Was Senator Johnson's Town Hall Meeting a Bogus Event?

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Sen. Ron Johnson was in Janesville on Friday to host a town hall event for constituents. But is that the whole story?

According to the Janesville Gazette, he was in town to meet with the red state business group Forward Janesville. Yet this article in the Gazette makes no report on that meeting or where it was held. Instead, the newspaper reports on the open town hall meeting where about a dozen constituents gathered to ask the Senator some questions.

Was his meeting with Forward Janesville held during the open town hall meeting, or was it behind closed doors? Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the open meeting to answer those questions for myself.

On the other hand, the notice for this "Town Hall" meeting got extremely light publicity for a sitting senator and with the ALEC-like Forward Janesville recently announcing they will be offering "cover" for lawmakers who are willing to earmark funding for their interstate expansion, one can surmise that this town hall meeting provided cover for Johnson's meeting with Forward Janesville.

On the issue of the minimum wage, Ron Johnson not surprisingly stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Gov. Scott Walker and Rep. Paul Ryan.

Johnson wants the federal minimum wage to stay at $7.25 and said he would rather charge companies a minimum wage tax to discourage them from hiring migrant workers.

Apparently, Johnson would rather companies take advantage of workers so long as they pay an extra tax that he insists the companies can't afford to pay more in wages. Whew! He also said corporations and corporate heads should be getting bigger tax breaks. What a complete trilogy of embarrassing politicians we have representing the state of Wisconsin.

Read the Gazette story here.