The Republican-controlled Wisconsin State Senate has approved a new budget imposing wide cuts on public spending. Democrats say the measure will slash more than $1.8 billion in public spending and around $500 million in funding for the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor. Republican Gov. Scott Walker is expected to sign the measure into law. Protests, meanwhile, continue at the state Capitol in Madison in the standoff over Walker’s union-busting bill.

Protester: “Recalls are great. It’s one form of direct action. I have no problem with this stuff. But I really think we need to be taking more proactive measures as citizens as a whole. We need to start reconsidering the option of doing a general strike. We need to be doing more to stop the proceedings that are happening in that [state] House at the moment.”