Jeff Ackerman: Majority of Wisconsin voters knew what they were getting

Below is the beginning of Jeff's article.

I wonder how those who are cheering the cowardly and very anti-democratic acts by the band of 14 Wisconsin Democrats would feel if California's 15 Republican state senators fled to Vegas rather than vote on Jerry Brown's proposed budget?

Republicans have been the minority party in the California Legislature most of the last 40-plus years (there was a short time between 1995-96 when the GOP had a majority in the Senate). Yet, they have continued to show up to work, knowing that in the Senate they are outnumbered 25-15 and in the Assembly 52-27.

I assume they continue to show up to work because they understand how the Democrats have maintained their stronghold on California's government, no matter how many zeroes are in the current budget deficit. The majority of voters must want it that way.

Last I checked they still held free elections — even in places like Wisconsin. In fact, it wasn't that long ago the Democrats in that state were cheering as they had control of the Legislature and governor's mansion.

Following the 2008 election, which saw President Obama sweep into office with a promise of change, Wisconsin's Democrats held an 18-15 majority in the state Senate and a 52-46 majority in the Assembly. They also had a Democrat in the governor's mansion.

Unfortunately, they also had a several-billion-dollar budget deficit and they didn't seem to want to make the tough decisions you would normally need to make if your bank account was empty. Most of us can relate to that.

Rather than make the tough decisions (it's not easy living without credit cards), the Wisconsin Democrats continued to push their expensive social programs, hoping Wisconsin's taxpayers would simply pay more taxes to support them (are you listening, California?).

Many Wisconsin taxpayers, it turns out, were making expense cuts of their own because they were out of work and really didn't like the idea of paying more taxes to a state that didn't seem too interested in addressing its several-billion-dollar budget deficit.

Along came the 2010 elections and the majority of Wisconsin's voters (yes, they actually had free elections last November) decided to make a few changes of their own, starting with the state's political color, which went from blue to red. Wisconsin was one of a dozen states that saw the Republicans take control of its legislative chambers. And a Republican named Scott Walker was elected governor, after promising he would address the union benefit and pension plans that were crippling the state.

In other words, the majority of Wisconsin's voters knew what they were going to get when they voted.

The rest of the article is here.