posse to round them up.
• A gubernatorial budget address in a locked down Capitol in violation of a standing court order on Capitol access.
• An unprecedented  conference committee, formed by fiat, meeting in violation of the open meetings law in a tiny backroom.
• A Senate roll call vote on a substitute amendment no one had ever seen.
• A new Senate rule denying Democrats the right to vote in committee (an insane idea quietly withdrawn.)
• The ongoing violation of the court order to restore Capitol access to as it was in January of 2011.  

These astounding events have many Wisconsinites shaking their heads. “Procedures and open government are important in Wisconsin and I can’t remember another time when these procedures have been this disrespected, “ says UW law professor Bill Whitford, a life-long resident of Madison.  
 
The courts have ruled against Walker twice so far. Thank heavens for the courts! A breath of sanity in an insane world! Or are they?
 
“Bitches” and “Turds,” Oh My!
 
The reputation of Wisconsin Supreme Court took a pounding this week after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel released emails showing that bickering on the Court had reached a new low. David Prosser, a sitting justice, acknowledged calling the state’s first female Supreme Court Justice  “a total bitch” and threatening to “destroy” her. But he nobly defended his actions telling the paper he had been “goaded” into making such statements by the respected Chief Justice.
 
Prosser is seeking reelection April 5, and is up against a respected Deputy Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg. At the first debate last night between the candidates, Prosser again went deep into uncharted territory initiating the topic of “turds.” Prosser quoted a comment on his opponents Facebook page: "Stop the turd, vote Kloppenburg." "Now, am I the turd?" Prosser asked. "That's totally inappropriate."
 
What other terrible rhymes lurk in the random comments of 8,700 Kloppenburg Facebook fans?
 
What Next?
 
The case filed by Wisconsin Attorney General Van Holland is in appellate court right now but may end up in the Wisconsin Supreme Court next week where the polarized court may be forced to duke it out to the utter horror of average Wisconsinites who think the state is quickly spiraling out of control. Walkers poll numbers are tanking, showing that he would lose a "do-over" by seven points. But that do-over may not come for a year. In the meantime, Wisconsin will be awash with Senate recalls, big money ads and dirty tricks the likes of which this state, which prides itself on good government and clean politics, has never seen. An indpendent and adult judiciary will be more critical than ever.

© 2011 Center for Media and Democracy

Mary Bottari is the Director of the Center for Media and Democracy's Real Economy Project and editor of their www.BanksterUSA.org site.

more Mary Bottari

Why Governor LePage Can’t Erase History, and Why We Need a Fighter in the White House

by Robert Reich

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Maine Governor Paul LePage has ordered state workers to remove from the state labor department a 36-foot mural depicting the state’s labor history. Among other things the mural illustrates the 1937 shoe mill strike in Auburn and Lewiston. It also features the iconic “Rosie the Riveter,” who in real life worked at the Bath Iron Works. One panel shows my predecessor at the U.S. Department of Labor, Frances Perkins, who was buried in Newcastle, Maine.

The LePage Administration is also renaming conference rooms that had carried the names of historic leaders of American labor, as well as former Secretary Perkins.

The Governor’s spokesman explains that the mural and the conference-room names were “not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.”

Are we still in America?

Frances Perkins was the first woman cabinet member in American history. She was also one of the most accomplished cabinet members in history.

She and her boss, Franklin D. Roosevelt, came to office at a time when average working people needed help – and Perkins and Roosevelt were determined to give it to them. Together, they created Social Security, unemployment insurance, the right of workers to unionize, the minimum wage, and the forty-hour workweek.

Big business and Wall Street thought Perkins and Roosevelt were not in keeping with pro-business goals. So they and their Republican puppets in Congress and in the states retaliated with a political assault on the New Deal.

Roosevelt did not flinch. In a speech in October 1936 he condemned “business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.”

Big business and Wall Street, he said,

had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me – and I welcome their hatred.

Fast forward 75 years.

Big business and Wall Street have emerged from the Great Recession with their pockets bulging. Profits and bonuses are as high as they were before the downturn. And they’re spending like mad on lobbying and politics. After the Supreme Court’s disgraceful Citizens United decision, there are no limits.  

Pro-business goals are breaking out all over. Governors across America are slashing corporate taxes as they slash state budgets. House and Senate Republicans are intent on deregulating, privatizing, and cutting spending and taxes so their corporate and Wall Street patrons will do even better.

But most Americans are still in desperate trouble. Few if any of the economic gains are trickling down.

That’s why the current Republican assault on workers – on their right to form unions, on unemployment insurance and Social Security, on public employees, and even (courtesy of Governor LePage) on our common memory – is so despicable.

And it’s why we need a President who will fight for workers and fight against this assault — just as Perkins and FDR did.

By the way, Maine’s Governor LePage may be curious to know that the building housing the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington is named the “Frances Perkins Building.” He can find her portrait hanging prominently inside. Also portraits and murals of great leaders of American labor.

A short walk across the mall will bring Governor LePage to an imposing memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt, should the Governor wish to visit.

Governor, you might be able to erase some of Maine’s memory, but you’ll have a hard time erasing the nation’s memory – even if it’s not in keeping with your pro-business goals.

Gov. Kasich’s Jobs Plan: Drink More Booze, Hand The Profits To A Private Development Company

 
Gov. Kasich's job creation plan.

by Pat Garofalo

from ThinkProgress, March 22, 2011

Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) has played a leading role in the Republican assault on workers’ rights, pursuing a bill to strip his state’s public employees of collective bargaining rights. But he has also been actively pushing his state’s assets into the hands of private corporations, with his main job creation plan being the formation of JobsOhio, a private entity that will be tasked with coaxing business into the Buckeye state. Similar schemes have not worked in other states, but Kasich has plowed forward nonetheless

Part of Kasich’s plan for financing his new, privatized development agency (of which he will be chairman) includes leasing the state’s liquor stores to JobsOhio, which will then use the money to run its operations. Kasich claims that this will work because Ohioans are increasing their alcohol consumption:

The success of Gov. John Kasich’s plan to recruit new business to Ohio will hinge heavily on just how much Ohioans drink alcohol. Kasich last week unveiled his state budget proposal, which includes a plan to lease the state’s liquor distribution operation — which of late has drawn record profits — and use the cash to fund his private economic development machine.

“Over the years people drink more. It’s just a natural revenue stream,” Kasich said last Tuesday while outlining his proposal, drawing a smattering of laughter from reporters. “So, everybody wanted to buy it. Everybody was interested in it.”

Whether Ohio’s best “natural” asset is its booze intake is up for debate. But all jokes about Ohio’s increasing drunkenness aside, a deeper look at the numbers indicates that Ohio is getting the short end of the stick on this deal. As Ohio Budget Watch found, Kasich’s plan involves the state selling about $7 billion in expected revenue from state liquor stores to JobsOhio for just $1.5 billion:

Profits on liquor sales generate $228 million for the state of Ohio every year. JobsOhio is set to take over liquor sales oversight and own that revenue stream. They, in turn, will sell 30 years worth of that revenue — worth around $6.8 billion — to a group of investors (recruited by a Wall Street firm, who will of course take a cut) in return for a lump sum payment to the state. According to the administration, they expect to receive about $1.5 billion in return for this $6+ billion in state revenue.

And because JobsOhio doesn’t actually have any money to pay even the $1.5 billion, it will “turn to Wall Street to issue bonds to finance the deal.” As Plunderbund noted, “Wall Street, which obviously expects a return on its investment, won’t finance the deal unless Ohio (i.e. Kasich) is willing to allow them to essentially buy a twenty to thirty year revenue stream for pennies on the dollar.” Thus, Kasich is selling his state’s liquor stores at fire-sale prices, even as it faces billions in deficits.

Cross-posted on The Wonk Room

REPORT: Three States Propose Massive Tax Cuts For Millionaires, Tax Hikes for Middle Class

from ThinkProgress, March 22, 2011

Last week, ThinkProgress documented conservative efforts in twelve states to shift the tax burden onto the middle class even while cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy. In three states, conservatives are going even further, proposing massive estate tax cuts for millionaires even as income inequality is at its worse since the 1920s. Here are the details:

MAINE: Tea Party Gov. Paul LePage’s (I) tax reform package would raise the state’s estate tax exemption from $1 million to $2 million — allowing four hundred of the state’s wealthiest estates to escape taxation. At the same time, the tax plan would raise property taxes on middle class Mainers while freezing health care funding for working parents, cutting money for schools, and raising the retirement age for public workers. Republican legislators want to go even further, and are currently considering eliminating the estate tax altogether.

OHIO: In January, House Speaker William Batchelder (R) called Gov. John Kasich’s (R) proposal to completely eliminate the estate tax one of the Republican-controlled legislature’s “top priorities.” But already, the bill has garnered strong opposition from local governments, who depend on estate tax revenue and are already concerned state spending cuts. Even while finding room for estate tax reductions, Kasich’s proposed budget cuts 25 percent of funding for local schools, $427 million for nursing homes, $1 million for food banks, $12 million from children’s hospitals, and $15.9 million from an adoption program for children with special needs.

NEW JERSEY: In his 2011 budget proposal, Gov. Chris Christie called for raising the state’s estate tax exemption from $675,000 to $1 million even while proposing cuts to the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit and homestead rebates for working poor families. And last year Christie vetoed a bill passed by the Legislature that would have raised taxes on the state’s millionaires to help fund property tax relief for Main Street.

Last December, the federal government set the precedent for estate tax cuts when the bi-partisan tax deal signed by President Obama cut the estate tax rate to its second lowest level since 1931.

– Kevin Donohoe

Michigan Moves Against Governor’s “Financial Martial Law” Bill

from OB Rag, March 18, 2011

 
A crowd armed with signs gathers at a rally in Lansing on Wednesday, March 16, 2011, to protest Gov. Rick Snyder's budget. / SUSAN TUSA/ Detroit Free Press

After Thousands March in Michigan, Recall of Governor Floated

By Ian Millhiser /

ThinkProgress / March 17, 2011

Yesterday, thousands of Main Street Movement protesters marched on the Michigan Capitol to protest Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) constitutionally flawed assault on Michigan workers. Michigan’s voters, however, can do far more than simply make their displeasure known to Snyder and his allies in the state legislature. Michigan’s constitution is unusually easy to amend, and Snyder and his allies become eligible for a recall in just over three months.

For the remainder of this article, please go here.

Thousands of Michigan Workers Protest Snyder’s Power Grab

by Mike Hall /aflcionowblog /Mar 16, 2011

More than 5,000—and the crowd is growing—Michigan union, community, education and other activists are on the Lansing Capitol grounds and inside the state House this afternoon to protest Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) new “financial martial law.”

The Detroit Free Press reports that the crowd chanted “Take Michigan Back” as UAW President Bob King told the crowd, “This is one day in a long battle.”

For the remainder of this article, please go here.

Michigan Governor’s Anti-Union Power Grab Is Unconstitutional

By Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress / March 16, 2011

Michigan Main Street Movement Protesters March Against Gov. Snyder’s “Financial Martial Law” Bill

Although Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) anti-union crusade has received the biggest headlines, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is poised to sign an even more drastic assault on working Americans into law. Last week, the Michigan legislature passed a “financial martial law” bill that allows Snyder to appoint “emergency financial managers” with the power to terminate collective bargaining agreements:

Contracts & Collective Bargaining Agreements. The bill would authorize the emergency manager to reject, modify, or terminate one or more terms and conditions 0f an existing contract.

After meeting and conferring with the appropriate bargaining representative and, if in the emergency manager’s sole discretion, a prompt and satisfactory resolution were unlikely to be obtained, the emergency manager could reject, modify, or terminate one or more terms and conditions of an existing collective bargaining agreement.

There’s a pretty serious problem with this power grab, however — invoking it would violate the Constitution. The Constitution forbids state laws “impairing the Obligation of Contracts.” This provision provides a robust limit on a state’s ability to dissolve contracts between the government and a private party. As the Supreme Court explained in United States Trust Co. v. New Jersey, state laws impairing such contracts must be “reasonable and necessary to serve an important public purpose.”

The bill does contain some language requiring the emergency manager and the state treasurer to determine that they are not violating this constitutional limit before a collective bargaining agreement can be blown up, but Snyder’s own budget gives the lie to any claim that an assault on working Americans is “necessary” to ensure that Michigan governments can pay their bills. Snyder proposed a massive $1.73 billion business tax cut even as he was arguing that his anti-union power grab was necessary to restore the state’s fiscal balance.

The consequences of Snyder’s actions could be stark. If a state is free to break contracts whenever they feel like it, than no one will agree to do business with the state. Investors will refuse to buy the state’s bonds, and state contractors will demand all payments upfront out of fear that the state will accept their work and then tear up the contract requiring the workers to be paid. Creditors will charge the state enormous interest rates to secure against the risk that the state will just waive its hand and make its obligation to repay go away.

In other words, Snyder is so determined to chip away at collective bargaining, he’s demanded a power that he cannot constitutionally use and that would drive his state into an even deeper financial hole if he ever tried.

The Republican Assault on America

by Andy Cohen on March 18, 2011, from the OB Rag

in: American Empire, Civil Rights, Culture, Economy

An interesting thing is happening in American politics and policy these days.  Almost two months ago, protesters in Wisconsin stood up to have their voices heard in opposition to their newly elected governor’s budget plan that would strip public employee unions of any power whatsoever, a move Governor Scott Walker (R-Koch Industries) has repeatedly called necessary to help solve the state’s looming budget crisis.  It was the first salvo in a national movement by Republicans to promote their corporate agenda and eliminate individual rights and protections.

If you’ve picked up a newspaper or perused the internet in the last two months, you are surely aware of the protests that raged in the capital city of Madison.  Walker insisted it was about the state’s budget, but it wasn’t.  Setting the desire to strip collective bargaining rights aside, the governor’s bill includes a measure empowering his office to sell off any state owned asset to private interests without requiring the approval of the legislature, and without requiring interested parties to bid on the property.  The governor can simply pick his favorite corporate interest and seal the deal with a handshake.

Through Walker’s actions we have gotten a pretty good look at the real motives behind the drastic moves Republicans want to take.  And it has become abundantly clear that what Republicans are trying to force through across the country at the state and federal levels alike have nothing to do with budgetary concerns–as they insist–but everything to do with Republican and Conservative ideology and the desire to effectively neuter the Democratic Party and decimate government in general.

What we’re seeing Republicans attempt under the guise of fiscal responsibility is something far more sinister than we could possibly have imagined.

The so called budget repair bill requires that public employees contribute five percent more toward their pension, and 12% more toward their healthcare, which the unions had readily agreed to.  But at the same time Governor Walker wrote in $160 million in corporate tax breaks into the bill.

In difficult fiscal times it is reasonable to ask EVERYONE to tighten their belts and contribute their fair share.  Republicans are DEMANDING that workers ante up—which they’ve done—but exempting their corporate benefactors from any responsibility whatsoever.  The unions in Wisconsin gave Scott Walker EVERYTHING he was asking for that was directly related to budgetary matters, yet he refused to take ‘yes’ for an answer.

This was not about the budget, and Walker proved it during his 20 minute phone call with “David Koch,” the Buffalo Beast editor who impersonated the billionaire Tea Party patron.  The goal was clearly to enforce Tea Party/Conservative ideology on the entire state of Wisconsin, and worse.

It all started in Wisconsin, but it hardly ends there.  Nearly identical efforts at destroying unions were pushed through the legislatures of Indiana (without success) and Ohio (successfully).

But it gets worse.  Much worse.  In Michigan, newly elected Governor Rick Snyder (R-Bechtel Corp.) is looking to take his power grab even further.  Snyder has forwarded a bill to the senate that gives him the power to unilaterally determine whether a municipality is in dire financial straits, and to assign an “emergency financial manager” to take over and eliminate the duly elected government.  The emergency financial manager would have the authority to break contracts, fire elected officials…..basically this appointed individual would become the Czar of the town, city, county, school board, etc., with virtually no accountability to anyone but the governor.  The administrator could only be removed by a majority vote in Michigan’s House of Representatives and a two thirds vote in the Senate.

The Senate even removed wording put in by the House of Representatives that would have prevented control to be handed over to corporations.  This means that a private company could (and likely would) become the government authority of a municipality, with zero accountability to the people who live there.

The bill has been described even by Republican supporters as “financial Martial Law.”

In Pennsylvania, newly elected Governor Tom Corbett (R-Coal Mining Industry) has done two things that have raised eyebrows:  First, he appointed C. Alan Walker, a major campaign contributor, the CEO and owner of Bradford Energy and Bradford Coal, to head the Department of Community and Economic Development.  According to a story by Pro Publica, Corbett’s budget gives Walker the authority to “expedite any permit or action pending in any agency where the creation of jobs may be impacted.”  That means Walker can bypass any existing environmental regulations and expedite permits for any project that he determines will create jobs, which is very good news for energy companies who can’t afford to be bothered by environmental safety……you know, things such as clean air to breathe, and clean water to drink.

Corbett also eliminated the state’s adultBasic health plan, which provided medical coverage to 41,000 of the state’s low-income workers, with another 500,000 people waiting in line to qualify.  The program was funded by Pennsylvania’s allotment of a $200 billion settlement with Big Tobacco in 2000.  The money–by law–was to be used to “make Pennsylvanians healthier and to fund the health of future generations of Pennsylvanians.”  Corbett decided that the program was not financially sustainable, so he did away with it.

In Florida, newly elected governor Rick Scott (R-Medicare Fraud) has put forward a budget that cuts public education funding by $1.75 billion, while simultaneously instituting $1.6 billion in corporate tax breaks.

And it’s all being fueled by the billionaire Koch brothers, the creators of the astro-turf Tea Party movement; the money behind Americans for Prosperity; the anti-government financial warriors and owners of the largest privately held oil company in the country.  Koch industries, you see, would benefit HUGELY if their anti-government efforts succeed:  It would mean fewer environmental regulations, allowing their oil and chemical interests to pollute as much as they want, saving them millions of dollars in profits.

But even more poignant is the effort by Republican lawmakers to turn the responsibility of governing over to private industry.  Republicans hate government, and it seems that they would like to make it disappear altogether.  Government is supposed to be there to serve its people; those who cannot stand up for themselves in the face of overwhelming corporate power and greed.  Government is supposed to protect its constituency from corporate overreach.  It is supposed to be on the side of the people.  But this latest breed of newly elected Republican lawmaker sees as its duty to promote the welfare of Big Business over the welfare of society and individual rights.  And they are literally looking to put corporate interests in charge of our social welfare.

This is the world where people vote against their own best interests, where corporate greed trumps the will and welfare of the people.  This is the world we now live in.

Mad Scientists in the Lab of Democracy

Published on Friday, March 18, 2011 by The San Francisco Chronicle

by David Sirota

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said that states are the "laboratories of democracy." Oft repeated over time, the aphorism has helped impart legitimacy to the rough and tumble of state lawmaking. We've heard "laboratory" and we've imagined staid scientists in white coats rigorously testing forward-thinking theories of societal advancement. It's certainly a reassuring picture - but there is a darker side of the metaphor. States are indeed laboratories. The problem is that today, those laboratories are increasingly run by mad scientists.

We're not talking about the usual Dr. Frankensteins trying to bring alive new corporate giveaways through harebrained cuts to social services (though there are those, too). We're talking about true legislative sadists looking to go medieval on America. Behold just five of the most telling examples:

The Anti-Life Pro-Life Act: After anti-abortion Republicans in Congress tried to narrow the legal definition of rape, Nebraska Republican State Sen. Mark Christensen took the assault on women's rights one step further with a bill to legitimize the murder of abortion providers by classifying such homicides as "justified."

The Let Them Eat Corporate Tax Cuts Act: As poverty rates and hunger have risen, so too have corporate profits. The Georgia legislature's response? Intensify the inequity with a bill to create a regressive sales tax on food that would then finance a brand new corporate tax cut.

The Demoralize the Workforce Act: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker didn't just threaten to deploy the National Guard against state workers unless they accept big pay and pension cuts. Apparently, that was too Kent State and not enough Ludlow Massacre for him. So he pressed to statutorily bar those workers from ever again collectively bargaining.

The Child Labor Act: Missouri State Sen. Jane Cunningham's proposal to eliminate child labor laws would allow corporations to employ any kid under 14 and would terminate restrictions on the number of hours that kid can be forced to work. The legislation is proof that when Tea Party ideologues refer to "the '50s," some of them aren't referring to the 1950s - they are referring to the 1850s.

The Endorsing Your Own Demise Act: Between trying to legalize hunting with hand-thrown spears and pressing to eliminate education requirements for those seeking the office of State Superintendent of Schools, Montana's Republican lawmakers are also considering legislation to officially endorse catastrophic global climate change. That's right, in the face of a Harvard study showing that climate change could destroy Montana's water supplies, agriculture industries and forests, State Rep. Joe Read's bill would declare that "global warming is beneficial to the welfare and business climate of Montana."

If you don't live in one of these states, it's easy to tell yourself that these bills don't affect you. But history suggests that what happens in one "laboratory" is quite often replicated in others - and ultimately, in the nation's capital. That's why we should all hope saner minds cut short these experiments before they get even more out of control.

© 2011 The San Francisco Chronicle

David Sirota is a best-selling author whose upcoming book "Back to Our Future" will be released in March of 2011. He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com.

more David Sirota

Wisconsin Protesters Storm Washington

by Andrew Leonard, from salon.com

A Republican fundraising event gets an unwanted surprise: Boisterous solidarity for embattled public sector workers

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker may have won the first round of his battle against public sector unions, but judging by the energy visible in this video, the war is a long way from over. On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters crashed a fundraising event for the Wisconsin Republican Party in Washington D.C. A Salon videographer caught the action.

My favorite part: an interview with two Wisconsin high school girls, one of whom flashes a bright smile through her braces as she proudly notes that she's already participated in "around 30" protests so far.

 

 

Michigan's 'Emergency Manager Law' Epitomizes State-Level 'Shock Doctrine'

Published on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 by Michigan Messenger

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to get Emergency Manager powers this week

by Eartha Jane Melzer

Public workers in Michigan lost job security yesterday as the state House signed off on a bill that allows the governor to appoint people to take over financially troubled local governments and schools and cancel labor contracts.

Less than two months after Gov. Rick Snyder asked the Legislature to expand the state’s ability to intervene in communities facing budget problems, the Republican-controlled House and Senate have finalized a bill that gives unprecedented power to appointed Emergency Managers.

The Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act creates a range of triggers for state involvement in local communities and allows the governor to appoint managers to fire local elected officials, break labor agreements, suspend collective bargaining rights for five years, order millage elections, take over pension funds and even dissolve local governments.

The law also contains a provision added by the Senate that gives towns a chance to avoid takeover by entering into a budgeting consent agreement with the state and becoming exempt from collective bargaining agreements.

“The Governor will sign,” spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said Tuesday afternoon. “He believes this was an important step forward and will be a key tool to help indicate and address fiscal problems earlier and more clearly in Michigan’s cities and schools with the hopes of avoiding the appointment of an emergency manager to begin with.”

Critics say that the Emergency Manager legislation is part of a nationwide Republican effort to consolidate political power by undermining unions.

In an interview with FOX News last week Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald acknowledged that the (apparently successful) effort to end collective bargaining and break unions in that state is aimed at hurting Democratic chances in the 2012 presidential election.

“If we win this battle and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions,” he said, “Obama is going to have a much … more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.”

“The distinction between Michigan and Wisconsin is that Governor Snyder is a lot smarter than Governor Walker,” said American Federation of Teachers Michigan President David Hecker. “He is going after things in other ways.”

“Yes, some school districts and cities are in financial difficulties that have to be addressed,” he said, “but you don’t do that by wiping out the powers of elected officials, or by wiping out collective bargaining …this will wreak havoc on cities and school districts.”

The new law is likely to hit Snyder’s desk as busloads of union members and other concerned people roll into the Capitol to protest both the Emergency Manager bill and the proposed state revenue sharing cuts that could drive many communities into receivership.

AFL-CIO affiliated unions, Working Michigan, Michael Moore and others are mobilizing for a noon protest at the Capitol under the banner “NO to GOP attacks on Michigan’s middle class.”

City council members and residents from Benton Harbor are expected to join the rally in Lansing today.

Benton Harbor is the poorest town in Michigan and since last year its finances have been under the control of Joe Harris, the emergency financial manager appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Harris and the city council have clashed over cost cutting measures and under the new Emergency Manager bill Harris will have the power to disband the council.

Benton Harbor is already experiencing corporate-style restructuring.

Jean Klock Park, the city’s public lakefront, has been leased to a non-profit associated with the locally headquartered Whirlpool Corp. and turned into an elite private golf course.

Though much of the concern around the Emergency Manager bill has focused on the loss of benefits and jobs that will come when labor contracts can be shredded, another expected impact is increasing privatization of city assets.

Benton Harbor City Commissioner Dennis Knowles told WNDU.com that the city’s commissioners hope to join with other communities in a class action suit challenging the new Emergency Manager law.

© 2011 Michigan Messenger

Eartha Jane Melzer wrote this for the Michigan Messenger.

Governor Walker’s Coup D’Etat

by Robert Reich

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Governor Scott Walker and his Wisconsin senate Republicans have laid bare the motives for their coup d’etat. By severing the financial part of the bill (which couldn’t be passed without absent Democrats) from the part eliminating the collective bargaining rights of public employees (which could be), and then doing the latter, Wisconsin Republicans have made it crystal clear that their goal has had nothing whatever to do with the state budget. It’s been to bust the unions.

That’s no surprise to most people who have watched this conflict from the start, but like any coup its ultimate outcome will depend on the public. If most citizens of Wisconsin are now convinced that Walker and his cohorts are extremists willing to go to any lengths for their big-business patrons (including the billionaire Koch brothers), those citizens will recall enough Republican senators to right this wrong.

But it’s critically important at this stage that Walker’s opponents maintain the self-discipline they have shown until this critical point. Walker would like nothing better than disorder to break out in Madison. Like the leader of any coup d’etat, he wants to show the public his strong-arm methods are made necessary by adversaries whose behavior can be characterized on the media as even more extreme.

Be measured. Stay cool. Know that we are a nation of laws, and those laws will prevail. The People’s Party is growing across America — and the actions of Scott Walker and his Republican colleagues are giving it even greater momentum. So are the actions of congressional Republicans who are using the threat of a government shutdown to strong-arm their way in Washington.

The American public may be divided over many things but we stand united behind our democratic process and the rule of law. And we reject coups in whatever form they occur.