Posted on 11/08/2010 1:19:40 AM PST by Scanian
The 2010 landslide means that Republicans in the House can stop any new legislative initiatives by the Democrats and that Senate Republicans, if united, can stop almost anything Democrats want to do in that body as well. House Republicans can also send to the Senate bills that will put political pressure on Obama and Senate Democrats, like a complete extension of the Bush tax cuts. But at the federal level, Republicans cannot actually do anything without Democrats caving in.
The situation is very different at the state level. Republicans now control both houses of the state legislature and the governorship in a number of states. Republicans now have complete control of state government in twenty states compared to a paltry seven states before the midterm election. Crucially, Republicans now control all state government in five industrial rust belt states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin. This control will allow Republicans to draw congressional districts and also, just as importantly, state legislative districts -- a real political blow to Democrats.
Unlike the federal government, a party that actually controls the state legislature and governorship can enact laws -- the filibuster is an odd creature almost unique to the United States Senate. There are many things Republicans in control of state governments should do: limit spending, cut tax rates, reduce regulation. But there is one reform that stout-hearted Republicans running those five rust belt states should definitely do: pass right to work laws. The Taft-Hartley Act allows each state the option of enacting right to work laws, which allow workers to not join a labor union as a condition of employment. Twenty-two states have adopted right to work laws, and these states closely resemble the twenty-two states that Obama lost in 2008. Although the leftist establishment media gets a disproportionate amount of attention from conservatives, along with risible "civil rights" leaders and surreally silly academicians, the real political muscle of the Left comes from organized labor -- meaning the bosses who run with those vast empires called "labor unions" and who use the forced dues from members to engage in constant war against conservatives.
In particular, right to work laws should be passed against public unions. These exist to extract taxpayer welfare for the benefit of bureaucrats and the particular constituencies they serve. Reining them in will prevent states from running up large bills and going bankrupt.
This can be done in exchange for guaranteeing union rights for workers in the private sector. Taxpayers and workers alike should find it an attractive proposition.
CSA vs USA 1861. Looks similar,I'm just sayin'.
It'll be a bit of effort to get the courts to see it that way but it seems inescapable to me,
A far more crippling and needed reform that GOP-dominated states could enact would be to simply outlaw collective bargaining by state and local government employees. Allowing public employees to unionize creates a class of “super-citizens” who enjoy the right to force the employer to sit down and “bargain in good faith” over the union’s unconscionable wage and benefit demands. The rest of the public must wait to pick up the crumbs left after the bloated civil serpents waddle off with their loot.
States should also prohibit payroll deductions from public employees paychecks for any purposes other than charitable giving, credit union and similar payments, and for the employee’s share of benefit costs. Even if the state doesn’t have the gumption to prohibit public employee unionization, make the union thugs collect their own dues.
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