Simply Unsustainable

[sirs]

The Democratic/government-union days of rage in Madison, Wis., are a disgrace. Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan calls it Cairo coming to Madison. But the protesters in Egypt were pro-democracy. The government-union protesters in Madison are anti-democracy; they are trying to prevent a vote in the legislature. In fact, Democratic legislators themselves are fleeing the state so as not to vote on Gov. Scott Walker?s budget cuts.

That?s not democracy.

The teachers? union is going on strike in Milwaukee and elsewhere. They ought to be fired. Think Ronald Reagan PATCO in 1981. Think Calvin Coolidge police strike in 1919.

The teachers? union on strike? Wisconsin parents should go on strike against the teachers? union. A friend e-mailed me to say that the graduation rate in Milwaukee public schools is 46 percent. The graduation rate for African-Americans in Milwaukee public schools is 34 percent. Shouldn?t somebody be protesting that?

Governor Walker is facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit, and he wants state workers to pay one-half of their pension costs and 12.6 percent of their health benefits. Currently, most state employees pay nothing for their pensions and virtually nothing for their health insurance. That?s an outrage.

Nationwide, state and local government unions have a 45 percent total-compensation advantage over their private-sector counterpart. With high-pay compensation and virtually no benefits co-pay, the politically arrogant unions are bankrupting America -- which by some estimates is suffering from $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Exempting police, fire, and state troopers, Governor Walker would end collective bargaining over pensions and benefits for the rest. Collective bargaining for wages would still be permitted, but there would be no wage hikes above the CPI. Unions could still represent workers, but they could not force employees to pay dues. In exchange for this, Walker promises no furloughs for layoffs.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is also pushing a bill to limit the collective-bargaining rights of teachers for wages and wage-related benefits. Similar proposals are being discussed in Idaho and Tennessee.
In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich wants to restrict union rights across-the-board for all state and local government workers.
More generally, both Democratic and Republican governors across the country are taking on the extravagant pay of government unions.

Why? Because taxpayers won?t stand for it anymore.

In an interesting twist on this story, even private unions are revolting against government unions. Private unions pay taxes, too. And they don?t have near the total compensation of the public unions. It?s no wonder they?re fed up.

So, having lost badly in the last election, the government-union Democrats in Wisconsin have taken to the streets. This is a European-style revolt, like those seen in Greece, France, and elsewhere. So it becomes greater than just a fiscal issue. It is becoming a law-and-order issue.

President Obama, who keeps telling us he?s a budget cutter, has taken the side of the public unions. John Boehner correctly rapped Obama?s knuckles for this. If the state of Wisconsin voters elected a Chris Christie-type governor with a Republican legislature, then it is a local states? rights issue.

But does President Obama even know that the scope of collective bargaining for federal employees is sharply limited? According to the Manhattan Institute, federal workers are forbidden to collectively bargain for wages or benefits. Instead, pay increases are determined annually through legislation.

Meanwhile, Gov. Scott Walker said it would be ?wise? for President Obama to keep his attentions on Washington, not Wisconsin. ?We?re focused on balancing our budget,? he said in a television interview. ?It would be wise for the president and others in Washington to be focused on balancing their budget, which they?re a long ways from doing.?

Amen.

Obama should stay out. And Governor Walker should stand tall and stick to his principles. A nationwide taxpayer revolt against public unions can save the country. Otherwise, the spiraling out-of-control costs of state public-union entitlements will destroy the local fisc, just as surely as the unreformed federal entitlements of Social Security and health care are wrecking our national finances.

Op-ed

[Christians4LessGvt]

SIRS lots-of-days-of-reckoning-are-ahead!

the credit card is maxed out!

looking at wisconsin and the riots over these little cuts

it makes me wonder whats gonna happen here when real
slashing and cutting happens in the not so distant future

big cuts are coming...people are gonna be furious

like you say....the status quo is not sustainable

are we gonna have Egypt and Tunisia here on the streets in America?

[sirs]

Watch the MSM and left punditry...watch how closely they try to compare the union anti-democracy protesters with the Middle East pro-democracy protesters.  Which then "obviously" imples that Governors like Walker are Mubarak-like dictators

Just watch

[Christians4LessGvt]

Which then "obviously" imples that Governors like Walker are Mubarak-like dictators

Yeah they will try....but anybody with a brain knows the Republican Governor
was just elected by the people of Wisconsin.

[sirs]

Won't stop the effort.  They semi-effectively painted the State of AZ and its electorate as racist bigots

[BT]

SIRS lots-of-days-of-reckoning-are-ahead!

the credit card is maxed out!

looking at wisconsin and the riots over these little cuts

it makes me wonder whats gonna happen here when real
slashing and cutting happens in the not so distant future

big cuts are coming...people are gonna be furious

like you say....the status quo is not sustainable

are we gonna have Egypt and Tunisia here on the streets in America?

Are you fully stocked?

[Christians4LessGvt]

Are you fully stocked?

probably better than the average joe public....but thats not saying much...if all hell breaks loose
guns/ammo/freeze dried food/gold....need to work more on the water part if i'm stuck in the big city
but if it got really bad like Serbia/Kosevo...
I would need to make it to remote Colorado where family has a very rural alpine cabin
and that could be a very dangerous trip from Texas
likely to see lots of bandits/gangs/criminals on that 8oo mile journey
hopefully there would be some time to realize what was about to go down
& time to slide outta hell before it got bad

but i just hope i can jump into the grave in old age before it happens.

[sirs]

Watch the MSM and left punditry...watch how closely they try to compare the union anti-democracy protesters with the Middle East pro-democracy protesters.  Which then "obviously" imples that Governors like Walker are Mubarak-like dictators

Just watch

NBC Equates Madison to Egypt While Ignoring 'Scott Stalin' Placard, All Spike Obama's Role
By: Brent Baker
Sunday, February 20, 2011

?On the broadcast tonight, the uprising at home,? teased NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, touting ?another day of fury in Wisconsin. Workers angry about what they call a plan to balance the budget on their backs.? Williams set up his Friday newscast by equating the left-wing protests with those against Arab dictatorships: ?From the Mideast to the American Midwest tonight, people are rising up. Citizens uprisings are changing the world,? he championed, citing what ?we?ve witnessed from Tunisia to Egypt? and now Wisconsin where ?the state capitol has been taken over by the people.?

Without ever mentioning the involvement of President Obama?s Organizing for America, reporter John Yang trumpeted from Madison how ?tens of thousands of public workers have come here to make their voices heard.? Scolding incivility certainly didn?t interest Yang, who cued up a protester to trash Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker without making any note of the sign he was holding which showed a hammer and sickle below ?Scott Stalin.?

ABC and CBS on Friday night, as they did on Thursday night, ignored the instigation by Organizing for America as CBS?s Cynthia Bowers, who never identified anyone as liberal, concluded: ?More protests are planned for tomorrow and for the first time conservative activists are calling upon their supporters -- including Tea Party groups -- to hold rallies of their own.?

In her CBS Evening News report, Bowers asserted as if it were an undisputed assessment: ?In what began as a battle over one state budget, is now being billed as a national assault on unions.?

Her piece featured a teacher who oddly claimed: ?Wisconsin, I think, is one of the last strong states left in the country and that's why this is so important.?

Back to the NBC Nightly News, as this exchange took place viewers got a brief glance, just before his on-camera soundbite, of the teacher holding the ?Scott Stalin? sign:

JOHN YANG: Milwaukee high school teacher Jim O'Brien blamed the Governor.

JIM O?BRIEN, TEACHER: We were kind of forced into this by our Governor not allowing us to have a voice in government.


From the Friday, February 18 NBC Nightly News:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Good evening. From the Mideast to the American Midwest tonight, people are rising up. Citizens uprisings are changing the world. As we?ve witnessed from Tunisia to Egypt and now tonight from Libya to Bahrain, where today there was a violent crackdown and our reporters and cameras were there when shots were fired. But tonight we're going to begin in Wisconsin. The state capitol has been taken over by the people. Unions say the Governor is out to bust them. Democratic lawmakers have left the state. And tonight the Governor has now spoken. NBC's John Yang is right there in the middle of it in Madison, Wisconsin, for us tonight. John, good evening.

JOHN YANG: Good evening, Brian. Just a little bit ago Republican Governor Scott Walker came out. He defiantly compared the tens of thousands of state employees who are protesting here at the state capitol with what he said were the hundreds of thousands of workers who stayed on the jobs. He made it clear he is not budging.

PROTESTER: Show me what democracy looks like.

CROWD: This is what democracy looks like.

YANG: At the Wisconsin state capitol thousands of students, teachers and union members joined for a fourth straight day of mass protests. They're denouncing Republican Governor Scott Walker's plan to attack a projected $3.6 billion budget deficit.

LINDA O?BRIEN, TEACHER?S ASSISTANT: He's not thinking. He could sit down and rationally discuss this, but he's a chicken.

REGGIE WILLIAMS, TEACHER: We're not here just for money and salary, it's for rights.

YAMG: The most controversial parts of Walker's proposal would limit state workers collective bargaining rights and increase how much they pay for their pensions and health insurance. It would exempt police, firefighters and state troopers, groups that endorsed Walker in last year's election, but not teachers or prison guards, who did not back him.

STATE SENATOR GLENN GROTHMAN (R): People say I can't live with an 8 or 9 percent cut in take-home pay. I think my goodness, you should be happy to have a job.

YANG: Senate Democrats, who lost the majority last year, are blocking a vote by fleeing the state. They hope to force the Governor to the bargaining table. Senator John Urbenbach (sp a guess) spoke on MSNBC?s The Daily Rundown.

STATE SENATOR ON MSNBC: The Governor?s got to bring us to the table. He?s got to get everybody to sit down and come up with a better idea to repair the budget.

YANG, IN CROWD: This may look and sound like a sports arena, but this is the rotunda of the Wisconsin state capitol. Tens of thousands of public workers have come here to make their voices heard. Hundreds of teachers called in sick to join the protests. With so many here, at least 16 districts across the state were closed, including Milwaukee, the state's biggest, much to the dismay of parents.

NADINE WELLINGTON, PARENT: I'm stunned. We arrived here, ring the doorbell, no answer.

YANG: Milwaukee high school teacher Jim O'Brien blamed the Governor.

JIM O?BRIEN, TEACHER: We were kind of forced into this by our Governor not allowing us to have a voice in government.

YANG: At his news conference, the Governor rebuffed a proposed compromise put forward by the head of the biggest union representing public workers here in Wisconsin. He made clear he is not interested in negotiations.


CBS Evening News:

ERICA HILL: Thousands of protesters in the streets, teachers staging a mass sickout, the police hunting down lawmakers boycotting a controversial vote. It?s not happening in the Mideast, but right here in the American Midwest. Wisconsin is one of 45 states across the nation facing major budget shortfalls. And to cut the red ink, the state?s Republican Governor is targeting public employees and they are fighting back. Cynthia Bowers is in the state capital in Madison tonight. Cynthia?

CYNTHIA BOWERS: Good evening Erica. For a fourth straight day, this Wisconsin state capitol has been the scene of rowdy protests against the Governor?s plan. And again today, demonstrators announced their intention that they are not backing down. In Madison today, protesters upped the ante in numbers and in noise. In what began as a battle over one state budget, is now being billed as a national assault on unions. At issue is new Republican Governor Scott Walker?s plan to plug what he says is a $136 million hole in this year?s state budget by cutting benefits to nearly 300,000 public workers. But what has public sector workers at fever pitch is a call to end their rights to collective bargaining.

DAVE FRY, TEACHER: A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into getting to where we?re at now and we don?t want to let that go.

BOWERS: What they say they?d lose is the ability to negotiate as a group on wages and working conditions. For a second straight day, Senate Democrats refused to show up to work in order to delay a vote on the proposal and state troopers made a show of looking for them. Teachers too are playing hooky for a third day now, like Milwaukee school teacher Mary Ellen Sheehan.

MARY SHEEHAN: Wisconsin, I think, is one of the last strong states left in the country and that's why this is so important. And I do hope that-

BOWERS TO SHEEHAN: This is really kind of Ground Zero?

SHEEHAN: This is Ground Zero, yes.

BOWERS: The battle against the bill has also been joined by police and firefighters whose unions are not even affected by the bill as well as private sector unions.

BOWERS TO PROTESTER: This is a taxpayer issue, right?

PROTESTER: No, it's workers' rights issue.

BOWERS: Republican lawmakers say they hear the protests but are not going to change their vote.

STATE REP ROBIN VOS (R) We told people they were going to pay for their pensions and their health care and they overwhelmingly voted for the Republicans and conservatives across our state.

BOWERS: More protests are planned for tomorrow and for the first time conservative activists are calling upon their supporters -- including Tea Party groups -- to hold rallies of their own. Erica?

Didn't take a crystal ball to see this coming

[sirs]

[sirs]

A recent editorial cartoon captured the tension between average taxpayers and government employee unions. It shows two guys sitting at a bar. One, head in hand and looking glum, is labeled "public sector" and says to his companion, "They're trying to cut our pensions." The other fellow, labeled "private sector," replies, "What's a pension?"

If this bar is in California ? where the official unemployment rate is 12.5 percent, not including people who have completely given up looking for work ? Mr. Private Sector might also ask, "What's a job?"

Over time, how much the public's view of those who work for government has changed from "respected civil servants" to "militant special interest" dedicated to preserving and expanding their "entitlements" at any cost to taxpayers. In this case, perception is reality.

This change has taken place in large measure since, Jerry "The Enabler" Brown, in his previous incarnation as governor (1975-83), signed legislation granting government workers collective bargaining rights. The result has been that the public employee unions have been so successful that California now has the highest-paid government workers in the U.S.

And the unions have invested their power in a way that makes them the most potent political force in the state.
- The state extracts dues from the paychecks of workers and turns the money over to the unions.
- Union bosses invest these tens of millions of dollars in the election campaigns of favored candidates ? mostly Democrats ? for the Legislature and statewide office.
- When it comes time to negotiate a new employment contract, the interests of government workers are represented on both sides of the table because the politicians, who owe their careers to the unions, are anxious to please.

For those in the private sector, this would be the equivalent of being able to hire your own boss before you ask for more pay.

As a result, most of the members of Legislature ? who should be looking out for the taxpayers' interests ? have become a wholly owned subsidiary of the unions. If the economy sputters, reducing tax revenue and limiting government's ability to maintain the high-life for employees, these lawmakers look to extract more from already struggling taxpayers. Tax increases guarantee money continues to flow to the unions and back to the campaign treasuries of the agreeable politicians.

Those who complain are accused of being anti-union by those who benefit from this insider dealing while hiding behind the more positive image of private sector unions. But the two types of unions have about as much in common as your insurance agent and the mobster who sells you "protection."

There is a glimmer of hope. Efforts are under way to insert genuine taxpayers' representatives into the process of bargaining with the government employee union bosses as well as the union acolytes in the Legislature.

State Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, and freshman Assemblyman Don Wagner, R-Irvine, have formed the Taxpayers Caucus in the Legislature, dedicated to limiting taxes and protecting Proposition 13, with the goal of creating a united front on critical taxpayer issues. The caucus is open to all comers, but, so far, all 30 lawmakers who have joined are Republicans. That Democrats are not rushing to join is not surprising. However, the dozen Republicans yet to join are giving taxpayers pause. They not only are falling under suspicion from the voters who elected them, they are missing an outstanding opportunity to brand their party with a position on which the majority of Californians agree: Taxes are plenty high already, and taxpayers don't want to be made poorer so government workers can live better than they do.

Commentary

[sirs]