Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker blames “big government unions” for the possible re-election that he is facing this year. The Wisconsin governor appeared on the Rush Limbaugh radio show Tuesday to give his take on why so many Wisconsin residents want to oust him from office.
Mr. Limbaugh gave his listeners a brief rundown of what has occurred in Wisconsin during the short time Mr. Walker has been in office.
According to Mr. Limbaugh, the Wisconsin governor turned the $3.6 billion deficit that he took on upon becoming governor into a $300 million surplus without raising taxes.
However, the move that has Wisconsin Democrats and public employees in recall mode, is the Budget Repair bill that Mr. Walker enacted last year that greatly limited the collective bargaining rights of public employees in Wisconsin.
The bill required state employees to pay 12.6 percent of their healthcare premiums, and asked them to contribute 5.8 percent of their salaries towards their pension. Previously, state employees were contributing 0 percent of their salaries towards pensions, which is primarily what has them up in arms over Mr. Walker.
The Wisconsin though placed the blame on big government unions in Washington D.C., during his appearance on Mr. Limbaugh’s radio show Tuesday.
“The bottom line is the big government unions in Washington want their money,” said Mr. Walker. “People who legitimately worked hard everyday for both their state and their local government in Wisconsin, I gave them the right to choose, which means they don’t have to be part of a union anymore, and their union dues can’t be forcibly taken out of their paycheck. That’s what this is really about.”
Upon implementing the Budget Repair bill last spring, Mr. Walker released a series of press releases on his website advocating all the benefits of the bill, seemingly wary of the public outcry it was creating prior to even being enacted.
That public outcry lead to the recall effort that began in mid November, lead by Democrats and public employees in Wisconsin. A Wisconsin Public Radio poll of Wisconsin residents in November showed that 58 percent of the respondents support the recall effort.
Tuesday at 5 p.m. is the deadline for the recall organizers to turn in the 540,208 signatures required to force the recall election. The organizers, lead by a group called United Wisconsin, reportedly will turn in close to 720,000 signatures Tuesday.
According to The Associated Press, Mr. Walker won’t be in Wisconsin when the signatures are turned in, as he is scheduled to make an appearance in New York Tuesday.
In his appearance on Mr. Limbaugh’s show Tuesday, the Wisconsin governor said that the recall efforts have been funded by “big government unions in Washington,” and that organizers had been planning them as early as last spring.
Mr. Walker also talked of the vast amount of signatures that will reportedly be turned in, claiming that the organizers would be pulling “all kinds of shaninagans” because of the leniency of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board regarding the requirements for signatures. According to Mr. Walker, the only requirements are that those signing the ballot must be 18 years of age and a non felon. They technically don’t have to be residents of the state of Wisconsin either.
Last month, “Friends of Scott Walker,” Mr. Walker’s Wisconsin state campaign committee and Wisconsin Republican Party Director Stephan Thompson filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin GAB, requesting that the board be more thorough in its review of petition signatures. The lawsuit is still pending, as both sides await a decision from a Wisconsin judge.
Last week GAB officials said they would need at least 60 days to review the signatures in the recall effort for Mr. Walker and several other public officials in Wisconsin that will be turned in Tuesday.
If a recall election is forced, Mr. Walker is confident that he will remain in office, as he told Mr. Limbaugh on Tuesday.
“My hope is if we can affirm the majority of the people in the state and get their address just like we did in 2010, we’ll be able to do it again in 2012,” said Mr. Walker.
