Reality Sinks In

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie patiently explained to a policeman that the party is over. Yes, the cop had every right to be frustrated and angry that a lot of the promises that his employer made to him aren't going to be honored. That doesn't change the fact that the state simply cannot honor them. It doesn't matter how inconvenient it is or how unfair it is. It's reality.

This may be the point that reality is finally sinking in. The heretofore reliably liberal Washington Post recognizes it. Once again taking its lead from SDP, the Post pointed out the absurdity of the President's High Speed Rail proposal. The WaPo also pointed out something much more ominous.

Starting in 2014, net interest payments will surpass the amount spent on education, transportation, energy and all other discretionary programs outside defense. In 2018, they will outstrip Medicare spending. Only the amounts spent on defense and Social Security would remain bigger under the president's plan.

The soaring bill for interest payments is one of the biggest obstacles to balancing the federal budget, pushing the White House and Congress to come up with cuts deeper than previously imagined. Unlike with discretionary spending or even entitlement programs, the line item for interest payments cannot be altered except through other budget cuts.

This, of course, is the reason that we cannot permanently fund government expenditures by borrowing. Interest on the debt alone is about to crowd out all other government spending. Bear in mind that the scenario above is based on current interest rates. As doubts grow about the solvency of the Government, interest rates will increase and that share of public expenditures will grow in response.

Reality is sinking in at all levels of government. In Wisconsin, public union members have marched against Governor Scott Walker's plan to restore the state to fiscal sanity. At any earlier time, I'd have bet on the unions. Right now, I think Governor Walker has the winning hand. In Illinois, the Chicago Sun-Times acknowledges the bitter truth: big cuts in public spending are inevitable.

The American Republic is about to face what economists call a "correction". It's not a matter of whether we do it. It is a matter of whether we do it or it is done to us. There aren't going to be any big, new government programs in the foreseeable future. Instead, all existing government programs are going to be crushed like trash in a compactor. Everywhere at every level.

This has been coming for a half a century. Those who raised the warning were ignored and vilified. It is the fault of Democrats for being Democrats and the fault of Republicans for not being Republicans. President Obama spent almost all of his time and political capital over the last two years passing a new and expensive government program. He has never seriously addressed the fiscal problems facing the nation, least of all in his recent budget. He is altogether out of his depth.

What is the Administration concentrating on now? The Huffington Post can tell us.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is expected to meet with Florida's congressional delegation Thursday afternoon in an effort to circumvent Gov. Rick's Scott's rejection of $2 billion in federal funds for a state high-speed rail project.

We may be nearing the point when everyone in the United States has recognized reality, except for the President.

Comments

[Donald Pay]

When you get your news from the national FOX sources you're not going to get close to the truth of what's happening. The issue in Wisconsin is not about deficits. Scott Walker and the Republicans have increased the deficit since they took over by passing special interest legislation to benefit their cronies. The "budget repair bill" has very little budget repair, and is mostly about a power grab.

[BillW]

Donald ... specifics, buddy. We need specifics. Exactly what legislation was passed to benefit which cronies? Looks more to me like you are upset that the Gov is passing legislation that is taking a whack at Obama's cronies - sending him and guys like you over the moon.

[caheidelberger]

It seems inaccurate to characterize fighting off a recession with the stimulus, honoring long-standing promises, and protecting the fundamental rights of labor as a "party."

[caheidelberger]

It seems inaccurate to characterize fighting off a recession with the stimulus, honoring long-standing promises, and protecting the fundamental rights of labor as a "party."

[Dave]

Ken,

Again with the loaded language?

And if you look at the history of governmental borrowing, you'd see that things were getting under control until the '80s when someone (RR) started borrowing heavily...

[BillW]

caheidelberg,

What evidence is there that the stimulus helped "fight off the recession" other than the administrations opinion that it would have been worse? In fact, in passing the stimulus, Mr Obama asserted that it would bring unemployment down to below 8% within a year, so where is the evidence to support your statement?

I assume the long standing promises you refer to are the political obligations Obama made to get elected, hence the disproportionate amount of the 'stimulus' money to states and districts controlled by Democrats, causes near and dear to the environmentalists hearts, and bailing out the United Auto Workers? I suppose one man's political payoff is another man's 'honoring of a long standing promise'.

And can you please tell me which fundamental rights were being denied to labor that Obama has so valiantly restored?

[KB]

Cory: Okay. What part of "over" is problematic?

[George Mason]

InRe: Madison, Wi: Were the rest of you as impressed as I was with the Obama (a wholly owned subsidiary of AFSCME)call for civility and reason in the debate over keeping the state of Wisconsin solvent or driving it into a financial abyss.

[larry kurtz]

Christie's girth is evidence of his own inability to "grasp reality." He hasn't seen his own testicles for decades.

Look: Until america faces subsidies to Big Oil as unconstitutional, Christie's allegiance to the Kochtopus will go unaddressed.

[Jimi]

Larry,

"Christie's girth is evidence of his own inability to "grasp reality." He hasn't seen his own testicles for decades."

I'm just curious....how exactly do you know that? Having trouble your's too?

[Jimi]

Dave,

"And if you look at the history of governmental borrowing, you'd see that things were getting under control until the '80s when someone (RR) started borrowing heavily."

You can't back this dumbass statement up with facts, so why would you go there? Wouldn't be because you haven't the slightest clue what your talking about would it?

[larry kurtz]

ip had sex with Chris Christie.

Diane Rehm is not aired on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio. http://thedianerehmshow.org/

[Jimi]

Donald,

Walker inheritied a $2.7 Billion dollar budget shortfall, after Democrat leadership in the legislator and a Democrat Governor since 1998. So this comment "The issue in Wisconsin is not about deficits," is not correct is it?

http://www.nbc15.com/election/headlines/Decision_2010_Walker_Barrett_Square_Off_In_Wis_Governors_Race_106510063.html

http://www.wkow.com/global/story.asp?s=11492812

[larry kurtz]

Don is from Sioux Falls and moved to Wisconsin.

From the Progessive: http://www.progressive.org/healey021811.html

“Wisconsin’s deficit is a made-up crisis.

Blame Wall St. And not teachers.

The Green Bay Packers are with the people.

Public workers unions were created in Wisconsin.

Hurting public workers will not help you get a better job.

This is about more than unions.

The country is watching the outcome in Wisconsin.”

[Ken Blanchard]

Larry: read what you just wrote. 1. There is no deficit. 2. The deficit is the fault of Wall Street. 3. The Green Bay Packers are with the people. I can understand how such reasoning persuades you.

[larry kurtz]

Ken, you train future lawyers, right? I believe you are engaging in "subreption."

[larry kurtz]

1. I didn't deny a deficit, I contend it is a faux crisis.
2. "According to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, corporate tax income has fallen by half since 1981 and over two-thirds of Wisconsin corporations pay zero taxes."
3. The Packers are union workers.

[BillW]

Larry,

How much tax revenue is generated by the state income taxes paid by employees of those corporations paying zero income tax?

How much property tax do those Wisconsin corporations pay that largely support local schools.

What is the average teacher/public worker salary and benefit package compared to the state average?

Please explain exactly how Wall Street caused the deficit for the State of Wisconsin.

Important to consider all of the facts, Larry. Not just those that fit.

[KB]

To all: the Wisconsin budget crisis is real. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal:

"Walker has said the state faces a $137 million budget shortfall for this fiscal year ending on June 30 and a $3.6 billion shortfall for the next two years.

Opponents are pointing to a Jan. 31 memo by the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget shop that says that the state will finish this fiscal year with $121.4 million in its main account.

But there’s more to the memo. The budget surplus will only happen if the state keeps its spending in line with what has been budgeted.

But the memo lays out about $258 million in spending by the state that is projected to go over budget. That’s in several areas, including health care spending for the poor, prisons and a payment due to Minnesota in December after the canceling of an income tax agreement between the two states.

Once this over-budget spending is factored in, the state will be unable to pay all its bills this fiscal year if no action is taken.

“We have $121 million in the bank but if we addressed the $258 million in shortfalls then we’re in the hole by $137 million,” said Bob Lang, the director of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau."

[BillW]

By the way Larry, the Green Bay Packers paid $94,018,300 in salaries to 64 different players who wore the green and gold at one time or another last season, for an average salary of $1,469,036 per player for six months work. Are you citing them as examples of oppressed workers whose rights need to be protected by state law? Seems to me they are a better example of what can be accomplished when people are paid based on merit, rather than seniority. Imagine how good the Wisconsin schools would be and how much teachers can make if they were run like the Packers.

[BillW]

By the way Larry, the Green Bay Packers paid $94,018,300 in salaries to 64 different players who wore the green and gold at one time or another last season, for an average salary of $1,469,036 per player for six months work. Are you citing them as examples of oppressed workers whose rights need to be protected by state law? Seems to me they are a better example of what can be accomplished when people are paid based on merit, rather than seniority. Imagine how good the Wisconsin schools would be and how much teachers can make if they were run like the Packers.

[George Mason]

The only Faux Crisis is the one created by AFSCME and co. Imagine asking employees to contribute to their pension and insurance (gasp). And at only half the rate of those of us who pay their salaries. By the way does Wisconsin have any adult state employees? Are there any adult democrats in the state legislature who can carry on a rational debate?

[larry kurtz]

ip has been calling for massive boycotts and general strikes for at least six years to protest union busting. The Packers are owned by the Green Bay public and american football is certainly not my gig. Maybe they should sell the team to a plutocrat to settle the dispute over this fake crisis.

[larry kurtz]

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/Misc/2011_01_31Vos&Darling.pdf

[larry kurtz]

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/wisconsin-scott-walker-koch-brothers

[BillW]

Larry,

What purpose do you think unions serve that merits this fervent belief in opposing "union busting"?

[larry kurtz]

An insurance pool for blue-collar independent contractors like ip was for twenty years for one thing.

[larry kurtz]

What young entrepreneur can afford to start a business in your stupid state and buy health insurance, too? No wonder young people flee the chemical toilet.

[Donald Pay]

KB, you forgot the part in the fiscal bureau's memo relating that the recently passed bills by the Republican controlled legislature added over $100 million to the deficit, and that this bill (SB 11) only addresses $30 million of that hole. Everyone here knows state government has a fiscal problem, but we've had one for years. The fiscal problems (structural deficits) started when Republican Tommy Thompson became governor, and they've gotten worse every year since.

The unions made concessions throughout the downturn because Governor Doyle negotiated with them, and that is why the current budget was in acceptable shape when Walker took office. There were some issues that cropped up toward the end of the Doyle administration and the beginning of the Walker administration, but budgets are never static documents. These sorts of issues always come up.

There is still the structural deficit, but South Dakota's got one as well, and these are usually papered over with gimmicks, whether the governor is a Republican or a Democrat. The real issue is Walker is not a leader. He's a command and control top down dictator who is being controlled by out of state interests. That doesn't work in Wisconsin. If this state is in such a crisis, you would think he would be wanting the input of the very people who know where there is waste and duplication, but Walker has not met once with union representatives to negotiate or with state workers. He has made time to meet with out-of-state right wing political hacks who have outlined for him a political strategy. He even appointed one as his health secretary, and the guy can't find his way around Wisconsin without a map.

So, we know what this is all about, and it has nothing to do with the state's fiscal problems.

[Donald Pay]

Another reason we know it has little to do with fiscal issues is that the unions at the University Hospital and Clinics are busted under Walker's bill, and they do not receive state funding. They are a separate entity operated completely outside the state budget.

[Dave]

Hmm... TPM is reporting

"The previous governor, Democrat Jim Doyle, passed a budget that left the state poised for a surplus this year. When Walker took office in January he chipped away at that surplus with three conservative tax expenditure bills, but not severely enough to trigger a budget repair bill. The current, small shortfall was "manufactured by Governor Walker's own insistence on making the deficit worse with the bills he passed in January," Kreitlow said. But Walker cited that shortfall to introduce a "budget repair bill" anyhow -- a fully elective move that includes his plan to end collective bargaining rights for state employees."
"it is just practically half of the projected deficit that we closed in the last budget bill, which we did by making serious cuts and some very deliberate choices. That's what we expect leaders to do." In 2009, Wisconsin Dems did get just over a billion in help from the stimulus bill, but they made up the rest by giving state agencies less money than they asked for, and through furloughs and other real austerity measures."

"We know it could be closed again by making tough choices," Kreitow said. "But not included in those tough choices would be stripping away labor rights that have allowed there to be labor peace in Wisconsin for over 50 years."

[Dave]

More on Wisconsin...

You can read the fiscal bureaus report here

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/Misc/2011_01_31Vos&Darling.pdf

It holds that "more than half" of the new shortfall comes from three of Walker's initiatives:

$25 million for an economic development fund for job creation, which still holds $73 million because of anemic job growth.

$48 million for private health savings accounts -- a perennial Republican favorite.

$67 million for a tax incentive plan that benefits employers, but at levels too low to spur hiring.

In essence, public workers are being asked to pick up the tab for this agenda. "The provisions in his bill do two things simultaneously," Norman says. "They remove bargaining rights, and having accomplished that, make changes in the benefit packages." That's how Walker's plan saves money. And when it's all said and done, these workers will have lost their bargaining rights going forward in perpetuity.

[Dave]

So, AGAIN we see the GOP chickens come home to roost...

But they blame "bad government" on everybody else.

[BillW]

"They remove bargaining rights, and having accomplished that, make changes in the benefit packages." That's how Walker's plan saves money. And when it's all said and done, these workers will have lost their bargaining rights going forward in perpetuity."

Yeah Dave - that is exactly what will happen. They will have changes in their benefit packages, and no contract that says there job is sancrosanct. No more having seniority be all that matters, and beginning to be accountable for job performance and results. In other words, they will have to live like the rest of the people in the US. It amazes me that folks like you seem to think there is some sort of moral code somewhere creating a God-given right to lifetime employment, with no accountability for job performance, with gold plated medical and retirement packages, and that any time such is not ptovided some evil force must be at play.

[BillW]

At the end of the day the pro-union folks are no different from the greediest people on Wall Street - still caught up some old Marxian struggle to get a bigger piece of the pie and either too stupid or too greedy to acknowledge the reality that the big problem is that the pie is shrinking at a dramatic rate. You and the Wall Streeters are like two people fighting over who gets the the best cabin on the Titanic.

[Donald Pay]

The problem, BillW, is you aren't dealing with reality. Governor Doyle reduced the state workforce even before the economic downturn, and negotiated benefit reductions and furloughs during the downturn. Many of the state workers came into state government under the Republican administrations of Tommy Thompson and Scott McCallum, when state government exploded in size. Most of Walker's moves to date have been to add workers or shift them from civil service to political appointments so he can shove in his cronies and out-of-state political hacks at higher salaries. State workers do not have lifetime employment, and they are held accountable for job performance. Many state jobs require tests here.

State workers do have good benefits, which have been negotiated in exchange for essentially flat or declining real wages over the last twenty years (which included Republican governors). Over the last three years state workers here haven't had a raise. The state employees union has said they would agree to the benefit cuts in SB 11, given the next biennium budget difficulties, but will not agree to gutting of collective bargaining.

[Donald Pay]

The problem, BillW, is you aren't dealing with reality. Governor Doyle reduced the state workforce even before the economic downturn, and negotiated benefit reductions and furloughs during the downturn. Many of the state workers came into state government under the Republican administrations of Tommy Thompson and Scott McCallum, when state government exploded in size. Most of Walker's moves to date have been to add workers or shift them from civil service to political appointments so he can shove in his cronies and out-of-state political hacks at higher salaries. State workers do not have lifetime employment, and they are held accountable for job performance. Many state jobs require tests here.

State workers do have good benefits, which have been negotiated in exchange for essentially flat or declining real wages over the last twenty years (which included Republican governors). Over the last three years state workers here haven't had a raise. The state employees union has said they would agree to the benefit cuts in SB 11, given the next biennium budget difficulties, but will not agree to gutting of collective bargaining.

[BillW]

So what you are saying Don is that it isn't the union worker's fault that the economy is in trouble and the state is broke, as well as the nation as a whole, so give them a lot of money and let someone else figure out how to solve the problems. Is that it? Accept responsibility for nothing. Blame it all on Republicans, grab as much cash as they can, and if the state and the country go broke don't worry about it because they got theirs, and everyone else can fend for themselves.

[BillW]

At the end of the day, Don, unions are all about grabbing as big a piece of the pie as they can for the workers, but they contribute nothing to growing the pie, and, in fact, accept zero responsibility for growing the pie.

[William]

The public sector is dependent on the taxes paid by the private sector. While teaching will not make one "rich", it can and does for the most part, provide a comfortable living. A couple of quick searches for Wisconsin teacher salaries provides this information: average teacher pay (not including benefits) in Wisconsin was $52,644 in 2009-10 while the average full-time private sector employee earned $45,487. That's simply not sustainable. If the money isn't there, the money isn't there.

That's not to mention the additional costs of the administrative bureaucracy.

"School administrators (in Wisconsin) earned a median annual salary of $83,880 in 2008, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, but the highest 10 percent earned more than $124,250. Of course, this is significantly more than teachers make, which is one reason that so many former teachers get the additional education they need for school administration positions."

http://www.teacher-world.com/teacher-salary/wisconsin.html
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/State=Wisconsin/Salary/by_Employment_Status

[larry kurtz]

Wow, you redstaters should just retire to some place warm where you can write some short stories and count your blessings. You're making me weep, poor things.

[larry kurtz]

Billy, Willy, you must be up to your areolae waiting for your ships to come in. Is that so?

[BillW]

Typical .... William presents facts and an intelligent explanation of the state of affairs in Wisconsin ... Larry responds with blubbering nonsense, but then how else can he respond? If he dealt in facts and logic he wouldn't be a liberal, would he?

[larry kurtz]

Give it up, Billy. This is intellectual bubblegum looking for a chair to put it under or a plumage display for our own self-aggrandizement. If you want to fix shit run for office.

[larry kurtz]

The reading of the Declaration of Independence by members of the reporting staff at NPR gets me every time. Past on-air personalities, some now correspondents at the pearly gates, also read for this decades-old feature. The tears stream down my face right up to the line that begins, ” He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare…”

That’s when it hits me right between the eyes.

When those words were being written, thousands of cultures inhabited a continent that seemed to keep growing huge ripe plums just waiting for Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton and the rest to pick and pick and pick and pick. Already, the Chesapeake Bay estuary had been mostly denuded of native vegetation, not to mention of its former human inhabitants. Slaves tilled the fields and built the infrastructure, the ancestors of the Lakota and other Siouan groups that had been forced westward out of North Carolina generations earlier, traded with the Spanish and French while forging their own alliances (and marriages) with other indigenous peoples.

So, we’ve come a long way, init?

While the Palestinian homeland looks like holes in the slice of Swiss cheese analogous to the illegal Israeli state, progress toward resolutions of Native trust disputes would have far more political traction after tribes secede from the States in which they reside and then be ratified to form one State sans contiguous borders with two Senators and a House member.

The United States Constitution is the finest instrument ever created by the human hand. The Preamble is the body, the Bill of Rights is the neck, the Amendments are the strings. It is a fluid universal execution of human and civil rights.

It’s time for all Americans to enjoy the protection of law by being part of one nation: erase the artificial borders and grant Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness to all the people of North America…Mexico, Central America, Canada, even the Caribbean if they’ll have us.

ip is not a New World Order guy, does not support the North American Union (god bless you. please, mr. roddenberry) and believes that the US Constitution is a big enough canvas in order to paint a more perfect masterpiece, a big enough score for all to sing. No violence. No more drug wars.

Read Alaska’s constitution some time. The last states ratified are the most egalitarian. Let’s debate it and draft a dream referendum to be delivered by and for the people of Mexico to dissolve their constitution and petition for Statehood.

http://www.amazon.com/Where-Buffalo-Roam-Restoring-Americas/dp/0226510964

[Mark Anderson]

Reich is right, please read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-republican-strategy_b_825206.html

[Donald Pay]

William,

Without public education there wouldn't be much of a private sector at all in this country. The private sector is dependent on public education. When I was on the Rapid City school board, I found that public education's biggest supporters, after the RCEA, were business-oriented Republicans, several of whom served on the board with me. I always found teachers and the teachers union the best source of information for what is really going on in the schools.

Regarding comparisons of teacher salaries to private sector salaries, all teachers have a BA or BS degree, and many have higher degrees in their field of specialty. When you make comparisons, you have to control for such things.

Regarding administrator salaries, taxpayers pay too much for administration, but salaries are not above what people with similar experience and knowledge would receive in the private sector for similar work. The real problem with administrative expense in education is the duplication due to too many school districts.

[William]

Donald,

Considering the poor showing the US demonstrates in international educational performance, the public education system as it currently exists, is due for major reforms that will require radical changes allowing competition, performance based pay, the elimination of tenure, implementing effective distance learning, eliminating the bloated administrative bureaucracy and overhead, re-introducing discipline and punishment for disruptive behavior, a re-introduction of local control and a re-emphasis on the fundamentals.

The biggest obstacle to improving educational achievement by our children are the teachers unions.

[larry kurtz]

Eliminate middle schools
High school dress requiring business casual
Separate classrooms for males and females

-Bard College as reported by NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129084347

[Dave]

BillW,

Why don't you ask ken B about his "lifetime employment?" He's got tenure but thinks unions are "evil"...

[KB]

Dave: You have no idea what you are talking about. I never said that unions are evil or even "evil".

[Dave]

KB:

So you are actually saying unions are fine institutions and enjoy the full protection of the US Constitution. Sorry, I totally misread you.

[Ken Blanchard]

Dave: you are a fine institution and enjoy the full protection of the Constitution. That doesn't mean I have to agree with you. Sorry if these distinctions go over your head.

[Dave]

Sorry Ken. I couldn't imagine you falling into the trap of academic elitism...

Croissant with your latte?