The Kochs are seen as the money and power behind the recent spate of radical governors who came into office to wage a war on the middle class. However, they are only one amongst 23 major corporations behind the movement to reduce the rights and economic security of  workers.  Radical, right-wing governors that came to power in the 2010 elections are unified in their radical actions through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is funded by a cabal of major corporations (see list below).

Kasich, governor of Ohio, and a host of other conservatives were driving forces behind ALEC, which was organized to reduce state governments to nothing more than entities to promote business through tax breaks and to eliminate worker protection through reduction or elimination of unemployment, workers comp, public employee unions, Medicaid, etc..  They also are determined to eliminate environmental protections.  You can read the ALEC version of its history at:

http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=History&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=13643

The following is a list of the ALEC “Private Enterprise Board:”

• W. Preston Baldwin – Centerpoint360
• Sano Blocker – Energy Future Holdings
• Don Bohn – Johnson & Johnson
• Jeff Bond – PhRMA
• Bill Carmichael – American Bail Coalition
• Derek Crawford – Kraft Foods, Inc.
• John Del Giorno – GlaxoSmithKline
• Matt Echols – Coca Cola
• Jim Epperson, Jr. – AT&T Services, Inc.
• Michael Hubbert – Pfizer, Inc.
• Teresa Jennings – Reed Elsevier, Inc.
• Ken Lane – DIAGEO
• Kelly Mader – Peabody Energy
• Bernie McKay – Intuit
• Mike Morgan – Koch Industries
• Kevin Murphy – ExxonMobil Corp.
• Sandra Oliver – Bayer Corporation
• David Powers – Reynolds American Inc.
• Maggie Sans – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
• Russell Smoldon – Salt River Project
• Toby Spangler – Altria Client Services, Inc.
• Roland Spies – State Farm Insurance Co.
• Pat Thomas – United Parcel Service

Although these companies are being rewarded with huge tax breaks and relieved of responsibility for the environment and workers, they will not be providing more jobs because state government largesse is directed their way.  Quite the opposite will be happening.  In general, these corporations will increasingly eliminate jobs through globalization and cybernation (robotics and artificial intelligence).  Furthermore, they will continue to feast off of the taxpayers as a result of privatization of governmental services – a major objective of conservative fanatics.

It should be mentioned that the board members of ALEC (not the corporate board) is comprised of state legislators of the theocratic, Christian, right wing variety.  State Senator Susan Wagle of Kansas is a board member.  Anyone who knows anything about Susan Wagle knows what is meant by the theocratic, Christian, right wing.

The ALEC staff includes the illustrious Arthur Laffer who happens to be famous for the “Laffer Curve,” (perhaps “laughable curve” is a better term), which serves as the underlying theoretical justification for “trickle down” economics.  The latest heavy duty project of Mr. Laffer and his fellow staffers is a request for all of the e-mails of a highly respected University of Wisconsin history professor who wrote a New York Times op ed piece they didn’t like.  Academic freedom for liberals and moderates is not a major objective of ALEC.

Governors on the far right of the Republican Party – backed by the Tea Party and by the money of billionaire conservatives – have played their hand in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Kansas.  Having a passionate belief that the time to bust public employees and their unions is now, they made their move.  They went for broke.

What has been accomplished by right wing assaults on public employees so far?  We went to Madison on Saturday to join the protests and learn what we could.  Given that the Republicans acted without transparency and perhaps illegally, the legislation stripping employees of their rights is tied up in court at this time (Tuesday, March 22^nd).  Nevertheless, should the legislation succeed,   employees like the teachers pictured below (and who were our fellow protestors on Saturday), will take a major cut in their pay and benefits.  Furthermore, they will be left without bargaining rights and, for all intents and purposes, any protection from abusive bureaucratic and legislative abuse.  

Wisconsin Teachers & Our Fellow Protesters on Saturday

 What will the cuts in pay and increases in payroll deductions mean to Wisconsin public employees – including the teachers above on whom we depend for educating our children?  According to the Sunday State Journal (the Madison newspaper), Susan Sprecher, a school secretary, has an annual salary of $30,000 before taxes.  She will lose $2,400 due to the Republican cuts.  Ms Sprecher already works a second job; she is contemplating trading in her car for an older model.

Ann Armstrong, a custodian for the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, has an annual salary of $24,000 before taxes.  The cuts will cost her $1,800.  The Sunday State Journal article stated that Ms Armstrong “finally edged into the middle class last year – after decades of struggle – when she bought a 600-square-foot home in Omro for $43,000, her first.”  Now she will drop her health insurance rather than default on her mortgage.

An eighth grade math teacher by the name of Don White will lose $4000 of his $60,000 annual salary.  That may sound like a lot but this 42 year old father of 5 children with a master’s degree is taking a job delivering pizzas on the weekend to keep his family afloat.

These are the people paying the price for an economic crash, tax cuts for corporations, and a radical right wing agenda.  Just imagine, an employee making $24,000 must take a pay reduction of $1,800 as a punishment for what?  Being a public employee?  Working in education in some manner?  Having a union?

I would hope that by reading this you are outraged and scared enough to get involved.  Join the protests.  Send money.  Tune in to what is happening to the working people – working includes all middle class workers as well as very low paid workers.  Think about  the poor and middle class people in the states that will lose their health care (like “Badger Care for poor children in Wisconsin). 

Also think about the successful efforts of right wing with the help of a whole bunch of Democrats (but not Democratic heroes such as the “Fab-14 in the Wisconsin legislature) to keep inheritance taxes nonexistent, to keep an income tax system in place slanted in favor of the very rich, and to keep tax dollars flowing into a bloated Defense Department – just to name a few of the crony capitalist-plutocratic congress now in place.

The concerted effort to reduce the economic well-being of the U.S. middle class has been under way for several decades.  The economic forces arrayed against working people in the form of globalization, union busting, decimation of retirement plans (i.e. move to 401Ks), health care and housing rip-offs, and assaults on Social Security, is a juggernaut.  Added to all of their successful efforts to reduce pay, benefits, and rights of workers, the wealthy elite has developed a powerful propaganda machine in the form of  Washington think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute (Koch funded), the American Enterprise Institute

Working people in U.S. mines, mills, factories, offices, classrooms and in every occupation imaginable do their part by showing up, putting in their time and effort, and often risking their health and safety.  Overwhelmingly, workers are sincere, responsible, and contribute mightily to corporate and investor profits.

Corporations and government agencies benefiting from this labor have a responsibility to provide for the economic security of the low and middle income employees, without whom they could not achieve their missions.  As U.S. workers reach a sensible retirement age of 60 to 65, many are unemployed and experiencing virulent age discrimination.  Many have occupational-related health problems for which they have not received disability compensation.

 In an enlightened capitalist society, the final stage of life would be seen as one in which everyone would have an opportunity to stop their daily work grind and fulfill needs that leisure would allow.  They have given to corporations and the government throughout their life. Their life past 60 should be a time when they are given leisure time with a modicum of economic security.  At the very least, they should have decent shelter, adequate nutrition, and basic health care.

So what is happening in the United States today?  We are seeing a mean-spirited move to decimate the social safety net for people of all ages.  This move is funded by billionaire funded conservative political movements ensconced in phony “think tanks” such as the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the racist Bradley Foundation (funder of the Bell Curve).  The billionaire Kochs are pouring money into the Tea Party, which feeds propaganda and ignorance to that portion of the masses responsive to scapegoating of teachers, public employees, the elderly and myths about budget deficits – as well as who is to blame for unemployment.

Social Security – along with Medicare, one of the two most decent and humane old age programs ever conceived – has been on the “hit list” of the right-wing, wealthy elite from its very inception (see my The Tallgrass Activist blog post, “The Koch Funded Cato Institute Waged Guerilla Warfare on Social Security and the Mainstream Media Bought Into It,” October 10, 2010).  The money poured into the propaganda campaign against Social Security has been so effective that even so-called moderate Democrats such as Senators Richard Durbin and Claire McCaskill are supporting extending the Social Security retirement age.

Obama Administration support for Social Security has been tepid at best.  These days, with the exception of a few representatives and senators, the Democratic Party is failing to “fight” for the rights of working people (for one exception, see The Tallgrass Activist, “Jan Schakowsky’s Deficit Reduction Plan: A True Progressive Plan For the Working People,” November 18, 2010).

The usual propaganda and mistruths about Social Security are typically penned for Peterson and his operatives by Ms Maya MacGuineas.  Ms MacGuineas has made the rounds of the usual elitist Washington think tanks (e.g. Brookings Institution) doing the bidding of the power elite and is now acting as the director of the Committee for a Responsible Budget.  She has a set repertoire of lies about Social Security, which are: (1) Social Security is broken due to an aging population, (2) Medicare & Social Security are, in sum and substance, the same program known as “entitlements, and(3) these entitlements must be reformed – by which she means benefit cuts are necessary.

Maya Macguineas

It is hard to believe that Democratic senators Claire McCaskill, Mark Warner, and Richard Durbin have joined this right-wing crusade.  Instead of ending the crony capitalism that characterizes Medicare (not Social Security) and raising taxes to insure long-term stability of Social Security (past 2037), these faux-Democrats are pushing for an increase in the retirement age and a cut in benefits.  Unbelievable!  Why would rank and file Democrats put up with that?  

Any of my fellow progressives in Illinois, Virginia, and Missouri reading this should be on the phone to the offices of Durbin, Warner, and McCaskill.  Let these Democrats know that their pleas for support and votes in the next election may go unheeded.  Warner is immensely wealthy, which makes his efforts to impoverish the elderly even more disgusting.