In 'THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE' News - Buried Provision In House GOP Bill Would Cut Off Food Stamps To Entire Families If One Member Strikes

from ThinkProgress:

Buried Provision In House GOP Bill Would Cut Off Food Stamps To Entire Families If One Member Strikes

All around the country, right-wing legislators are asking middle class Americans to pay for budget deficits caused mainly by a recession caused by Wall Street; they are attacking workers’ collective bargaining rights, which has provoked a huge Main Street Movement to fight back.

Now, a group of House Republicans is launching a new stealth attack against union workers. GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Tim Scott (SC), Scott Garrett (NJ), Dan Burton (IN), and Louie Gohmert (TX) have introduced H.R. 1135, which states that it is designed to “provide information on total spending on means-tested welfare programs, to provide additional work requirements, and to provide an overall spending limit on means-tested welfare programs.”

Much of the bill is based upon verifying that those who receive food stamps benefits are meeting the federal requirements for doing so. However, one section buried deep within the bill adds a startling new requirement. The bill, if passed, would actually cut off all food stamp benefits to any family where one adult member is engaging in a strike against an employer:
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The bill also includes a provision that would exempt households from losing eligibility, “if the household was eligible immediately prior to such strike, however, such family unit shall not receive an increased allotment as the result of a decrease in the income of the striking member or members of the household.”

Yet removing entire families from eligibility while a single adult family member is striking would have a chilling effect on workers who are considering going on strike for better wages, benefits, or working conditions — something that is especially alarming in light of the fact that unions are one of the fundamental building blocks of the middle class that allow people to earn wages that keep them off food stamps.

This is who they are. Time and time again, they are showing you who they are. They have absolutely nothing but contempt for the working man and woman that doesn't want to spend their lives as serfs to companies, and want to fight for a decent wage. This isn't a shock...because this is just another example of how these lowlifes operate.

Some More Updates on the Lying Wisconsin Governor

1. He got punked yesterday.





If you want to read a detailed transcript of the call is right here.

2. He admits what the end goal is, and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with 'FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY'




From Salon.com:

Ian Murphy, editor of the Buffalo Beast, just did something wonderful. Murphy, pretending to be billionaire industrialist and secretive conservative political activist David Koch, called Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, currently in the midst of attempting to crush the public employees' unions. "Koch" got through to Walker (who hasn't been taking calls from the Democratic state Senate minority leader). He taped the call and put it online.

So Walker will happily take a call from a Koch brother. He says that he considered "planting some troublemakers" among the protesters. He is convinced that everyone is on his side. Like most people who only watch Fox, he has a skewed impression of the popularity of his union-crushing proposals. (His plan is, nationally, roundly unpopular. Except on Fox.)

When "Koch" calls Mika Brzezinski "a real piece of ass," Walker does not respond by saying something awful, which is a bit of a disappointment.

Walker does reveal that he is planning to trick the Democrats into coming back into town for a "talk," despite his lack of interest in compromising anything. He will ask them to open a session in the Assembly, and then take a recess for this talk. At that point, the Senate Republicans would hold the vote on the bill while Walker distracts the Democrats with this entirely pointless discussion:

They can recess it ... the reason for that, we're verifying it this afternoon, legally, we believe, once they've gone into session, they don't physically have to be there. If they're actually in session for that day, and they take a recess, the 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they’d have quorum because it's turned out that way. So we're double checking that. If you heard I was going to talk to them that's the only reason why. We'd only do it if they came back to the capitol with all 14 of them. My sense is, hell. I'll talk. If they want to yell at me for an hour, I'm used to that. I can deal with that. But I'm not negotiating.

So, get that through your mind. I mean, we had already guessed that the threatening to fire the workers in order to force the Democrats back was a bunch of bullshyt, but now we have confirmation from his own mouth.

The benefit from the Democrats' stance is that all the hidden crap that Walker tried to sneak through in the bill is being brought to light...like him being a tool for the Koch Brothers, his attempted takeover of Medicaid, the no-bid contracts, etc. Before, nobody was paying any attention to the depth of the bill that he tried to ram through.

From the Reid Report:The National Journal this morning uncovers another possible wrinkle in the Scott Walker union busting saga: whether his plan for balancing his state’s budget is actually a multiple bait and switch.

From the National Journal:

while Walker argues that his budget-repair legislation must be passed soon to avoid job cuts, the most controversial parts of his bill would have no immediate effect.

The state’s entire budget shortfall for this year — the reason that Walker has said he must push through immediate cuts — would be covered by the governor’s relatively uncontroversial proposal to restructure the state’s debt.

By contrast, the proposals that have kicked up a firestorm, especially his call to curtail the collective-bargaining rights of the state’s public-employees, wouldn’t save any money this year.
“What we’re asking for is modest, at least to those of us outside of government,” Walker said in a televised address Tuesday night.

In January, the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported that the state would face a $137 million shortfall before the end of the fiscal year on June 30. The governor’s budget repair bill proposes a debt restructuring that would save the state $165 million in the near term, more than covering the shortfall.

The legislation would also borrow money from a federal welfare program to cover further state shortfalls, and it includes a provision that would allow the sale of the state’s public utilities without a bidding process or public oversight.

.......................

The bill also employs “emergency” powers that would allow the governor’s appointed health secretary to redefine the foundations of the state’s Medicaid program, Badgercare, ranging from eligibility to premiums, with only passive legislative review. The attorney in the legislature’s nonpartisan reference bureau who prepared the bill warned that a court could invalidate the statute for violating separation of powers doctrine.

The legislation, the lawyer wrote in a “drafter’s note” about the bill, would allow the state Department of Health Services to “change any Medical Assistance law, for any reason, at any time, and potentially without notice or public hearing… in addition to eliminating notice and publication requirements, [the changes] would leave the emergency rules in effect without any requirement to make permanent rules and without any time limit.”

Like I said, the longer this goes on...the more you see what Walker is REALLY about...and it's not about any 'Fiscal Responsibility'.

Rachel Maddow did excellent work on the bringing this roach's garbage to light.

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Ed Schultz had an interview with one of the Wisconsin State Senators on the lam:

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Let's get this clear about Wisconsin Governor Walker: 1. He's a liar 2. He's a paid stooge of the Koch Brothers, 3. He's a bully.

hat tip-3CHICSPOLITICO.COM and others

1. Governor Walker is a LIAR.

PERIOD.

Wisconsin's Pension Fund isn't in trouble.

In fact, Wisconsin's Pension Fund Among Nation's Healthiest

While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has painted a dire picture of his state's pension obligations, Wisconsin's pension fund for public employees is among the nation's strongest, according to a report by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

The Pew report, issued last year, concluded that Wisconsin is a "national leader in managing its long-term liabilities for both pension and retiree health care." Walker has cited the fund's lack of sustainability as grounds for his plan to revoke collective bargaining rights for state employees, but that proposal has sparked outrage among state employees and drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the state's capitol.

"We're going to ask our state and local workers ... to pay a little bit more, to sacrifice, to help to balance this budget," Walker said in a Sunday interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, adding that he would be forced to lay off 5,000 to 6,000 state employees if his budget plan was not approved, as well as a comparable number of local public employees.

But the Wisconsin pension fund is simply not in fiscal trouble. Its managers weren't burned by subprime mortgage assets or mortgage-backed securities as the housing bubble collapsed. The fund also relies on an automated dividend system, which pays out benefits in years the system is making gains while restricting payouts in years when it takes losses. And while the pension fund had a rough year during 2008 due to stock market losses, it remains robust, both in terms of fundamental financial stability and in comparison to other state pension programs.

According to the Pew study, Wisconsin had about $77 billion in total pension liabilities in 2008. But according to that same Pew study, those liabilities were 99.67 percent "funded," giving Wisconsin one of the four-highest of such ratios in the nation. Other states had funding ratios as low as 54 percent. For comparison, expert analysts and the Government Accountability Office consider an 80 percent level to be a good benchmark for pension fund stability, while Fitch Ratings considers 70 percent adequate.

He lied about the budget. He inherited a BUDGET SURPLUS that turned into a budget deficit because of TAX BREAKS that he gave to his friends.

2. He's a paid stooge of the Koch Brothers.



From the NYTimes

Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute
By ERIC LIPTON
Published: February 21, 2011

Among the thousands of demonstrators who jammed the Wisconsin State Capitol grounds this weekend was a well-financed advocate from Washington who was there to voice praise for cutting state spending by slashing union benefits and bargaining rights.
The visitor, Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, told a large group of counterprotesters who had gathered Saturday at one edge of what otherwise was a mostly union crowd that the cuts were not only necessary, but they also represented the start of a much-needed nationwide move to slash public-sector union benefits.

“We are going to bring fiscal sanity back to this great nation,” he said.

What Mr. Phillips did not mention was that his Virginia-based nonprofit group, whose budget surged to $40 million in 2010 from $7 million three years ago, was created and financed in part by the secretive billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch.

State records also show that Koch Industries, their energy and consumer products conglomerate based in Wichita, Kan., was one of the biggest contributors to the election campaign of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican who has championed the proposed cuts.

Even before the new governor was sworn in last month, executives from the Koch-backed group had worked behind the scenes to try to encourage a union showdown, Mr. Phillips said in an interview on Monday.

More from The Cap Times:


Koch brothers quietly open lobbying office in downtown Madison

The billionaire brothers whose political action committee gave Gov. Scott Walker $43,000 and helped fund a multi-million dollar attack ad campaign against his opponent during the 2010 gubernatorial election have quietly opened a lobbying office in Madison just off the Capitol Square.

Charles and David Koch, who co-own Koch Industries Inc. and whose combined worth is estimated at $43 billion, have been recently tied with Walker's push to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public workers. The two have long backed conservative causes and groups including Americans for Prosperity, which organized the Tea Party rally Saturday in support of Walker's plan to strip public workers of collective bargaining rights and recently launched the Stand with Scott Walker website.

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The lobbyists for Koch Companies Public Sector registered with the state on January 5, two days after Walker's inauguration.

The expanded lobbying effort by the Koch brothers in Wisconsin raises red flags in particular because of a little discussed provision in Walker's repair bill that would allow Koch Industries and other private companies to purchase state-owned power plants in no-bid contracts.

"It's curious that the Kochs have apparently expanded their lobbying presence just as Walker was sworn into office and immediately before a budget was unveiled that would allow the executive branch unilateral power to sell off public utilities in this state in no-bid contracts," says Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy.

And what do they get in return for their ownership of Walker?

The Less Discussed Part of Walker’s Wisconsin Plan: No-Bid Energy Assets Firesales.

Have you heard about 16.896?

The fight in Wisconsin is over Governor Walker’s 144-page Budget Repair Bill. The parts everyone is focusing on have to do with the right to collectively bargain being stripped from public sector unions (except for the unions that supported Walker running for Governor). Focusing on this misses a large part of what the bill would do. Check out this language, from the same bill (my bold):

16.896 Sale or contractual operation of state−owned heating, cooling, and power plants. (1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).

The bill would allow for the selling of state-owned heating/cooling/power plants without bids and without concern for the legally-defined public interest. This excellent catch is from Ed at ginandtacos.com (who, speaking of Madison, took me to the Essen Haus on my 21st birthday, where the night began to go sideways). Ed correctly notes:

If this isn’t the best summary of the goals of modern conservatism, I don’t know what is. It’s like a highlight reel of all of the tomahawk dunks of neo-Gilded Age corporatism: privatization, no-bid contracts, deregulation, and naked cronyism. Extra bonus points for the explicit effort to legally redefine the term “public interest” as “whatever the energy industry lobbyists we appoint to these unelected bureaucratic positions say it is.”

In case it isn’t clear where the naked cronyism comes in, remember which large, politically active private interest loves buying up power plants and already has considerable interests in Wisconsin. Then consider their demonstrated eagerness to help Mr. Walker get elected and bus in carpetbaggers to have a sad little pro-Mubarak style “rally” in his honor. There are dots to be connected here, but doing so might not be in the public interest.

It’s important to think of this battle as a larger one over the role of the state. The attempt to break labor is part of the same continuous motion as saying that the crony, corporatist selling of state utilities to the Koch brothers and other energy interests is the new “public interest.”

That's right....NO BID CONTRACTS for utilities.

UH HUH

That's the free market working?

NO BID CONTRACTS?

3. He's a BULLY.

In the beginning, he threatened to sic the National Guard on the protestors.

Then, he threatened to sic the State Troopers on the AWOL Dem State Senators...like they could send Troopers into ANOTHER STATE to bring them back.

Make no mistake....the UNIONS had already given in financial concessions.

This isn't about FINANCIAL CONCESSIONS....he already has that.

This is about STRIPPING THE UNIONS OF THEIR RIGHT TO COLLECTIVE BARGAIN.

But, here's the latest from the bully:

From TPM.com

Scott Walker To Democrats: Come Home Or The Workers Get It

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) took to the state airwaves Tuesday evening to offer another defense of his controversial budget package, which includes a provision that would strip many state workers of their collective bargaining rights. Speaking to camera, Walker repeated his threat of layoffs to come, if 14 state Senate Democrats who skipped town to prevent a vote from taking place, don't return to Madison. Walker said the protesters still packed in and around the state Capitol in Madison don't represent the people of Wisconsin.

"As more and more protesters come in from Nevada, Chicago and elsewhere, I'm not going to allow their voices to overwhelm the voices of the millions of taxpayers all across this state who know we're doing the right thing," Walker said. "This is a decision that Wisconsin will make."

Walker warned of "dire consequences" if the AWOL Senate Democrats -- who left the state last week to prevent the Senate from getting the necessary quorum to vote on Walker's budget bill -- don't return to Madison immediately.

The people who will suffer if the Democrats stay away, Walker said, will be the very state workers they say they're trying to protect.

"Failure to act on this budget repair bill means at least 1,500 state workers will be laid off before the end of June," he said. "If there's no agreement by July 1, another 5-6,000 state workers as well as 5-6,000 local government employees would also be laid off."

Walker said that if the Democrats don't come home soon, the responsibility for those potentially 10,000 plus layoffs will fall squarely on their shoulders.

They're already going to get it. That's what this is all about. They know it. And, if the firefighters or policemen have any doubts, let me say this one more time:

Look at what they did to the 9/11 responders..

You don't think he'll do that to you?

Secret RNC Files Reveal Republican Strategy

Republicans were seriously busted this week. An RNC fundraising presentation reveals the core of their overall strategy. The files reveal what many of us have been saying for years regarding how the Republicans manipulate the public. It confirms how the Republicans use fear (this is why their propaganda is so ridiculously over the top)...and it is also why they target the ill informed. But the papers reveal something worse...that the leadership of the Republican Party has a certain contempt for their own base voters. Stunning (not in the sense that this is what really goes on...many of us already knew that. But stunning in the sense that it is now out there for all to see). Sadly though... stupid American voters will still support these people.

Hear Howard Deans take on this.

From TPM

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele appeared on Fox News this afternoon, and had to answer some tough questions about the recent internal fundraising presentation that included negative depictions of President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- and the RNC's own donors.

The fundraising presentation, which was originally reported by the Politico, included the infamous illustration of Obama as the Joker, and also compared Pelosi to Cruella de Vil. It also directed how to appeal to "ego-driven" large donors, and to appeal to small donors through "fear" and "extreme negative feelings" and "reactionary" attitudes against the Obama administration.

Watch as Steele fumbles in his attempts to explain... lol

Rep. Anthony Weiner - the GOP is a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry

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O'Donnell bitchslaps Thiessen

hat tips- whiterosebuddy and Miranda.

Background for this from whiterosebuddy:
Did anyone else see that smackdown brawl on MorningJoe between O'Donnell and that asshole Thiessen?
He's the one with the new book claiming that Obama has dismantled some program and that he should not be killing the terrorists cause then we don't get intel? I posted a blurb about that nonsense on thurs thread.

OMG! You should have seen O'Donnell rip into this guy...Joe had to go for a break and even said, when we come back I will interview Thiessen alone.

After he was silenced, Joe gave O'Donnell one last query...and O'Donnell set it up by saying, what kind of experience do you have as a guy who grew up in the wealthiest zip code on EastSide and went to the only boarding school In CT with a golf course and having never served in the military, what experience do you have to say...... I was like DAyUUUM just put this obsequious phucker on blast O'Donnell!!

It was SWEEET!!

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