Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Not everybody is sharing the pain in Wisconsin

The antics of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker put into sharp focus the real purpose of his efforts to neuter Wisconsin’s public-employees unions. If, as he says, his goal is to reduce the state’s budget deficit, then where is the corresponding pain on the private sector?

Does he recommend an increase in taxes on the banking industry in Wisconsin? Does he want to impose tax increases on the insurance industry (in which Wisconsin has quite a stake), or the pharmaceutical labs and plants? Even a token tax increase on the dairy industry for which Wisconsin is famous? Not a chance.

He only attacks the public-employees unions that, after many years of underpayment, have finally reached salary and benefit levels that place them at a level of self-sufficiency and fiscal independence.

Plain and simple, this is a direct power grab that must play quite well with the ultraconservative “fat cat” Republicans, aka the Koch brothers and their corporate cohorts. Perhaps Walker sees a victory in Wisconsin as being the first step necessary for a presidential bid under the neocon banner of the Republican Party.

Whatever his motives, he should not be allowed the power grab to cut the state’s budget deficit on the backs of hardworking and dedicated public employees of Wisconsin without a similar pain-sharing plan with the private sector.

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