Editor:
A democracy is a form of government that allows the majority rules outcome to elections. At least in the past 70+ years that I have been around that’s how it works. Recently there has been an attempt to change that. We have decided to RECALL elected officials who were elected by a majority, not because they have done something that would shame us but because the minority decided they didn’t like what was going on.
There was $2 MILLION of taxpayer money spent with little success either way. That apparently didn’t show us that that sort of thing really doesn’t work too well. Now we’ve decided to spend an estimated $10 MILLION to recall Gov. Walker not because he’s done something illegal but because some of us disagree with his decisions. I know there were many of us who didn’t like what Gov. Doyle was doing either but we rather than spend tons of taxpayer money waited for an election, he got the message that it was very probable he wouldn’t win re-election so he bowed out. Congressman Obey chose to do the same thing for much the same reasons!!
Add to the taxpayer money the amount of money BOTH sides of this issue will spend and already have spent to defend their case we are talking some very BIG numbers. This is fiscal irresponsibility at its finest!!
It is my firm opinion that rather than spend taxpayer money foolishly, we let DEMOCRACY run its course and wait for the next election and see how the MAJORITY feels at that time. That is exactly what our founding fathers wanted done when they put this GREAT COUNTRY together many moons ago!!
Thanks much for your time.
Chuck Bolder
Merrill
Dear Editor,
I heard someone make the comment last week that Governor Walker is standing up for “the working man.” Given all he has done to harm the working man, and woman, it is hard to see how anyone could hold that opinion. I know many do, but they have to ignore almost everything he has done. Everything I know about has hurt “the working man” and his/her family. Everything!
As a public employee, I know firsthand what Walker has done for “the working man;” higher costs and less pay. This hurts many thousands of Wisconsin families and businesses. While he and all his appointees have taken large raises, Wisconsin families have to learn how to get by with less. His brutal slashing of education funding assures that every public school student will get a poorer education. At the same time, he has given $35 million to corporate owned charter schools. This is a blatant attempt to deteriorate the public school system to the point where he can make the case to privatize all public schools. Upon entering office, he immediately gave over $200 million in tax breaks to corporate interests and plans to give many hundreds of millions more. If we are broke, as he claims, where is the money coming from? It comes from the pockets of “the working man.” His massive tax cuts for his corporate contributors assure that he will not pay down one cent of the $3 billion dollar deficit that Tommy Thompson left us years ago. He claims to have balanced the budget. But he has done this in the same way a person can stop the bleeding in their finger by cutting of their hand. One can truthfully claim that the bleeding from the finger has stopped, but has anything good been accomplished?
He has imposed one of the most restrictive voter suppression laws in the nation to protect us from the 8 people tried for voter fraud last year. (Two were acquitted) 8 people represent 53 ten thousandths of one percent of the registered voters in Wisconsin. He will disenfranchise many thousands of voters to protect us from an artificial, made up threat. Walker is trying to steal health care from 65,000 people by cutting Medicare and Badger Care. He is increasing taxes for low and middle income families by over $70 million dollars by cutting popular tax credit programs for individuals and families. How does this help “the working man?”
Walker has done all these things plus cutting thousands of jobs that would be created by the light rail and wind power projects. (But they would have been union jobs so, I guess, that’s OK.) So far he has been in office one year. If he is allowed to remain in office our state may never recover from these damaging policies.
Now we face a choice. Shall we keep a man who has proven time and again that he has only corporate interests at heart (Remember the phone call?) or shall we defend our children’s future and our own by choosing another to hold the Governor’s office? Voting rights, bargaining rights, educational rights and more are at stake. Our government exists to support “The People,” not corporate interests as some would have us believe. Why do 2/3 of Wisconsin Corporations pay NO tax at all? Where is their “shared sacrifice?” How can it be that each of us paid more Federal Income tax, individually, than Verizon, Boeing, Wells Fargo, General Electric and Wisconsin Energies COMBINED? (Look up the “Dirty Thirty”). Our choice will decide much more than which side wins. I truth, there are no sides. Whether public or private, Democrat or Republican, the American laborer is under attack. Remember what Mercury Marine, Kohler, and Harley Davidson have done to their workers. If we do not fight for justice, we will not have it.
Doug Curtis
Gleason