Roomin' House Blues

Today I received mail from Rep. Jaime Pedersen expressing his concern for education in this state, but his inability to ensure it's protection.  I responded with a challenge that may take a while to have meet.    Both are below. Dear Mr. Drake -- Thanks for your message and for your advocacy for ending tax breaks to support public education, our paramount duty. I am a co-sponsor of HB 2078 and hope that I will have a chance to vote for it on the House floor before the end of session. As the father of four young kids, I am strongly interested in preserving smaller class sizes for early grades. Last year, I was proud to vote to suspend Initiative 960 (which required a 2/3 vote in the legislature to increase taxes or repeal tax loopholes) and to vote for a bill that repealed a variety of tax exemptions and increased several taxes to avoid an all-cuts budget. That bill was not as broad as I would have liked (for example, it did not repeal the longstanding B...

Equal Voice for America's Families ( https://www.facebook.com/EqualVoiceNews ) points out that the federal poverty level, for 2011, for a family of four is now  $22,350.  They ask us to tell them how would you budget that.  I wrote:  Gas for the van your family of four is living in, stamps to send in your application for food stamps, a map to find the nearest food bank, etc. I believe that all Congress people should be required by Constitutional Amendment to live on such a budget for at least a week before voting on our national budget.  They should also be required to eat a food stamp diet in the Congressional cafeteria for a month before voting. (It might qualify as a Lenten fast.)  The standards by which the federal poverty guidelines are set have not been re-evaluated in years.  Budgeting for government programs for the poor is being done in a fantasy world.  It's time to give the poor a voice. 

Shortly after making enemies of the labor movement and friends of labor nation wide, Gov. Walker of Wisconsin is in the middle of making enemies of Moms and Dads and Kiddies, even Republican ones, because of his draconian cuts of Wisconsin schools.   Many Wisconsin Republicans are wishing they could take back their vote for Walker according to an Associated Press article today.  After creating $82 million in new tax cuts the Gov has a $3.6 billion budget bust to deal with, even after raising "fees" on the poor like a  75 cent fee for 911 service to mobile devices.  So he is planning to cut state aid to schools by 9%,  about $900 million, at the same time as he reduces local property tax revenues for schools by an average of $550 per student.   This has sent parents with school children out to the picket lines, even ones that voted for Walker.  Math teacher Ron Blaha, who voted for Walker for restraint on frivolous spending remarked that "I di...