Posted on 03/02/2011 4:49:28 AM PST by iowamark
Over the past week, Wisconsin public employees have flocked to Madison to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill. Teachers have walked out of their classrooms, senators have fled the state, and President Obama has once again involved himself in state affairs. The left is painting the bill into an attack on the middle class, education, and unions. Some are even comparing the protests to the citizen-lead protests in Egypt.
Before such inaccuracies have a chance to continue, let’s set a few things straight.
Walker, who was swept into office during the 2010 midterm elections, is confronting the tough decisions right away. With a projected $3.6 billion deficit, his budget repair bill makes a reasonable request to avoid thousands of state and local layoffs. To balance the budget, he is asking public employees to contribute 12.6 percent of their health-care premiums and 5.8 percent of their annual salary to their pension plans, which is about the same as the private sector pays for public employee’s pensions and well below the national average.
The primary union-leader talking point is that the bill “gets rid of unions.” There are no provisions in the bill to get rid of collective bargaining completely, but the bill does cap total wage increases at the inflation rate. When the private sector has not received a raise in years, this is a completely sensible request. Public employees should never be entitled to a higher wage, when their employers, the taxpayers, cannot afford it.
Observe, for a moment, a picture of the protesters in Madison. Beside the signs that compare Walker to Hitler, you’ll see signs that say, “Unions Created the 40 Hour Week” or “Thank Unions for the Weekend.” Wrong again.
Private-sector unions began because of dangerous working conditions and a combative relationship between management and labor. Public unions began for political gain in the Democratic Party. Think about it: When people work in the government business, their interests align with the party of larger government. Private-sector unions fight with management because of an inequitable distribution of earnings; government unions are negotiating on increasingly scarce taxpayer money.
One common Facebook status states, “Wisconsin has higher ACT/SAT scores than the five states that outlawed collective bargaining (South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia).”
Maybe more Wisconsin students would know the difference between correlation and causation if they weren’t being used as political pawns by their state teachers’ union. Union involvement in teaching is not about what is best for the student; after all, if educating young people was the goal, union teachers wouldn’t cancel classes to protest.
The UI College Republicans will show the award-winning documentary Waiting for “Superman”. The documentary discusses the current state of public education and how it is failing our country’s young people. All are welcome to attend.
Obama famously said after the 2008 election, “Elections have consequences.” The 2010 midterm elections are no different.
What is going on in Wisconsin is not about worker’s rights. It’s about one thing, and one thing only: cash. Walker wants to save the state from California-type insolvency, and the teachers’ unions want to continue their fiddling while Rome burns.
Comparing the protesters in Madison to those in Cairo is both stupid and offensive. The freedom fighters in Cairo were battling against a tyrant who had a 30-year stranglehold on power. The protesters in Madison are complaining about their over 52-year drain on the public coffers coming to an end.
Our republic is founded on the principle that the ballot box, not protests, is supreme and you accept adverse election results. The failure of political maturity got us in trouble in 1861. If the opposition doesn’t like the direction Walker and the Republicans are taking in Wisconsin, their patriotic duty is to bide their time, make their case and try to reverse the verdict in the next election.
Insanity. Fat Cat Unions and Crooked Democrats spinning out over attempted sanity.
I’m surprised they didn’t burn the capitol building in Lansing Michigan last night. The union lost thousands of members and millions in dues yesterday.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2682161/posts
Nothings like connecting dots that are unrelated? But I guess that, that was her point.
Bless her.
All these disorderly and counterproductive demonstrations are a mystery to me.
This is America … where you can vote changes IN or OUT on a continual basis. (Even if you are not a citizen…how’s THAT for suffrage?)
Resorting to violent and anarchic lawlessness is a necessary and unavoidable end-run on the system for people who live where voting is prohibited or subverted.
For Americas to descend to this method is like asking for a bologna sandwich when you have steak.
For Americans to flirt with this ‘copy cat’ anarchy is dangerous and entirely disingenuous.
Whoever voted last time out, got you the situation you have NOW and which you obviously don’t like. Fine! Next time … vote for the change YOU want….and ABIDE BY THE RESULTS OF THE VOTE like everyone else!!!
Anarchy pays when there is no downside.
Conservatives whine and moan and do not counter the anarchists.
You & I think that way, but why would they do that when they can enlist the assistance of the courts to do their bidding immediately? Just recently, one judge usurped the will of the entire state of California with regard to gay marriage.
They have no intention of playing fair.
“They have no intention of playing fair.”
Playing fair is for losers, you play to win...period. We want to play by the rules but they ignore the rules. Sounds like we need to change the rules, you must fight fire with fire. No quarter given nor asked for, this is to the finish, if we don’t win here we lose EVERYWHERE!
I completely agree
Actually if the Wiconsin GOP caves, it is going to prove to all of the Leftists out there that elections DO NOT have consequences, which will have chilling implications for the rest of us.
Doyle made it part of the WEA curriculium guides to teach the History of the Unions in Wisconsin. The signs posted about why the unions were formed is just part of the REVISIONIST HISTORY in the Public Schools in Wisconsin. The persons holding up the the signs probably, most likely are the same ones entrusted to teach the revisionist history of the rise in the Unions. Doyle was an idiot Governor, but prior to his being Governor of Wisconsin, he was the AG. he achieved something that brought him into the limelight and made it possible to run against the successor to “King” Tommy Thompsaon, Scott Mc Collum.
In his 8 years as Governor he caused a lot of financial pain - he was the governor who believed in selling off the Government plane, and other vehicles to help balance the budget, he was praised for saving taxpayers money, but in the end he ended up coasting tax payers money for the replacement of the same vehicles he sold off for newer and more expensive vehicles.
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