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Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
Wed Aug 12, 2015, 01:36 AM Aug 2015

Lawyers Guns & Money Blog: "Scott Walker: Reverse Robin Hood"

excerpt from insightful commentary:

"The fact that Scott Walker has abominable positions on abortion shouldn’t cause us to forget his abominable positions on pretty much anything. ... Tomorrow, Scott Walker will stand on a stage at State Fair Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and betray virtually every conservative economic principle there is by handing out up to $450 million in taxpayer money to wealthy sports owners to pay for private infrastructure at a time when public infrastructure is crumbling.

The massive sum will go toward the building of a new sports arena for the Milwaukee Bucks basketball franchise, pleasing the team’s billionaire hedge-fund-manager owners, who threatened to move the team if they weren’t given taxpayer tribute. Conservatives in recent years have feigned concern about corporate welfare, and this deal is really the ultimate expression of it: hundreds of millions of dollars from teachers, waitresses, factory workers and shop owners funneled to pay for an aristocrat’s show palace rather than needed public service."
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Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
1. (CNN): "As his lead slipped in Iowa after the first Republican debate, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
Wed Aug 12, 2015, 09:56 AM
Aug 2015

pivoted Tuesday: he swung directly at Donald Trump.

Walker accused Trump of using Democratic talking points ... Earlier Tuesday, Trump had knocked Walker in his first call with Fox since making peace with the network.

'Well, you know Scott was going to be sort of the leader in Iowa and the common wisdom was that Scott would win Iowa because he's from the adjoining state,' Trump said on Fox. 'You know his numbers are not good in the adjoining state. He's got a $2.2 billion deficit, they predicted that he'd have a big surplus of about a billion.'"

Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
2. American Bridge to the 21st Centruy: "Meet Scott Walker — For Real This Time"
Wed Aug 12, 2015, 10:17 AM
Aug 2015

Walker keeps promising detailed policy statement will show up on his website, but this is just one more promise that Walker has shamelessly broken. American Bridge to the 21st Century has helpfully filled the gap:



Education

Walker cut $800 million in K-12 education in 2011, which was the largest per-pupil cut in the nation that year. As a result, school districts cut 2,312 positions the following year, contributing to an increase in the statewide student-to-teacher ratio.
Walker cut $362.2 million from the University of Wisconsin System from 2011 to 2013.

In 2015, Walker proposed a $300 million cut from the University of Wisconsin. At the time of writing, the budget has not been finalized.

Walker created a $10,000 tax deduction for private school tuition. It could cost the state $30 million per year.

In his 2013 budget, Walker expanded school vouchers statewide. In his 2015 budget proposal, he attempted to eliminate the statewide cap on voucher schools.

In his 2015 budget, Walker proposed an additional $300 million in cuts to the UW system. The cuts were reduced to $250 million by the legislature.

Women

Walker opposes abortion in cases of rape, incest, and even life of the mother, saying, “the unborn child can be protected and there are many alternatives that would protect the life of the mother.”
Walker signed legislation that would, as a practical matter, require some women seeking an abortion to undergo a medically unnecessary and invasive transvaginal ultrasound.

Walker supports so-called “conscience” clauses for pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for the day-after pill.

Walker rolled back part of Wisconsin’s equal pay legislation, making it more difficult for women to sue their employers when they discover they are being paid less than their male counterparts for equivalent work.

Walker supports ending funding for Planned Parenthood and “defunded Planned Parenthood” in Wisconsin, in his own words.

LGBTQ

Walker opposes marriage equality and supported efforts to defeat it.
Walker opposed the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage and called for a constitutional amendment allowing states to define marriage.

Walker opposed a law that allowed gay couples to obtain hospital visitation rights, declared it unconstitutional, and attempted to defeat it in court.

In 2009, Walker prevented expansion of benefits to domestic partners of Milwaukee County employees.

Working Americans

Walker said the minimum wage was “lame” and that he didn’t believe it served a purpose. He opposed attempts to increase the state minimum wage.
Walker signed legislation nullifying paid-sick leave programs instituted by local municipalities like Milwaukee.

Walker’s 2011 budget repair bill eliminated collective bargaining rights for most government employees in Wisconsin.

Walker has said he hopes to “divide and conquer” unions.

Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
3. After Massive Contribution To Scott Walker, NBA Owner Will Get $250 Million In Tax Dollars
Wed Aug 12, 2015, 12:19 PM
Aug 2015

from Thinkprogress:


Wisconsin Governor and Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker will sign a bill Wednesday finalizing his controversial plan to spend $250 million in state, county and city funds — plus tens of millions more in interest and future tax breaks — on a new basketball arena for the Milwaukee Bucks....The Libertarian CATO Institute added: “Any presidential candidate who believes that taxpayer-subsidized stadiums are ‘a good deal’ shouldn’t be anywhere near the federal Treasury.”

The fact that the current Bucks arena is still $20 million in debt only bolsters their arguments.

Originally, Walker attempted to insert the $250 million arena deal into the massive two-year state budget that happened to cut $250 million from the University of Wisconsin, among other controversial provisions. But after outcry from both sides of the aisle, it was introduced as a separate bill, which passed after an intense barrage of lobbying.
Now, the generous public financing is raising questions about conflicts of interest.

On the very day that Walker began pushing for taxpayers to foot much of the bill for the new arena, one of the team’s owners donated $150,000 to his super PAC. The investor, Jon Hammes, has donated directly to Walker’s past campaigns, as well, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, and this year, Walker hired him as his national finance co-chairman. Another Bucks owner, Ted Kellner, gave $50,000 to Walker’s Super PAC.

Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
4. Harry Enten at Nate Silver's 538 blog: "The Post-Debate Losers (Walker) ..."
Wed Aug 12, 2015, 01:08 PM
Aug 2015
Losers

Scott Walker: This one surprised me a little, but the polling is clear. Walker is the only candidate who lost ground in every single post-debate poll. In Iowa, where Walker had been leading, just 5 percent of voters said his performance was the most impressive of all the candidates. Walker’s debate night was bad enough that he has lost his edge in Iowa to Trump.

Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
5. CNN: Walker falls from 1st to 3rd in Iowa behind non-politician amateur campaigners Trump and Carson
Wed Aug 12, 2015, 04:54 PM
Aug 2015

Brand new CNN poll of the Iowa Republican race:

Donald Trump has a significant lead in the race to win over likely Iowa caucus-goers, according to the first CNN/ORC poll in the state this cycle.

Trump tops the field with 22% and is the candidate seen as best able to handle top issues including the economy, illegal immigration and terrorism. He's most cited as the one with the best chance of winning the general election, and, by a wide margin, as the candidate most likely to change the way things work in Washington.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson follows Trump in overall preference with 14%, bumping Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who had held the top spot in most recent public polling in Iowa, down to third place with 9%. Walker is nearly even with a slew of other candidates.

Previous public polls had found Carson with around 10% support, but most were released before last week's debate. A Suffolk University poll of Iowa Republicans released Tuesday found Carson's closing remarks to be the most memorable moment for those who watched the prime time debate.

Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
6. Rolling Stone: "Scott Walker, known as one of America's most dickishly unscrupulous hate merchants"
Wed Aug 12, 2015, 07:41 PM
Aug 2015

funny article; here's a link

Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
7. New Yorker: Scott Walker...bans on abortion should include no exception to save the life of a woman
Thu Aug 13, 2015, 12:38 AM
Aug 2015

Excerpt from a great article:

it’s hard not to see some sort of misogyny in the unseemly scramble to plant a flag at the very farthest frontier of anti-abortion territory, positively eager to reiterate, as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker did, that bans on abortion should include no exception to save the life of a woman. Rare as such situations are—anti-abortion advocates are right to say that they don’t occur often—why would you want to bar even the possibility of saving a woman’s life over that of the fetus she is carrying? And whatever their motivation or intentions, the effect of the substantial restrictions on abortion that the Republican candidates favor would be damaging to women.
 

Elmer S. E. Dump

(5,751 posts)
8. How does anyone with an IQ higher than 50 think
Thu Aug 13, 2015, 10:57 AM
Aug 2015

That a full-grown human adult is less worthy to live than a 10 week old fetus? It just boggles the mind.

Attorney in Texas

(3,373 posts)
9. You see, there's this Book. The Book doesn't mention "abortion" but someone told him the Book frowns
Thu Aug 13, 2015, 11:56 AM
Aug 2015

on abortions so he's scared that if he does not make a jihad about abortions someone might think he's not following the Book, which is -- apparently -- something he was told is a bad thing.

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