As the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee completes its work on the state budget, it’s starting to become clear why Wisconsin’s economy continues to limp along as the 40th worst in the nation.
With Scott Walker as governor and total control of the Legislature assured through corrupt gerrymandering, Republicans are completely free to do anything they want to create jobs, raise wages and make Wisconsin a booming economic success.
So why haven’t they?
The answer should be obvious by now. They don’t want to. That may sound incredible, but the problem is actually even worse than that. Republicans really and truly do not believe government should do anything to create jobs and improve the wages of working people in this state.
In fact, from the moment Walker and his Republican allies got control of state government, they immediately began eliminating jobs and cutting the wages of working people throughout the state.
Walker started with Act 10 cutting the wages of public employees working at every level of government throughout the state and destroying their right to bargain on wages, hours and working conditions.
The Legislature then reduced the bargaining strength of private employee unions by passing a right-to-work law modeled after low-wage Southern states outlawing unions from collecting dues from free-riding workers who get wage increases and benefits, but don’t want to pay to support their union.
Now Walker’s eager to repeal the state’s more than 80-year-old prevailing wage laws so he can slash the pay of construction workers employed on public projects throughout the state.
When you add together the effects of all of those attacks on workers, Republicans are literally taking billions of dollars in wages and spending power out of the hands of working families in Wisconsin.
That’s devastating to the state economy since consumer spending on goods and services accounts for 70% of all economic activity.
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But, hey, Walker and the Republicans are cutting government spending in Wisconsin by billions of dollars, right? So doesn’t that cut state taxes and leave working families all over Wisconsin with more money to spend?
Absolutely wrong. What Walker calls government spending, workers all over Wisconsin call their paychecks. That’s what Walker is really cutting when he lays off workers and slashes wages for public employees and construction workers on public projects. It’s money that workers’ families no longer have to spend.
But wait a minute, what about all those tax cuts? Walker has been passing out billions of dollars in tax cuts ever since he took office and he promises to keep doing it. Doesn’t that give state taxpayers billions of dollars to spend and create an economic bonanza for the state of Wisconsin?
I hate to break this to you, mysterious ill-informed voice that keeps interrupting this column, but you’ve been played for a fool. That is not true. In fact, that Republican flimflam is a big part of the reason why Wisconsin’s economy is in such terrible shape.
Follow the Money
The part Republicans intentionally leave out is that most tax cuts do not go to struggling working families who spend it immediately and help grow the economy.
You probably don’t even remember how you spent your hundred-buck tax cut because it was gone before you knew it.
Wealthy folks, on the other hand, got some real money. The overwhelming majority of Walker’s tax cuts go to the very wealthy who already have all the money they could possibly spend in a lifetime.
Instead of creating economic growth for Wisconsin, those enormous tax cuts going to the wealthy are tucked away into tax shelters reducing state revenue or invested everywhere else in the world to make even more money.
So let’s follow the money, as they said during Watergate, an earlier Republican crime: Walker reduces government spending by cutting the wages of working people all over Wisconsin by billions of dollars. Then he sends those billions out of the pockets of the middle class to the very wealthy in tax cuts.
Don’t believe Republicans when they say they’re opposed to government social programs that redistribute wealth. They’re 100% in favor of government cutting the wages of working people and survival benefits for the poor and redistributing that money to the wealthy.
We haven’t even mentioned everything Republicans are doing in the current budget to destroy education at every level that could prepare workers for better paying jobs and create high-paying jobs.
Walker and his fellow Republicans are openly hostile to well-paying jobs for ordinary workers in Wisconsin. Walker says publicly he sees no purpose in minimum-wage laws.
Why should wealthy state employers have to pay full-time workers anything above poverty wages if they can find people desperate enough to work for next to nothing?
Why should Wisconsin under Walker’s Republicans settle for an economy that’s 40th in job creation nationally? Why not shoot for 50th?
Image by iprimages via Flickr and a CC License
