Trumka lowers expectations in Scott Walker fight

But great men like Scott Walker have stood up for the people and counterpunched the unions.

You mean "the people" like the Koch brothers who fund him?

Who are these Koch brothers?

Scott Walker has been funded by millions of Americas. Including me.

Who are these Koch brothers?

Scott Walker has been funded by millions of Americas. Including me.

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions has caused an uproar among state employees, might not be where he is today without the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch are conservative titans of industry who have infamously used their vast wealth to undermine President Obama and fight legislation they detest, such as the cap-and-trade climate bill, the health care reform act, and the economic stimulus package. For years, the billionaires have made extensive political donations to Republican candidates across the country and have provided millions of dollars to astroturf right-wing organizations. Koch Industries' political action committee has doled out more than $2.6 million to candidates. And one prominent beneficiary of the Koch brothers' largess is Scott Walker.

According to Wisconsin campaign finance filings, Walker's gubernatorial campaign received $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election. That donation was his campaign's second-highest, behind $43,125 in contributions from housing and realtor groups in Wisconsin. The Koch's PAC also helped Walker via a familiar and much-used politicial maneuver designed to allow donors to skirt campaign finance limits. The PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn spent $65,000 on independent expenditures to support Walker. The RGA also spent a whopping $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker ended up beating Barrett by 5 points. The Koch money, no doubt, helped greatly.

The Kochs also assisted Walker's current GOP allies in the fight against the public-sector unions. Last year, Republicans took control of the both houses of the Wisconsin state legislature, which has made Walker's assault on these unions possible. And according to data from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the Koch Industries PAC spent $6,500 in support of 16 Wisconsin Republican state legislative candidates, who each won his or her election.

You mean "the people" like the Koch brothers who fund him?

as opposed to how many that are funded by George Soros and the dozens of his front groups (mediamatters, center for progress, etc etc)?

What about the other billionaires who fund other democrats ? Warren Buffet? Ted Turner? Oprah Winfrey? need I go on?

What is this hypocrisy on the part of you and your ilk with complaints and self-righteous indignation about billionaires supporting republicans, when you have the same thing (if not more so) on the democrats' side?

Big political players:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Bros. [motherjones.com]

What's big about them, exactly? Scott Walker has raised roughly $13 million from thousands of Americans. The number provided by these koch brothers is quite small.

Obama got much more money from Goldman Sachs in 2008.

Small contributions do not buy influence like Koch Bros scale ones do.

What influence?

Goldman Sachs didn't have a PAC in 2008. Obama got millions from the bankers themselves.

According to Federal Election Commission figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, Goldman Sachs' political action committee and individual contributors who listed the company as their employer donated $994,795 during 2007 and 2008 to Obama's presidential campaign...

Access. The kind that large contributions buy. Do you remember the prank call to Scott Walker?

Scott Walker Gets Punked By Journalist Pretending To Be David Koch [huffingtonpost.com]

Think he'd take your call after your $100 donation?



That would have been illegal. You're wrong: [cnn.com]

...Crucially, these cuts are unlikely to come with tax increases. Despite the ardent wishes of state unions, Taveras is shying away from this favorite blue solution to financial problems:
“[I]f we can’t reform our pensions, I don’t see how we can move this city forward. You could raise taxes, but I don’t think you can raise taxes enough to cover the cost of this.”
The unions would like everyone to think that we are witnessing a war by evil, hard hearted Republicans against the blue social model. Wrong.
The model is inexorably collapsing of its own bloated weight. Democratic mayors and governors are acting in ways that not even the most radical Republicans did ten years ago. They have no choice: reality can only be resisted so long.