Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Letter From Birmingham Jail, August 1963

Much has been made this week over the actions of a handful of protesters participating in acts of civil disobedience at the Joint Finance Committee. Those participating stood and interrupted the proceedings by reading a prepared statement. They were subsequently removed from the Committee Room and many were arrested and cited for disorderly conduct.

Immediately people on twitter and in blogs began to speak out against these protesters’ actions. The actions, they argue, harm the entire “movement” because (a) they were interrupting the Democratic members of the Joint Finance Committee, and (b) they potentially we turning off the moderate voters who may be key to the recall elections. Supporters of the civil disobedience argue in response that something needs to be done because the GOP is power-hungry and refuses to listen to logic and will do whatever they want. Civil Disobedience worked in the civil rights movement so it should work here, they say.

In the end, I think both sides are probably right. The is no question that the GOP is pushing an unjust agenda with absolutely ZERO concern about dissenting voices. Direct action is required. In fact, direct action has already be somewhat successful in the Wisconsin fight. The occupation of the Capitol, the massive protests in the dead of Winter and the first Walkerville are all examples of direct action that raised public awareness of the cause. Arguably, these actions are directly responsible for the amazing number of recall signatures obtained for six Senators.

That said, what we witnessed this week was not productive civil disobedience. What is productive direct action? As Rev. King said in his Letter from Birmingham Jail:

You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.

And that is where the actions this week fail. Nothing about interrupting the JFC caused the confrontation of the issues. Even the people they were trying to support were telling them they could do more harm than good. From my perspective in the land of the red is that the protesters didn’t come off as sympathetic. There was no questions about why they might be doing what they did. No, instead, to those on the right these protesters came off as a bunch of disrespectful punks. Their actions galvanized those on the right.

Certainly there were those in the civil rights movement who questioned the tactics of those using direct action techniques. The civil rights movement surely galvanized, at least initially, those opposing the movement. How are the actions of #wiunion this week different? How are the actions of #wiunion different than that of other successful direct action attacks like the Gentle Revolution (or Velvet Revolution) in Czechoslovakia or even some of the protests in Iran and Egypt?

The primary difference, I think, is that despite the willful violation of laws undertaken in all of those cases, the respect for the Rule of Law remained. The #wiunion protesters decision to directly interfere with legislative process is the problem. At the end of the day, in order for a Democracy to effectively function there needs to be respect for the process and the institutions (not necessarily those that are in power, but for the ideals behind them). The actions this week did not do that. Diminishing the institutions by actions of #wiunion makes it that much easier for the right to disrespect those same institutions and continue to abuse the process.

The future needs to be considered as well. At some point the right will no longer be in control. The actions of the GOP, of protesters in response and the potential GOP response makes it that much easier for the Democrats to undertake similar tactics and actions when they are in power. If that occurs, Democracy will be lost to an ever-changing tide of which party can “one-up” the other upon their return to power until at one point the actions completely destroy Democracy. We cannot let that happen. 

Ok, been a while since my last post. Real life gets in the way sometimes. But I wanted to address the biggest threat to Wisconsin under Walker’s proposed budget: the destruction of our public schools.

First, a little about the misnomer that is “school choice.” We already have school choice in Wisconsin. It’s called open enrollment. Any Wisconsin family can choose to enroll in a district other than their own - provided that the receiving district has space available. What “school choice” is really about is funding private (and primarily religious-based) schools. 

The nomenclature issue aside, the voucher program will fail to provide any improvement in education. For many, it will make it worse. Let me explain.

Right now private schools are filled with three types of students. Most of them are from upper class families. A smaller portion is made up from middle class families who struggle to pay the tuition but do so because the religious aspect is important to them. The smallest percentage consists of the really smart kids from poor families that get scholarships so that the school can feel good about it’s “christian” purpose.

Now, let’s look at the system post-vouchers. Now, everyone gets a voucher to use for whatever school they choose - including those same upper class families already paying for their private school education. So what happens? Well, those upper class families still value the education their kids receive at places like Marquette High School. Those families will still want to send their kid to the private school. The problem is that Marquette only has so many spaces. Physical building space, available teachers, etc., all impact the amount of students private schools can take. 

With the increased competition for spaces at the private schools (why wouldn’t I send my kid to a good school if someone else is paying for it), the rich do what they always do - pay more. In order to ensure that they stay in the good private school, the rich families will pay more than what the voucher provides. The private schools will gladly accept that increased revenue. The poor families, unable to compete with the increased tuition, will continue to be shut out. This is simply economics 101 - supply and demand theory at its finest.

But why do we care? If the rich stay at the private schools they are already at, why does it matter? Well, for one, it matters because we are now using taxpayer money to supplement what the rich were already paying for. If we are truly broke, this seems like a terrible waste of money.

More importantly, the voucher program fails to recognize the nature of the neighborhood school. Ultimately, at its most basic level, the decision of where to send your child to school is based solely on location, location, location. People in Milwaukee don’t choose to send their kids to Brookfield because they have no way of getting them there. So how does this change after vouchers? It doesn’t. The choice is still made based on location.

But let’s assume I’m wrong. Let’s assume vouchers lead to mass changes in where students choose to go to school. Everyone wants to go to the “good school.” Economics kicks in again. Choices as to who is accepted and at what cost will be made. Is the school able to reject the failing student in favor of a likely National Merit Scholarship winner? Can the school reject the student with autism because they require more aide time than a student with no health problems? The only solution to this problem is mandates (which seems odd coming from the party of choice and flexibility). Otherwise, certain students end up worse-off than they are now. 

One of the most frequent arguments we’ve heard about why Governor Walker’s so-called budget repair bill needs to be passed is because the private sector has suffered so the public sector should feel that pain too. My contention all along has been this isn’t the appropriate way to look at this debate. Rather than vilify the public workers because they have good benefits the private sector has had to give up, we should instead be blasting Corporate America for screwing their workers in the name on more profits.

But wait, I hear some of you saying, we’re coming out of the Great Recession. Corporations were hurting. That’s why they the private sector employees have had to give up wages, insurance contributions (or insurance altogether), pensions, 401Ks, etc. Not so fast … let’s look at some history, shall we?

First up, Wisconsin’s darling, Harley Davidson. We all know Harley’s story: Their sales base is an aging baby boomer population that because of the recession and their age has cut back on buying motorcycles. As a result of three years of declining sales worldwide, their workers in Milwaukee were told they needed to agree to concessions or they would move their jobs somewhere else. The workers accepted the concessions. The problem? While all this was going on Harley reported quarterly profits of $71 million — more than 3 times what they earned the prior year.

A little bit removed from Wisconsin, but still relevant, is the tale of Boeing. The tale is similar. Despite increasing profits ($4.1 Billion according to the article), the company sought concessions from its workers. Boeing settled multiple contracts with unions in 2010 - all including concessions from the workers.

Perhaps the biggest offender is Mercury Marine. You may recall that Mercury Marine said they were in such dire straights that they were going to move all of the company’s jobs to Oklahoma unless the union agreed to massive concessions including 30% wage reductions. The company also sought and obtained $53 million in incentives from the County and City and $70 million from the State to keep them here. A mere 6 months after taking it to the union workers and the taxpayers, Mercury Marine payed out bonuses to its non-union workers (primarily management). And the final kicker? Like many corporations in Wisconsin, Mercury Marine paid no state income tax over 7 years despite $1.1 Billion in profits. Supporting details here.

We are broke because time and time again politicians of both parties ran from the tough decisions and punted them down the road for another day.  We can no longer do that, because, you see, what we’re really talking about today is our future. 

Those were the words of Governor Scott Walker during his “Fireside Chat” on February 22. It’s not the only time he’s said those words or ones very similar. The bottom line, we hear from the Governor, is that the State is broke and the budget repair bill is all about making the tough decisions to solve the problem now rather than using one-time transfers and accounting tricks to push the problem off to the future.

EDIT: Walker in his budget address on March 1: “Gone are the segregated fund raids, illegal transfers, and accounting gimmicks.”

In a lot of ways, I agree with the Governor on that point. His predecessors (of both parties) and their legislative bodies made some dumb financial decisions - as many of us do. It’s part of what Alan Greenspan called irrational exuberance. Times were good. Money was pouring in. The market couldn’t be stopped. When this happens you tend to overlook that storm cloud rolling in on the horizon.

Well, that storm cloud rolled in and it was a lot bigger than most expected it to be. Wisconsin’s finances are hurting because of it. Perhaps not as bad as other places like California, but we’re still hurting. Its bound to happen when your source of revenue (tax receipts) dwindles. But the underlying financial basics are still there: your revenue and your expenditures need to match. If they don’t, you need to consider why and determine what you want to do. In the case of deficit situations like we are currently in, there are ONLY two ways to return to equilibrium: Reduce your expenditures or Increase your revenue (taxes). 

Of course, there is another alternative. You can leave expenditures and revenue at status quo and run a deficit which you repay when things turn around. This gamble works only if you have the discipline to actually repay the deficit when things turn around. Our elected officials have a hard time doing that. This includes Scott Walker.

Back to the beginning now. Remember how we’ve been told that Walker’s so-called budget repair bill is all about saying no to one time transfers and accounting tricks designed to push off today’s tough decisions? Well, it turns out the Governor does not really mean that.

First, the Governor’s budget repair bill grabs $28 million from the Group Health Insurance Fund. Never mind that this type of money grab was problematic for both Governors Thompson and Doyle (the latter resulting in $200 million plus interest having to now be repaid), this is part of how Walker wants to balance the budget. Guess what happens if, like Doyle’s attempted grab, this transfer is ruled illegal? Yep, more debt that needs to be repaid.

Second, we are hearing about how the Wisconsin 14 need to come back and approve the so-called budget repair bill so that certain debt can be restructured to plug another part of the projected deficit. What does that actually mean? In short (.pdf link), what it means is that the State issues new bonds to pay off the outstanding debt. Yep, all Walker’s so-called budget repair bill does is take out new debt to pay old debt. Sounds like pushing off responsibility for this debt obligation into the future to me. The added kicker is that not only do the taxpayers of Wisconsin still have to repay this debt, but we do it after we’ve added $30 million in additional interest (on a $165 million obligation). 

It’s all about the basics. Revenue has to equal expenditures. Not only has Walker and the GOP pushed through $140 million in new expenditures, they are not even making good on their promise of making the hard choices now. The Governor is simply doing what all those before him have done. Which begs the question, if this is simply more of the same, why does this so-called budget repair bill also include provisions stripping the rights of workers? It isn’t about a new day of making tough choices in Wisconsin, this is about busting the unions, plain and simple.

Governor Walker, you cannot pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining. Your so-called budget repair is nothing more than Wisconsin politics as usual, with the exceptional anti-democracy kicker of stripping away the rights of those groups that oppose you. As yet another poll comes out in favor of the workers, the only tough decision I see here is whether you decide to compromise and let workers keep their rights.

The Tea Party is Winning. Ok, now before those of you on the right run away figuring this post is going to be critical of you, just hang with me for a moment. Go back and read that link and come back here. The only catch, just read it. All of it. Don’t argue with it, just read it. Go ahead, I’ll wait …

All finished? Good. Now I’ve got one more reading assignment for you. Don’t worry, this is from your friends at Forbes. This article, like the one above will give you necessary background for what I’m about to say. It’s ok, I’ve got time …

Welcome back. Ok, now how many of you would consider yourselves middle class? You’re all still with me? I figured as much.That’s the thing about the “middle class” nearly every working person in America considers themselves middle class. It results in a wide spectrum of folks ranging from the single mom barely making ends meet at $47,000 a year to the married couple making $256,000 a year and doing ok for themselves.

However, no matter where you are in that spectrum, there are probably a few truths about you. You, or someone you’re close to were probably laid off during or most recent downturn. You (and probably most of your peers) have faced increasing health care insurance costs from your employer. You’ve probably also been facing reduced retirement benefits too. Your parents (or grandparents) are probably doing ok for themselves, but they likely rely on things like Medicare, Social Security and other government programs far more than they expected to (and perhaps even more then they let on). 

Now, how many of you were pissed off when your employer raised your insurance premiums/cut your retirement plan? How many are pissed off that you’re doing more work than even because of layoffs? How many have heard their parents/grandparents worry about cuts to medicare or social security? Yep, that’s right. We’re all in this together. Left or Right, the issues facing America impact all of us. Probably why most of us consider ourselves to be fairly moderate/centrist.

So, now back to the first link. The Tea Party may be winning. The question is why? The very policies they support directly harm themselves, or people near them. In the second link, it seems pretty clear that this is an attack on all organized labor. But why are the non-union workers so willing ignore this and simply say “welcome to the club” of getting screwed by your employer. Two wrongs does not make a right. Instead of saying “welcome to the club,” why are the non-union workers standing up and saying we will not tolerate benefit cuts - especially when their company is posting record profits and the CEO just paid himself a $25,000,000 bonus?

But this isn’t the point of this post. There are plenty of books and articles about the topic like “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” The point of this post is that we are doing Democracy wrong. A proper Democracy involves popularly elected representatives from all backgrounds and points of view coming together and setting aside their differences to work to the greater common good. When we’ve done that, America has been fairly prosperous. When we don’t … well take a look around you.

I’m going to pick on Governor Walker for a moment because he’s presently in power, but my criticism certainly applies to the left equally after the last few years. Governor Walker, you were elected by a slim margin of almost exactly 100,000 votes out of a little more than 2 million votes. Nearly as many people voted for you as against you. Half of the voting age population didn’t even bother to show up. Your victory does not mean that Wisconsin’s 5.6 million people have spoken and asked you to adopt your policies at all costs.

The situation is even less clear when talking about the Senate or Assembly (or House at the National level). Most candidates (with the exception of those in strongly left or right districts like Larson-D and Zipper-R) won their elections with something other than 100% of the vote. That representative then joins a body of other popularly elected representatives to make laws. However, just because you gain some seats in a legislative body does not mean that the State as a whole is 100% behind your policies such that your position should be my way or no way. 

Now here’s where we as the voters screw this up. We get so caught up in the particular causes and sound bites we voted for that we forget that there are people equally caught up with folks on the other side. But at the end of the day, we’re all middle class Americans facing the same issues. If we demand more of our elected officials in terms of cooperation and working with everyone and reject those representatives who are simply party hacks pushing ideology and fear over all else, we as a country will be much better off.

So union leaders in Wisconsin have indicated that they are willing to agree to the economic concessions Gov. Walker is seeking if he leaves bargaining rights alone. He’s now rejected this suggestion twice. He’s refusing to listen to the majority who say his bargaining right plan goes too far. He’s also showing that this plan isn’t about finances and budgets. This is a flat-out attack on the workers and the middle class of Wisconsin.

Any right-wingers want to dispute this?

It seems that the average Joe right-winger has finally caught up to the happenings in Madison. My Twitter and Facebook timelines have [finally] come to life with pro-Walker messages. In general, I say welcome. A little healthy debate is what Democracy is all about.

I’ll touch on the debate itself in another post, but I wanted to touch on one thing quickly. One of the most frequent posts that I’ve seen is that Pro-Walker folks are part of the “silent majority.” The implication being obvious: We won the majority of the vote in November, we don’t need to protest.

Well, it turns out that the first opinion poll has (finally) been released on the subject. It turns out, 52% of respondents say they oppose Walker’s plan (vs. 43% that support it). With a little calm, rational and educated discourse, we can probably win over some of those 5% who are undecided too.  I guess in this case the majority actually isn’t so silent!

This first point I made in my first post here was that Governor Walker’s so-called budget crisis is a fiction he’s using to crush Wisconsin public employee unions. I pointed out the fact that the Legislative Fiscal Bureau projected a budget surplus, not a shortfall. Walker’s claimed deficit arose only after he and his GOP buddies pushed though $140 Million in new spending in January after taking office.

Well, it turns out I was wrong. Well, actually, I was right, but I didn’t go far enough. It turns out, Walker’s so-called $3.6 Billion budget deficit results not only because of the new spending the GOP pushed through, but also because his budget figures include $3.9 Billion in new funding requests from State agencies. So, to solve the budget deficit, all we need to do is deny those new requests. Preposterous you say? Well, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau reports today that, for the current budget, state agencies requested a 9.7% increase in funding. What did the agencies actually get? A 2.6% DECREASE!

So what does it all mean? Democratic State Assemblymen Mark Pocan nails it in his blog. Governor Walker’s so-called budget repair bill is nothing more than a trojan horse designed to push through other highly objectionable legislation - you know, like stripping public worker’s collective bargaining rights. (We’ve see how popular that idea has been.)