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A few Madison protesters overreact to Gov. Walker’s modest proposal.

When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took his show on the road to Washington, D.C. Thursday for offer insights on “good government” at a hearing of the House Oversight Committee, he showed his under appreciated imagination in describing his “very modest proposal” for public employees.

Eventually, Gov. Walker was pelted with a set of hostile questions and searing comments, but he reacted impassively. After all, what do mere congressmen and women matter when you have the Koch brothers, the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity and the Heritage Foundation backing you up?

Gov. Walker, however, may have accidentally created the impression that his anti-public union law is in full effect and its beneficial effects are spreading across the state. In fact, its enforcement is under a restraining order because of Republican violations of the state’s Open Meetings law. Because of litigation, it may take months before the status of the bill is resolved.

Washington — Introduced by fellow Republican Jim Sensenbrenner as a “very polarizing figure,” Gov. Scott Walker lived up to that mantle in a highly charged appearance Thursday at a congressional hearing on state budget problems.

Lawmakers from his own party hailed him as a gutsy politician making tough choices while Democrats seized the chance to cross-examine a governor they regard as a poster boy for conservative overreach.

Democrats called him a union-buster, a divider and a vehicle for corporate interests.
They derided his contention that cutting collective bargaining rights was a fiscal necessity rather than a politically motivated choice.

Walker told lawmakers his policies were “progressive in the best sense of the word” because cutting compensation and benefits would allow the state to avoid layoffs and tax increases.

Illuminating and skewering sound-bites are either lucky happenstance or unlikely surprises at congressional hearings, where the testimony is often controlled by the majority party, the patter is planned, dull and technical and the party in charge offers up softballs to its own knights and is prepared to cut off unpleasant scrutiny.

Little of that happened Thursday when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was invited by sympathetic GOP chairman Darrell Issa, at a time when Walker was something of the golden boy of GOP politics, to testify before the House Oversight Committee exploring “tough choices” in state budgets.

But a few weeks can tarnish any golden boy, especially when the opposition is prepared and the party in power isn’t. The GOP is suffering internal disarray over Walker. He is no longer the featured hero on many Republican websites, no longer touted as the face of the future, not when his actions in Wisconsin have clearly electrified progressives. Many of his supporters are in the fight of their political lives against recalls. Many of those who voted for him last year are now part of the resistance. They may not be ready to move over to the Democratic side, but they hardly think his image has been helpful or even traditional Republican. While some like Trump and Palin are scooting over to the Tea Party side for political advantage, pragmatic citizens are not about to swing so harshly in their basic human values.

Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) today used her five minutes of allotted time at a Congressional hearing today to grill Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker about his priorities as he attempts to balance the state budget.

Moore accused Walker of balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and the middle class while enacting tax breaks for the wealthiest residents and corporations.

Walker testified today at the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s hearing on “State and Municipal Debt: Tough Choices Ahead” in Washington, D.C.

Regardless of their party affiliation, House Budget Committee members agree they don’t want to see the government shut down. But they don’t agree on who is to blame if it happens.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., one of three Appropriations Designees on the House Budget Committee, is pointing the finger at his colleagues on the other side of the aisle. “We’re here because the Democrats didn’t get their work done last year. Never passed a budget, never passed any appropriations bill and frankly we are here right now because the Senate hasn’t gotten its job done,” said Cole during a Sunday interview with Fox News.

Cole added, “The House has passed a bill which keeps the government open and reduces spending substantially by $61 billion. We think that’s the way we ought to go.”

Another member of the Budget Committee, Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wisc., says she can’t support the cuts passed by the Republican-controlled House.

Background:  Nearly two-hundred events are taking place across the country this week to celebrate the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. Seniors, small businesses, faith communities, and young people will all come together to share how they are already benefiting from the law and to highlight what’s at stake as opponents of reform work overtime to take away those benefits and put insurance companies back in charge of health care decisions for America’s families.

Throughout the week, days have been designated to highlight how the health care law helps different communities – today’s celebration is about how the Affordable Care Act Protects Women!

Today, U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) wrote to President Barack Obama seeking ways to prevent negative impacts of Governor Scott Walker’s budget proposal.

Her letter touches on some of Governor Walker’s most detrimental proposals including education, health care, food stamps, transit and energy and the environment.

“There is simply no rationale for continuing American involvement with no end in sight, rising deaths for civilians and our brave soldiers, declining public sentiment, and serious economic pain at home,” Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich explained to his fellow House members during Thursday’s debate on ending the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. “Continuing our involvement in Afghanistan is not affordable, it’s not just, and it hurts American foreign policy interests. It’s time to go.”

That message, long true but truer now than ever, resonated with 92 members of the House, who joined Kucinich in voting to bring an end to the war in Afghanistan by the end of 2011.

Upset over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal, U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore is asking President Barack Obama for help.

The Milwaukee Democrat sent a letter to Obama Friday seeking ways to prevent “negative impacts” Walker’s budget will have on education, health care, food stamps, transit, and energy and the environment.