A letter to Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I thought about simply responding to your comment in the comments section, but decided to call a little more attention to this.

Thanks for your comment by the way. I am pleased to able to explain more fully why there are 70,000 people at the Capitol right now. I'll start by saying that I don't think you've looked very carefully at the 144 page document Scott Walker has introduced as a "budget repair" bill. First of all, let's acknowledge the fact that the unions have given Walker the concessions he has demanded. But let's be honest. His bill busts unions because unions are the only source of competition against conservative groups' electoral campaign support.

Busting up the unions by making it illegal to require dues, as this bill does, would mean that unions would be unable to contribute to political campaigns. This is not about the state's inability to pay for "Cadillac" plans. This is about power. More specifically, it is about taking power from others and giving it to Walker and his cronies. Killing the unions would mean that little to no monetary competition stands in the way of the GOP for future electoral campaigns.

The other items in this bill clarify that quite nicely. The "budget repair" bill, or AB 11/SB 11 includes numerous provisions that have nothing to do with the budget. For instance, turning legislative, legal and communications liaisons for every state agency into political appointments (therefore giving Walker the ability to fire anyone who said anything derogatory about him or his policies), yanking the authority of the state legislature to approve changes to Medicaid and instead giving it to the Department of Health (which is headed up by Walker's appointee, giving him great latitude in squashing the program), and selling off state run power plants in NO BID contracts… which might just benefit the Koch brothers who contributed $46,000 to Walker’s campaign in 2010 and who are looking to purchase power plants to complement the gas lines they already own in Wisconsin.
Finally coming back to the public employee union issue, government workers have FOR YEARS sacrificed pay in order to ensure decent benefits. They are underpaid compared to the for profit sector.

Reform? Don't bullshit me. This is a power play of the worst kind, and we won't stand by silently.