I hate the American Legislative Exchange Council and
everything it stands for.
ALEC is the only organization in the history of our nation
that has intentionally brought corporations into the legislative process.
ALEC is the only organization in the history of our nation
that has intentionally taken away the representative government of, for and by
the people and and surreptitiously handed it over to the corporations..
ALEC legislators are the buffoons of our government. They suck up to ALEC corporate members that pay ALEC to ship them from their state to ALEC meetings. Then these state ALEC morons meet privately
with corporate lobbyists– behind closed doors – so the corporations can legislate
America. The corporations use each ALEC state
legislator as their own personal doofus and corporate grunt.
ALEC legislators repeatedly whine about how they are vilified for their
devotion to the “free market”. When, in
reality, these imbeciles, intentionally manipulate and destroy the free market
by introducing pro-corporate ALEC legislation in our systems.
Some days I reel with anger at ALEC legislative members.
There are times when I feel absolute dismay that the people of the US elected these people as representatives of the government, with their imbecilic behaviors and statements.
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This weekend one of the biggest buffoons of ALEC, Scott
Walker – will be enacting more vile ALEC policies onto the state
of Wisconsin. One of the most disturbing thing about these
policies is that they are a decade old. They have been ALEC’s to-do list of damage to
do to the states for over ten years.
Here are snips from a recap that was compiled by the AFL-CIO
entitled:
I have also included quotes from out-dated ALEC documents to show you that ALEC legislators and ALEC governors - can't think for themselves and they are only the marionettes of ALEC and ALEC corporations.
In 2011, Gov. Walker and the Republican controlled
legislature passed one of the most controversial and crippling budgets in history.
Just months after unveiling extreme attacks on collective bargaining, Gov.
Walker continued his crusade on the middle class and signed a state budget that
enacted the largest and most sweeping cuts to education, health care and state
aid to local communities in the entire history of the state.
In 2013, Gov. Walker and the Republican controlled
legislature put forth an ideologically identical budget which rewarded
corporate campaign contributors at the expense of Wisconsin’s working families.
A REVIEW OF THE BUDGET
ALEC Crisis in State
Spending: A Guide for State Legislators
2002
Accordingly, I have
formulated ten commandments that will help to maximize the prosperity of the
citizens of your state:
First, thou shalt keep
taxes low.
Second, thou shalt
reduce taxes on income and wealth.
Third, thou shalt keep
marginal tax rates low and relatively uniform.
Walker's 2013 -2015 Budget
$651 million in income tax cuts over the next two
years, which will largely benefit people with six-figure incomes.
A tax bracket is eliminated which will put couples earning
$29,000 in the same tax bracket as people earning $315,000.
2003
Go Where the Money Is:
Reduce Workforce Costs
One of the most
effective short-term cost reduction measures is reducing workforce costs.
Walker's 2013 -2015 Budget
Ordering the elimination of 450 state employee
positions.
Modernize Government: Reform
Entitlement Programs States have no chance to solve their long-term budget
problems without getting a handle on the rising cost of entitlements. Next to
the recession, the runaway cost of Medicaid—the biggest budget cost driver in
most states—is the biggest cause of the current state fiscal crisis.
Walker's 2013 -2015 Budget
Republicans rejected $4.38 billion in federal funds
under the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid coverage,
The Joint Finance Committee implemented new changes to
the unemployment insurance
system that will reduce payments to the unemployed in
2013-2015
Turn Capital Assets
into Financial Assets: Sell or
Lease Government
Assets and Enterprises
Over the past two
decades, hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of state-owned enterprises and
assets have been sold or leased to the private sector worldwide. These assets
have included airports, stadiums, ports, utilities, liquor operations, buildings,
land, and gas and electric utilities.
Walker's 2013 -2015 Budget
Governor Walker’s budget authorizes the sale or lease
of nearly all state-owned property including power plants, UW-buildings,
highways and rest-stops. The ambiguity of the budget language allows for these
transactions to be conducted through a no-bid process.
Apply Antitrust to
Government: Introduce Competition in Service Delivery
For many social,
health, and educational services, the best way to realize the benefits of
competition is to allow service recipients to choose their own providers.
Walker's 2013 -2015 Budget
Tax credits for private schools
2004
A tax break for parents who send their children to
private schools, costing state taxpayers $30 million in 2014.
The "Voucher" Strategy and Requiring Tax Subsidies
for Private For-Profit Schools
For almost 20 years, a top priority item for ALEC has been
the privatization of public schools through school vouchers.
Promoting voucher programs that drain public schools of
resources by using taxpayer dollars to subsidize private school profits, and
specifying that those schools must remain unregulated. Voucher programs have
been pushed in the following ways:
Walker's 2013 -2015 Budget
State spending on private school vouchers will
increase by at least $77 million over two years to expand a financially
reckless education experiment that has failed after 20 years of taxpayer support.
In addition to the voucher program, there will be a
new tax deduction starting in 2014 for
families who send children to any K-12 private school.
School privatization interests are major political
donors in the state … Governor Walker alone received $2.35 million
from pro-privatization groups.
These were highly sophisticated, researched schemes
packaged by ALEC, pro-voucher operators and special interests groups to
undermine public schools and privatize the ability of middle-class
Wisconsinites to get a decent education in the future. Fearing public debate
and discussion voucher items were tucked into the budget under the cover of
night.
Establish a State
Privatization and Efficiency Council
As discussed in the
previous section, policymakers should embrace privatization and the competitive
contracting of government services to drive service delivery improvements and
better value for each taxpayer dollar spent..
Walker's 2013 -2015 Budget
Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) gets
funding in spite of mismanagement of taxpayer dollars, losing track of millions
of dollars in loans and possible illegal activity.
WEDC is the partially privatized entity created by
Gov. Walker intended to be the engine for economic development in Wisconsin. In spite of
terrible press and a damaging independent audit of the WEDC, the Joint Finance
Committee approved an increase in funding by at least $7.5 million for WEDC
operations and marketing.
The Legislative Audit Bureau issued a scathing audit
on May 1, 2013, saying that WEDC’s reporting and management were so inadequate
that it is not possible to “assess the effectiveness of WEDC’s economic
development programs.” There are still no reliable accountability standards to
show that taxpayer’s dollars are truly spent to create jobs.
From 2009 – Does the word recession or maybe
depression ring a bell – for 2009??
From the 2009 ALEC Report
Rich
State, Poor States (2nd
Edition)
Principle #9: Income
transfer payments (welfare) create a de facto “tax” on working and thus have a
high impact on the vitality of a state’s economy. Unemployment benefits,
welfare payments, and subsidies represent a redistribution of income. … Transfer
payments represent a tax on production and a subsidy to leisure. Their
automatic increase in the event of a fall in market income leads to an even
sharper drop in output.
Walker's 2013 -2015 Budget
The Joint Finance Committee implemented new changes to
the unemployment insurance system that will reduce payments to the unemployed in
2013-2015
The definition of “misconduct” is expanded under
unemployment insurance rules so that it will be easier to deny benefits to many
more workers,
They make it easier to deny unemployment insurance by
eliminating seven of the “quit exceptions.”
A COMMONWEAL INSTITUTE report on “tort reform” suggests that unemployment is part of the
right-wing “tort reform” argument. CI’s
argument holds that “tort reform arguments” such as those espoused by ALEC “rest upon a broader, underlying ideological
foundation, one built around the ideas of personal responsibility, free
markets, deregulation of business, and privatization of government
functions.” The unemployment issue being
part of the “personal responsibility”.
Therefore, it is
reasonable to suggest that the public should be aware that whenever ALEC members
express their concern for the common peon – they are really only talking about your need to have
“personal responsibility” and your need to “buck up”.
Walker's 2013 -2015 Budget
Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) persuaded the committee
to approve an amendment requiring the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau to
conduct a full audit of the Government Accountability Board. The GOP has been
dogging the GAB since the recalls of 2011 and 2012 and has accused the Board of
wrongdoing. The audit is part of a larger effort to challenge Wisconsin’s electoral process and voting
rights.
Nonpartisan – my a$$
Another attempt at ALEC legislators to destroy the election
process and to stop Americans from voting – so corporations can totally take
over our government.
Walker's 2013 -2015 Budget
Legalizing bail bonds (bounty hunters), which have
been illegal in Wisconsin
since 1979,
Jerry Watson, American Bail Coalition - 2008 ALEC Meeting
ALEC must be destroyed!
ALEC legislators must NOT be re-elected.
ALEC leadership believes that the world is flat and things
don’t change and they continue to push their decades old pro-corporate legislation on the
people of the United States.
We must stop them!
