Walker Caught in Lie, Jettisons Local Community Control

Sarah Palin Protester: This bill's stupid and I know stupid.

Used to be that Republicans claimed they were all for local control.

'Local communities know what's best for them' was a political article of faith, virtually a requirement for local candidates to get elected.

Not any more.

Gov. Scott Walker says he knows best now. And those independent-minded Tea Partiers are marching right in line.

After Walker claimed that public teachers, nurses, cooks, EMTs and so on cost too much money, public unions called Walker's bluff Friday and said: Pay cuts, benefit cuts, pension cuts are all on the table, so let's talk in good faith.

Walker rebuked the overture, revealing his obvious agenda to break public unions because, Walker says, the state has to control our local school districts, Wisconsin counties, cites, towns and villages who need help with their public servants. And they cannot do so without Walker's help.

"We can't expect for our 72 counties, for our 424 school districts and for more than 1,000 municipal governments across the state of Wisconsin that somehow, magically, because a few people are suggesting they might be willing to come to the table now, that we can ensure that every district and every jurisdiction is able to achieve these savings just because a few people are now at the 11th hour claiming they want to negotiate," said Walker on Friday.

Right. Every Wisconsin county, city, town and village can't meet their fiscal budgets without their communities taking direct orders from you, Scott Walker. You know better than they.

Guess what? These public unions are neighbors and servants, and these communities have a lot more respect for them than you do.