Welcome To The Clown Car, Koch Brothers' Candidate Scott Walker!

Later today, the multi-billionaire Bircher Koch brothers will officially have their candidate enter the Republican presidential race,  their employee of the year, Gov. Scott "Koch Head" Walker (R-Kochland).   Alice Ollstein at Think Progress summarizes what Walker did to Wisconsin, as a preview to what he would do to the rest of the nation (spoiler alert:  he won't get the chance):

Much of Walker’s appeal to conservatives lies in his record of enacting far-right policies as the governor of a historically progressive, working class swing state. Riding over more than a century of strong labor history, he passed laws in 2011 stripping away collective bargaining rights from public sector unions, triggering a weeks-long occupation of the state capitol by tens of thousands of protesters. Then, earlier this year, he signed a so-called “right to work” law that will further cripple workplace organizing in the Badger State.

At a time when both conservative and progressive states across the country have embraced a boost in their minimum wages, Walker has not only refused to consider a raise for Wisconsin’s workers, he questioned whether there should be wage protections at all. Other worker protections have also been eliminated, including the right to one day off per week.

Just a few months before announcing his bid for president, at his State of the State address in Madison, Walker told lawmakers that “Wisconsin is more free and prosperous” after his first four years in office, and assured them, “The Wisconsin Comeback is working.”

But several studies have shown that the governor’s economic agenda — slashing property and corporate taxes, restricting collective bargaining and keeping wages low — has left the state in a precarious position. Data from the Pew Charitable Trusts predicts that Wisconsin will end this fiscal year with less money in reserve than any other state in the country. Walker’s 2011 tax cuts, which largely benefited wealthy landowners and factory owners, will cost the state at least $275 million in additional lost tax revenue over the next two years — twice as much as originally predicted.

To close the gaping budget deficit exacerbated by those tax cuts, Walker is cutting funding for the state’s famed public universities by $250 million over the next two years. These impending cuts, which are already prompting schools to force out professors and cut entire programs, comes as the campuses are still struggling to absorb the cuts Walker approved in 2011. Faculty members also lost their right to tenure in the budget Governor Walker signed one day before launching his bid for president. [snip]

Scott Walker’s environmental record offers another window into how he would govern in the White House. The governor plans to openly defy new federal regulations on coal plant emissions, and has said he believes the Environmental Projection Agency should have its powers gutted.

In 2013, he pushed through a controversial bill to loosen regulations on mining and allow a massive, open pit iron ore operation to begin strip-mining in the state’s northern forests. Among other provisions, the law creates a presumption that damage to wetlands is necessary and exempts companies from paying a recycling fee on waste rock. The corporation that would have benefited from the mine donated $700,000 to Walker’s defense in the 2012 recall campaign, sparking accusations of quid pro quo corruption.

Ollstein also covers the on-going "John Doe" corruption investigation that's already led to the conviction of six of Walker's aides, and could still affect Koch Head's run.

We've also noted the stark contrast between Walker's far-right Wisconsin Kochland and neighboring Minnesota, which has been governed by a progressive governor and legislature.  That's what electing (and re-electing) someone who is determined to use government as a servant for the wealthy and the privileged will do for your state.  Luckily, he is just the latest (15 by our count) Republican clown lining up for the dishonor of being skunked by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

UPDATE:  Here's The Onion's profile for Koch Head (h/t Silver Spring Bureau Chief Brian).

UPDATE II:  The AFL-CIO's press release on Koch Head's candidacy is short and to- the- point:

"July 13, 2015

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in response to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s upcoming announcement to run for President of the United States:

Scott Walker is a national disgrace."

No argument here.

"No Public Option, No Support"

That's what the rallying cry for all progressives should be who are concerned about Democrats negotiating (with themselves) the public option away. As it happens, it was voiced by Rich Trumka, the soon-to-be head of the AFL-CIO. Unfortunately, the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party doesn't seem to be in charge at the White House or in large swaths of Congress. The latest bullshit from an "unidentified Administration source" (Rahmbo?) is that the White House might want to screw progressives, just to show "independents" that Obama can buck his own party "to get things done." What makes us think of Rahmbo you ask? Isn't this the same kind of triangulation the Clintonistas thought they were so clever about -- abandoning traditional Democratic principles in the process? How'd that work out for ya?

Now if that isn't the most asinine, self-defeating "strategery" we've ever heard, not to mention a gratuitous slap at the folks who brung you to the dance, we don't know what is. One can only hope these are trial balloons, in this case filled with someone's fiddle farts, because if this turns out to be the "thinking" going on, the predictions of some wingnuts that the Obama Administration will most closely resemble Carter's might not be so far off.

(Photo: Rich Trumka, AFL-CIO)

Stakes

Two articles worth reading on the health care reform struggle: Jonathan Alter's piece in Newsweek calling out Democrats who have "forgotten the stakes...[that health care reform] is the most important civil rights bill in a generation."

AFL-CIO's Rich Trumka is one Democrat who hasn't forgotten. In his interview with HuffPo, Trumka says he's willing to use labor's clout to punish Democrats who take labor's support but don't vote on labor's issues - one being a public option. Maybe with more people like Trumka speaking up, the Obama Administration will get some steel in its spine and go after the Blue Dogs and the Senate grandees in its own party.

Guess Who's Coming To The Town Hall Meetings

Members of America's major labor organization will be confronting the right-wing mobs at the Congressional Democrats' town hall meetings this month, according to the AFL-CIO. If we were the health care-opposing wingnuts showing up to disrupt the town hall meetings, we'd be a little nervous about seeing a few dozen angry, physical steelworkers, mine workers or auto workers who have lost or may be losing their health care if the wingers have their way. It should make for some interesting group dynamics. This could be a good test of whether the wingnuts' health insurance covers all forms of bodily injury. BWAHAHAHAHAHA.