They said they would, and now you have to deal with it. The Republican Party is shrewd. They get in office and spend money they don't have. They lose an election, then run again on fiscal responsibility. Well, the things they cut when they get back in are not the same things they spend money on. In fact, they raise alarms about debts they created which may or may not be things to panic about, then cut all the programs that actually help the economy in favor of tax cuts that do nothing. We are seeing this play out in Wisconsin right now.
Tens of thousands of people, mostly state employees, have been protesting inside and out of their capitol. They are fighting what would amount to about a 7 percent decrease in their wages (13 percent net decrease if you consider the loss in benefits) brought about by the desire to balance the state budget. Now, it is important to realize, Wisconsin is not the only state in the spending slashing mood, and it is also not a poor state. In fact, the average wage earner in Wisconsin makes about $3100 more per year than the average American. The problem is that there just is not enough money coming in to the state coffers to pay for the things the people have come to expect. This seems like a simple idea, and it is. The solution is to either get more money coming in or reduce the amount of money going out. Now, cutting programs such as helium storage or studies on wild boars and whatnot are easy. Usually they are a few million bucks here and there that were pork-barreled in to get a bill through at an earlier date. Nowadays, though, there just aren't those programs around to cut. Nowadays, we are down to teachers, fire fighters, police, infrastructure projects, and the like. The things government provides that people forget are government while they are railing against all government (oddly those people usually have an American flag on them somewhere, despite hating everything the government has ever done other than lower taxes).
So now the other side is protesting. No more TEA Party rallies needed, the Republicans won, so they just have to put crazy back in the bag for another few years. Cut off some heating assistance for the poorest of the poor, eliminate some scholarships, and the Republicans will appease those people long enough to get them to vote on their side again next time. The real cuts, though, go to the core of the American way of life. Fewer teachers, furloughing state officials, taking away benefits from fire fighters and the like. The Republicans have framed the argument so well, saying they have no option but to cut. The only other way would be to tax, and that can't happen, the people don't want that. And the Republicans are right. The state budgets are in dire straits. Budgets do need to be brought to more manageable levels and should not be running deficits. And if Republicans were to raise taxes, the entire premise of their party would dissolve. Unfortunately for them, public funds are spent on the masses. Money that goes to schools effects most people in the state. Police, fire fighters, nurses, Planned Parenthood, construction projects, etc. all have direct effect on the masses. And the masses are coming out. Too bad they forgot to on the day it mattered back in early November.
My hope in all this is that the teachers don't go back to work. It would be a pleasure to see fires burn entire neighborhoods and riots rage without police presence. People, especially those in the midwest, need a little taste of anarchy to remind them what tax dollars really pay for. Wisconsin is one of many states that has seen disproportionate growth at the top and stagnation at the bottom (read Pulling Apart: Wisconsin's Growing Income Inequality on cows.org). The lowest income earners have gone from about 18,700 to about 20,100 during the past 30 years, whereas the top tier has gone from about 88,800 to 120,400 during the same period. The growth, just like the rest of the country, has been concentrated at the top with no management of that disparity. Because there are always more people at the bottom than the top, the disparity has to be balanced with increased taxes on the top percentile in order to continue to educate, fund, and sustain order.
People need to recognize there is a difference between wasteful spending and spending in general and that taxes are not something that just comes out of their paycheck and disappears into the mist. It seems the American people have been placated and coddled so much they have forgotten what exactly taxes pay for. Maybe a prolonged strike will remind them. Hopefully it goes long enough that the kids can't graduate this year for lack of school days. Maybe that will be enough of a wake-up call for people to get it. Watching the Democrats in that state flee in order to prevent a quorum is so appropriate after the 4 years of the same thing by the Republicans in the US Senate. The people of Wisconsin are lucky their representatives have enough concern for their state to stand up even when the electorate did not do so for them. One thing about the Republicans though, they did think this through. With all these cuts they are going to force though, they are definitely going to need all those guns.
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