Shame (week 8)

I was astounded that the bill was passed at the Senate level on Wednesday the 10th. It was my understanding that they needed both parties to vote, so that there are twenty votes total. I knew that all 14 Wisconsin Senate Democrats left the state to stop the vote from taking place. So how did the bill get pass? I read an article by Fox News, "Wisconsin Senate GOP Votes to Strip State Workers of Collective Bargaining Rights." It explained how the Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money, but the Republicans split from the legislation of the proposal to curtail union rights, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved that bill a short time later. This is a horrible corrupt uses of the system. I makes me question why this is even possible. How did it come about that out legislative system has such loopholes and how can they be fixed? The problem is that we have to use the system to fix the system. I feel like this would just stem into a cycle of issues, only creating more in the process. This particular loop hole allowed the Republicans to pass a stripped-down version of a misconceived bill 18-1. Now the State Assembly and Gov. Walker can pass and put the bill into effect. What I want to know is what can the people of Wisconsin do about it now? How far are we going to let this go? Is this not a stepping stone? Have we cracked open a door that leads to the loss of more than just union, collective-bargaining, and worker rights? Are our civil rights in danger? Our human rights? What is certain is that the future will come, we will have to face these questions, and it is up to us to decide the answers.

Kill The Bill (week 7)

In my quest to further understand the resent events in our state government I read an article in my research, "Wisconsin budget cut protests, union reactions, news and analysis Gallery," compiled by Justin Bank of the Washington Post staff. The first thing I notice was a photo of what looked like bager fans in a stadium but the caption read; "Wisconsin budget battle: Protesters rally against anti-union bill. An estimated 25,000 protesters gathered at the Capitol building in Madison to protest Republican Gov. Scott Walker's legislation to cut public employees' benefits and eliminate most of their collective bargaining rights." It turn out thousands of protestors have converged on the state Capitol over the past week in responce to Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget plan, which would strip most public employees of collective-bargaining rights. The conflict could and will escalate in the coming days. Walker issued a warning to state employees Monday that they could receive layoff notices as early as next week if there's no agreement to his plan to roll back benefits for public workers to make up for budget shortfalls. The article later goes on to make a n important statment about Wisconsin being ground zero in the war over the future of all of organized labor. In a n iterview with Ezra Kliein, she give a discription of the current situation that I feel speeks true to the opions of the plublick workers; "The deal Wisconsin made with its state employees was simple: Accept lower wages than you could get in the private sector now in return for better pensions and health-care benefits when you retire. Now Walker wants to renege on that deal. Rather than stiff the banks, in other words, he wants to stiff the teachers - but the crucial twist he's added, the one that's sent tens of thousands of workers into the streets, is that he wants to make sure they can't fight back once he does it.The reason you can't stiff bondholders is that they can make a state or country regret reneging on the deals they've made. They can increase borrowing costs far into the future, slowing economic growth and, through the resulting economic pain, throwing politicians out of office. That gives them power. An ordinary teacher does not have access to such artillery. Unless, of course, she's part of a union." She make a very important point about why teachers are being targeted instead of private companies. What I want to know now is what are good solutions to the budget problems and what were the other solutions considered before this bill was chosen? Furthermore how can these solutions be implemented. The problem lies in the fact that there is no solutions that don't have some sort of negative affects or consequences.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/22/AR2011022205319.html