The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

You May Be Surprised by This

Posted on | February 21, 2011 | 12 Comments

Or maybe not:

The federal government gave $669.6 million to the public schools in Wisconsin in fiscal 2008, according to the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). That is more than 20 times as much as the $30 million that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is trying to save in the current fiscal year by asking state employees, including teachers, to pay for a fraction of the cost of their own pension packages and health-insurance premium.

The ramifications of the fight in Wisconsin are beginning to be noticed elsewhere:

The battle in Wisconsin over public employee unions has left President Obama facing a tricky balance between showing solidarity with longtime political supporters and projecting a message in favor of deep spending cuts to reduce the debt.

And still more ramifications:

Senior Senate Democrats slammed Republicans on Sunday for a “reckless” threat to shut down the government as political posturing intensified on both sides over federal spending and the budget deficit.

The GOP hasn’t made any such “threat,” which is a scarecrow being used by Democrats (and their media accomplices) to frighten ignorant old folks into thinking Those Mean-Spirited Republicans™ will take away their Social Security checks. However, Mark Hemingway asks a relevant question at the Weekly Standard:

The obvious point here is that if it’s so “reckless” to shutdown the government, why have Wisconsin legislators, the President and the DNC all supported the government shutdown in Wisconsin?

Exactly: If shutting down government in Wisconsin is good, why is shutting down government in Washington bad?

UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom: “Turns out you don’t have to live in Wisconsin to pay the benefits of Wisconsin teachers.” Now a Memeorandum thread.

UPDATE II: I’m sure you’ll be shocked — shocked — to discover that liberals are engaging in dishonest, irresponsible demagoguery:

Video via Heritage Foundation.


Category: Budget, Wisconsin

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