Millions for Billionaires, Cuts for Schools, Poor and the Blind

The one consoling fact about GOPer victories is that sooner or later they blow it by overreaching. But this time breaks both the speed record, and the extent of it. Every day sets new standards for the incredible, the cruel and the corrupt. And they go hand in hand.

But there's really nothing funny or politically heartening about all this--not for the people who are cruelly victimized. This damage may never be undone, and what can be repaired for the future will take a great deal of effort and money that could have been expended on positive good.

Though she doesn't make the connection between the corrupt and the cruel, Rachel Maddow included both in her report from the states. (This is from Monday, but she continued on Tuesday, emphasizing again how these GOPer states are justifying actions based on cutting budgets while on the other hand taking actions that cost their states more money and put them in deeper deficits. She added a new example on Tuesday: state liquor store sales are a major source of revenue for the state of Ohio, but Governor Kasich proposes to privatize them. On both days,she emphasized also that the rest of the media is buying this budget-cutting message.)

First the corruption, which I'll just summarize: in Wisconsin, a GOPer state senator recently made news when protestors showed up at his house, only to be told by his wife that he doesn't live there anymore, he's off living in another district with his girlfriend. Now it turns out that the GOPer governor's administration has hired that girlfriend, with a $12,000 a year raise beyond what the previous person at that job got. (Which proves one thing: some people really don't need collective bargaining.)

That's your garden variety patronage corruption. But another "coincidence" is more insidious.
In Wisconsin, the GOPer leader of the Senate and the GOPer leader of the state House are brothers. That's actual biological brothers. The new GOPer governor has appointed their father to head the state patrol, even though he was the only candidate for the job who wasn't already in the state patrol. Apart from another member of the family joining those lazy overpaid government employees, there is this to consider (Maddow speaking):

"Scott Fitzgerald leading the Senate, Jeff Fitzgerald leading the assembly, and Stephen Fitzgerald leading the Wisconsin state patrol, which I‘m sure came in handy when the governor and the Fitzgerald brothers wanted to threaten to use the state patrol for political purposes to go arrest and round up Wisconsin‘s Democrats who fled the state to stop the Republicans‘ union-stripping."

Now for the cruelty and hypocrisy of the Rabid Right Class War. Maddow ended her program with a couple of lists that went by pretty fast. I think they are worth posting in print, for readers to absorb and contemplate:

"In Maine the Republican governor there wants to spend $30 million giving a tax cut to about 550 individuals, 500 of the state‘s millionaires.

In Ohio, House Republicans say they want to spend $10 million to give the petroleum industry in their state a tax break.

Pennsylvania‘s Republican governor wants to spend big on business as well. His tax proposals have been estimated to cost the state between $200 million and $833 million.

New Jersey‘s Republican Governor Chris Christy wants to spend $200 million on tax cuts to business.

Florida‘s Republican governor wants to spend $1.5 billion on tax cuts for corporations.

Michigan‘s Republican governor wants to spend $1.8 billion on business tax cuts.

And, of course, in Wisconsin, Republican Governor Scott Walker, his giveaways to business, his first actions as governor, are projected to cost the great state of Wisconsin nearly $140 million. And remember, we‘re broke.

In Georgia, the legislature is looking at cutting funding to the state university system by about $75 million.

Pennsylvania‘s Republican governor proposing a more than 50 percent cut to that state‘s higher education system.

In New Jersey and South Carolina, Republican governors want to drastically cut Medicaid benefits.

In Arizona, the Republican governor‘s budget would get rid of health care for 100,000 poor people.

"Just in case anybody even tries to make a case this is all ideological, this is just about Republican opposition to taxes and opposition to spending, consider that in most of these state is not only are Republican governors or legislatures trying to cut things like education and social services, they are also overtly raising taxes on poor people. We‘ve got tax hikes on the elderly and on low income residents in Michigan."

Also, Republicans in Kansas and in Wisconsin are talking about effectively raising taxes on the working poor.

In Georgia, House Republicans are talking about raising taxes on groceries. Also, they‘re talking about ending a tax break for blind people. That‘s up for grabs in Georgia right now, raising taxes on the blind.

And just to spread the pain around in Maine, the Republican governor‘s proposed budget would raise property taxes for the middle class."

But pushback on some of this continues--from the courts. In New Jersey, a superior court judge ruled that GOPer gov and national sweetheart Chris Christie's cuts to education violate the state's constitution.