JONATHAN CHAIT FEBRUARY 24, 2011
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Stephen Stromberg calls attention to something I didn't notice:
Wisconsin's Republican governor, Scott Walker, says that concern over his state's relatively modest budget crisis motivates his drive to strip public-sector employees of their ability to bargain collectively. And, yet, he just decided to put Wisconsin into a fiscal strait-jacket, signing a bill Tuesday that would require a two-thirds supermajority in the state legislature or a state-wide referendum to raise a range of taxes. This is not the sign of a serious budget hawk, whatever you think of Walker's policies on public-sector unions.
It's beyond obvious that Walker's goal is to use his majority to lock in future Republican power. He has framed his policies as being driven by a deficit, but the relationship is purely coincidental. Moreover, for all his Reaganesque posturing, Walker is unwilling to forthrightly admit his ideological goals. He's hiding behind a pretext.
12 comments
That approach has worked really well in California.
- propjoe
February 24, 2011 at 9:59am
Walker's fraudulence is hardly news. It is no different from the fraudulence of the Republican Party over the last thirty years. Deficits are only significant when they can be used to drive down spending on Democratic constituencies (notice that the House is not cutting agricultural subsidies and the Wisconsin Republicans are not attacking police or firefighter's unions), and they simply ignore the extent to which tax cuts contribute to, and actually drive the deficit. They are fighting a class war for the benefit of the wealthy, and intellectual consistency is not something Walker and his ilk value very highly.
- spd1955
February 24, 2011 at 10:43am
It has been obvious all along that S. Walker is a fraud and that he is motivated by a naked power grab. This datum is just one more nail in the coffin.
- liberalref
February 24, 2011 at 10:46am
I don't think it was "obvious" all along. S. Walker is a photogenic and persuasive speaker. At no time did he say "I'm going to remove bargaining rights from the Unions when I get in!" Sure, it's obvious NOW. But if you say it was always obvious, you imply that's why Wisconsin voted him into office. And I really don't think that is the case.
- AllanL5
February 24, 2011 at 10:56am
Walker analogizes himself to Reagan's air traffic controller union busting which Walker claims was the beginning of the fall of communism. When he speaks about the need to get rid of collective bargaining, I can put his paranoia in context.
- Nusholtz
February 24, 2011 at 11:17am
Well, there's this fraudulence, but then there's the notion that there's anything behind his empty, vacant eyes. he's stupid and aggressively stupid.
- miceelf
February 24, 2011 at 11:21am
While Walker's "solutions" are not very useful or constructive, the problems of diminishing resources and a "shrinking" pie are real.
- skahn
February 24, 2011 at 12:08pm
By all along, I meant since the Wisconsin story has been elevated into a national one. Once again, I underestimated the hermeneutical skills of readers out here.
- liberalref
February 24, 2011 at 12:43pm
In my haste, I wrote "underestimated", when I of course meant "overestimated." I need to underestimate more, which is what I was thinking as my fingers flew over the keyboard. Au contraire, mice, SW is not at all stupid. Yes, he got conned by the Beast but that says nothing in itself. Walker is canny and dodgy, and that makes him formidable.
- liberalref
February 24, 2011 at 1:08pm
Well, there must be something in the cheese for one state to have produced such monumental frauds as Paul Ryan and Scott Walker!
- MikeB.
February 24, 2011 at 4:19pm
liberalref, i will grant you that he's canny and dodgy. But so are lots of other stupid people. I think the distinction is between "clever" and "smart"
- miceelf
February 24, 2011 at 5:54pm
Hilarious, Mike.
- liberalref
February 24, 2011 at 9:19pm