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SCOTT FITZGERALD, a Republican, the leader of the state senate in wisconsin. this is scott’s brother, jeff. jeff is leader of the state assembly in wisconsin. and this is jeff and scott’s dad, stephen. stephen used to be the u.s. marshal for the western district of wisconsin but when his term expired last year he ran for a local sheriff gig and lost which was particularly embarrassing because it was his old job he had previously been that sheriff but lost the election to get that job back by a lot, 2-1. ow.
So Stephen is rather embarrassed and he is jobless after that but he is also the dad of the guy who runs the state assembly and the dad of the guy who runs the state senate. so with friends in high places and the republican governor scott walker, mr. walker found a spot for him appointing him to lead the wisconsin state patrol. you may have seen a piece on this in ” talking points” memo last week. the fond du lac reporter a newspaper in wisconsin pointed out that papa fitzgerald got that sweet job from governor walker even though he was the only finalist for the gig who came from outside the ranks of the wisconsin state patrol, itself. but you know that’s how it is in wisconsin. scott fitzgerald leading the senate.
Jeff Fitzgerald leading the assembly and stephen fitzgerald leading the wisconsin state patrol which i’m sure came in handy when the governor and the fitzgerald brothers wanted to threaten to use the state patrol for political purposes to go arrest and round up wisconsin’s democrats who fled the state to stop the republicans’ union stripping. that republican union stripping measure in wisconsin is still a nationally galvanizing force for democrats. support and enthusiasm among the democratic base still continues to build for pinning this union-stripping thing on the republican party nationally and for recalling republicans in wisconsin who pushed it through. it is in the midst of that effort into which another patronage hiring scandal appears to be blossoming today.
It started actually a little bit more than a week ago when protesters showed up at the home of one of the republican state senators who is facing a recall. his name is randy hopper, state senator randy hopper. there was this strange detail in the local coverage of that protest at his house. people who were mad about the union stripping thing and wanted to protest it showed up at randy hopper’s house and his wife came out of the house to address the protesters and told them that senator hopper no longer lived there. in fact, she said, he no longer lived in his district at all. he no longer lived in fond du lac. she told the protesters that senator hopper had left his senate district and now lives primarily in madison with his 20 something mistress. today wisconsin papers are all aflutter with news that despite wisconsin’s alleged terrible budget crisis republican senator randy hopper’s alleged girlfriend was able to land a sweet job in the walker administration getting what will amount to a $12,000 annualized pay raise over the person who had the job before her.
Senator Hopper says he had nothing to do with her getting that job. he also says he is not living with her no matter what his wife says. apart from the awkwardness for the state senator in question there is also the big policy awkwardness of whether or not wisconsin state government is so broke because of all those greedy state employees, right? for the senator already facing the likely prospect of recall this is not a positive development but it is also really handy as a reminder about the whole nature of the fight in wisconsin and why it is resonating nationally. the republican justification for the union stripping business in wisconsin was that it was all about the budget, right? but then something like this comes along and we were all reminded if it were about the budget people hired by the state would not be getting $12,000 raises whether or not they were state senators’ girlfriends. and you see this in the policy the republicans are pursuing. not everybody is taking a hit financially in these states pleading poverty. this is important. these republican governors and legislators all over the country keep saying they’re broke, it’s about the budget, it’s about the budget, but they are being incredibly generous to some with their budgets whether it’s state senators’ girlfriends or the forces in our society to whom they would like to redirect what are now public assets.
There are some people who are making out like bandits toward whom states pleading poverty are being incredibly generously profligate. in maine for example the governor wants to spend $30 million giving a tax cut to about 550 of the state’s millionaires. in ohio house republicans say they want to spend $10 million to give the petroleum industry in their state a tax break. pennsylvania’s republican governor wants to spend big on business as well. his tax proposals have been estimated to cost the state between $200 million and $833 million. remember, he is pleading poverty. new jersey’s republican governor wants to spend $200 million on tax cuts to business. remember, we’re broke.
Not to be outdone, Florida’s Republican governor wants to spend $1.5 billion on tax cuts for corporations. michigan’s republican governor wants to spend $1.8 billion on business tax cuts. and of course in wisconsin republican governor scott walker, his giveaways to business, his first actions as governor are projected to cost the great state of wisconsin nearly $140 million. and remember, we are broke. this is some spectacular generosity toward some very specific parts of society among these governments that are pleading poverty complaining about giant state budget deficits. and states do have budget deficits. but all of these giveaways i just described are things that will make those deficits worse. all the beltway media reporting on the fight in the states is about how governors are making hard choices taking controversial steps to close their budget deficits but all of these things they are doing open budget deficits wider. they make the budget problems in all these states worse and they bend over backwards to do it. the people who are not benefiting from the republican generosity in the states are the ones facing the cuts. in georgia the legislature looking at cutting funding to the state university system by about $75 million.
Pennsylvania’s Republican governor proposing a more than 50% cut to that state’s higher education system. in new jersey and south carolina republican governors want to drastically cut medicaid benefits. in arizona the republican governor’s budget would get rid of health care for 100,000 poor people. just in case anybody even tries to make a case this is all ideological, just about republican opposition to taxes and opposition to spending, consider that in most of these state is not only are republican governors or legislatures trying to cut things like public education and social services they are also overtly raising taxes on poor people. we’ve got tax hikes on the elderly and on low income residents in michigan. also republicans in kansas and in wisconsin are talking about effectively raising taxes on the working poor. in georgia house republicans are talking about raising taxes on groceries. also, they’re talking about ending a tax break for blind people. that’s up for grabs in georgia right now. raising taxes on the blind. and just to spread the pain around in maine the republican governor’s proposed bounlgt raise property taxes for the middle class. this is not some sort of policy double speak, right? this is republicans proposing tax increases.
I keep hearing that what republicans are doing in the states is about closing the budget gaps. when you give away hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses, when you give those away as state revenues, that makes your budget problem worse, not better. and every time the national media reports these states that are giving these huge tax giveaways to businesses as closing the budget gap, they are wrong. every time we hear this is an ideological opposition to taxes among these republican governors and legislatures you got to ask what you believe about tax cuts, tax increases for poor people. are tax increases for poor people also tax hikes? huge tax cuts for the people in this country who are already wealthy and tax increases on the poor and unemployed and elderly people. the next time somebody tells you republicans are anti-tax ask them to be specific. we’ve been covering this story for a while now. i have a feeling we will continue to cover it for a long time but whether it is the state senator’s girlfriend and her giant raise or its multi- million dollar giveaways to the people who already have the most money in these states, let it be known, it is not about the budget. —END OF AUTOMATIC TRANSCRIPT