Keeping Wisconsin Great

According to poll links at RealClearPolitics, the country either opposes eliminating collective bargaining rights 62-33 or supports limiting bargaining rights 45-42. I dunno, that doesn't seem to make sense. I'm more inclined to believe Quinnipiac's latter numbers as they seem more in line with the deep partisan division we seem to have, although the first is a NBC/WSJ pairing (I trust the Wall Street Journal more than NBC). To be honest, I don't think most people know what collective bargaining actually entails, or that federal government employees are denied this "right" and had their incomes unilaterally frozen last year by Pres. Obama in a cost-saving (everyone has to suffer together) move. Maybe Scott Walker would like that ability too. Speaking of Scott...

I listened to his Budget Repair Bill Address yesterday. It was my opinion that he sounded rather reasonable, upbeat and optimistic about what could lie in the future. While many quibble about his methods, he seems to be genuinely (and that's the key) interested in keeping Wisconsin great. I didn't find his optimism phony, and it didn't seem like his speech had been intentionally written around applause breaks.

So, about the policy? UW-Madison is going to be cut loose (privatized in a sense) and provisions for Milwaukee to do the same are apparently in place. Most "job cuts" (~21,000) will be through these "privatizations", although I doubt anyone actually "loses" their job - they'll just no longer be on the state's books.

His cuts to local government and schools (~$1.25 billion) seem a little steep. I mean that is A LOT of money to cut from local government shared revenues. He says his plan will make up for these cuts by saving local governments and school districts a bundle (~$1.5 billion) by eliminating collective bargaining (which will supposedly allow them to increase benefits contributions and freeze or reduce salaries). I'd like it to work, and it would be nice if the government could save/not spend money, and not raise your taxes while still providing the same services. The math seems to work, I just don't know how it works. It seems like there are a lot of assumptions about "savings" built in that have to come true for this to work.

I guess we'll all see together.