By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter
MADISON — Gov. Scott Walker on Friday paid another call on the out-of-state Republican faithful, addressing the conservative Illinois Policy Institute in Chicago.
Tag Archive | "Wisconsin"
Lessons of 2 states: What Illinois, Wisconsin can teach the world
April 17, 2012
By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter
MADISON — To fiscal conservatives and pension system reformers, Illinois is a cautionary tale.
For numbers crunchers like Steven Malanga, Wisconsin is a guide to fiscal thriftiness.
Walker talks unions, budgets in IL visit ahead of recall
April 17, 2012
By Andrew Thomason | Illinois Statehouse News
SPRINGFIELD — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday visited a state he has used as a political punching bag to campaign ahead of a historic recall election in the Badger State.
Walker spoke to a crowd of about 300 lobbyists, lawmakers and members of the business community at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel and Conference Center.Walker’s speech was part of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Business lobby day here.
Walker’s visit comes less than two months before the embattled governor faces a recall election, spurred mostly by Act 10, a law passed during his administration that largely removes the ability of unions to use collective bargaining.
Walker said payment for his visit came from his political war chest.
Walker used the half-hour speech to highlight his fight against “a handful of big union bosses” and budgeting that allowed Wisconsin to dig itself out of a $3.6 billion deficit without increasing taxes.
Walker blamed the recall on “a handful of big union bosses (who) … think that I’m standing in the way of their power and their money.”
The Republican governor criticized Illinois’ Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and the General Assembly for passing a 67 percent income tax increase on individuals, and a 47 percent income tax increase on corporations in 2011.
The temporary tax increases eliminated the state’s structural deficit, but they failed to address the state’s $8.5 billion backlog of overdue bills.
“There’s always been this false choice, between either raising taxes or cutting core services,” Walker said. “Who amongst you in business would say, ‘You know what, times are tough so I’m going to double the price of my product?’”
Quinn’s office had no official response to Walker’s visit, although the Illinois governor addressed the issue in a news conference Friday.
“I don’t know what he’s doing coming to Illinois. He has enough challenges in his own state. I don’t plan to go to Wisconsin anytime soon,” Quinn said.
Quinn used the opportunity Tuesday to raise money. His campaign sent an email asking for donations shortly after Walker visited.
“If you want a governor with a proven record of job creation, rather than just rhetoric, show your support for Governor Pat Quinn,” the email said.
Quinn and Walker have traded jabs since about the time Walker took office.
John McAdams a political science professor from Marquette University in Milwaukee, said Walker’s trip to Illinois offered a way to garner media coverage ahead of the June 5 recall election.
“Everything Scott Walker does is part of his re-election campaign, just like, let’s be honest about this, everything (President) Barack Obama does is part of his re-election campaign,” McAdams said.
McAdams said Walker used his speech in Illinois in much the same way an environmental crusader would use a polluted river as backdrop for a news conference.
“This is the message that Walker’s people want Wisconsinites in general to get. Illinois is sort of a paradigm of what happens when you have a liberal governor that raises taxes to deal with a budget crisis,” McAdams said.
Illinois Chamber of Commerce President Doug Whitley said Walker was invited to the event because of his ability to cut Wisconsin’s deficit.
“Let’s hear some fresh thoughts and fresh ideas,” Whitley said.
Walker’s visit to Illinois fell on the same day a pension-reform working group was to release recommendations for fixing the state’s public pension funds. The state’s pension system faces an $85 billion unfunded liability, and pension payments are eating up more and more state spending.
Recommendations, which could range from eliminating cost-of-living increases for retirees to asking current workers to pay more, now are expected to be released later this week, Quinn said in a news release.
Whitley said Walker’s visit wasn’t intended to be seen as an endorsement for eliminating collective bargaining for Illinois’ public unions.
“We brought him here strictly to talk about fiscal issues,” Whitley said.
The approximately 3,500 union protesters outside thought differently.
Protesters chanted, “Tell me what Democracy looks like? This is what Democracy looks like” while marching around carrying signs what read “Go Home Gov. Walker.”
“We sent a strong message to Illinois politicians that we won’t tolerate Walker-style attacks on the middle class, including the push to slash the modest pensions of teachers, police and other public employees,” said Anders Lindall, spokesman for the public union American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.
McAdams said Walker and his Democratic opponents are not talking about collective bargaining in the run-up to the special election.
“Clearly, Walker wants to run on his fiscal successes,” McAdams said. “Democrats, on the other hand, are pointing to things like reductions in state aid to education” made during Walker’s term.
COMMENTARY: Fake candidate follies, 2012 edition
April 13, 2012
By Kevin Binversie
Let it be declared throughout the Badger State that Wisconsin’s liberals hate stealth candidates — Republicans who switch parties to run as Democrats in Democratic primaries and, so, siphon votes from real Democrats.
Senate hopefuls weigh in on health care, foreign policy
April 11, 2012
By Andrew Thomason | Statehouse News Online
WAUKESHA — Republican candidates hoping to win the August primary for the U.S. Senate addressed topics ranging from foreign policy to national health care during 90-minute debate Wednesday night.
Jeff Fitzgerald, Eric Hovde, Mark Neumann and Kip Smith took part in a GOP debate hosted by the Republican Party of Waukesha County and Wisconsin Reporter.
Four-term former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson was absent. He was in Washington, D.C., for a previously scheduled fundraiser, said Don Taylor, chairman of the Republican Party of Waukesha County.
National health care
All four candidates participating in the debate agreed that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the national health care law, needs to be repealed.
“The biggest thing we need to do is get government out of the way … (and) let the free markets reign again,” said Smith, a Rhinelander physical therapist.
Fitzgerald, a state representative who is speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, also called for a complete rollback of President Barack Obama’s crowning domestic achievement.
“Our president wants to start a new entitlement that will be the behemoth of all entitlements and will bankrupt this country,” Fitzgerald said.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of the federal health care law in June.
Foreign policy
Fitzgerald called Pakistan a corrupt nation that the United States must monitor. He did not rule out military action against the country where Osama Bin Laden was killed.
The U.S. has to do “anything we can do to stop a specific region or area that harbors terrorist,” Fitzgerald said. “I think we have to do whatever we can do to protect our country.”
Neumann, a former congressman of District 1, focused on Afghanistan. Neumann wouldn’t support an immediate end to the longest war in U.S. history. He said quick decisions would endanger troops in the Middle East.
But Hovde, a Madison businessman, called for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
“We need to get out. There’s no reason to spend more of our young people’s blood or our treasure in that country,” Hovde said.
Buffet rule
Obama is pitching increasing taxes on those with incomes of more than $1 million. The “Buffet Rule,” as it’s known, is named after billionaire and Obama supporter Warren Buffet.
The candidates Wednesday night came down hard on the president’s plan.
“We want people making investments in our economy to build that new plant,” Hovde said. “So why are you going to disincentivize them to make that investment?”
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