Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker is using phony budget projections to manufacture a staged "fiscal emergency" in his state so that he can whack programs and political opponents, but even his fake "emergency" pales in comparison to the cost of the Afghanistan War to his state. In fact, the U.S. would only have to bring home 151 troops from Afghanistan to save more money than Walker's ridiculous union-busting plan. Better yet, ending the Afghanistan War altogether would save taxpayers in Wisconsin $1.7 billion this year alone, more than ten times the amount "saved" in Walker's attack on state employee rights.
One might ask, "Isn't Walker's fake budget crisis a state budget issue? How would ending the Afghanistan War pay for that?" We get this question a lot when we talk about the cost of war to a state's taxpayer. Keep in mind that state budgets are tangled with federal spending. That's especially true over the past couple of years, as state budgets have relied on federal Recovery Act funds to balance their books during the recession. Spending decisions at the federal level are therefore doubly important, as they not only affect the national budget, but also what funds are available to help preserve state-level public structures.
That brings us to Walker's slash-and-burn approach to the state budget.
"Under Walker's plan, most public workers -- excluding police, firefighters and state troopers -- would have to pay half of their pension costs and at least 12 percent of their health-care costs. They would lose bargaining rights for anything other than pay. Walker, who took office last month, says the emergency measure would save $300 million over the next two years to help close a $3.6 billion budget gap."
So on average, Walker's slash-and-burn attack on the unions in his state would save $150 million per year for two years. But if Wisconsin is truly in a state of fiscal emergency, as Walker claims, why is he not demanding the president withdraw troops from Afghanistan and make the savings available as fiscal aid to states? Every troop deployed in Afghanistan costs the U.S. $1 million per year, so simply bringing home 151 troops would save more money than his plan. And, with fiscal 2011 Afghanistan War spending alone to top $1.7 billion for Wisconsin taxpayers, an end to the war would free up more than ten times his plan's cash, which the president could use for state fiscal aid.
Of course, the end of the Afghanistan War would mean that people with whom Walker is cozy would lose some important revenue streams. Remember Wackenhut, the war contractors that disgraced us by holding drunken, nude firelight romps in Afghanistan on the State Department's dime? Walker got them a sweet privatized state security contract in a prior fit of "cost-savings" that failed to add up. But who needs to rein in death, destruction and obscenity when you can take a whack at the unions, right? Walker's not actually interested in fixing a supposed emergency. He's interested in paying off allies and zinging enemies, and you can tell that by his silence on war spending that's bleeding his state taxpayers dry.
At any rate, state politicians in Wisconsin and beyond are going to have to face a moment of truth when federal stimulus aid runs out at the end of this year. Their citizens hate the Afghanistan War, and they won't go along with draconian cuts to vital public structures or attacks on collective bargaining. They can either wise up and join the chorus of people calling for an end to the war, or be ready to face tens of thousands of fed-up protesters and angry voters. Your move, folks.
If you're fed up wit this war that's not making us safer and that's not worth the cost, join Rethink Afghanistan on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow Robert Greenwald on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robertgreenwald
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How 'bout this: Stop punishing institutions for saving money but cutting their budgets. This means, say a prison gets one million dollars from the federal gov for a fiscal year. If they spend only 3/4 of that $750,000 the following year's budget is reduced to $750,000 and the feds then want to write a check for only 1/2 a million to add to that $250,000 the prison saved. Therefore, said prison MUST spend the other $250,000 to get their "projected" one million from the feds because they worry that unpredictable situations may arise preventing them from those savings in the future.
That alone would save taxpayers $250,000 annually for that single prison.
Now consider I used the one (1) million dollar figure to make the math easier to comprehend and the actual budget for each prison nationwide is tens or hundreds of millions, then, add the tens of thousands of thousands of additional fed-funded entities and you will have fiscal savings on a national level of hundreds of millions, if not "billions" of dollars.
If the feds would honor their "projected" budget and give them their
You are writing under some sort of misguided assumption that the President has the best interest of we the people in mind .... while both he and Congress multimillinaires club work only for big corporations who profit from the war...
you also might want to research and read that the military is in Afghanistan to help protect the CIA's 700 Billion $$$ per year drug trade...sounds outrageous doesn't it???? Bust sadly, tehre has been mountains of evidence accumulated suggesting this massive, outrageous spending is all about big business...
and why should that surprise Americans???Washington is not where we the people business is done, it is Corporation Banking Headquarters where there business is serviced at taxpayer expense...
and the hundreds of billions spent on Homeland Security has nothing to do with security for the country and we teh people....rather it is for hassling, searching, survelience and curbing our rights and liberties...for at some point, the big corporations believe Americans will wake up and see they have been fleeced of EVERYTHING by the govt & their corporate/banking lords...
Also, as a property owner paying a fortune every year to support a school system that grows every year with thousands of illegal immigrants children...I do agree with you.... we the public cannot afford to keep paying for teachers unions and their pension financing....face the facts...ONE THIRD OF WORKING CLASS AMERICAN FAMILIES NOW LIVE IN POVERTY.... and those who lost jobs in 2007 and are lucky enough to be re-employed now and employed at sometimes as much as 50% less than their jobs in 2007, so the fact is across the board ----taxpayers are no longer in any position to pay for public servants and their pensions at rates that far exceed what the taxpayer if experiencing --- new levels of poverty....sorry, but if you have children you might want to start saving money to send them to India or China to be educated and where they might someday find jobs....for that matter, those teachers should probably leave the country too ---for greener pastures....because the USA is no longer about family values...our govt only bails out banksters and gives taxdollars to big corporations....
don't believe it? here - spend 4 minutes watching this...see who profits as Americans are economically destroyed...
http://www.youtube.com/user/fiercefreeleancer
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41684489
Go to www.progressivesunited.com and join up, now!
'You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead!'.
F & F
I read the article on him in The Nation...
he's the kind of man we need in Washington...
How could the remaining three possibly run the entire country?
Yep...I strongly believe that we all must call for an end to this feckless war perpetuated by lies that the phantom bin Laden is still running things from his cave. Instead of pitting one party against another as we watch our cities in debt lay off critical responders and educators, we need to end the money train to those countries, particularly those whom continue to blatantly spew anti-American hatred, while skimming U.S. dollars off the top for their own personal treasure chests. We can't save the world, force democracy and civil rights down the throats of the despots, but we can save America if our government would set their priorities straight, put a lid on their generous and wasteful spending to fund conflicts in the Middle East, and other nations at our expense. Heal our ills on the homefront first...not last.
The government CANNOT afford to pay for the people welfare so the budget is cut. But the government can spend trillion of dollars on endless war.
Can Republicans cut defense spending?
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/01/zelizer.gop.national.defense/index.html?hpt=Sbin
I'm a proud badger who's been protesting at the capitol for days. What's frustrating is the union's have agreed to take the financial hits--they just want to keep their collective bargaining rights. Yet Walker refuses to compromise.
It's not about money. It's about rights.
#solidarityWI