Fundamentally the biggest problem with Walker's actions is that the measures were clearly not intended to repair the deficit (which, it's worth pointing out, he created in the first place). That the intention was to break the collective bargaining capacity of public sector employees was made clear the instant they took out all the financial elements of the bill in order to get it passed with a lower quorum.
This is off the mark for a few reasons. First, he did not create the budget shortfall. There has been an ongoing shortfall situation for many years in Wisconsin (and many other states) with band-aid approaches to "deal" with it. A few examples include Wisconsin state employees have had 8 mandatory unpaid furlough days per year for the past couple of years, there has been a raid on the injured patient compensation fund (which was established as an
irrevocable trust decades ago) to fill in budget shortfalls and there have been many accounting shenanigans to make a budget appear balanced but really pushed expenses into a later fiscal year.
A number of liberal blogs and opinion shows spouted the notion that the budget shortfall was somehow Walker's doing, or that Wisconsin had some kind of magical budget surplus, but those who live there know better and these notions have been demonstrated to be false as evaluated by PolitiFact Wisconsin here:
http://politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/feb/18/rachel-maddow/rachel-maddow-says-wisconsin-track-have-budget-sur/Moreover, it was no secret that reducing state worker collective bargaining rights was intended. Walker has stated it is a necessary step in treating the overall symptom of ever enlarging state (and local) expenditures in both salary and benefits. They were intended to be included into one legal motion, but could not be included when the state Democrat senators left the state to prevent passage of the bill. There was no clear timeline when or under what conditions the Democrats would return to work so they took out the fiscal portions of the larger package as it could pass with a simple majority. With it passed, the Democrats had no reason to avoid work any longer and could return home to do their jobs.
I suggest reading this short column on the topic of why Walker took on the government employee unions:
http://www.wpri.org/WIInterest/Vol20No1/Schneider20.1.htmlExcerpts:
"Milwaukee teachers negotiated a benefit that paid their health care premiums when they retired — in 2016, this benefit will be worth $4.9 billion, or more than four times the size of the Milwaukee district’s current budget. "
If you see the math you ought to come to the conclusion that a) there really is a budget shortfall pre-existing Scott Walker's tenure, and b) the status quo allows government employee unions to dictate to taxpayers how the finances will be spent (instead of the other way around.)
