Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Walker's Entire Recall Campaign Is Based On A Lie

"We balanced the state budget without raising taxes:"

That is what you hear every day, day in and day out, from Scott Walker and his supporters. But just like almost every thing that comes out of his mouth, whether he's talking about why he restored Family Care or whether he campaigned on busting the unions, this statement is an egregious lie.

First of all, he did not balance the budget. Not only did he not balance the budget, he made the deficit worse than the one he inherited from Doyle:
There's a chart every two years in the state budget demonstrating the bottom line under GAAP. The chart in the Walker administration"s Budget in Brief shows that the 2011-13 budget was not close to balanced by that standard.

In fact, the document shows that based on GAAP accounting, the state would have been left with a deficit of $3 billion by 2012-13 under Walker's budget. That compares to the $2.9 billion GAAP deficit he inherited at the end of Doyle's term, the state's financial statements show.
And I've already shown that he did not only raise taxes, he also raised fees dramatically.

But I was slightly remiss with that. I pointed out Walker had not only raised taxes, but did it on the poor. What I failed to point out was that it was not just the poor, but the poorest of the poor:
Last summer, the state Legislature reduced the amount of money low- income families can receive in tax credits by $56.2 million.

That places Wisconsin among only a handful of states that will effectively raise taxes on their poorest residents in 2012, according to a recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit think tank.

"At a time when low-wage workers are already struggling, this makes it that much more difficult (for them) to feed their families and pay their utility bills," said Jon Peacock with the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, an advocacy group that opposed the changes
So, we now know that he actually made the deficit worse, and raised taxes on the poorest citizens in the state. It couldn't possibly get any worse, right? Wrong.

Not only did he do all of those things, but in the process of doing them, he also attacked the state's economy:
The authors of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' study suggested the tax credit has a simulative effect on the economy because low-wage earners are more likely to spend the money they make rather than save it.
So by sticking it to the poor, and concentrating the money with the rich, he's taking money out of circulation, which then causes businesses, especially the small businesses that drive the economy, to shut their doors and lay off their employees. And thus, the downward spiral in which we find the state's economy.

We can, and we must, do better. But to do that, we first need to remove Scott Walker from office before he hurts more people.

4 comments:

  1. Hmmmmmm, Diamond Jim Doyle left this state with a $3 Billion dollar hole in the budget. Scott had to fix that. Come election time, the people of this state are going to remember the fiscal train wreck that the liberals created.

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  2. structurally unemployedJanuary 3, 2012 at 8:47 AM

    Maybe Walker could do something positive for the state for once and attempt to collect taxes from is biggest campaign contributors.

    From: http://bdgrdemocracy.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/georgia-pacific-a-subsidiary-of-koch-industries-an-early-gift-from-wisconsin-department-of-revenue/

    A recent report by The Institute for Wisconsin’s Future, reported by the Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District Democrats states that GP funneled $11 Billion in profits out of the state, to avoid paying taxes; and Koch Industries avoids paying $6 billion in Wisconsin taxes annually. GP needed only stall for time through endless appeals and negotiations until a more favorable political climate enabled them to cut a deal. That opportunity presented itself in the Walker Administration, and Revenue Secretary Chandler – a former corporate lobbyist. GP is now able to move its profits out of the state – profits made using taxpayer-funded infrastructure and incentives to grow their business and corporate revenue...

    Deficit gone, budget surplus, WI would actually look like a good place to start or attract a new business.

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  3. Anonymous 8:39 Reading comprehension is essential. If you had any, you would have seen, right at the top of the post, that Walker actually made the deficit worse than Doyle ever did. Go back to trolling elsewhere.

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  4. structurally unemployedJanuary 3, 2012 at 11:06 PM

    Sorry for the typo, first sentence should read, "his," biggest campaign contributors.

    ReplyDelete