Paul Ryan to Retire, tells Americans to have "People" (babies), missed the Rise of Robots and a Basic Income!!!

Amazing, just amazing...

As the story goes, Ryan wants to raise campaign money for other candidates, win reelection, and then step down. That assumes voters are that dumb? He's denied the story, but in the weakest way.

People should have...People (babies): Paul Ryan's latest stunning condescending statement about labor? He foresees a shortage of "people," and because we're all dumb as boards and can't make these decisions on our own, he's got some advice; give birth to "people."



Funny thing about having more people...they're going to need jobs. Paul Ryan assumes we're going to see future labor shortages...behind the times Paul. Robotics, automation...:

"Artificial intelligence and automation is going to have a lot of impact on the workforce," said Steve Jahn, executive director of Momentum West, an economic development group in northwestern Wisconsin. "There is forced automation because of forced challenges with workforce."

The implications extend from farming and manufacturing to fast food servers being replaced by kiosks, or taxi drivers and truck drivers being replaced by self-driving vehicles.

Loan officers, financial advisers, retail clerks and workers in dozens of professions face likely replacement due to automation, according to a 2013 Oxford University study. The Oxford University study found such jobs as lawyers, journalists and teachers to be least likely to be replaced by automation.

"It's getting very competitive out there," GEA regional equipment sales representative Rudy Sennhenn said. "It means he either pays up now (to automate) or he's going to lose a good employee to another farmer or he's going to end up paying (the worker) more."

The loss of low-skilled, manual jobs to automation is a well-worn tale, especially in a state like Wisconsin with its concentration of agriculture and manufacturing.

Wisconsin has 2.5 robots per thousand workers, the 10th highest concentration among the 50 states, according to an analysis of Moody's Analytics data by the Brookings Institution. Between 2010 and 2015, the number of industrial robots grew 124 percent in Wisconsin, only 36th highest in the country.

Demand for robots is expected to accelerate as a result of the state's growing worker shortage. In the past few years, (many companies) raised hourly wages from $8 to $10 an hour, but workers are asking for as much as $14 an hour now, a sign of the tight labor market and the economic reality of how difficult it is to live on less.

Basic Income Coming: Which brings us back to the oncoming debate over a "basic income." Heck, even Nixon wanted to provide a subsidized income once:

The idea is not exactly new—Thomas Paine proposed a form of basic income back in 1797—but in this country, aside from Social Security and Medicare, most government payouts are based on individual need rather than simply citizenship. Lately, however, tech leaders, including Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Hughes, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Y Combinator president Sam Altman, have begun pushing the concept as a potential solution to the economic anxiety brought on by automation and globalization—anxiety the tech industry has played its own role in creating.

If robots and offshoring take all the jobs, or at the very least displace the low-skilled ones, the thinking goes, there may come a time when there simply aren’t enough jobs to go around. What then? In "What Happened," Hillary Clinton writes that she considered rolling out a basic income policy during her 2016 campaign. In September, Silicon Valley congressperson Ro Khanna introduced a bill calling for a $1.4 trillion expansion of the earned income tax credit, which would effectively create a small basic income for low-income working people via tax credits. And the mayor of Stockton, California, recently announced that beginning in August 2018, the city plans to give some of its 300,000 citizens $500 a month, an experiment being funded by Hughes’s organization, the Economic Security Project.

And maybe what Republicans keep referring to as "bad public schools" would do much better if poverty didn't hammer kids down and set them down the wrong path. A basic income solves the crime problem as well:

In two studies, one published in 2003 and a follow-up in 2010, Jane Costello, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, compared children who were lifted out of poverty after the casino opened to those who had never been poor. She scored them based on the presence of emotional disorders, as well as behavioral disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Before the casino opened, Costello found that poor children scored twice as high as those who were not poor for symptoms of psychiatric disorders. But after the casino opened, the children whose families’ income rose (casino payments) above the poverty rate showed a 40 percent decrease in behavioral problems. She found something else: The younger the Cherokee children were when the casino opened, the better they fared compared to the older Cherokee children and to rural whites. This was true for emotional and behavioral problems as well as drug and alcohol addiction.

One fear about basic income is that people will be content living on their subsidies and stop working. But a 2010 analysis of the data, led by Randall Akee, who researches public policy at UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs, found no impact on overall labor participation.

Akee also looked at the effects of the money on education and found that more money in the household meant children stayed in school longer. The impact on crime was just as profound: A $4,000 increase in household income reduced the poorest kids’ chances of committing a minor crime by 22 percent.

All of this amounted to substantial financial benefits for the community as a whole. “This translates to fewer kids in jail, fewer kids in in-patient care,” Costello says. “Then there are the other costs you can’t calculate. The cost of people not killing themselves? That’s a hard one.”

One fear about basic income is that people will be content living on their subsidies and stop working. But a 2010 analysis of the data, led by Randall Akee, who researches public policy at UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs, found no impact on overall labor participation.

Akee also looked at the effects of the money on education and found that more money in the household meant children stayed in school longer. The impact on crime was just as profound: A $4,000 increase in household income reduced the poorest kids’ chances of committing a minor crime by 22 percent.

All of this amounted to substantial financial benefits for the community as a whole. “This translates to fewer kids in jail, fewer kids in in-patient care,” Costello says. “Then there are the other costs you can’t calculate. The cost of people not killing themselves? That’s a hard one.”

Note: Spell correct nailed me on "Stash," which should have been "Stache." Heck, just elect Randy  Bryce.

Walker targets workers in Chicago and elsewhere, bypassing hard hit Milwaukee, Racine and rest of State.

Scott Walker has washed his hands of every out of work Wisconsinite, giving up on them (too much work I guess) while seeking an outside labor force from Illinois. Wow, what an idea; take the easy way out after trashing public education, without ever lifting a figure to train, retrain, or coordinate employers with schools to encourage apprenticeship programs statewide. Oh, and with low unemployment, we're going to need an Illinois Foxconn workforce that bypasses the struggling Milwaukee/Racine jobless. 

Gov. Scott Walker’s announcement of a $6.8 million marketing and advertising campaign aimed at Midwestern millennials, returning military veterans and alumni of the state’s public and private colleges … promote the state’s industry mix, recreation, education, arts, health care.

Walker has had only one agenda; push a manufacturing renaissance and not an “industry mix.” Just as bad, he's defunded state parks and deregulated hunting (“recreation”), cut “education” especially the “arts,” and opposes a right to “health care.”

Big Corporate Special Interest Panics Walker: Oops, it'll be interesting to see how Walker spins his concentrated jobs effort in southeastern Wisconsin to all those resentful "forgotten" rural Republican voters who appear to have drawn the short straw again:

"Walker says German candy-maker Haribo was concerned about its ability to find workers for its planned Wisconsin gummy bear factory that will employ 400 people in Pleasant Prairie after news broke that Foxconn Technology Group was building a massive facility nearby. Walker met with company officials to calm their fears. Foxconn plans to employ between 3,000 and 13,000 workers 13 miles away in Mount Pleasant."

"Cheesy Image of State Needs an Update?" In the paper edition of the Wisconsin State Journal, this brutally honest headline (changed and softened online) exposes the Republicans unabashedly elitist view that the states major nationally known industries are an embarrassment that we need to run from:

Remember, our corporate whiny elitist snobs want to change our state license plate logo from Americas Dairyland to something generic or perhaps Walker's latest tourist roadside attraction:

After changing the online headline from an insult to "Fighting misperceptions about Wisconsin in the hunt for workers," right-wing business columnist and "wordsmith" Tom Still failed miserably to frame the GOP's distaste for Wisconsin image of cheese and farmers. Sounding whiny, petty and outright elitist...:  

It’s no secret that Wisconsin is a secret when it comes to most things other than cheese, farms and the Green Bay Packers. That branding dilemma…Job diversity means choosing between careers in curds, Colby or Cheddar.

The combination of a looming worker deficit and the impending arrival of high-tech manufacturers such as Foxconn has created a moment in which Wisconsin must finally get serious about attracting more people and selling itself as a well-rounded place to live, work and play.

Wisconsinites Moving Out: Never mind that Republicans have trashed the liberal out-of-touch science tech jobs leader Dane County and those elitist tech researchers at the University of Wisconsin. With no increase in the minimum wage and right-to-make-less labor laws...

WSJ: Despite a new report showing Wisconsin has the fastest-shrinking middle class in the U.S., the Gov. Scott Walker administration says the state is headed in the right direction.

March 24, 2015: Wisconsin ranks worst among the 50 states in terms of a shrinking middle class, with real median household incomes here falling 14.7 percent since 2000, according to a new report. The Pew Charitable Trust report showed Wisconsin with the largest decline in the percentage of families considered "middle class."

A declining population, particularly when residents are moving out of state, often can be traced to a lack of job opportunities or a low quality of life. Between 2010 and 2015, 14,210 more people moved out of the state than moved in, equivalent to a net population loss of 0.2% over that time. Wisconsin is one of just 14 states with a net negative migration over the last five years.

Even more incredible, after Walker just appeared in a campaign ad supporting Ill. Gov. Rauner's reelection effort, our backstabbing governor is begging Chicagoans to move to Wisconsin. No really, this is nuts: 

Reach out to Millennials in Chicago and nearby on the theory that they’re reaching an age in which starting a family and leading a more balanced life is better than living in a tiny apartment and fighting rush-hour traffic. 

For example, multimedia ads would pose illustrated choices such as:

1. “An hour in traffic … or an hour with friends?”

2. “One-hour commute … or one-hour bike ride?” (MY GOD, Walker passed a "provision that prohibits local jurisdictions and the state DOT from condemning property to 'establish or extend' recreational trails, bicycle commuter paths, bike lanes or sidewalks.")

3. “Shoebox on the third floor … or loft in the Third Ward?”

Of course, Tom Still couldn't help but bash the state's reputation one more time, while ignoring Walker's admitted "divide and conquer" agenda where he once praised the statewide partisan anger pitting neighbor against neighbor as a healthy debate:

A point yet to be addressed is how to overcome a belief, which surfaced in the 2015 perception survey, that Wisconsin isn’t very tolerant. Part of persuading people to relocate is assuring them they won’t become strangers in a new land ... maybe this time the state will recognize it must cut a big block of cheese if it hopes to attract and retain tomorrow’s workers.

Dissent will not be tolerated say our "Stand with Walker" right wing authoritarians.

Stand with Walker supporters had to bus in protesters!

The wacky right and their envious spokesperson Vicki "I am AFP" McKenna failed to convince very many people to turn out at the Capitol, especially knowing their Americans for Prosperity buses could only transport a limited number of seniors at a time.

That wasn't true of the hard working Wisconsinites who turned out to support all labor, including the vilified teachers in our classrooms.

The tea party "counter protests" were so small and embarrassing that there is no photographic evidence available anywhere.

When it comes to Act 10, this is how Wisconsin Republicans saw the mass turnout of protesters standing up for workers. Guess we don't want to see American redressing their government again anytime soon? McKenna actually wrote this on her Facebook page...

You'll love this comment...

"This is one of the reasons why education should be entirely privatized. Wisconsinite turned against Wisconsinite with such rancor because teachers' salaries & benefits became a public matter."

Poll finds Conservatives believe Rich, not Minimum Wage Employees, Work Harder!

If you've every worked a minimum wage job before, it's hard to forget how hard and unforgiving some of them were. Republicans would like to think we're all lying. The shocking "truth" for them is, white collar managers work even harder than back breaking laborers. From the Daily Kos:

A new Pew Research Center/USA Today poll echoes Quinnipiac in finding a fundamental difference in how Republicans and Democrats see economic inequality and poverty: Republicans actually believe that rich people are rich because they worked harder and poor people are poor because they didn't work hard enough:

Chris Christie: "The caricature of a third world despot," and the Dehumanization of Workers.

In a companion piece from Blogging Blue's great post on Chris Hedges' take on the demise of liberalism, I thought his description of conservative presidential wet dream Chris Christie was right on target. It's the rise of the bully.

Retaliatory politics isn't a unique feature of the Christie administration, we're also seeing it here in Wisconsin under Scott Walker and his one party band of Republicans thugs, who are not quite as abrasive but just as effective. Hedges wrote this:

Truthdig: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been Wall Street’s anointed son for the presidency. He is backed by the most ruthless and corrupt figures in New Jersey politics … The brewing scandal over the closing of traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge is a window into how federal agencies and the security and surveillance apparatus would be routinely employed in a Christie presidency to punish anyone who challenged this tiny cabal’s grip on power.

Christie is the caricature of a Third World despot. He has a vicious temper, a propensity to bully and belittle those weaker than himself, an insatiable thirst for revenge against real or perceived enemies, and little respect for the law and, as recent events have made clear, for the truth. He is gripped by a bottomless hedonism that includes a demand for private jets, huge entourages, exclusive hotels and lavish meals. Wall Street and the security and surveillance apparatus want a real son of a bitch in power, someone with the moral compass of Al Capone, in order to ruthlessly silence and crush those of us who are working to overthrow the corporate state. 

…if Christie becomes president, see the vast forces of the security state surge into overdrive to stymie and reverse reform, gut our tepid financial and environmental regulations, further enrich the corporate elite who are pillaging the country, and savagely shut down all dissent. The corporate state’s repression, now on the brink of totalitarianism, would with the help of Christie, his corporate backers and his tea party loyalists become a full-blown corporate fascism. Christie’s large public entourage always includes a videographer who captures the governor’s frequent public humiliation of those—public school teachers are his favorite targets for ridicule—who have the audacity to question his judgment. These exchanges are immediately edited and uploaded to YouTube. There are now more than 600. 

Here's a bonus:

Chris Hedges discusses the psychology of the super rich; their sense of entitlement, the dehumanization of workers, and mistaken belief that their wealth will insulate them from the coming storms

 

Capitol Hill Staffers have positive opinion of Corporations, not so much for labor.

“The poll comes amid rising complaints from the private sector that Capitol Hill doesn’t understand or appreciate business.”-Politico

Businesses feelings are being hurt.

The above quotation from the Politico article below reminded me of a recent poll here in Wisconsin by corporate lobbyist Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce.

In fact, I was so appalled by this comment by WMC President/CEO Kurt R. Bauer, that I wanted to give it its own blog post. I can’t really imagine what would make someone think like this, especially after the jobs losses due to the Great Recession:

“Many employers say burgeoning government sponsored benefits like protracted unemployment insurance and other entitlement programs are undermining workers abilities to re-enter the workforce,” Bauer said. “People don’t keep their skills up when they can get unemployment benefits for 24 months along with other entitlements. Employers can compete against each other on wages, but they can’t compete against the government on handouts.”

Again: “The poll comes amid rising complaints from the private sector that Capitol Hill doesn’t understand or appreciate business.”

This should tell you something our corporate takeover.  I know, it sounds clichéd, but…there’s nothing secret or “dog whistle” about it anymore, as corporations decide how they’re going to tweak the few remaining nagging details. Even staffers on Capitol Hill trust business over labor...help:           

Corporations are still seen as trustworthy and necessary by Capitol Hill staffers, according to a new survey … of 328 bipartisan congressional staff:

65 percent of Hill staffers have a positive opinion of corporations — calling them very or somewhat trustworthy. Less than half — 49 percent —say the same about organized labor.

71 percent of Hill staffers found meetings with CEOs and top executives useful to do their jobs, while only 45 percent said the same about meetings with labor leaders.

64 percent of Hill staffers said that meeting with corporate lobbyists was a helpful activity in formulating policy, while only 45 percent reported that meeting with labor lobbyists was useful.

Again: “The poll comes amid rising complaints from the private sector that Capitol Hill doesn’t understand or appreciate business.”

India Raises Minimum Wage, brings in Unions to save lives.

It looks like India is about to raise their minimum wage and bring in the unions.

Hmm, minimum wage increases and union representation…where have I heard that before? Oh, those are Republican targets for cuts in the U.S.. 

While at the same time in India, after 1,126 factory workers were crushed by a collapsing garment building, there’s a move to increase the minimum wage and expand union representation to improve working conditions and save peoples lives. 

The U.S. is trying to be more like the India that even India doesn't want to be like.

Will Democrats even mention this tragic accident as a way to demonstrate how the U.S. had progressed beyond the slave labor wages and working conditions we saw in the 1920’s and 30’s? 

Radio Australia: The Bangladeshi Government is promising to increase the minimum wage for more than three million of the country's garment workers …the panel will include union representatives as well as factory owners.

The announcement came as the death toll from the country's worst industrial disaster climbed to 1,126 - 19 days after a nine-story garment factory complex in a suburb of Dhaka caved in and buried thousands of workers. Workers at the country's garment-manufacturing hub of Ashulia on the outskirts of Dhaka left their factories en masse Sunday morning to demand an increase in wages. "Up to 30 factories suspended production for the day as tens of thousands of workers refused to work."-AFP news agency.

Caught the Corporate Rat:

They also demanded the death penalty for Sohel Rana, owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza complex, who was arrested at Bangladesh's main border crossing with India after a four-day manhunt last month. He is accused of forcing laborers to work on April 24, the day of the collapse, even though cracks appeared in the building a day before.

Another fire last November killed 111 garment workers, the worst blaze in the history of the country's textile industry. 

My research turned up this short moment in U.S. history reflecting just how bad things were then, and how similar things are now:

The richest people in society felt no sympathy for the starving masses. They had spent the previous decade slashing wages and breaking unions, with widespread success. By 1929, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had lost a million members.

With the onset of depression, they banded together as a group to oppose every measure to grant government assistance to feed the hungry or help the homeless. Most employers flatly refused to bargain with any union, and used the economic crisis as an excuse to slash all wages across the board. But in so doing, they unleashed the greatest period of social upheaval that has ever taken place in the United States.

When faced with working-class opposition, the ruling class responded with violence. Police repeatedly fired upon hunger marchers in the early 1930s. In 1932, for example, the Detroit police mowed down a hunger demonstration of several thousand, using machine guns. Four demonstrators were killed and more than 60 were injured. Yet afterward a city prosecutor said, "I say I wish they’d killed a few more of those damn rioters."  In 1933, FDR granted workers the right to organize into unions in Section 7(a) of the National Recovery Act … But everywhere the employers put up violent resistance. In the South, the ruling class unleashed a torrent of racism and anti-communism, while armed mobs attacked strikers. The Gastonia Daily Gazette ran "Communism in the South. Kill it!" as a front-page headline. Employers distributed anti-union leaflets that read, "Would you belong to a union which opposes White supremacy?"

In Gastonia, North Carolina, National Guardsmen joined by armed strikebreakers, were ordered to "shoot to kill" unarmed strikers: Without warning came the first shots … Striker after striker fell to the ground … In Burlington, North Carolina, soldiers bayoneted five picketers in a group of 400, all of whom were wearing "peaceful picket" badges. In the North, when National Guard troops occupied mill towns all over New England ... Rhode Island’s Democratic governor declared that "there is a communist uprising and not a textile strike in Rhode Island," and called the legislature into special session to declare a state of insurrection and request federal troops.

Republicans in the house put foreign governments above American People, Employers over Workers. Do Away with overtime.

ROLL CALL: This section of the paper never gets much attention, but should. It reflects the heart and soul of our political parties.

The most stunning display of misplaced priorities took place in the House, where our Republican representatives ditched their constituents…hung em out to dry. Wisconsin State Journal:

U.S. DEBT PRIORITIES: Voting for the bill, House bill (HR 807) gave payment priority to bondholders, such as domestic pension funds and foreign governments, if the Treasury were unable to meet all of its debt obligations. Social Security trust funds would be next in line … Republicans said this advance statement of debt-payment priorities would instill confidence in investors essential to the health of the U.S. economy.  

Investors were more essential than Americans, especially seniors. Here’s what the Democrats wanted. Compare their priorities:

DEMOCRATS’ DEBT PRIORITIES: Voting 200 for and 207 against, the House defeated a bid by Democrats to ensure that obligations to federal deposit insurance, Social Security and Medicare trust funds, veterans’ benefits and recovery from natural disasters be paid ahead of debt service to foreign bondholders such as China and Iran under the terms of HR 807 (above).

Who’s looking out for our interests? The Republicans who put paying off China and Iran first, or securing out social safety nets and veterans benefits? It’s breathtaking really.

A yes vote backed the Republican bill. Voting yes: Paul Ryan, James Sensenbrenner, Tom Petri, Sean Duffy, Reid Ribble. Voting no: Mark Pocan, Ron Kind, Gwen Moore.

That was the first slap in the face. Here’s the second where Republican take the side of business owners and not working Americans. Essentially, Republicans support doing away with overtime pay:

‘COMP TIME’ FOR OVERTIME: Voting 223 for and 204 against, the House sent bill (HR 1406) authorizing employers in the private sector to offer “compensatory time off” in place of extra cash for working overtime. Under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, employers are required to pay “time and a half” for each hour worked over 40 hours per week. Under this bill, they could instead provide one and a half hours off for each hour over 40 if that is agreeable to the employee. Employers have discretion to schedule the time off under the bill, and state agencies, not the U.S. Department of Labor, would enforce comp-time agreements.

A yes vote was to pass the bill. Voting yes: Ryan, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Duffy, Ribble. Voting no: Pocan, Kind, Moore.

The Democrats should have opposed any changes outright, blasting the Republicans, but as usual they “compromised” by softening this bizarre attack on overtime pay:

EMPLOYEE CONTROL OF ‘COMP TIME’: Voting 200 for and 207 against, the House defeated a Democratic bid to give employees the right to schedule their time off under certain circumstances. This motion shifted control to workers if they need to schedule medical appointments, care for a family member or, if they are veterans, schedule appointments related to combat injuries.

A yes vote backed the Democratic motion.Voting yes: Pocan, Kind, Moore. Voting no: Ryan, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Duffy, Ribble

Big Walker Supporter, WMC, repeats last years claim-jobs on the way.

For the last year Scott Walker has talked up how positive business is about improved climate in the state. Still, Wisconsin has added fewer jobs than almost every other state in the country. Really, after a year and a half, he’s only come up with a possible 30,000 jobs?

What’s not said is how that number could be more honestly attributed to the normal business cycle and the slowly improving recovery. If employers are positive, they can thank the Obama administration policies. Of course they won’t.

It’s no surprise than that the biggest Walker supporter and the voice of big business, Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce, would release another overly positive “feel good” survey of businesses that are promising jobs, jobs, jobs, just like a year ago. And we know how that turned out. This press release is so blatantly transparent, yet treated like it's actual news:

jsonline: Nearly two-thirds of employers, many of them manufacturing com­panies, plan to hire people in the next six months, a new survey from Wisconsin Manufacturers & Com­merce shows.

The 62% who said they plan to add employees is up from 53% a year ago … OEM Fabricators had a 75% sales increase in 2011 and expects similar growth this year. A year ago, it held a mock 'funer­al for the recession,' which public­ly proclaimed an end to hard times. 'Our customers are pushing us to take on more work, which is good. Everything in our portfolio has been strong.”

If what OEM is saying is true, than what they’re talking about is something Walker and the Republican legislature have never considered important; improving consumer demand. That's the real job creator.

Thanks to You Republican Tea Party Dummies, We're Losing Labor and the Middle Class.

The private sector has seen much better days, when more people were in unions, got higher pay, received comfortable retirement benefits and sustained a strong middle class life style.

But union bashing, "right to work" laws, global competition and Wall Street pretty much killed those glory years. But its economic twin, the public sector, remained stable and unionized. And for those politicians who enriched the private sectors bottom line with cheap labor and neo-liberal trade policies, the public sector represented a surviving part of the middle class. It was time to attack.

Here's AFL-CIO's Stephanie Bloomingdale with her take on the frontal assault on labor in Wisconsin:



The great quote going around the blogs, from Uppity Wisconsin, to MALcontends, is this great observation:

Former GOP staffer, Mike Lofgren:

Having gutted private-sector pensions and health benefits as a result of their embrace of outsourcing, union busting and 'shareholder value,' the GOP now thinks it is only fair that public-sector workers give up their pensions and benefits, too. Hence the intensification of the GOP's decades-long campaign of scorn against government workers. Under the circumstances, it is simply safer to be a current retiree rather than a prospective one.

If you think Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping colleagues aren't after your Social Security and Medicare, I am here to disabuse you of your naiveté. They will move heaven and earth to force through tax cuts that will so starve the government of revenue that they will be 'forced' to make hard choices' - and that doesn't mean repealing those very same tax cuts, it means cutting the benefits for which you worked.

Congressional benefits Outragous!!! Let’s bring the world of Public Workers down to the same level as Private Workers!

So you’re going to knock the pampered, feeding at the trough, government worker down from their elitist taxpayer draining high horse huh? Well I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before you ask your elected officials to feel our pain too, right?

No? Think again tea party know it all:

(Insider Report email from Newsmax.com) Congress Retirement Benefits: 5 Times the Private Sector-A member of Congress receives retirement contributions of about 33 percent of pay each year — five times as much as a private sector worker in a large company.


Writing for the Journal of the American Enterprise Institute, Andrew Biggs calculates that a retired member of Congress receives a pension equivalent to 22.4 percent of wages. Altogether members of Congress receive around 33.4 percent of pay in retirement benefits.

Private sector workers at firms with at least 1,000 employees receive total retirement compensation of around 6.4 percent of pay, Biggs says, so “annual retirement contributions for a member of Congress exceed those for private sector employees by a factor of five.”

If you’re into raising the retirement age for Americans, which is essentially a reduction in benefits, get a load of this:

Members of Congress can receive retirement benefits as early as age 50, depending on their length of service. They currently get a salary of $174,000 a year, plus offices and staff, and congressional leaders receive more compensation.

Biggs states: “We shouldn’t come away from this with a conclusion other than that congressional retirement benefits — like federal employee benefits in general — are far more generous than those a typical private sector worker receives.”

I’m ready to protest spreading the pain of the private sector, are you?

Wisconsin, Walker and the legislature lost 20 weeks of federal unemployment benefits by not trying.

The details on this are few, but here's what I have discovered so far:

Slate: Why are governments across the country starting to kick the support out from under the chairs of the jobless? For all the other states cutting back, the issue is inaction, rather than fiscal pressure. Some states needed to make a certain simple legislative fix to ensure that the federal government kept on kicking in its share of weeks of benefits—weeks of benefits already budgeted and paid for in Washington. A number of states failed to do so. So, on April 16, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin all lost 20 weeks of federal benefits, effective immediately. Missouri did on April 2 as well.

Not only did the state lose the extended unemployment benefits, but they may also be on their way to raiding those lost benefits to pay for other things. You won’t believe this:

This week, House Republicans introduced a bill that effectively encourages states to whittle back their unemployment insurance systems. The legislation—written by Rep. Dave Camp (Mich.), gives states the option of using federal unemployment-benefit dollars for other job creation programs. 

This jaw dropping robbery of jobless families is not getting the coverage it should. Just to have someone come up with an scheme like this is unthinkable. This last line is not to be forgotten.

If some states, perhaps following Michigan's example, cut benefits and use federal dollars to repay loans rather than provide weeks of aid, it could take billions from jobless Americans' pockets.

I’ve seen and covered a lot, but this is unspeakably cruel. 

The Great Republican Recession of 2008 Created 8.4 Million Unemployed Workers. Republican Solution: Reduce Unemployment Insurance?

With 16 percent of Americans now out of work, the Republicans have a plan. Like tort reform, where they went after the victims of medical errors instead of reducing the 200,000 errors to begin with, Republicans would like to limit the weeks the jobless can collect unemployment instead of creating jobs.

Washington Post: Michigan moved Thursday to significantly cut its unemployment program, becoming the first of what could be a flurry of debt-laden states to reduce aid even as high jobless rates persist. The Michigan measure reduces the maximum period from 26 to 20 weeks, the lowest in the nation…

The inhumanity of such a policy is glossed over by the media, who is presenting it as an argument between ideologies. Public uncertainty is never considered an equal to business uncertainty. In fact, it’s never mentioned. And the way it’s presented here is just sad; “Critics have decried?”  “Frightfully shortsighted?”

This is employee cruelty. It creates a desperate slave labor workforce with little or no time to find a job.

Although critics have decried the benefit reductions during a time of high joblessness as part of a political “war on the unemployed,” advocates of the cutbacks say they are necessary to ease the burden on employers, who pay for the programs through a payroll tax.

A burden? It’s called unemployment insurance, paid for by the employer as part of each employees wage package. It’s not an ADDED penalty, a burden, to business. If you can’t afford it, you probably can’t afford the employee.  

But this bizarre Republican preoccupation with, and surrender to, business is only getting more extreme:

Wendy Block of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which lobbied for the bill. “This insures that employers won’t be taxed through the roof for unemployment benefits.” 

The Florida House reduced the maximum benefit period from 26 to as little as 12 weeks. The jobless rate in Florida is 11.9 percent.

With jaw dropping ruthlessness...

State Rep. Doug Holder (R-Sarasota), the sponsor of the Florida bill said, “We are sending a message to the business community that Florida is quickly becoming the most business-friendly state in the country.” 

Background: This wasn't the fault of employees, but Republican politicians cutting taxes, again.

The shortfalls can be traced to a failure during the economic boom to properly prepare for a downturn, experts said. 

Unemployment benefits are funded by a payroll tax on employers, collected at a rate that is supposed to keep the funds solvent. Firms that fire lots of people are supposed to pay higher rates. Over the boom years, the drive to minimize state taxes on employers reduced revenues, and when the ranks of the unemployed grew during the crisis, the funds could not meet the need.

Voters Overwhelmingly back Employees Right to Paid Sick Leave, Republican Legislature Working to Nullify Will of People.

When 69 percent of Milwaukee voters passed the right for paid sick leave in a referendum two years ago, the business community challenged the will of the citizens in court, and managed to hold up the benefit.

That’s over.

jsonline: The Wisconsin Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld Milwaukee's paid sick-day ordinance that was halted by an injunction two years ago … the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce called the ordinance a job killer for the city … Supporters argued that workers should not be forced to choose between being sick or caring for a sick child and a paycheck.

But old habits die hard for the business community and Republican lawmakers, who once again are happy to tell the rest of the country just how bad Wisconsin is for business.

Steve Baas, director of governmental affairs for the MMAC in a call from Chicago we get a ruling like this that will make it more expensive to bring jobs to Milwaukee. It's an ironic whammy," he said. "It will have a chilling effect on the economy and will be bad for our competitiveness."

KaPow!!! Did you hear that corporate America, we’re bad for business?  Stay away.

The pettiness of the business community on this issue is nothing short of bizarre. But if anyone had their doubts about how much the Republican Party is in the back pocket of big money, and not on your side, wonder no more. Those business breaking 5 or 9 days of paid sick leave won’t stand.

MMAC attorneys are working to pass pending state legislation in Madison that would nullify the city's ordinance. 

A bill passed by the state Senate would nullify the city's ordinance. It would require family and medical leave to be uniform throughout the state and would not allow a city, village, town or county to enact an ordinance to provide employees with more leave. Baas said the MMAC have been working closely with legislators to get that measure passed.

MMAC is working closely with Republicans to take sick leave away from employees? Who would have imagined?

Can you say frivolous lawsuit?

In the ruling, the Court of Appeals wrote that the ordinance does not violate any of the statutory or constitutional provisions raised by the MMAC, which sued the city.

Republicans, Media Miscalculate 2012 Election Issues.

How much you wanna make a bet "Obamacare" will take a back seat to the Republican state lawmakers attack on workers, public schools, wages, no job creation and health care availability!!! Sorry Fox News, the headline below is yesterdays news.

Fighting High Unemployment, Michigan Republicans just reduced unemployment benefit weeks!

Does anyone in this country really think this is the way to govern? Break up the unions, take down labor murals, take away their health care assistance, share the pain of low wages and benefits, and now…shorten the weeks of unemployment benefits.

This is Dickensian economics.

Detnews: The Michigan state Senate approved a bill today to extend unemployment for about 150,000 workers slated to fall off the rolls by the end of the year — with the catch that state-level unemployment benefits for future filers would be limited to 20 instead of 26 weeks. 

Democrats strenuously objected to a last-minute amendment that would tie receiving the federal benefits to a permanent reduction in eligibility for state unemployment benefits. The bill passed 24-13 along party lines. 

"There is nothing in this legislation that helps Michigan's business community, but there is plenty in this legislation that would harm Michigan's unemployed workers," Sen. John Gleason, D-Flushing, said in a statement … “we're instead handing a tremendous cost down to our unemployed workers who will be cut off from their benefits earlier."

What kind of defense could Republicans give for actually shortening the benefit time?

Sen. Mike Kowall, R, praised the bill for cracking down on unemployment fraud, noting a recent auditor general report that cited overpayments, uncollected penalties and millions paid to illegal aliens.

That sounds like a bureaucratic problem easily taken care of by competent governing.

But get this; Republicans are doing this during high unemployment, to save money in the overdrawn insurance fund. A simple solution that cuts the time people can keep their families sheltered and fed. That will show them.

Republicans claim the fund is $3.9 billion in debt due to massive unemployment payouts during the decade-long recession. 

“Massive unemployment” depleted the fund? CUT THEIR BENEFITS.

Labor Mural in Maine order Down by Republican LePage, too “biased against business owners.”

If the full frontal assault on employees and their place in the work force weren’t obvious enough, just take a look what extremist Republican Gov. Paul LePage is doing.  

Cleveland Leader: Maine's new Republican governor, Paul LePage, has ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural in the Department of Labor's lobby which depict's Maine's labor history. 

Critics have labeled it a "mean-spirited" attempt at provocation amid LePage's standoff with unions, but a spokesperson, when asked to justify the mural's removal, said that "some businesspeople" said that the mural was "hostile to business." When asked to elaborate on which businesspeople complained, the spokesperson declined to comment.

After digging deeper, I found this at the Huffington Post: 

Maine DOL Acting Commissioner Laura Boyett sent out an e-mail saying that after some complaints from businesses, the mural would be removed. Additionally, the state would be renaming eight conference rooms, many of which commemorate former labor leaders and one honoring the first female U.S. Cabinet secretary. 

"We have received feedback that the administration building is not perceived as equally receptive to both businesses and workers … Whether or not the perception is valid is not really at issue and therefore, not open to debate. 

Since when is anything you’ll find in the Big Government Republicans agenda up for anything but dictates? But will voters ever take notice before the critical and final stage leading to one party rule?

Maine AFL-CIO President Don Berry issued a statement condemning the announcement, saying, "No matter what you name a room, no matter how many pictures you take down, the truth is that this state was built by and for working people and this move dishonors the generations of hard-working Mainers who came before us. Paul LePage cannot erase our history, and he will not silence the voice of the working class in Maine."

Mural details: The 11-panel mural was created by artist Judy Taylor. She says that it was never intended to be pro-union or pro-labor. It was simply supposed to be a "pure depiction of the facts". The mural depicts everything from Rosie the Riveter to life in the state's mill towns. Taylor says that the mural always evoked positive reactions, even from businesspeople.

Another Republican, State Sen. Jane Cunningham, Supports Low Wages, child labor. Add her name to the long list.

The shocking number of conservatives advocating the elimination of the minimum wage and child labor laws is growing. The corporate mind set being pushed by Republicans simply demands we do everything we can to help businesses create jobs. We must give up everything for the privilege of employment. Which leads me to MO State Sen. Cunningham.  The one added wrinkle? Parents know best when it comes to making their kids work. Just like parents know what’s best when it comes to education, how that happens I don’t know, now we should let them put their kids to work at age 9 or 11. Heck, they just know.

St. Louis Beacon/Crooks and Liars: State Sen. Jane Cunningham says her quest to change Missouri's child labor laws is driven by her belief that the current restrictions are "implying that government can make a better decision than a parent." 

But Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, takes exception to critics who contend that her proposed changes, contained in SB 222, would put children younger than 16 in danger. Cunningham cites a series of provisions in her bill that bar children younger than 16 from working in certain professions or workplaces deemed dangerous, such as mines, quarries, stone-cutting or plants manufacturing explosives. 

As it stands, current Missouri law bars regular employment of children younger than 14 -- except in specific professions such as acting. Children age 14 and 15 must obtain signed permits from the school they attend. Cunningham said that she believes it's improper to saddle schools with the responsibility of deciding whether a child younger than 16 should be allowed to work. She also contends that many parents and their children already are violating the state's current labor laws, which she says are "so over the top'' and prevent parents from "teaching a work ethic to their children." 

But Cunninghan's bill already is generating heavy criticism, particularly from labor unions and allied groups. 

The critics point to the bill's official summary: "This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age 14. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child aged 14 or 15 obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under 16 will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment." 

Cunningham's objections extend to the current law's requirement that children 14 or 15 work no more than three hours a day on school days, no more than eight hours on a non-school day, and that they cannot work before 7 a.m. or after 9 p.m. "The hour restrictions are so tight,'' she said. "There are many jobs where you can work after 9 p.m.,'' such as restaurants. 

She also objects to allowing the state's director of Labor Standards to walk into businesses to check on their employment of children.

Let's be clear: Gov. Walker=Government. Workers protesting=citizens.

For decades state governments have been paring employment and services down to the bone. Have you noticed though, the argument about the size of government and waste hasn’t changed? And it never will.

The conservative fringe organization with political influence, We-the-people-USA, has a bad case of irony impairment. Apparently protesting teachers, students, small business owners and local citizenry are thugs, are part of what they call, thug-ocracy. But if a governor applies the dictatorial power of government to tell workers they can’t organize, that’s the proper use of thug-ocracy…I mean government. As they define it:

Subject: Thug-Ocracy
Left, right, democrat, republican or independent, the message is seriously clear and simple -- the federal government and many state governments are bankrupt. 

Union-based Thug-ocracy, i.e. Socialism, has finally spent all of the other peoples' money … Eventually union Thug-ocracies must be stopped and private individual achievement must shoulder the needs of the people … The reality of running out of money creates in some people, the ugly rationalization that Thug-ocracy is an option to be used in order to take money from most individuals and give it to some preferred individuals.

Thank god Wall Street and big oil haven’t taken money from "most individuals" and given it to some “preferred individuals,” like themselves in the form of bonuses and from higher prices at the pump. 

Ignoring the fact that the unions have taken Walker up on reducing wages and benefits:

Public service workers and public service unions appear to have no concept of economic fiscal responsibility … Today the power of public service unions have trumped common sense and the phrase Thug-ocracy simply fits what is happening … We will not tolerate any form of Thug-ocracy that attempts to forcefully spread around other peoples' assets using coercion, deception or political slight of hand.

Once the peoples representatives, our unions, no longer have the “free speech rights” to contribute to the political process, what other public group will be there to support their candidates?

   

Big money owns our elections now, and without the “big money” of our unions, the corporate oligarchs will have taken over. We’ll have returned to the Robber Barron age. What a time to cherish.

Walker supporters demand union labor sink into the mire of the rights deprived, low wage private sector work force. Don't they get it?

The theme you might have seen over and over in protester interviews are the private sector victims of our declining corporate economy, whining about their dismal lot in life, and how everyone else must share in the pain.

As a private business owner and independent contractor, I don't sit around envying and bashing union workers for having it better than me. Instead, I am trying to convince small government conservatives that when they give up their constitutional control of services, the for profit private sector steps in. What happens then? They slowly replace and become...our government.



The arm of big business, The Club for Growth, appears in the following ad to defend the poor, lowly, tread upon American worker. Many conservatives will see the ad and believe it.  The Club is running the ad all the while they fight to take away worker rights, do away with the minimum wage, smash unions and demand deregulation. Groups like The Club for Growth have ushered in the current difficult and uncertain labor conditions. Now they're our biggest defenders?

jsonline: The south side of the Capitol, where the tea party and pro-Walker groups were assembled, the shouting from both sides rose in intensity. Some of the signs read, "Do Your Job" and "The Gravy Train is Over." 

At 6 feet, 8 inches tall, Jory Mikkonen of Milwaukee stood above the crowd and shouted loudly at the pro-union sympathizers, "Unions go home!" 

Another protester yelled in response: "Get a degree!" 

Mikkonen said, "Bring your legislators back, so we can pass the bill." 

Yet another protester yelled to him, "You're ignorant." 

"Maybe you should have voted on election day," Mikkonen shot back. 

Mikkonen, a Marine Corps veteran, said he lost two jobs in manufacturing and now holds three different jobs, including working as a waiter and pizza deliverer, to support himself. 

"Jobs are hard to come by, but I found something in less than a month," he said. "And these guys want more benefits at our expense." 

But not all exchanges were so heated. Walker supporter John Poehling, 57, debated intensely but amiably for 10 minutes with a public employee. They shook hands and walked away. 

"We had a dialogue, but we didn't change each other's mind," Poehling said with a smile.
Pete Skaar, 48, said he was a conservative who drove from northeastern Wisconsin to protest Walker's policies. He stood on the square with a sign that read, "Conservative Ashamed of Walker." 

"I just believe he's taken advantage of the crisis to push his political agenda, just like Obama with health care," Skaar said. Skaar works with the Wisconsin Division of Motor Vehicles in Peshtigo. He is represented by a state union, the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association, but is not a member.