Posts filed under ‘2010 Election’
Serious Buyer’s Remorse Happening in Ohio
[Ohio Governor] John Kasich’s not getting any more popular. 33% of voters approve of him to 53% who disapprove. Only a little more than half of Republicans think he’s doing a good job (58/25), while Democrats (9/80) are almost universal in their disapproval. If voters could do the 2010 election over again they’d vote for Ted Strickland by a 20 point margin, 56-36, numbers that not coincidentally track closely with the Senate Bill 5 repeal result from last fall.
-John Boehner’s approval was 26/52 on our last national poll and it’s not much better in his home state of Ohio at 28/54. Boehner has a similar situation to Kasich where Republicans are meh to him (53/28) while Democrats pretty much all dislike him (8/74). He also does badly with independents at 28/55.
In 2010 Ohio voters elected a Republican Governor and went GOP in many House races, helping to elect a new Republican Speaker of the House from their state. Now they regret the Governor and don’t like the Speaker. It’s hard for me to imagine that buyer’s remorse isn’t going to work to the benefit of Barack Obama and other Democrats in the state this fall.
These guys will probably have unlimited money when they run again (thank you Republican activists on the Supreme Court) but hopefully — fingers crossed! — the people will vote them out anyway. Then again, Ohio isn’t known as the fairest, most transparent place to cast a vote…
Wisconsin 2011: Jobs Under a Democrat v. a Republican
Below is a graph reflecting the state of job growth/loss in the State of Wisconsin last year (2011). For the first half of the year, former Democratic Governor Jim Doyle’s budget was in effect. Beginning in July, Republican Governor Scott Walker’s budget kicked in. “[S]ince the Walker budget passed in June, Wisconsin has lost more than 35,000 jobs.”
(Source.)
Vote Republican?
Battle Royale Brewing in Wisconsin
Scott Walker Recall: Organizers Collect 1 Million Signatures, Far Exceeding Number Required
Democrats needed to collect 540,208 signatures to trigger a gubernatorial recall election against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R). On Tuesday, they announced they had far exceeded that number, collecting more than one million signatures.
Tuesday was the deadline for recall organizers, led by the group United Wisconsin, to turn in their petitions. The number collected is 185 percent of the signatures required to force a recall election. Organizers also collected enough to trigger a recalls of the lieutenant governor and four Republican state senators.
[...]
While Democrats were announcing the results of their efforts in Wisconsin, Walker was on the East Coast. He has a New York City fundraiser scheduled that costs at least $2,500 per person to attend.
Here’s more on that fundraiser Walker attended today:
Tuesday’s Walker fundraiser, first reported by the New York Daily News, is hosted by no less than Hank Greenberg, the former CEO of American International Group, the global insurance corporation that needed $150 billion in bailout funds in 2008 and 2009 from the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve.
Here’s a copy of the invitation:
And this is how Fox is portraying the whole thing — from a Walker-as-victim perspective, of course:
Walker is owned by the Koch Brothers (and now, apparently, by I-love-Socialism-as-long-as-it-means-bailouts-for-the-rich-Maurice Greenberg (as in the above)) so this is going to be a vicious battle between the 1%ers who pay to put stooges in office who will do their bidding, and the rest of us.
Weasel Scott Walker Takes Credit For Health Care Provision He Opposed
Gawd, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) is just repulsive. I mean foul and detestably, nauseatingly repulsive:
Gov. Scott Walker announced a plan Wednesday [December 28] to lift the enrollment cap on a state long-term care program – a move he made two weeks after federal authorities told his administration it had to take that step.
Walker touted the $80 million plan with advocates for the elderly and disabled at a Capitol news conference, but he made no mention of a recent order from the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, or CMS, directing his administration to lift the cap in the Family Care program.
[...]
“The only reason the Walker administration backed down is because they had a gun to their heads,” said Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee). “He’s taking credit for something he was forced to do.”
Ugh. See what I mean?
Mic Check — Matt Damon
Mic check. Mic check!
This is a mic check regarding what Matt Damon said today on The Young Turks:
I’m there. I. AM. SO. THERE.
But let’s get off the balls thing. Let’s talk about courage.
The Tea Party Rally That Wasn’t
Yesterday I put up a post about rallies that were held across the nation by pro-tax-the-rich and pro-tax-the-corporations (and don’t cut our Social Security) sympathizers. As I noted, the rallies were essentially spontaneous, having been organized over a 24-hour period.
Compare and contrast that to a Tea Party rally (if you can call it that) that was held in Washington, D.C. today that was a total bust:
During the health care debate, Tea Party groups mobilized thousands of members to rally against the bill right on lawmakers’ doorsteps in Washington, DC. Now the movement is again at a crossroads as Republicans struggle over how far they’re willing to push Democrats on spending cuts before raising the debt ceiling. You wouldn’t know it, however, from their rally on Wednesday.
Despite featuring Tea Party icons Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Rand Paul (R-KY), among others, a gathering outside the Senate organized by the Tea Party Express to urge Republicans to stand firm against a compromise bill drew only a handful of attendees. Reporters, many of whom came to interview presidential candidate Herman Cain, appeared to easily outnumber protesters. And despite being the most prominent attendee, Cain ended up no addressing the crowd and instead watching from the sidelines.
Couple that with this news that came out the other day: REPORT: Number Of Tea Party Events Down More Than 50 Percent In 2011
So here we are, waiting for the Tea Party Republicans in the House to make a move on raising the debt ceiling — something one would think would rally their supporters no end. But from the outside looking in, it appears as if their base has evaporated yet the country’s being held hostage by this supposed force of Tea Party energy. Maybe it’s time to draw the curtain back on that.
UPDATE: MoveOn.org is calling for a rally in D.C. tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes. I’ll keep you posted.
Republicans — How ‘Bout Those Jobs?
Here’s our Tweet of the Day:
Remember last year’s election and the Republican mantra of, “The American people want jobs! Jobs! Jobs!?”
Remember the 2010 Election and “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs?”
Remember how waaaaaay back in November — nine months ago folks — when Republicans were screaming about jobs, jobs, jobs? That was their #1 priority and WHY THE HELL WASN’T PRESIDENT OBAMA CREATING THEM?
This would be Republicans today:
Gingrich claims ‘there is no Supreme Court’ in the U.S. Constitution
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich made the surprising and completely false assertion this week that the Constitution doesn’t mention the Supreme Court.
“There is no Supreme Court in the American Constitution,” Gingrich told an audience in Pella, Iowa. “There’s the court which is the Supreme of the judicial branch, but it’s not supreme over the legislative and executive branch. We now have this entire national elite that wants us to believe that any five lawyers are a Constitutional convention. That is profoundly un-American and profoundly wrong.”
Lookie over there. No. Over there. No. There. Don’t look to us to create jobs. Forget we said that. It’s about the Constitution. No it isn’t. It’s about the gays. The immigrants. Planned Parenthood. Acorn.
Geezus.
Ohio Republicans Outlaw Kindness at the Polling Place
I tell you, Republicans are masters at coming up with even the most minute ways to screw people:
Last week, the GOP-led [Ohio] House passed an election law overhaul without the highly restrictive voter ID provision. However, the House tweaked the bill to weaken a law mandating poll workers to direct voters in the wrong precinct to their correct voting location. Under the new language, a poll worker need not direct a voter to where they are eligible, adding that “it is the duty of the individual casting the ballot to ensure that the individual is casting that ballot in the correct precinct.”
Of course, the real reason for this law isn’t to encourage individual responsibility, it’s to suppress the vote of people who are likely to vote Democratic.
It also makes it illegal to simply be a kind, helpful, fellow citizen. It legalizes — requires, actually — that poll workers be asshats.
I swear, the society the Republicans are trying to create is not one I want to live in.
Creating Jobs
Happy to see that the Republicans are working hard to create jobs:
GOP Cuts To Food Aid For Seniors And Food Banks Equals One Day Of Bush Tax Cuts For Millionaires
Today, the House is debating the Republican’s 2012 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, which, as we’ve been documenting, slashes funding for food assistance, preventing hundreds of thousands of people from accessing aid. In addition to lopping more than $800 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the GOP’s bill would cut $38 million from the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSIP), as well as $63 million from the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAB).
The CSFP provides food assistance to 600,000 low-income families every month, 96 percent of whom are seniors, while the TEFAP “provides our nation’s emergency food bank network with food commodities and storage and distribution support.” We previously noted that the cuts to WIC are roughly equivalent to the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts for millionaires alone for just one week.
There are times when I’d like to take a week-long break and climb into a hole somewhere because the news is so bad. This is one of them. I volunteer at a food bank and I see the misery that’s out there. What the Republicans are doing here is evil and cruel.
Texans: Republicans Are F-ing You
Or, How Republicans are Screwing Us Today
I was off most of the weekend but when I came back to the Internets just now, this was one of the first headlines I saw.
Freakin’ unbelievable.
Vote Republican!
Texas Taxpayers Finance Formula One Auto Races as Schools Dismiss Teachers
Texas, which may balance its budget by firing thousands of teachers, plans to commit $25 million in state funds to Formula One auto racing each year for a decade.
As many as 100,000 teachers in Texas may be fired because of spending cuts to cope with the state’s budget crisis, according to Moak Casey & Associates, an Austin-based education consultant. For $25 million a year, the state could pay more than 500 teachers an average salary of $48,000.
“I have to wonder why the state of Texas is all over funding for this racetrack and not the school-funding crisis,” said Ewa Siwak, 44, who teaches German in the Austin Independent School District and whose job at Bowie High School is being cut. “Tax dollars for education should be a higher priority.”
Ya think?
How Republicans Screwed Us Today — 5-12-11
More job creation from the Republicans:
GOP: #1 PRIORITY – JOBS!
Wisconsin Assembly passes GOP-backed voter ID bill
he Wisconsin state Assembly passed a Republican-backed bill on Wednesday that will stiffen requirements for voter identification at polling places and was decried by Democrats as targeting their constituents.
The Assembly passed the bill by a vote of 60-35 and sent it on to the Senate, which is also controlled by Republicans. Democrats introduced more than 50 amendments, all of which failed.
The measure was expected to further split the partisan divisions in the state after the recent bruising battle over newly elected Republican governor Scott Walker’s successful campaign to weaken public sector union bargaining rights.
Democrats said the new measure, which will require voters to show an approved photo ID before receiving their ballot, was aimed at discouraging many of their constituents, especially college students, rather than addressing vote fraud, which they said was not a serious problem in the state.
In Four Months, Republicans Introduce 916 Bills Against Women’s Right to Choose:
To date [in 2011], legislators have introduced 916 measures related to reproductive health and rights in the 49 legislatures that have convened their regular sessions. (Louisiana’s legislature will not convene until late April.) By the end of March, seven states had enacted 15 new laws on these issues…
GOP Bill Shifts Oil Drilling Cases To Court Dominated By Judges With Oil Investments
Yesterday, the House passed the so-called “Putting the Gulf Back to Work Act,” which is intended to make it easier for the oil industry to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. Sadly, this bill also continues the GOP’s longstanding practice of rigging the court system to favor wealthy and influential interest groups. Tucked within the bill is a provision that consigns many lawsuits involving oil drilling into a federal court that is dominated by judges with close ties to the oil industry:
SEC. 202. EXCLUSIVE VENUE FOR CERTAIN CIVIL ACTIONS RELATING TO COVERED ENERGY PROJECTS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO.
Venue for any covered civil action shall not lie in any district court not within the 5th circuit unless there is no proper venue in any court within that circuit.
It’s called judge shopping. Judge shopping is when you file a case and you cozy up to a clerk of the court who assigns your case to a judge who will rule in your favor.
What Republicans Did to Duck Us Today — 5/11/11
Unbelievable:
Wisconsin’s Republican Assembly Passes Bill Ending Requirement to Disinfect Municipal Water:
The Assembly has passed AB 23, which would, unless mandated by federal law, end a DNR requirement that municipal water systems be continuously disinfected.
The bill passed 58-35. Lawmakers backed an amendment by bill author Eric Severson, R-Star Prairie, before turning away 21 Dem amendments.
Dems charged that the law meant the state was walking away from its commitment to provide clean drinking water to the public, listing a wide range of potential water-borne illnesses they said could result from reducing water standards.
Maine GOPers Roll Back Child Labor Laws:
Republicans in Maine’s legislature have been working for months to roll back the state’s child labor laws. Proposals set forth by the GOP include:
- Establishing a 180-day period during which workers under age 20 would earn $5.25 per hour (as opposed to the state’s current minimum wage of $7.50 per hour).
- Eliminating the maximum number of hours a minor over 16 can work during the school week.
- Allowing children to work until 11 p.m. on school nights (current law lets kids go home at 10 p.m.).
“Sharia organization” means any two (2) or more persons conspiring to support of acting in convert in support of, Sharia or in furtherance of the imposition of sharia…
That means, in Tennessee, a Muslim could not form a non-profit that operated a mosque, a religious charity, or any other organization that goes beyond practicing religion in solitude.
Ohio State Representative Wants to Ban Abortion Because China Has too Many Smart Kids, and if we banned abortion we’d have more kids and maybe some of them would be smart too and then we could compete with China.
You win a prize if you can find anything out there about Republicans working on doing what they campaigned on — creating jobs.
How Republicans Screwed Us Today / 5-6-11
More headlines from around the country on how Republicans are working hard to create jobs finding ways to shit on average Americans:
House Approves Penalty for Colleges That Offer Partner Benefits
The Michigan House approved an amendment to the education budget on Thursday night that will penalize state universities and colleges five percent for offering domestic partner benefits for same-sex or unmarried partners.
Ohio House Budget Would Let Kasich Sell Assets Such as Prisons
Ohio Governor John Kasich could sell or lease six prisons and the state turnpike under the $55.6 billion, two-year budget that passed the Republican-led House of Representatives 59-40 yesterday.
[...]
Kasich’s March 15 spending proposal called for raising an estimated $200 million by selling five prisons to companies that would run them. The House plan would add a juvenile correctional facility for sale or lease.
Bottom line re the Kasich thing? He wants to sell prisons, juvenile facilities and turnpikes to his corporate buddies. Imagine calling Comcast to tell them about potholes on your route to work. Think they’ll care?
No. The bigger problem is, you can’t vote them out if they ignore you. That’s the good thing about the government owning the public works.
Creating Jobs
Remember, back in the fall during the run-up to the election, when Republicans were chanting “jobs, jobs, jobs?”
Glad to see that’s still their #1 priority: Congressional Republicans go after D.C. over abortion funds.
Gasholes.
Speechless
Wow. Check out this video of Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY) commenting on what the Republicans have been up to since they were sworn in in January. He’s on the floor of the House and he gets his point across without saying one word.
Good job!
(H/t Beth.)
Scott Walker’s BS Excuse For What Happened on Tuesday
Wisconsin’s punk Governor, Scott Walker, took to the microphone on Wednesday and tried to explain what happened Tuesday when the state held its spring election — and a Democrat won his old seat and a wingnut Supreme Court justice who was supposed to waltz back onto the bench finds himself in a neck-and-neck fight with a previously unknown candidate:
Gov. Scott Walker said this afternoon that the spring election results show there are “two very different worlds in this state.”
“You’ve got a world driven by Madison, and a world driven by everybody else out across the majority of the rest of the state of Wisconsin,” Walker said at a press conference in the Capitol.
Yep. So predictable. Blame the liberal hippies.
Here’s the fact as to how the state voted:
Here’s a map of Wisconsin (via). See Madison down there at the middle-bottom? Place it in the map above and you don’t see that spot surrounded by a sea of red.
Scott Walker, you’re a liar.
(H/t Smoky for alerting me to the “Scott Walker’s Wisconsin” chart.)
Republicans Said Creating Jobs Was at the Top of Their Agenda
In the run-up to the election last year, Republicans hammered away at the notion that creating jobs would be their tippy top, #1 priority. Now, they’re banking on us having forgotten that promise:
VOTE — Wisconsin — VOTE — Vote Yes and Yes
The Koch Brothers bought this Supreme Court decision: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Now they want to buy Wisconsin’s Supreme Court.
Tuesday, April 5, say NO — NO MORE! – but to say NO MOR, you’ve got to vote, and youv’ve got to vote YES.
Fingers crossed.
XO.
.
Don Young (R-AK): You’re a Bald-Faced Liar
Quickie: Wipe that smile off your face Don: GOP Rep. Don Young Tells Town Hall He Opposes War In Afghanistan One Week After He Votes Against Ending It
I think it’s great when people — politicians included — grown and evolve and learn and yes, change their mind if need be but a huge leap like this over the course of one week? No. That’s not what this is. This is disgusting.
Love How Republicans Are Staying Out of Our Bedroom
Alaska:
Sex outside marriage should be illegal, says Parnell nominee:
Gov. Sean Parnell’s appointee for the panel that nominates state judges testified Wednesday that he would like to see Alaskans prosecuted for having sex outside of marriage.
Geez. I’m so impressed that Republicans are concentrating on creating all those jobs they promised and that they’re staying out of our bedroom (not),
which they claim to believe in but don’t do.
You know, actions speak louder than words.
Paul LePage — Follow the Crazy
Follow the goings on of Maine’s crazy Republican Governor, Paul LePage (yikes, is he French?!) here, at the best website I’ve found for that, Maine Political Pulse.
Vote Republican — Put Your Life at Risk
Man-oh-man. Republicans have no problem cutting things that put people’s lives in danger (all, by the way, to pay for tax cuts for the rich):
Early Wednesday morning, the controller manning the tower at Reagan National Airport fell asleep. For the second time in as many years, the tower went silent, forcing two jetliners to land without radio contact with the airport. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood responded to the incident by immediately ordering an examination of scheduling issues at the nation’s airports. “It is not acceptable to have just one controller in the tower managing air traffic in this critical airspace,” he said.
The incident comes just as the House is set to take up a four-year reauthorization of the FAA’s budget, which calls for scaling back the FAA’s funding to 2008 levels. According to Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL), the ranking member of the House Transportation Committee’s subcommittee on aviation, the proposal “could require the agency to furlough hundreds of safety-related employees.” Former FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, who served from 2002 to 2007, has said that “The prospect is really devastating to jobs and to our future, if we really have to roll back [to 2008 levels] and stop NextGen in its tracks.”
Republicans have defended their draconian budget cuts by arguing that deficit spending is hurting the security of the nation. Many of their cuts, however, from border and port security to the tsunami warning system and now to the FAA’s operational budget, actually put the lives of Americans at risk.
From what I’ve read about the FAA, they’re already operating on a bare-bones budget.
Insane Republican Priorities
I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me what the Republicans’ long-term plan for the country is.
What they’re doing doesn’t seem to be all that well thought out: New Hampshire House Approves Tax Cut on Cancer-Causing Cigarettes, Cuts Health and Education Funding.
.
Yo, Kansas City Star — Why Didn’t You Publish These Letters?
My friend ChrisH sent these two letters (below) to the Kansas City Star newspaper.
Insofar as the Star didn’t see fit to publish them, I’m publishing them here.
October 22, 2010:
In his letter Friday 10/22/10, Derrick Sontag of Americans for Prosperity defends his organization as a “non-partisan, grassroots-driven organization that advocates for limited government and free market principles” and denies it is a “a front group for large corporations.” Methinks he doth protest too much.
According to Sourcewatch.com the group is
“…an astroturf front group started by oil billioniare David Koch and Richard Fink (a member of the board of directors of Koch Industries ). AFP works together with the Koch family’s other conservative foundations and think tanks .”
There is much more information that puts the lie to Mr. Sontag’s assertions of people-powered rebellion. There may be 4.5 million members/supporters, as he says, but they did not grow this organization. They are merely the very useful face of it.I urge all interested voters to utilize Sourcewatch to find out straightforward and documented facts about the fascinating web of money and corporate interests that operates behind American politics.
Chris H
March 13, 2011:
In October 2010, before the critical elections that turned the House of Representatives over to Republicans, I wrote a letter to The Star rebutting Derrick Sontag’s (10/22/10) contention that his Americans for Prosperity was “not a front group for large corporations,” and provided links to the website Sourcewatch.com that detailed the so-called grassroots organizations’ umbilical cord to the Koch brothers. Unfortunately, that letter of mine was never printed and voters were not made aware of a valuable resource that would have shed some light on exactly who they were voting into power.
Now we see, in Wisconsin and seeping across the nation, who Americans for Prosperity were really representing – it’s not you, not me, not the working class, and not the middle class. I denounce The Kansas City Star for only printing one side of a crucial issue and not doing a better job of informing its readers, which is, presumably, its mission.
Of course, this will never see print either.
Chris H
It’s no wonder corporate hacks manage to slither into office. Our media doesn’t educate and inform us about them, their background and their backers so all we know is what their glitzy, sanitized campaign ads and fliers tell us.
Gov. Scott Walker Loses Round #1
Quickie update:
Wisconsin Judge Blocks Anti-Union Law.
This is going to take months if not years to work its way through the courts. A lot of things could happen in the interim — like Republicans buying judges who will vote in Walker’s favor.
(Image via.)
Republicans Gearing Up to Destroy Recall Effort in Wisconsin
Recall Battle in Wisconsin
I predict the recall fight in Wisconsin is going to be the nastiest we’ve seen yet in American politics. The corporations are going to fight with everything they have (meaning billions of dollars) because if the people win, it will set a precedent for the rest of the country and they sure as hell don’t want that:
Here’s another sign that some folks may be getting mighty nervous about the Dem drives to recall Wisconsin GOP state senators: I’m told that a major national Republican polling firm is in the field in the state testing some hard-core anti-union messages, including ones about how pro-union forces targeted a GOP state senator with death threats. It’s another sign that the Wisconsin standoff has escalated further into a protracted, high-stakes national war.
I was unable to obtain the exact wording of the poll, but the source, who is familiar with the line of questioning, confirmed to me that it was testing messages asking whether recipients’ opinions would be changed by the following:
* The fact that union sympathizers have given Darling death threats
* The fact that the recall is being funded by out-of-state unions
* The fact that the highest paid public employee in Madison is a bus driver who made nearly $160,000 a year
* The fact that unions used collective bargaining to try to get Viagra
Again, these are approximations, but they’re telling nonetheless. The bus driver in question, of course, is the famed Madison driver who earned roughly $160,000 in 2009 thanks to union-negotiated rules allowing drivers with the most seniority to snap up lots of overtime — rules that have now been changed. The Viagra reference is to a recent effort — which has since been dropped — by Milwaukee teachers who went to court to get health coverage for the drug.
Scott Walker on the Campaign Trail
It’s no wonder the people of Wisconsin feel duped by Governor Scott Walker. They were.
Check out this Walker campaign ad. He’s all about the Constitution, recalls and community organizing:
(H/t Bezer via The Political Carnival.)
What a punk.
Obama’s “Union Goons”
Last week I posted about the glacial pace of the fundraising of the PAC, the “Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama.”
They have continued to fundraise since then, but today their email included the ad they’re trying to raise money to air. Here it is:
This is a classic case of tragically uninformed, misinformed brainwashed working people supporting causes that are diametrically opposed to their own interests.
If there are any “thugs” and “goons” in this story, Governor Walker — he’s a quintessential little punk — reigns supreme.
Maybe a day will come when the Tea Partiers realize that this isn’t about Democrats versus Republicans. It’s about the corporatocracy versus all of us.
And may I remind you of this ad released on March 1
by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and Democracy for America. Compare and contrast the two. Seems to me it’s pretty clear the Progressive Change people — the “thug” and “goon” crowd — have the people’s interests at heart.
About That $160,000 Bus Driver
The $160,000 bus driver is the 21st Century version of the welfare queen driving to the unemployment office in a Cadillac:
(Image via.)
Wisconsin GOP state senator Randy Hopper — a top target of the Dems’ recall drive — is running a new ad that slams public employees by decrying a “union bus driver in Madison making $160,000 a year.”
[...]
Mich Rusch, a spokesman for Metro Transit for the city of Madison, tells me: “It’s not fair to point to public employees as being overpaid based on this situation.”
Here are the details, as provided by Rusch. The driver, John Nelson, was able to earn $160,000 in 2009 not because of his annual salary, but because he worked a huge amount of overtime hours. He was able to do this because of previous rules, negotiated by Teamsters local 695, that allowed drivers with most seniority — and the highest salaries — to rack up large amounts of overtime. As a result, in 2009, Nelson worked 1,896 hours of straight time. And he added on a whopping 2,012 hours of overtime. This, not the exorbitant salary public employees supposedly enjoy, is what accounts for his huge haul that year.
Is Nelson overpaid? Starting bus drivers in Madison earn $17 per hour. Nelson has been working as a driver for 36 years, and his salary in 2009 was up to $26 per hour. There are other ways a bus driver can rack up more money, such as working at night or on vacation days, but all in all, his basline salary has not gone up that much . When working overtime he earns roughly $39 per hour. This, after working this job for nearly four decades.
But wait, it gets better. It turns out that pointing to Nelson as an example of what’s wrong with public employee unions is thoroughly bogus in another way. According to Rusch, the city of Madison went to the bus drivers union last year and told them the rules allowing the highest-paid bus drivers to snap up the most overtime were a major problem for them. Turns out the union agreed, and renegotiated a deal to limit overtime in a way that has left Metro Transit happy. And guess what: That deal was negotiated through collective bargaining.
Folks, if a Republican is talking, s/he’s lying.
