Today Scott Walker finally admitted in a Congressional hearing that all the baloney he tried to sell Wisconsin about unions and how busting them was necessary to save the state money was a lie.
KUCINICH: Let me ask you about some of the specific provisions in your proposals to strip collective bargaining rights. First, your proposal would require unions to hold annual votes to continue representing their own members. Can you please explain to me and members of this committee how much money this provision saves for your state budget?
WALKER: That and a number of other provisions we put in because if you’re going to ask, if you’re going to put in place a change like that, we wanted to make sure we protected the workers of our state, so they got value out of that. [...]
KUCINICH: Would you answer the question? How much money does it save, Governor?
WALKER: It doesn’t save any. [...]
This testimony was given at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in a hearing titled “State and Municipal Debt: Tough Choices Ahead,” as reported by Thinkprogress.
I use the lord "lie" because he has made numerous statements on the record where he has said the opposite thing. For instance, in this interview on a political talk show, as reported by politifact he said the following,
Indeed, Walker also said in the interview with Sykes it was necessary to use his bill to strip collective bargaining rights because when it comes to money the state is broke. He added:
"What changes is the fact that no longer can our unions have a stranglehold -- not only on the state government but local government -- to force them to not alter benefit packages that are like a virus eating up our budget."
Now, of course, anyone paying attention knew he was lying all along but he kept up the dissimulation until he could no longer. After all, perjury before a Congressional committee is not something that even the prevaricator Walker wants to engage in.
In today's hearing Walker was pinned on another thing. While he didn't admit that prohibiting union dues to be collected through employee pay checks would not save the state money, Kucinich produced a document from the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, "that concluded that Walker’s measures were 'nonfiscal' — meaning they had no impact on the state’s finances."
KUCINICH: I want to ask about another one of your proposals. Under your plan you would prohibit paying union member dues from their paychecks. How much money would this provision save your state budget?
WALKER: It would save employees a thousand dollars a year they could use to pay for their pensions and health care contributions.
KUCINICH: Governor, it wouldn’t save anything. [Goes on to present letter from LRF and is denied unanimous request for it to be placed in the public record by Issa]
Yes, you read right. Kucinich requested that the letter from the Wisconsin State Agency that is the equivalent of the Federal GAO, Government Accountability Office, be placed in the Committee record and the Chairman, Darrell Issa refused. Wow. Issa refused to allow something that is done in Congress as a matter of course. That's unreal. So much for investigations and transparency.