Naked Capitalism Link of the Day

Today's link: Wisconsin Draws the Line on Austerity Opportunism and Class War at Rortybomb. I found this piece interesting:

As a Chicagoan, I’m often lead to believe that the Upper-Midwest is the only place of sanity in this country. So I’m proud to see Wisconsin be the place where people draw the line and call BS on the attack on public workers, state budgets, and austerity amidst a financial, foreclosure and economic crisis where the government’s response has had the protection of banks, bondholders, creditors, Wall Street and the top 1% at all costs as the driving tenant, a class war driven by the rich.  Here are some other things I’m reading on the protests.
Doug Henwood was local when the protests started, and has pictures, thoughts and followup. Joel Rogers explains the politics of Wisconsin to Henwood: “To outsiders, it’s mysterious that the same state could have spawned Joe McCarthy and Robert LaFolette, or Scott Walker and Russ Feingold. Rogers explained that politics in Wisconsin has historically been driven by an alliance of industrial workers and capital-intensive dairy farmers on the left, opposed on the right by a mainly Catholic rural population. They’re pretty evenly divided, thus the contrasting figures and tight elections.”

I thought that description of Wisconsin was very interesting.  I think liberals are erring in this battle in Wisconsin by stressing that the 2009-2011 budget is in surplus.  While this is true, it ignores that it is only true because of the Obama stimulus plan, and that money isn't coming back.  I agree that it is stupid for Walker and Kasich to be pushing tax cuts through at this time, but even without them, there are serious holes which need addressed.  I don't think that the attacks on the public unions are warranted, and I think they are counterproductive.  The public sector unions have been willing to work with the states to try to address pay and benefit issues. They've taken pay freezes and furloughs, even as their middle class members have watched the rich and big business be coddled.  Republicans are going one way on a two-way street, and eventually they are going to get called on it.  Businesses and rich folks are going to have to ante up at some point.  Taxes on the wealthy have been cut again and again with promises of boosting the economy and creating jobs, so where are the jobs?

Update: An example of corporate welfare from Dylan Ratigan's interview with David Kay Johnson:

Oh, no, not at all. In fact, you mentioned that 2/3 of the companies in Wisconsin are not paying any corporate income tax. That’s mostly the big companies. It’s the mom-and-pop operations who actually tend to pay state income taxes. Wisconsin at one point had a giveaway program to Hollywood when they made the movie Public Enemies with Johnny Depp. For every dollar that they said they spent in Wisconsin they get 92 cents back from the government. Think about that, 92 cents from the taxpayers for every dollar that you spent. What an incredible giveaway program but almost nobody in the public knows this.