Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
>>> he’s trying to fix the deficit by bugs the unions in wisconsin. but he’s about to hand out $40 million in new tax breaks over the next two years. so what happens? i thought you had a deficit problem? not when it comes to giving out cash to corporate interests, right? for gop governors across the country, it’s no the about balancing the budget or shared sacrifice. it’s about tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. it’s about you sacrificing and the middle class sacrificing and the poor sacrificing so republicans can distribute more and more money to their biggest campaign distributors. rich people and corporations. we’re going to show it to you. it’s a vicious psych. republicans like to talk about kitchen table finances. let’s do back of the envelope math for you guys. jo january br jan brewer says she wants to cut the deficit. it costs $541 million to give health care to 281,000 poor people through medicaid. so she cuts it, she cuts from medicaid and puts $541 million towards reducing the deficit. all right, great. except wait. she also wants to give out corporate tax break which is will cost arizona $538 million in loss revenue. so cutting medicaid didn’t really reduce the deficit at all. i’m amused by that. she turned around and mahanded the money right back to the corporations. that’s how it works. it’s a transfer of cash from the poor in that case to the rich. just took from one hand and gave it to the other. let’s look at more egregious example. michigan governor rick snyder wants to cut $1.2 billion from schools, universities and local governments. but you’re going to be shocked where he wants the money to go instead. it turns out he wants to give out $1.8 billion in tax cuts for business. shocking. as you see, it doesn’t even balance out. so how does he plan to close the rest of the gap? by raising taxes on individuals. any republican who tells you they want to cut deficits while cutting taxes, i’ve got to be honest with you, they’re lying or they’re terrible at math. or who knows, maybe both. katrina vanden heuvel. obviously they’re playing games with the numbers. take it from the middle class or schools or poor and gives it to the rich. but let’s talk about the consequence consequences. when you get $300 million from medica medicaid, to they get better. governor brewer, people who are mentally ill, she doesn’t want to treat them anymore. they’re going to be on the street.
>> this is about an extremist republican flank which wants to defund the priorities for people. they want to balance budgets on the backs of working people or low income people. there is an alternative. there’s always an alternative in politics and history and i think people are waking up cenk and seeing enough. enough to give tax breaks to corporations and the very richest, and that it’s not about deficits as you said. this is junk math. i think what governor walker has overreached. i really think it’s clear for the first time since reagan, just tried to break the back of labor. it’s the only counterforce for working people in this country. i think there’s more sympathy, unity and attention being paid to labor and working people and how these republicans are just out to lunch when it comes to their priorities.
>> katrina, i think you’re right in terms of in indiana, iowa and other places, republican governors running for the hills because they’re seeing the numbers for walker and it’s not good.
>> not good.
>> they’re looking at the national numbers we showed earlier in the show. people are in favor of collective bargaining. i get that part. but i wonder if everybody else gets what’s happening here. rick scott just won. here’s another example from florida, right? and rick scott says he’s going to give away $4 billion in corporate tax cuts and property tax cuts and he’s going to take away $3 billion from education. that’s what i’m wondering. do the people from florida realize they voted for this? fantastic, take away our education.
>> i think we’re in a turning point moment in this country in the last two weeks. people are waking up. and they’re in the streets. there are going to be 50 rallies around this country. maybe a million people in the streets of this country. and what are they saying? enough! you’re giving our people’s money away. invest in our country, invest in jobs, invest in education. keep cops on the street, keep teachers in the classrooms. enough with these perks for corporations. there’s a movement called u.s. uncut, inspired by an article in the nation. if we can recoup from the very richest who brought us this financial crisis and from corporate tax dodger, we can balance budgets in a fair way. justice, fairness, con cements that may be coming back to america in this moment.
>> and it’s also a matter of truth, too. rick perry in texas, bragging about how he’s got the texas miracle. he used 97% of the budget gap he had, he covered up with stimulus money, the money he kwlclaimed to be against.
>> and think of the idiocy of these governors b turning away recovery money. they’re so ideological they’re willing to hurt their citizens to stand for what? an ideology which is pay to play? pay for corporations, pay for the richest. there’s a reason why scott walker took david koch’s call. koch pac contributed $43 million to his campaign.
>> you see it all over the place. finally they’re getting called out on it a little bit. you’re right, kay sisich and walker turned down stimulus government 37 then you say i’ve got a deficit problem. yeah, because you didn’t take the money.
>> we’re seeing democracy in action. it’s not just about the ballot box. i think americans are decent, generous people and their priorities are not being reflected in these state houses. the polls begin to show that the center, as described in this country is, you know, the washington consensus, the beltway and now the state house governors. anyway we’ve got to fight back because it’s a culmination of a 30-year campaign of the right and governors now to try to bust the middle class working people in favor of what?
>> thank you so much. you’re absolutely right. because that is — washington consensus is nowhere near the scepter of the country. we’re seeing it right now. thank you so much for joining us. we really
Accountants CPA Hartford, LLC
About Labor Unions.
Non union employers raise the wages of their employees to union wage levels when they are threatened with being unionized. So it follows that unions help workers in general and not just unionized workers. The uneducated public is generally not aware
of this simple fact. Please point this out the next
I wish it were only true. It would be more equitable if all places of employment had unions with standard pay scales and benefits, including operations overseas. But that has about as much chance of happening as the elite 1% paying an equitable tax rate. So until then, with the rich never paying their fair share of taxes, and with many governmental employees approving of Obama’s recent tax cuts for the rich (72% of Americans approved of those tax cuts, so many governmental union employees did so), then it’s a battle between governmental union employees’ higher wages and benefits and all those private citizens paying more in taxes.