The American Midwest Is Raging

Demonstrations of thousands continue in support of public employee unions’ rights in a number of U.S. states, including Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and others. The demonstrators disapprove of the attempt by Republicans that have control in these states to shift the burden of American anti-crisis measures onto public employees. Meanwhile, the White House threatens a temporary “government shutdown” if Republicans in the U.S. Congress keep on opposing the Obama administration’s budget proposals.

“It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison these days,” Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan told journalists. Madison is the state capitol, and though the situation in Wisconsin is far from being like the governmental crisis in Egypt, there is a common point of comparison. Massive protests have been staged at the state's capitol building and even inside the halls of the building for two weeks.

Members of the public employee unions, like school teachers, are outraged by the proposal of the state’s governor, Scott Walker, to shift the burden onto their shoulders in an attempt to reduce the state’s debt. By some estimates, the debt has reached almost half a billion dollars. The governor defends a bill that would curtail the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions with the state’s authorities. This would open the doors to abolish the indexation of base wages and limit other benefits that public employees have enjoyed.

For the last two weeks, Walker has become an all-American celebrity. He has actively promoted his approach to closing the budget debt and called on other Republican governors to “take a clear position” on financial issues. According to Walker, the debt has largely been caused by the wasteful policies of Barack Obama’s administration and representatives of the local democratic parties. Walker’s platform is gaining increasing support from the business community.

Not all states are following Walker’s lead. In particular, a number of local authorities are looking for ways to increase tax revenues. However, the number of Walker’s supporters is growing. Today, proposals to curtail public workers’ base wages have been proposed in Michigan, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Minnesota.

Last weekend thousands of people participated in massive demonstrations in Madison, but despite their demands the state legislature continued its discussion of the new bill. Moreover, the session that began on Tuesday ended in the early hours of Wednesday. During that time, representatives of the public employee unions stayed on guard at the state’s capitol and placed inflatable mattresses right in the halls of the building.

On Wednesday, democratic lawmakers fled Illinois in order to obstruct voting by creating a lack of quorum. However, Gov. Walker did not give up his intentions. Moreover, the persistence of this parsimonious politician has already become beneficial to him; he’s now being called a promising candidate from the Republican Party for the 2012 elections.

Meanwhile, in Washington the budget standoff continued at the federal level. Last Saturday, the House of Representatives rejected the administration's proposal for the federal budget this year and offered its own version — $61 billion lower in spending. Provisions on a number of federal programs, including the key one for Obama’s health care reform, are proposed to be repealed or cut. In response, the White House threatened to “shut the government down”* on March 4th, when the term of the current resolution on financing federal authorities expires.

In cases like this, before the budget plan is adopted or, at worst, if the resolution for the current financing is extended, the government has to send federal officials home, apart from those who are “absolutely necessary” and refrain from paying with official checks.

U.S. history has already witnessed other cases like this. For instance, in November 1995, former U.S. President Bill Clinton “shut the government down” for six days at first and later for six weeks. In the public’s eyes, the Republicans who had controlled the U.S. Congress at the time were guilty. As for Clinton, he was at a career peak in popularity at the time.

*Editor’s note: We cannot verify that this quote is attributable to the White House.