Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm [3], in a February 20, 2011 appearance [4] on NBC's Meet the Press, exposed Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's [5] disingenuousness in linking restrictions on collective bargaining to a need to cut the state's budget. Wisconsin's unionized workers have declared they are ready to start contributing to their pensions and health care to help resolve the state's budget problems, Granholm pointed out. But despite extracting these financial concessions, Walker insists on trying to curtail unionized workers' right to collectively bargain. Granholm stated, "What is this [Scott Walker's effort] really exposed to be, but an attack on collective bargaining?...This is really about collective bargaining," and not cutting the state's budget.

See also CMD's article on the manufactured budget "crisis" here [6].