Plain Talk: Guess why Walker wants to freeze self-supporting State Life Fund

[highplainsdem]

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/dave_zweifel/article_5b9c269c-45cd-11e0-bcf3-001cc4c002e0.html

If you need a prima facie example of how this extremist Republican governor is taking the side of the big guys against the little guys, I've got one for you.

Hidden in the 1,300 or so pages of his 2011-13 budget is the dismantling of Wisconsin's little-known State Life Fund, a small state-operated life insurance plan that was enacted 100 years ago this year by progressive Republican legislators in the wake of insurance scandals that rocked the state back then.

The fund costs Wisconsin government nothing, but operates off investing the premiums paid by the 30,000-plus state residents who hold policies with face values ranging from a minimum of $1,000 to a maximum of $10,000. The fund, which isn't well-known because it is forbidden from doing any advertising, nevertheless earns dividends that substantially reduce the insureds' premium costs plus build cash values that policyholders can cash in if events in their lives make it prudent to do so.

-snip-

But now comes Walker, who received substantial campaign contributions from insurance interests in his race last fall. And because of the acquiescence to his machinations by the Republican majority in the Legislature, the threat to the fund is much more serious. Walker will get his wish unless the proposal is removed from the budget bill before it passes.

-snip-

Please read the entire piece. This is one more example of how carefully crafted and dangerous Walker's budget is. They spent a lot of time designing it to roll back as many progressive advances as possible, and favor corporations and the rich as much as possible, in just one bill.

[HereSince1628]

1. K& highly R'd

[mopinko]

2. i have this feeling that they picked this union fight

because they knew it would flood the zone. it would take up all the news stories, it would be all over the tv, and, they thought, it would distract attention from the give aways that we tucked in there. especially to the koch brothers. once everyone is tired of hearing about protesters on the lawn, they will cram it though, the end.

[AllyCat]

3. God help us. I cannot believe what these people have stooped to, even for

Republicons.

[atreides1]

4. It's not about party politics

It's about the lust for power and money...granted you'll find that most are members of the Republican party, but there are some who call themselves Democrats as well.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. I have read of similar things being done, with malicious and forethought,

as a back lash to Reconstruction, in the South, after the Civil War. Laws being passed to deliberately crush any chance of a then Republican ( we would call them Dems, now) voting majority.

You bet it is intentional, and it is now world wide.
Deliberate attempts at making our country the economic equivalent to a 19th century 3rd world economy,
with all resources owned by a few and large groups of poor people available to compete for slave labor.
One fly in the ointment of that plan, tho, is who will be left to buy the resources/products that make the rich even richer?

Capitalism is The Ouroboros.