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Most people have heard something about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). For the uninitiated, according to the Center for Media and Democracy:

Thanks to ALEC, corporate titans have the same power, influence and voting rights as elected officials: Representatives from America’s largest corporations, including Koch Industries, Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, Reynolds, and Altria/Phillip Morris fund ALEC and sit on its private sector governing board. Through ALEC task forces, corporate lobbyists and elected officials vote as equals on templates to change the rights of workers, limit the rights of families if their loved one is killed or injured by a dangerous drug, the rights of children to a fully funded public education, and countless other bills that make it harder for citizens to vote, make it easier for vigilantes, more difficult for the government to protect our air and water from pollution, and that create tax loopholes for some of the richest corporations and people in the world.

Citizens in Racine, well aware of the potentially dangerous consequences of having special interests write our laws, have decided to find out the truth about their representative’s involvement in this shadow legislature.

Sen. Van Wanggaard has been linked to ALEC in the past. The Senator has spent $100 in taxpayer money to pay ALEC membership dues and he’s sponsored or co-sponsored 6 bills that are based on ALEC model legislation including Act 174 (Retail Theft, Proof of Ownership for Flea Market Sales, and Providing Penalties), Act 94 (Castle Doctrine Act), AB 94 (The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program Expansion), Act 38 (Reinstating Truth in Sentencing), Act 23 (Voter ID Law), and Act 22 (Telecommunications Modernization Act). But, does the Senator makes these associations clear?

At a February 23 listening session in Burlington, when asked about the group and its influence, Senator Van Wanggaard downplayed the association as nothing more than any other club membership — like the NRA. When asked if he served on a committee within ALEC he responded, “No I don’t,” and also claims that, while he has joined ALEC, he has “never attended a meeting.”

However, a report released May 17 by the Center for Media and Democracy clearly shows that Van Wanggaard is a sitting member of the ALEC Telecommunications & Information Technology Task Force as well as a Tax & Fiscal Policy Task Force Alternate Member. In addition, Senator Wanggaard is the 6th highest recipient of contributions from ALEC corporate members in the legislature – netting a whopping $12,925 (including thousands from AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and other’s with a vested interest in telecommunications regulation.

Clearly the Senator is involved in ALEC’s shadow legislature whether he knows it or not. The time is now for him to come clean. If he has nothing to do with ALEC, like he would have us believe, why is he sponsoring and co-sponsoring their model legislation? If he isn’t involved, why does he sit on one of their Task Forces? If he isn’t involved, why do corporations with an interest in the legislation coming out of his ALEC task force contribute thousands of dollars to this campaign?

With this in mind, constituents of the Senator’s will be gathering outside of his campaign headquarters in Racine to demand that Van Wanggaard tell the truth and fess up to his connections to ALEC. We may not all be lawyers, but if he’s receiving contributions, sitting on a task force, and paying for membership dues with taxpayer dollars it seems like he’s pretty connected to us.

Join them May 18 at 12PM
Van Wanggaard Campaign Office
6211 Durand Ave., Mt. Pleasant, WI

May 9 – Dozens of Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble constituents gathered to demand that their representatives vote no on Paul Ryan’s “budget for millionaires.” The Ryan budget has been described by Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman as “the most fraudulent budget in American history,” most notably because it “it slashes taxes for corporations and the rich while drastically cutting food and medical aid to the needy.” With that in mind, constituents in Wausau gathered at the VA clinic to symbolize the way $4.6 trillion in tax giveaways to the richest 1% requires budget cuts that will hurt those who served our country in the Armed Forces.

As shown in the video, constituents also questioned Rep. Ribble’s staff as to why he would be voting against the interest of his constituents. Although they were met with polite dismissal, constituents will not be giving up. As of this writing, the Ryan budget has passed in the House. Both Reid Ribble and Sean Duffy voted in favor of the plan, and, thus, in favor of ending Medicare as we know it in order to hand more money to wealthy 1% elites and their corporate interests.

As Paul Krugman sums it up, “a lasting budget deal can only work if both parties can be counted on to be both responsible and honest — and House Republicans have just demonstrated, as clearly as anyone could wish, that they are neither.”

Call Reid Ribble at (202) 225-5665 or Sean Duffy at (202) 225-3365 and let them know that their votes in favor of the “budget for millionaires” are out of touch with the people of Wisconsin.

BadgerCare is Under Attack!

UPDATE: Thanks to you we’ve been able to collect over 1000 petition signatures in 48 Hours! Keep sharing the petition and let’s see those numbers hit the roof!

Federal officials have given the green light to cut Wisconsin health programs. These Walker-supported cuts will lead to over 17,000 people losing their access to healthcare July 1. The move comes after the state Joint Finance Committee approved revised Medicaid funding reductions on a party-line vote last month.

We can make BadgerCare healthy again by passing the BadgerCare Protection Act.

The BadgerCare Protection Act reFUNDS BadgerCare by rolling back just one of Walker’s tax breaks for the wealthiest 1%. Walker has given away four times more in corporate tax breaks than it would take to keep families on BadgerCare. Enough is enough.

Sign the petition today to demand that the legislature schedule a special session and pass the BadgerCare Protection Act. The 17,000 families affected by these cuts shouldn’t have to go without.

Activists preparing for the Showdown in Motown.

April 24 – Nearly 200 people boarded buses early in the morning at the Wisconsin Department of Revenue building in Milwaukee. They are going to protest GE at their annual shareholder meeting in Detroit. GE has paid $0 in Wisconsin income tax from 2003-2008 while paying a negative federal tax rate from 2008-2010. During the same time period their top five executives took home $234 million and they spent $84.35 million in lobbying expenditures.

Over the next day pay attention to Twitter and Facebook for breaking updates as events develop on the ground.

Hundreds of people will board buses at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 24, at the Wisconsin Department of Revenue Building in Milwaukee to join a national protest at the General Electric annual shareholders’ meeting in Detroit on Wednesday. The Wisconsin contingent — which includes people from across the state — will join thousands of people from across the country to demand that GE pay its fair share in taxes.

As one of the nation’s largest tax dodgers, GE paid nothing in federal income taxes from 2008-2010. Worse, the company actually received more than $4 billion in tax refunds (an effective tax rate of - 45.3%) while paying lobbyists more than $85 million. Wisconsin’s share of this massive corporate tax giveaway comes to OVER $87 MILLION. If General Electric had paid its fair share in 2010, what could it have meant for spending on these vital programs in Wisconsin?

• Over $9 million for Medicaid – enough to serve over 1,600 people.
• Over $2 million for anti-hunger programs
• Over $1 million for education programs, including
• $195,000 in aid for high-poverty schools
• $705,000 in Pell Grants
• Over $1 million in Earned Income Tax Credits
• Over $1 million in disability compensation for veterans

“I pay my fair share of taxes but GE and other mega-corporations don’t,” says  Edward Jude, a retiree from Milwaukee, who is going on the bus to Detroit. “This hasn’t been fair for a long time, and it will take many voices speaking out against GE to fix that. I want to make sure mine is one of them.”

This new wave of 99% activism comes on the heels of several significant protests and upsets at Fortune 100 shareholder meetings nationwide: Citigroup (NYSE:C) shareholders’ unprecedented rejection of CEO Vikram Pandit’s exorbitant pay package; Tax Day protests that saw thousands of people in the streets in anger over the 1% economy and unchecked power of rich corporations executives shutting down EQT Corp.’s (NYSE: EQT) meeting; executives at Carnival Cruise Lines (NYSE: CLL) cutting the company’s live broadcast; and two hours of protests and ejections from the BNY Mellon (NYSE: BK) meeting.

Stay tuned to WisconsinJobsNow.org to get updates on the ongoing movement.

April 16 – The day before the April 17 Day of Action, members of Wisconsin’s 99% went to see why Sen. Ron Johnson would not be supporting the Buffett Rule – which would increase taxes on millionaires. This is a record of that conversation.

Long story short, millionaire Ron Johnson did not vote to tax himself. But today is April 17, and although yesterday the Senate struck down the Buffett Rule, we're marching to take our democracy back.Time to join with the hundreds of thousands marching for a fair economy!

Wisconsin April 17 Marches

Rep. Paul Ryan was recently quoted saying, “We’re coming into what I would call a tipping point . . . a cultural one, where we have more takers than makers in America.” By this Ryan is implying that the majority of Americans are greedy fools pushing themselves toward European-style debt collapse. And for once he’s almost right, with the important exception being that he’s talking about the wrong set of Americans.

It’s no secret that the average tax rate paid by the very highest-income citizens has fallen to nearly the lowest rate in 50 years. At the same time, some of the most profitable corporations in the U.S., like GE and Wisconsin Energy, continue to enjoy negative federal income tax rates; meaning they made more money after taxes than before!

Paul Ryan and his rich CEO pals would like to convince us that we can’t continue to pay for public services like education and healthcare. They want us to think that unemployment insurance is too great a burden for our modern civilization to bear. But we know the truth – they want to dismantle the programs we fought so hard to create just so that they can live even higher on the hog!

This tax day, April 17, we’re taking our democracy back – we’re going to join with hundreds of thousands nationwide and march against tax-dodgers like GE and against the richest 1% who keep the deck stacked against us. We’re fighting to get thousands in the streets to demand the wealthy finally start to pay their fair share and contribute like everyone else has to on tax day!

The media would prefer to prattle on about candidates and elections, but let’s remind them that this year the people demand more from our democracy. We demand justice for the 99%. Join us April 17, and let’s make it a reality.