Wisconsin Democrats are cowards
By Brian Schoeneman | Monday, February 21st, 2011 | PolicyElections matter. In 2010, Wisconsin was swept by the Republican wave that took back the federal House of Representatives and narrowed the Democratic majority in the Senate. The Wisconsin legislature – the Assembly and the Senate – both switched from Democratic to Republican majorities. And Scott Walker was elected Governor, returning a Republican to the Governor’s office after eight years of Democratic Governor Jim Doyle.
This is what happens in a representative democracy with a party system. Parties come and parties go. Sometimes you’re in the majority, and sometimes you’re in the minority. But regardless, elected officials are expected – at a bare minimum – to meet when the legislature is in session, cast votes, and do their jobs.
Apparently, no one sent that memo to the Wisconsin Senate Democrats.
Faced with having to vote on Governor Walker’s plan to gut collective bargaining rights and increase the amount public workers must pay for their benefits, Senate Democrats decided they would take a principled stand, argue long and hard on the floor of the Senate, and, once the vote was taken and they had lost, vow to continue the fight another day.
Just kidding – they hopped a bus and fled to Illinois.
They literally ran away. They turned tail and fled from Madison in order to prevent the democratic process from working. If even one of them had remained, the Senate would have had the quorum of 20 it needed to conduct business. But because all 14 of them fled together, the Senate in Wisconsin is paralyzed.
And Democrats around the country seem to think this is just a dandy solution – a sort of permanent filibuster that keeps them from having to pass legislation they dislike.
But it’s not. It’s cowardice. Political cowardice of the highest order.
Elections have consequences. When Republicans on the federal level lost control of the House and Senate in 2006, we knew that hard times were coming. And when Democrats took control of the White House in 2008, we knew that the Democrats were going to have a field day, passing anything and everything they wanted – and they did, from a bloated stimulus bill that has failed to create jobs or stem the tide of unemployment, to an unconstitutional health care law that has been the Holy Grail of Democratic politics since Harry Truman’s presidency.
Can you imagine the cries of indignation and the bitter recriminations that would have erupted from the left and the mainstream media if the House Republicans had hopped a bus to Canada to try and stop the House from having a quorum to vote on the health care law (it wouldn’t have worked, but imagine if it did)?
Regardless of what you think about Walker’s plan – and I’ve already spoken my peace about it – if he has the votes to pass his plan, and it appears that he does, he is within his rights to pass it and sign it. And the Senate Democrats can use their offices to try and thwart it through every legitimate parliamentary trick they can come up with. But running away – literally abandoning your state and your office to get out of doing your job – is below contempt.
And this seems to be something Democrats do quite a bit. During the Texas redistricting fight, Texas Democrats fled the state to keep from having to vote on a redistricting plan they didn’t like. It was wrong when they did it, and it’s wrong now.
The Senate Democrats in Wisconsin need to come back to the state and take their medicine. Elections matter, and their party lost. Holding the democratic process hostage is wrong, and running from your responsibilities is cowardly. The voters of Wisconsin deserve better.
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A veteran political professional, long-time Republican party activist and attorney Brian W. Schoeneman has been offering his opinions at Bearing Drift since 2010. He serves on the Board of Virginia Line Media, LLC, which operates Bearing Drift and spends his days representing the U.S. Merchant Marine in Washington, D.C. He hails from Fairfax County, Virginia, where he lives with his wife and son.
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46 Responses to "Wisconsin Democrats are cowards"
Actually Brian, no one sent the memo to the republicans; the last election was about jobs and the economy. There will be another election as well, and if partisans and zealots like Walker continue their policies of social divisivessness instead of fixing the economy, as americans have said they want, the results may be very different. This totally unnecessary effort on the Governor’s part to squash workers rights will awaken the middle class to the continuing effort to stamp out their independence and their value to the economy. Keep it up!
Gov Walker should cancel electronic deposits and make the Dems pick up their checks in Senate. To be passed out after the vote!
Brian, you know this is a parliamentary manuever. Courage doesn’t really factor in to it.
There’s nothing parliamentary about running away. You lose that argument when you leave the floor.
Yes, the voters of Wisconsin do deserve better. They deserve to have elected leaders who instead of dividing, work to bring us together. You have pointed out how the Governor missed an opportunity to do so, and continues to breath out defiance with every new word, so he deserves the reaction, and in the meantime, he has mobilized workers throughout the nation to see that republicans will do all they can for the rich and all they can to dissolve workers benefits if given the opportunity.
Obviously there is something parliamentary about it, since it stops the vote on the bill they are fighting.
Faux outrage doesn’t become you, Brian. You’re brighter than that.
Rant on:
Mike, what is a nice guy like you doing by making statements you know are pure BS? Republicans are Dividing? LMAOLberman! Gov Walker is trying to keep the state from going CH 11, the demounioncrats are poor while republicans are in the tank for the filthy rich? “..republicans will do all they can for the rich and all they can to dissolve workers benefits if given the opportunity.” Being a former rich democrat I know what a rich democrat is so look in the mirror rich boy.. you can wipe your tush with hundred dollar bills too. And last time I checked you said you are a democrat.. And as far as I know you were a democrat when Red was associated with the commie sympathizing red party and to me it still is.
As for the union thugs, I hope they get plenty of time to think about their greed while they wait in a cold long bread line.. I hear Ohio is a vacation mecca this time of year.
No, I am a businessman doing all I can to sustain and improve our assets, and to do so, I need a stabilized business environment, not a war zone in the american public. Ever since the great recession caused by the excessive greed and risk taken by america’s super rich, it has been a tough slog, and to now see their sympathizers putting the same policies back into effect that caused the collapse is indeed scary to me. The billionaires will always get theirs first, but our teachers, public safety workers, et al had better be vigilant or the same happening in Wisconsin will happen to them.
How is that Runnymede union organizing going Mike?
Mike,
Do your employees have a collective bargaining agreement? Are you negotiating annual raises with them that exceed the cost of living rate? Are you providing defined-benefit pensions to them with no employee contributions?
If you answered “no” to any of the above, I can introduce you to an organizing representative of AFME or SEIU and they can fix you right up. Deal?
No, they don’t, but if they did, I believe I would negotiate with them in good faith, and not turn a blind eye toward their need of adequate representation. And if pay raises needed to be curtailed, and if employees needed to pay more of their hard earned benefits, and if layoffs were required for the company to survive, I think I would have forgone the executive bonuses first. The political fall out of this disrespect of employee rights will be much greater than if the Governor had acted as I and others have suggested.
Mike, “I believe I would negotiate with them in good faith” You don’t seem too confident.
Why don’t you do the right thing and provide annual pay raises and 100% of their health and pensions instead of needing them to unionize? Seems like only the right thing to do.
Shame on you!
Mike,
I wasn’t aware that the governor of Wisconsin gets an executive bonus.
Look, Scott Walker campaigned on this issue and was easily elected, along with Republican majorities in both houses of the state legislature. He is doing what he was elected to do. Back to Brian’s point, it is cowardly, unethical, and undemocratic for the Democratic senators to thwart the will of the people. Elections have consequences. If the Republicans pulled the same stunt, the liberals would be howling mad and calling them Nazis and worse.
The public sector unions want ridiculously generous compensation packages that simply don’t exist anymore in the private sector. They can spin the issue all they want–that it is about collective bargaining rights, that it is about worker dignity, that it is about union-busting. The truth is that it is about money, period. They want generous raises when the cost of living is declining and taxpayers in the private sector or getting no raises or even taking pay cuts, if they have a job at all. They want defined-benefit pensions with no employee contributions while tax payers in the private sector have to rely on 401k plans for retirement.
BTW, as much as you and the other liberals are trying to personalize this around Scott Walker, the legislatures in Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio are considering similar laws. State and local governments are hurting financially and the taxpayers are sick and tired of public sector union whining. So get used to more of the same as Wisconsin.
Incidentally, I will concede that Walker is hypocritical in one regard. There is no justification for exempting public safety workers from this law, other than the fact that those unions in Wisconsin typically support Republicans. That is flat wrong. Cops and firefighters don’t deserve a free ride any more than school teachers.
Steve, they could burn the Capitol down too – would that be an acceptable parliamentary move to keep them from voting? Or – better yet – they could all resign. How about that?
This isn’t faux outrage. I’ve taken a beating over the last two days over my willingness to recognize that the unions have a legitimate complaint about what Walker is doing. But at the same time, I’m not going to let the Democrats off the hook for this pathetic move, either.
Elections mean things and that means that sometimes you’ve got to sit back and let things you don’t like happen because your side lost. Losing a battle isn’t a big deal – it happens all the time. But the war isn’t over and you don’t get to just run away and stick your head in the sand because you don’t like the rules.
It’s indefensible.
Well yes, elections do mean things, so why did the Governor push through tax cuts first, and then claim they were broke? And I thought the message of the election was job creation and the reduction of unemployment; this action will do exactly the opposite. Fact is, republicans all over the nation seem to have forgotten about job creation in favor of their social agenda; that is, abortion, cuts to education, public safety, and human services, and all of a sudden deficit reduction is the holy grail while it was not the major element of the election, except their priority to increase the deficit by extending the Bush tax cuts. You can’t really make this stuff up!
Mike,
I know that this is going to come as a shock to you, but the election WAS all about the deficit. Unemployment and the worsening economy are the direct result of the deficit. Obama and the Democrats campaigned long and hard on the message, “don’t give the keys back to the people who drove the car into the ditch in the first place.” Well, after four years of Democratic majorities in the Congress, two years of the Obama Administration, and over four trillion dollars of new Federal debt (an 85% increase over the last Republican Congress), the voters didn’t buy it.
I suspect that this will be equally shocking to you, but most economists believe that tax reduction creates jobs and prosperity. Lower taxes do not increase the deficit in the long run. They reduce it by spurring economic activity that increases total tax revenues. That is not a Republican or conservative talking point–it is contained in the official US government history of tax policy published on the Treasury Department web site. Look it up.
As for the Republican agenda, cutting Federal spending is not a social agenda, it is a financial agenda–the very agenda that the Republicans were elected to pursue.
Actually, no. Unemployment and the worsening economy were not a direct result of the deficit, they were the result of Bush’s attempts to fight two wars without fiscal sacrifice, to fund drug benefits for seniors without paying for them, the result of abandoning Clinton and the House’s policy of pay go, and the deregulation of financial institutions that allowed the super wealthy to risk our money for their private gain. The bipartisan response of TARP and Stimulus, while imperfect, prevented depression but required spending to prime the pump. That has occurred, and now we can gradually work our way out of debt without endangering the recovery. Governor Walker’s, and House republican’s meat ax is simply not the correct approach.
Brian, denying the other side a quorum that they need to vote isnt’ quite the same as burning down the capitol, now is it?
Has a long legislative history. Been done by both parties.
If the Republicans were doing it, you’d find some justification for it. As I’m sure you do their misuse of the filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
I can’t recall off the top of my head any examples of Republicans leaving the state or country in order to avoid a quorum. If you can, let me know as I’d be interested in seeing it.
There’s been no misuse of the filibuster, as I have explained ad nauseum. Please don’t make me go through it again.
Mike,
Stop posting your comments in Newspeak. Fighting two wars without fiscal sacrifices, the senior drug benefit, etc. are what created the deficit. And from 2007 to 2009 it was done by a Democratic-controlled Congress. You do know, don’t you, that Medicare Part D was passed by the 110th Congress under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? That they also continued to fully fund both Iraq and Afghanistan without raising any taxes?
Speaking of which, financial deregulation, esp. the loosening of lending guidelines by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, originated in the Congressional Banking Committees chaired by Senator Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank.
Informed voters know all this. That is why they didn’t fall for Obama’s tired-assed car keys analogy.
Brian, I’d heard that Republicans had did it in California but I could not find any proof so I believe it isn’t so.
Steve, If the Republicans were doing it…we’d still be hearing about it. Hell, even though 9/11 photos are banned. I still have to sit through Timothy McVeigh and Columbine each year. So, believe me…if the Republicans had did it. Our minion media would definitely be showcasing it.
With that being said, it would be safe to say that Republicans have never done it or it would be compared to what the Democrats are doing now.
As details of previously negotiated deals surface, I’m guessing public support for protesters, AWOL legislators, and teachers to tank further. Here’s a few examples of what ‘the workers of Wisconsin’ have collectively bargained for (and won):
#1 Wisconsin’s teacher’s union (WEAC) bargains to get as many school districts as possible enrolled in the WEA Trust health plan. Who owns WEA Trust? – the teacher’s union (WEAC)!! IF on the other hand, the same school districts were enrolled in the state’s employee health plan, school districts could save up to $68 million PER YEAR – likely more if districts also had flexibility to find health coverage outside of WEA Trust or the state plan. In the old days, we called this kind of deal ‘extortion’!
#2 In 2002, Milwaukee’s school district included erectile dysfunction drugs in its health insurance plan. Premium costs exploded ~ 1/10th of all members “needed” the lifestyle drug. Milwaukee kept pump and implant coverage, but cut the drugs out of the plan (to save $786,000 per year) … and of course, the teacher’s union (MTEA) is suing.
#3 If you work for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, you get overtime … if you call in sick, but then come in and work a shift on the same day! Hmm, now that’s a system to be worked – call in sick, but go to work … automatically earn overtime!! Another ‘right’ collectively bargained for in their contract. Cost to WI taxpayers: $4.8 million/year.
@Brian,
Sorry for “beating you up” in the previous article but I and many (including FDR) think that the public sector is incompatible with unionization as currently configured. I think you’re right that the Dems are behaving in juvenile fashion but that is something for the voters to decide to punish or reward. I believe that Repubs should wait one more week and then pass all the non budgetary measures that they are seeking without them. I was disturbed to hear the WI Senate leader say he wasn’t going to do that. Talk about tying yourself up in knots.
On a related topic you brought up in the previous post, it would be worth having a discussion on what changes to Private Sector union law should be made in return for Republican support for easier unionization hurdles. You correctly rejected the card check bill as bad but I think Repubs should be open to more support of private sector unions given some adjustment of the out of date Wagner Act provisions (and quite frankly a diminution of hard left agendas contrary to the workers specific interests.)
V, don’t worry about that. I can take it. If I wasn’t getting beaten up, I’d be worried.
I think those conversations are good ones to have, but they are going to require both sides being willing to think outside the box. Unfortunately, too few on the left or the right are willing to move off their positions and look for a middle ground. Personally, I think it should be easy for folks to join unions if they choose to and likewise those who don’t wish to join shouldn’t be compelled. I think there’s a legitimate middle ground but neither side seems willing to go there.
Brian, unions are like Obamacare. Without compulsory membership, it doesn’t quite work.
Sure it does. It’s just a question if what services the union provides it’s members. I’m a firm believer that the unions of the 21st century need to be about providing services that make it beneficial to folks to join them – that they basically need to sell members on why they should join. Clearly there needs to be a solution to the free rider problem, but in the end, I don’t see how compulsory membership can really work anymore.
While you all blame the unions for the benefits they have and the high costs, you fail to understand these costs and benefits were “agreed to by the employeers.” They met, talked and agreed to the bargained terms… It goes both ways…
You can blame employees for earning these benefits but their employers willingly agreed to provide them.
BTW: 93% of the firefighters in VB are in the union. They all volunteer, it is not madatory to join and it is a very successful union because it provides for the needs of the volunteer members while serving the citizens of VB 24/7/365.
IMO:If the employeer takes care of its employees, there is no need for a union. However in most cases, the employeer only cares about their bottomline and the employees are nothing more than disposable tools that are used, worn out and replaced with cheaper outsourced versions…
Workers helping workers is the American Way!
It is fascinating to see the right condemn employees for wanting to have a voice, a seat at the table, freedom to negotiate. The power of corporate america has increased so greatly that unions and associations represent a small but effective method to hold that power in check. Make no mistake about it, the power of multi national corporations reigns supreme, and the recent financial melt down, and the subsequent rescue mission, proves once again that the super rich and their political sponsors always take care of themselves first. Now that bonuses are back in vogue on Wall Street, it is time to begin again to cut workers rights. Back to business in America.
“It is fascinating to see the right condemn employees for wanting to have a voice, a seat at the table, freedom to negotiate.” Mike gets an F.. False. The right wants nobody to lose their job whether public or private sector. Without reform, mass firing will be the result. You democrats lack the intestinal fortitude to thank anyone without a D after their name for preventing a state from going bankrupt.
“The power of corporate america has increased so greatly that unions and associations represent a small but effective method to hold that power in check.” So Mike, how it that Runnymede employee union organizing going? I thought that good corporate stewards rewarded their associates with good pay and bonuses? Does Runnymede need a union to force your hand to write a bigger check and add new healthcare perks? If you are a man of your words you will bring this up at your next meeting.. no not the board meeting where you discuss your strategy to squelch it, the all hands employee meeting. Yeah mike, float that one.. ought to go over like lead balloons filled with super rich elephant $hit.
Man up Mike, support the union at Runnymede.
Turbo: I do not not know about Runneymead’s employees specific situation. Maybe they don’t need a union or maybe they do. A union is not always necessary if the employees are satified with their employer.
WilliamBailey: What were you smoking this morning?!
“…you fail to understand these costs and benefits were “agreed to by the employers.” They met, talked and agreed to the bargained terms… It goes both ways…”
In negotiation between private union/private sector employers, you are correct. Not so, however, when public unions negotiate with the state, where the actual employer (source of revenue) is the taxpayer. It’s a scam called a ‘negotiation’ … but it ain’t so. The best private sector analogy I can come up with happens in real estate sales, where both the listing and the showing agent represent the SELLER. Unless the homebuyer specifically contracts for buyer broker services, the buyer enters an adversarial process – without representation. Same for collective bargaining between the state and public unions – the taxpayer is responsible for the financial outcome of any deal stuck, but he doesn’t have a place (or representation) at the negotiating table… collusive, corrupt, and damn near criminal IMO.
Jay D: In Virginia, I am prohibited from “smoking” anything as a condition of my employment.
And as I pointed out earlier in another thread on BD: There is no collective bargaining for public employees in Virginia…
BTW: They are employees not slaves… It is my experiance that the vast majority of workers will give 100% to meet the needs of the citizens and most citizens are happy with the level of service provided. However some folks just like to complain… LOL
Well this is one on which I can agree with you. The Democrats are not used to Republicans taking over decisive leadership because our GOP leaders have had a bad habit of trying to be agreeable and liked by the opposition in the past- on all levels, local, state, and national. Now with the mandate of the people to right the drastic economic positions in which the jackasses have placed many states and the nation, the elephants are coming forth with innovative ideas to save the economies of the states and the nation before total destruction. And what do the jackasses do? They take their toys and leave the ball field, like spoiled brats!
Well right of way, if it is true that majorities, once elected, are drunk with power, this applies to both sides. All of a sudden, a national election that was about jobs and economic security, has been turned on its head by repubicans who seem to think we had a revolution, not an election. Abortion, disabling unions, more tax credits for the rich and tax breaks for multinational corporations, all of a sudden are the new issues that must be settled for republicans. Frankly, thank you; on one else could have said it better. You really do just care about the rich and super rich.
WilliamBailey: Ha!
Honestly, my arrows are not directed at the employees and I understand that VA teachers salaries aren’t collectively bargained – Richmond performs a biennial salary review instead. But you can’t be suggesting Virginia teachers unions do not press and lobby state/local legislatures? Or that committee make-up does not impact review outcome?
Association Helps Elect Pro-Public School Candidates
… VEA-PAC made recommendations in 78 races for the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates, and supported candidates won in 64 of them—a winning percentage of 82 percent. Local Association PACs also made scores of recommendations in school board elections, and Association members across the state volunteered for candidates.
…Statewide, the biggest development was the Democratic takeover of the Senate for the first time in 12 years. As a result, Sen. Edd Houck (D) will become chair of the Senate Education and Health Committee and Sen. Chuck Colgan (D) is expected to be named chair of the Senate Finance Committee. The import of the leadership switch: both men have a history of supporting public education and working constructively with VEA.
Houck, in fact, earned the prestigious VEA “Friend of Education” award earlier this year.
When they report to Richmond in January for the new session of the General Assembly, lawmakers will have their work cut out for them. Legislators’ decisions on the new biennial state budget (in the face of a revenue shortfall) will play a big part in whether you can expect adequate resources in your classroom and a decent pay raise over the next two years. [http://www.veanea.org/vea-on-your-side/sea.html]
Jay D: PTA’s, The Chamber of Commerce and many other nonlabor organizations “press and lobby state/local legislatures.” That is what all of us should do everyday to be active in our political lives.
If you have a problem with the “press and lobby state/local legislatures” you really don’t belong on a poltical blog or understand our political system…
Sorry.
“VEA-PAC made recommendations in 78 races for the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates, and supported candidates won in 64 of them—a winning percentage of 82 percent.”
That’s because 53% of those races had no Republican/Democrat opposition!
Nice way to fudge your numbers, teachers!
Take out the 41 who had no major party opposition or any opposition at all, and your “winning” percentage drops 20 points!
Other neat facts.
78% of their Senate endorsements were Democrats.
88% of their House endorsements were Democrats (or one indy running against a Republican)
Many of those few Republicans who got endorsed were unopposed anyway.
Teachers unions in Virginia are a joke.
The real question is how many were incumbents. It’s easy to dump money on guys already there. The real test of PAC savvy is winning open seats and beating incumbents you don’t like.
So to read this blog, one would get the impression that the message on economic development and job creation, supposedly the focus of the last election, has now been shunted aside in favor of allowing customers to bring their own wine into restaurants, on robbing employee groups of their right to represent themselves, on abolishing abortion rights, on issuing our own currency, on providing new tax breaks for corporations to support private schools, and other mainly social/cultural issues. So why did we elect these clowns? Read my lips; create, don’t abolish, jobs.
Mike, as amazing as it sounds, it is possible to walk and chew gum at the same time. We have been focused on the economy and creating jobs – Virginia has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and a significant number of new jobs have been created on the governor’s watch.
ABC privatization is about getting the state out of the liquor business, converting public sector into private sector jobs, and raising money for transportation. No one is trying to rob employee groups of anything in Virginia, nor are we trying to abolish abortion rights – holding clinics up to the same standards as any other medical facility isn’t abolishing abortion rights. I’ve already blasted Marshall for the money thing.
We are creating jobs here in the Commonwealth. That does not mean that we cannot do other things at the same time.
The only thing we haven’t done is open a nightclub at the oceanfront.
But you haven’t either, have you, Mike?
Actually Brian, you can try to keep the myth alive but the facts simply disprove your statements. Frankly, the incentive money provided by the Governor to major corporations has done nothing to actually spur economic development, the locus of which is mainly with small firms that actually drive the economy. The continuing assault on agencies supported by the general fund continues unabated, and now of course transportation is being thrust into the mix for limited general fund dollars. Now, of course, the battles will be fought in the City Council and County chambers across the state that must make the actual cuts. Great politics; take credit for the cuts, make some other official actually make them.
Mike, that’s simply not accurate. I’m not at home where I’ve got the data, but when I get back there, I’ll post it.
Yes, I’m sure a quick e-mail to the Governor’s office will result in an extremely well written treatise, much like Bolling’s piece in the magazine, that will be full of platitudes, news releases, letters of commendation, etc., all of which is intended to show all the new jobs he has created. Pure bunk frankly. Having some involvement in this field, I know how the system works, and the most important point I have learned is that economic development is a team sport. Bolling can claim all he wants, but the fact is, more than 80% of job growth occurs in our local communities between a business and local and regional agencies. Frankly, take the $50M from the GOF and chuck it in the James River and that action will have no appreciable effect on economic development in this Commonwealth. But hey, wait for your talking points.
Ah shucks, WilliamBailey – now you’ve hurt my feelings.
Let’s break it down to the ridiculous: If my kids want $20 from MY pocket, I may hand it over, depending upon:
• $$$s is in my pocket today,
• $$$s I can expect in my pocket tomorrow,
• If I think they are deserving,
• And/or what ‘concessions’ I can get from them.
OTOH, if my kids offer me a $20 ‘incentive’ to gain access to the $100 in YOUR pocket – I’ll take that deal! And that, my friend, is how public unions “press and lobby state/local legislatures” for access to state & local treasure AND why a teacher in Virginia has tenure (or a career long continuing contract) after only 3 years on the job. Legislatures have made lousy deals with taxpayer dollars; it’s time to pay attention and begin to reverse the damage.
Mike, that’s the point. Bolling and these guys recognize that. They don’t claim they’ve created a single job. they claim that X number of jobs have been created on their watch, thanks to the efforts of private enterprise, and in some situations, with help from the Commonwealth in terms of incentives.
It’s ridiculous to argue that the $50 million means nothing. If that’s the case, you wouldn’t have an army of lobbyists crawling all over Richmond trying to get it.
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