State debt House Committee testimony

Walker appears before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in a hearing titled “State and Municipal Debt: Tough Choices Ahead,” arguing that his decision to take away collective bargaining rights helps governments balance budgets:

For us, we’re giving state and local governments the tools they need not just to balance the budget for the next two years but for generations to come.

Chairman Issa approves of Walker’s actions:

[His] bold reforms seem reasonable to those of us in Washington who understand that our retirement and health care system at the federal level is not subject to collective bargaining.

Committee Member Cummings disagrees:

I strongly oppose efforts to falsely blame middle-class American workers for these current economic problems. He went much further by attempting to strip government employees of their collective bargaining rights. He demanded numerous provisions that had nothing to do with the state’s budget, had no fiscal impact.

When asked how much money the state saved by taking away certain provisions in collective bargaining rights, Walker responds that it doesn’t.