In fact, is not ActBlue's Democratic Party the reason
labor got into the mess in Wisconsin to begin with? Why add to the agony by
contributing to the party and ideology which created the wars which drained
the budget, and which helped destroy labor and throttled EFCA?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I know how much we all like to pile on the Dems as the source of the problem, and for the most part I agree, but this is a bit much. With out Wisconsin Democrats there would never have been the right to collectively bargain in Wisconsin to begin with. Also, in case you missed it, it was Dem statehouse members who fled to attempt to stop the attack on collective bargaining rights. I really don't understand the point about the wars, sure some Dems voted for the Iraq war, but most did not and it was a Republican plan. I agree that they should have ended it, as they promised they would, when they took control of both houses in 2008, but that is different from it being created by them. Maybe they own one of the wars but not both. Furthermore, it was the tax breaks that broke the bank (both nationally and in Wisconsin) and the majority of Dems do not support those (see below for data on % of deficit due to the wars). Not saying there is no blame for the demise of organized labor with the Dems, including all the info on war support that you cite, but lets keep at least on foot on the ground.
"The most recent year in which the federal budget ended with an on-budget surplus was 2000. During the 10 years that followed, $7.9 trillion was added to America’s gross federal debt. Taking the budget in 2000 as a spending baseline, the federal government spent $9.9 trillion dollars above the year 2000 level during 2001-2010. Of this, discretionary spending above the 2000 baseline was $4.25 trillion. Defense was responsible for more than 56% of this additional discretionary spending and 24.3% of the additional federal spending overall. Only about half of this additional spending is attributable to war". http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=23755
According to this analysis only about $2.125 trillion of the debt is due to the two wars or only about 12% of the additional federal spending since our last surplus spending year of 2000.
Brad