Update: The orchestrated attack on unionism has spread to
Ohio and
Indiana. Sixteen states (green) are considering public sector union restrictions.
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| credit: Wall Street Journal |
The ultra right-wing Koch Brothers, David and Charles,
funneled large amounts of money into the election campaign of union busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Walker is currently locked in a heated battle with public sector employees to strip them of their collective bargaining rights which he blames for the state's relatively
less severe budget problems. Major public sector unions in Wisconsin have already said they will accept fiscal reductions, but
Walker refuses to compromise. The significant exceptions to his no collective bargaining rule: police and firefighter unions. Koch Industries directly donated a total of $43,000 to get Walker elected. David Koch personally gave $1 million and KochPAC also gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association that spent $65,000 on the Walker campaign and a whopping $3.4 million on negative campaign material against Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
Among the demonstrators on the Wisconsin capital grounds this weekend was Tim Philips, president of Americans for Prosperity (formerly Citizens for a Sound Economy), a right-wing pressure group created by Koch. The group's budget has surged from $7 million three years ago to $40 million in 2010. Phillips told anti-union demonstrators that, "we are going to bring back fiscal sanity to this great nation." The group provided buses so supporters of Walker's radical proposals could counter-demonstrate. Corporate elitists, hiding behind their secret political action fronts, are planning to bring back fiscal sanity over the bodies of the eviscerated middle class so they may continue to enjoy their 15% tax rates and subsidized business interests. As David Koch
put it in a letter to other plutocrats inviting them to attend a conference in Rancho Mirage, California, "If not us, who, If not now, when?"
