Kucinich first told Walker he was full of crap (not quite in those words). Walker had testified he didn't sit down with unions -- even though they'd agreed to sacrifices -- because they later voted for contracts that didn't include those sacrifices. Kucinich said the unions voted on those contracts because:
You refused to drop your demand to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights, which had nothing to do with the budget.
Then Kucinich demanded to know how much money Walker would save by destroying workers' rights. He got his answer. Walker:
It doesn’t save any."This is supposed to be a hearing about state and municipal debt," Kucinich said. "Your proposal would require unions to hold annual votes to continue to represent their members."
Walker:
We wanted to make sure we’re protecting the workers of our state...It would save employees up to $1,000 a year.Kucinich:
It wouldn’t save any.He then presented a letter from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which was asked to identify the budget impact of Walker's attempt to take away workers' rights. Kucinich said:
This letter confirms the obvious: Gov. Walker's efforts to repeal the rights of Wisconsin workers is a nonfiscal policy item...What we’ve been able to demonstrate here is the attack on collective bargaining rights is a choice.Walker had no Koch-funded boilerplate with which to respond.
