Transcripts for Everyone!

I tried to embed the video, but I don't think it worked. Here is a link to the video on YouTube.

I attribute the person who's running the Chambers as Assembly Chief Clerk Fuller, but it might actually have been whoever was serving as Pro Tempore for the day, who would be a random Republican representative.


SETTING: Assembly had planned to convene at 5:00pm to vote on the Budget Repair Bill. Assembly Republicans were in the Chamber before 5:00, and began voting at 4:56pm, while Democrats were still in Caucus.
Democrats entered the chambers mid-vote and demanded that the previous vote be stricken from the record. While still arguing for this, Representative Hintz spoke.


Assembly Chief Clerk Fuller: Gentleman from the 54th.

Rep Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh): Thank you. 'Cause it was actually, ah, about 15 minutes since I first actually pressed my button, at, which would have made it, I guess 4:57, 4:56 after I heard….ah, I got an e-mail - from the Gentleman from the 69th that said, 'Be here by 5:00,' so it was three minutes to 5:00, and as I was here from caucus, I saw that, ah, we were actually voting.

Umm. Again, when you send an e-mail, Gentleman from the 69th, that says 5:00, you know, 5:00 means 5:00.

But once I heard you guys already decided to vote on things, well, then I realized, you know - why would that happen? - and then I'm like oh - right, it's consistent with how everything else has been handled.

Like last Friday morning when I was driving a school business administrator's meeting in De Pere. And I turned on the radio, and there was an ad saying, 'Hey - support Governor Walker's budget repair bill. Paid for by Club for Growth.'
Well, guess what? I had never been given a bill. I hadn't even been given talking points yet. And I know we're in the minority, but I was elected - the SAME WAY you were elected, by the SAME public, from the state of Wisconsin, and I deserve better than that.

And it's bad enough - it is BAD ENOUGH - that I had to hear it from a radio ad, from Washington, D.C., and then I had to show up in a meeting with no details. But, in the s----[mic was cut off]

CHIEF CLERK: Could the gentleman please hold his remarks? We request that the gallery refrain from any indication of opposition or support for any of the comments on the floor. …So I don't have to clear the gallery. Please? Gentleman from the 54th.

REP GORDON HINTZ: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
So, while we heard that we MAY or may not get a repair bill, we MAY or may not get an emergency bill, I had to hear it from the RADIO. From a Washington, D.C. interest group. What does that have to do with Wisconsin? And then? It's a hundred and forty-four pages. And then? We get briefed on it on Monday and I'm told we're gonna vote on it on Thursday. Or Friday. And then when we asked for public hearings, and the public wants to speak out, you cut 'em off.

This isn't how we do things to each other, it isn't how things get introduced, and it just simply not what we do to the public. If you want to jam through a bill? You gotta sit through the messy process that is democracy. When we sit there in 4th grade, and we learn about Wisconsin government, and we learn about U.S. government, and we learn about how AMAZING it was that they came together, but we also learned that it was bloody, and that people had to fight for it, and they wanted to make it HARD to do big things. You're supposed to be a DELIBERATIVE body. You're supposed to have DISCUSSIONS. And you're supposed to be TRANSPARENT. Because the public MATTERS, and all of its input.

And then? When we keep the hearings going? And we honestly look at the bill, and it's a hundred and forty-four pages, and we find out that there's things like $47 million in federal aid being cut, and my city rights meeting said, yes, we're gonna have to cut our bus system.

And I write an amendment, and I carve that out, and I want to get it submitted, we show up here, and you guys are gonna vote without us three minutes before you told us to be here.

ARE YOU SEEING A PATTERN HERE? I find out from the RADIO, from some group I don't even know who it is, and then when the public wants to talk, you cut 'em off, and then when we should up to vote - when we show up to vote, I am ELECTED, I GET IT - I'm in the minority - You're right! There's only a bunch of us! But if you want to know WHY THERE ARE 35,000 PEOPLE HERE, LOOK AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR. And have a little respect, at least for your COLLEAGUES.