Walker's bill was halfhearted measure in face of a looming economic disaster

In many quarters, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has become something of a national folk hero. To large swaths of fiscal conservatives, Republicans and even fairly apolitical Americans, Walker and his GOP legislative allies are fighting a necessary battle: to curtail the excessive perquisites and unsustainable demands of government employees in a time of unrelenting economic anxiety.

As Walker's fans see it, if taxpaying workers in the private sector are struggling to maintain their jobs and standards of living, then tax-feeding public employees should have to make some overdue sacrifices too.

The past four weeks have seen massive demonstrations pro and con, the flight of Democratic senators, death threats, a declaration of "war" by Michael Moore and similar overheated rhetoric from national figures (right and left) who are only too eager to join the Wisconsin fray. Yet with last Friday's signing of the bill to strip many (but not all) public employees of collective bargaining rights, the battle for public opinion in the state and outside its borders has apparently only just begun.

The story lines invariably feature organized labor as opposed to taxpayers, conservative against liberal, Democrat vs. Republican, and so on.

Walker has stated his belief that, over time, a divided public will come to embrace his labor relations policies. In the Wall Street Journal last week, he tried to strike a conciliatory pose in writing, "While it might be a bold political move, the changes are modest."

Modest indeed.

Perhaps this controversy should be seen in a different light altogether, not as sharply opposing sides of union-lovers vs. union-busters or of the GOP vs. the Democrats and their union allies.

Rather, we should look at it for what it really is, given the current circumstances in Wisconsin and the country: a halfhearted measure by self-described fiscal conservatives in the face of looming economic disaster.

Walker's state - like Minnesota and most others of the United States -- faces massive problems. Inflation (largely ignored so far) has been eroding living standards for months; unemployment remains high; manufacturing largely remains on life support; entitlement costs continue growing, and demographic models point to vanishing sustainability. Most of these problems are conveniently ignored by the political class (Democrats and Republicans alike), the mainstream media and worry-weary citizens except when absolutely impossible.

But even for tough-sounding, allegedly fiscally hawkish politicians, winning future votes and maintaining popularity are always more important than confronting a crisis. Especially when officialdom can downplay the crisis's dimensions.

It is telling that Walker introduced his Budget Repair Bill by asking for concessions from public employees but expressly stating his desire to not eliminate their positions. From the very beginning, the governor made exceptions for public employees (police, firefighters and state troopers) whose unions supported him in last year's campaign. (Not all public employees are created equally, it seems.) He used the possibility of layoffs as a threat to encourage Democratic acquiescence to passage of his proposal, not as a measure to tackle Wisconsin's huge budget deficit. And when signing into law the collective bargaining rescission, he expressed relief that "the Legislature helped us save 1,500 middle-class jobs," referring to public employees who might have lost their jobs had the stalemate in Madison continued.

The governor's relief is no doubt sincere. Despite being vilified by the unions and progressives across the country, he is no enemy of big government or public employees. In fact, he is no dogmatic protector of the public purse. During his time as executive of Milwaukee County, he presided over a 35 percent increase in its budget.

Of course, Gov. Walker is acting no differently from his fellow Republicans in the current Congress, who decry a $1.5 trillion current-year deficit and muster up all their political courage to cut ... a mere $100 billion.

Is this the best that the ostensible party of limited government can do?

I know a number of Democrats -- though not any now in public office -- who believe that we should reduce the number of public employees, ratchet back entitlement benefits and take other politically controversial steps to avert worsening the gargantuan problems we already face.

Walker and his fellow Wisconsinite, U.S. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, are heroes and rising stars in the Republican Party. But that party has yet to purge itself of George W. Bush's baleful legacy of talking like a heroic believer in fiscal responsibility while acting as the protector and enlarger of all that a bankrupt, paternalistic government has to offer.

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Chris Georgacas, former chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, is president of Goff Public, Inc., a St. Paul-based public relations firm. He is a source in MPR's Public Insight Network.

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