Don’t you know it’s my birthday? There’s supposed to be some happy news to lighten my evening. But no, instead I learned that Wisconsin Rethuglicans made an end run to approve their governor’s union-busting bill.

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the state AFL-CIO, said Wednesday night’s maneuver “shows that Scott Walker and the Republicans have been lying throughout this entire process.”

“None of the provisions that attacked workers’ rights had anything to do with the budget,” Neuenfeldt said. “Losing badly in the court of public opinion and failing to break the Democratic senators’ principled stand, Scott Walker and the GOP have eviscerated both the letter and the spirit of the law and our democratic process to ram through their payback to their deep-pocketed friends.”

This is what happens when we weaken labor — the rich have free rein to milk the middle-class even further.