A Correction to a blog post:
My post was on 21 Feb 2011 and entitled ” Civil Disobedience Comes Home”….
I try to be fair….yes, I have an opinion and I let it be known (surprise)…….but I will admit it when I am wro….wro….MISTAKEN!
The situation in Wisconsin lead me to report on an article I had seen that the Governor created the budget deficit that he now uses to try and kill all union activity in the state…..well, I know how hard it is to believe but I was mistaken and the good people at Politifact have brought it to my attention…..I will correct my error……..
There is, indeed, a projected deficit that required attention, and Walker and GOP lawmakers did not create it.
More on that second point in a bit.
The confusion, it appears, stems from a section in Lang’s memo that — read on its own — does project a $121 million surplus in the state’s general fund as of June 30, 2011.
But the remainder of the routine memo — consider it the fine print — outlines $258 million in unpaid bills or expected shortfalls in programs such as Medicaid services for the needy ($174 million alone), the public defender’s office and corrections. Additionally, the state owes Minnesota $58.7 million under a discontinued tax reciprocity deal.
The result, by our math and Lang’s, is the $137 million shortfall.
It would be closer to the $340 million figure if the figure included the $200 million owed to the state’s patient compensation fund, a debt courts have declared resulted from an illegal raid on the fund under former Gov. Jim Doyle.
So, I apologize for my mis-reporting on the deficit for the state of Wisconsin……but (there is always a but)…..I stand by my assertions about the motives of Gov. Walker…..that he is only pursuing the tact set forth by the GOP in the 40’s….attack on the unions with the intent of breaking them and making them ineffectual….both economically and politically…..
But do not take my word for it….go to
Why does the Right seldom use Politifact and its fact checking? Could it be that they know their spin is mostly LIES? Just a thought!
I regret that I did NOT pay enough attention to all the facts….hopefully I have learned my lesson and it will not happen again….but after all I am only human (a point that some will debate)……
Neither the left nor the right like fact checking web sites. Most people on the extreme ends of the political spectrum see the facts that do not agree with their ideology and immediately label the site as biased.
Also, how are you getting your information from Politifact? I am subscribed to the RSS feed and I did not see the article that you mention.
It is sad that few voters even know of the site…..if people were truly interested in the truth they would find them……Terrant I got the info from this …
http://bit.ly/b6LX4i
I believe I originally saw a tweet on this……
You are possibly right (about being… er… mistaken) 😆
You may also be right about the aims of the GOP with respect to unions. In truth, it’s one of the few things I agree with the gOP about – unions are a pariah – an entirely pointless cause of irritation to almost everyone, including their ordinary members…
BUT (thire it is – as we both say) unions only become completely unnecessary IN A VIBRANT AND HEALTHY ECONOMY and, sadly, how often do any of us truly have that, in spite of all the spin and other sh*t the political parties feed us?
Sometimes, I do fell that the sooner humanity throws its collective self off a huge cliff like the silly lemmings they so often really are, the better… ho, hum 🙁
Unions are not a pariah….I believe that the leadership is the pariah….most union people just want a descent living….my state is a right to work state…there is no collective bargaining or for that matter not many unions……wages are constantly low and benefits are none existent….and this is what the GOP is aiming for…the rest of the country to be more like Mississippi….poor, ignorant and desperate….
Playing with semantics like that is, in my opinion, pointless – it’s like saying Libya was not a pariah state, only Gaddafi and his henchmen – both angles are true, but the net result is a pariah state. If unions simply looked after the best DIRECT and NON POLITICAL interests of their members and NOT their leaders, then that would be different, but that has almost never been so and is unlikely to be so.
I think the collective bargaining does a HUGE disservice to ordinary working people because it aims to make things equal across the board and THAT generally means equally BAD! In a vibrant and successful economy there must by definition be low unemployment and (with ultimate LOW KEY potection from union membership) individuals can simply say, “Up your. I don’t like this firm. I’m going to work for Bloggs Inc. down the road!” – THAT controls bad employers and makes for the best possible advancement of individuals in their chosen sphere.
You, Chuq, complain about the “Corporate conspiracy” that keeps insurance charges artificially high, makes it near impossible for people to get the best deal and generally conspires to hide wrong doing and fraud – and you’re quite right (all these things are illegal in the UK and mostly simply don’t happen), but collective bargaining by unions produces EXACTLY the same thing on the other side of the fence – and THAT is VERY bad…
IMO, a healthy economy, empowered individuals and a REAL free market where corporate collusion is illegal and stamped on from a HUGE height makes for the best conditions for individuals as well as business and the whole country all to flourish – unless you’re a moron, a crook, or a scrounger, of course.
REAL freedom is something America has NEVER had and it is lessening all the time. Instead you have created a war zone where EVERY faction seems to be fighting every other – men v women, black v white, Christian v Moslem, poor v rich, workers v management, unions v government, state v federal government – the list is endless. What’s the point of living that way? I just don’t get it…
Perhaps it’s not really like that at all, but it’s how it seems to an outsider like me and I fear for you even more than much of the rest of humanity. 🙁
How very Libertarian of you…..(no offense)…..we could debate the pros and cons of collective bargaining for the next couple of months and we will not get a consensus…..personally, because of where I live, is a good thing…the problem is that since the 80’s it has become almost illegal….a right to work state which keeps income unbelievably low…the average pay of the average people is about $10 an hour….and I would say trying living on that….
But these people are saying that collective bargaining is the problem….it did NOT create the deficit and it will not solve the problem……this situation has more to do with the traditional supporters of the Dem Party than it does any deficit…..this i8s an attempt to marginalize everythinbg progressive and trying to give one party a dominate place in US politics…..
I largely agree with that, but it’s the UTTER FAILURE of the economy – nationwide and/or in your locality that creates the problem. IF a government – ANY government – runs the economy efficiently and well, then almost ALL things can be fixed. Without that, you need strong unions, massive welfare and all the rest, but THOSE things are simply band-aids to cover the gaping wound that is the government’s failure over the economy!
IMO, every time we accept THOSE sorts of devious fixes, we let the assholes who have FAILED us abysmally get away with metaphorical and possibly ACTUAL murder! They should be strung up if the economy fails (THAT’D make ’em think on some!), because, without money, the whole goddamned house of cards falls down and the middle classes suffer as they pick up the tab for an exponentially increasing number of poor whom they will eventually join because of the fact!
Good comment! And my latest post addresses this somewhat…..