Monday, August 29, 2011

Vos Wrong on UC Benefits

“A solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg that looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity.”  Mark Twain said it.  Had Twain been alive today, he might very well have been referring to  Rep. Robin Vos, who “thinks” unemployment benefits keep people from applying from low wage jobs. 

On June 20, 2011, Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, told the Milwaukee Journal he ‘thinks the federally funded extended benefits give laid-off workers an incentive to avoid jobs that pay less than their old jobs and to keep looking for better work. That could have an indirect effect on the health of the state's jobless fund, which is already deeply in debt to the federal government.”

"I believe there's an indirect impact," Vos said. "... People might not take a $12-an-hour job because they want one that makes $20."

Vos seems to think HE is the only hard-working person in Wisconsin.  This example shows how off base Vos is in his thinking.  And, may we remind Vos that he’s no self-made Horatio Alger rags-to-riches story.  Vos, though hard-working, had life handed to him.  His portfolio of rental properties?  He bought his first house with the help of three people.  His popcorn factory?  He bought it in 1996. Vos didn’t start the business and build it from the ground up. The former owners did that when they founded the company in 1982.

As we’ve seen before with sanctimonious people who feign piety or righteousness (“I believe”…”I think”…note the narcissistic tendencies), Vos’s “opinions” are dead wrong.  Take it from economist Peter Diamond at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(M.I.T.) who won a Nobel Prize for showing how unemployment compensation benefits both workers and businesses by giving workers the necessary time to find the best job fit.  Doing so actually improves market efficiencies.  

 Not that Vos is interested in facts and statistics.  As is the case with sanctimonious people, Vos’s personal opinion carries far more weight.  The prejudices which Vos carries seething beneath the surface of his day-to-day life seem to pop up every time he wants us to accept his personal beliefs as fact.   Which is probably why Vos is waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity before he gives notice to the State Legislature.  Let’s help him along.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Trouble with Vos

The trouble with Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester) is that he does not listen to middle-class Wisconsin families. Oh, he say he does. But what he says and what he does are truly two different things. For example, as co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, Vos voted FOR the emergency budget “fiscal” repair bill and AGAINST every single one of 30 budget amendments proposed by Democrats. Time and time again, Vos would roll his eyes, call for a vote, and, table each and every amendment. Check out http://www.wiseye.org/ if you don’t believe me. See for yourself Rep. Vos’s pompous pronouncements and arrogant behavior.

First, as we now know, there was no fiscal emergency that necessitated the destruction of collective bargaining rights for middle-class working families. Remember Gov. Walker’s admission before a congressional committee in Washington, D.C. that NO savings would be associated with elimination of collective bargaining rights for workers? We do. It’s hard to forget. How much money have we saved in the state budget on these “provisions”, Rep. Vos? None. That’s right. Zip. Zero. Nada. Bupkus.




Second, Vos led the charge to take $1.3 billion from Wisconsin public schools, claiming a fiscal emergency. We have no money, Vos would intone again and again. Yet, when it came time to find funding for privatization of schooling in Racine, Vos reached into the pocket of Wisconsin taxpayers without any formal survey of constituents. Instead, Vos tried to justify his little “pork” project by stating undocumented statistics that Racine County’s teen pregnancy rate was 8.6% compared to Racine County’s 9.4% rate. Even if Vos can come up with documentation to back his claim, the difference is a mere 0.8% -- which makes Rep. Vos’s justification statistically invalid. Proving he is deceitful with facts and statistics. He thought he could put one over on Wisconsin citizens. He thought we wouldn’t notice. We did. We will uncover and expose to Wisconsin voters Rep. Vos's “agenda” and his big business backers. We are going to peel away the smelly onion that is known as Rep. Robin Vos (apologies to onion enthusiasts).

Now, Rep. Vos wants to “recall the recalls”. We know why. Angry Wisconsin voters successfully recalled two incumbent Republican senators and replaced them with Democrats who actually, get this – listen to working middle-class families. Republicans know Wisconsinites are angry. So what do they do? They stack the deck with voter suppression legislation and redistricting to protect Republicans from the growing mass of dissatisfied voters. In truth, Vos has only to look at a statistically valid survey to learn that "78% of Wisconsinites overwhelmingly think the recall option in the state constitution is a good thing." The survey was performed by the University of Wisconsin’s UW Badger PollTM #32 released July 13, 2011.

Facts are facts. Rep. Vos continues to ignore facts and the will of Wisconsin voters. That, my friends, is a FACT.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

WisGOP Attempts “Redistricting” to Protect Rep. Vos

Although Rep. Robin Vos won District 63 with 99.84% of the vote in November, 2010, his seat is vulnerable.   Why?  First, he ran unopposed.  Second, it took only 8,155 votes, or only 11% of the estimated 73,000 votes in the district to re-elect him.  He’s vulnerable.  Oh yes, he’s definitely vulnerable.

The WisGOP realizes this too, and, in a move to “protect” Vos, co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, the Republicans are attempting to “shrink” Vos’s territory.  How do we know this?  A bit of background on redistricting is in order…

When Gov. Scott Walker signed new redistricting legislation into law on August 8th, on the eve of recall elections, he stacked the deck to favor Republicans in the 2012. 

Statewide, Gov. Walker in effect created 59 strongly Republican districts and just 40 Democrat areas.  The constitutionality of the GOP proposed map, which has cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than $350,000 awarded to Walker’s legal cronies, is being contested in Federal Court by Democrats.  The redistricting serves to “protect” U. S. Rep. Sean Duffy’s seat by making the 7th District in NorthCentral Wisconsin more Republican, and, to “unseat” newly-elected State Sen. Bob Wirch by placing Pleasant Prairie within the more heavily Republican-leaning district of Racine.   

But the GOP’s effort to protect incumbents doesn’t end there, folks.  Analysis of Rep. Robin Vos’s district shows that Norway, Raymond and Caledonia have been carved away from his district, while Burlington has been appended to District 63, effectively removing about 12,000 voters from this area.   Remaining in Rep. Vos’s district are approximately 59,000 voters.  Of course, Rep. Vos could hope that he runs again unopposed and again captures 99.84% of the vote (11% or 6,490 of the total estimated 59,000 voters in the new area comprising District 63).

But, we have news for Rep. Vos.  He may have A.L.E.C., Tea Party & Koch resources to draw upon (and be beholding to).  We, on the other hand, have the PEOPLE needed to carry the majority of votes in this district.  We are organized.  And, we are angry at Rep. Vos.  We intend to remove him from office when his current term expires.
Proposed District 63 (lawsuit pending in Federal Court):

Friday, August 26, 2011

Grassroots Effort to Defeat Vos

Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester) was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly District 63.  He ran unopposed in the primary on September 14, 2010 and in the general election on November 2, 2010.   His role as A.L.E.C. puppet became apparent to #democracyaddicts in his role as co-chair of the Join Finance Committee that rammed through legislation with no warning, little discussion and no amendments.  Vos purports to “listen” to constituents; however, this is little more than lip-service (and a whole lot of ”pompous”).

This site is devoted to stopping Rep. Vos from further destroying the State of Wisconsin.  This effort is being managed by a non-union citizen who is appalled at the direction in which Rep. Vos’s “strings” are being pulled.  He is little more than a puppet for A.L.E.C., the Tea Party, Americans for Prosperity & Koch Industries.  Ours is a true grass-roots effort to unseat a person who represents the interests of big business without progressive representation of middle-class families.

Rep Vos won his election with 99.84% of the vote, consisting of just 8,155 votes.  We believe we can easily unseat him and replace him with a representative OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people.

Join us!  We look forward to January 3, 2013, when we can send Mr. Vos back to his popcorn kingdom in Burlington, WI.