Headline: labor unions push recall candidates to do <em>really </em>stupid things

Not that I want them to stop, you understand. The story:

Union leaders are asking Democratic candidates for governor to veto the next state budget if it doesn’t restore collective bargaining for public workers, and one leading candidate – Kathleen Falk – has agreed.

Elliot’s mouth was hanging wide open when he read that and, honestly, my jaw’s on the floor now, too.

What a ridiculous promise to make. What a ridiculous litmus test. And Lefties think the Tea Parties and Pro-Lifers are too inflexible!

Any budget?

How about a budget that removes the revenue caps from schools? And property tax limits from local governments?

How about lengthening the permitting process for mining operations? And any other operations the environmentalists don’t like? Making it virtually impossible to begin?

How about creating new, higher tax brackets for people making over $250,000 a year? And repealing Wisconsin’s new concealed carry law, and placing new restrictions on open carry?

And photo I.D., too. What if the next budget repeals photo I.D.?

She’s gonna veto that?

What if the next budget increases payments to Earned Income and Homestead tax credits, and increases the number of tax filers who get them? And pays for it with higher gas taxes and a new license for non-carpooling on the Interstate?

What if the next budget creates regional transit authorities all over the state, and gives them taxing authority to create new mass transit systems? And gets the high speed rail project going again?

What if the next budget enacts full marriage benefits for government employees in same-sex relationships?

What if the next budget increases funding for both k-12 and higher education well beyond their increases in costs? You know, to make up for past cuts? No, I don’t know how we’d pay for it, but we’re just imagining here. So what if?

Falk would veto that budget?

Of course she wouldn’t. That’s ridiculous. That’s why she’ll never get a budget containing any of that.

But, hell. She’s promised to veto that budget. She’s promised to veto statewide three- and four-year-old kindergarten!

Best case scenario under a Governor Falk: we go two full years without any budget at all. Oh, the Legislature will send her budgets. And they’ll be modest, responsible, with only a couple dozen land mines for press release fodder. And when she vetoes them, it’ll be her fault we don’t have a budget.

No, wait, I take that back: the first budget won’t be all that modest. It won’t be over the top, but it won’t be modest. And she’ll veto it. And then the next budget will compromise a little. And then a little more, and a little more, and a little more…

…and she’ll veto them all. No matter how moderate and compromising they become.

That’s an awesome idea. Thanks, unions, for forcing her into it!