Posted on 06/08/2012 10:15:41 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
What happened in Wisconsin signals a shift in political mood and assumption. Public employee unions were beaten back and defeated in a state with a long progressive tradition. The unions and their allies put everything they had into "one of their most aggressive grass-roots campaigns ever," as the Washington Post's Peter Whoriskey and Dan Balz reported in a day-after piece. Fifty thousand volunteers made phone calls and knocked on 1.4 million doors to get out the vote against Gov. Scott Walker. Mr. Walker's supporters, less deeply organized on the ground, had a considerable advantage in money.
But organization and money aren't the headline. The shift in mood and assumption is. The vote was a blow to the power and prestige not only of the unions but of the blue-state budgetary model, which for two generations has been: Public-employee unions with their manpower, money and clout, get what they want. If you move against them, you will be crushed.
Walker was not crushed. He was buoyed, winning by a solid seven points in a high-turnout race.
Governors and local leaders will now have help in controlling budgets. Down the road there will be fewer contracts in which you work for, say, 23 years for a city, then retire with full salary and free health care for the rest of your life—paid for by taxpayers who cannot afford such plans for themselves, and who sometimes have no pension at all. The big meaning of Wisconsin is that a public injustice is in the process of being righted because a public mood is changing.
Political professionals now lay down lines even before a story happens. ~snip~ The line laid down by the Democrats weeks before the vote was that it's all about money: Walker forces outspent unions so they won, end of story.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Wisconsin Noonan on Walker ping
I didn’t know these employees retired with full salaries and free medical care for the rest of their lives. No wonder we are in trouble.
[ What’s Changed After Wisconsin ]
Other States will consider right to work laws..
They will consider the errors of Union controlled State politics..
In the future a political candidate SHOULD be judged partly on whether he is UNION based or Freedom based..
You cannot have BOTH..
Either the Unions are in charge or the people are are..
The Unions have proven they are parasitical Vampires..
Sucking all life from a States economy..
Its not a metaphor its true.. regrettably heinously true..
The Unions have exposed themselves.. the wise are watching..
Challege your candidates, ask them question on their positions ON UNIONS!...
The federal givernment should be UNION FREE...
You cannot have UNIONS and FREEDOM, you will have one or the other..
If you say you can have both, you’re not very smart..
Not only that, a lot of them “retire” at 50 and then go right back to work in the same job the very next day, collecting both their pension and their new salary. That option is not open to everyone, but to a good number.
Our small school district rehired 12 retiring teachers last year, our city rehired the director of public works, a nearby city has done that with their police chief. Our former Superintendent of schools retired from our district and took a job in Minnesota. He collects both his Wisconsin retirement and a full salary in MN.
Plus they get paid for accumulated, unused sick pay in a lump sum, which can be a considerable amount.
LOLOLOLOLOLOL!
In many cases better than full salaries. The pension is calculated on the last 1-3 year average depending on the locale so the workers get all the overtime they can. Someone making 65k a year will get themselves to 80k and have the pension calculated on that.
Democracy died too, remember.
Just amazing.
OMG.
Absolutely. I know police officers in Connecticut that work all the overtime they can get for the last few years before retirement. They can then retire at more than a 100% of their base salary. And, free health insurance for life when they retire at ages as young as forty one. Maybe it’s changed now, but for a fact it was that way.
A woman that we know was complaining that her husband, a school administrator, had been pink slipped with only two or three years left to go before receiving full retirement benefits. She said that it meant that he would only receive $63,000/yr vs $100,000/yr. and that he was seeking another job to finish out those two or three years.
The guy is a low lever school administrator who was most likely very ineffective in his job to begin with.
Are there any major cities where this is not the case?
Peggy Noonan sounds as though she has come to exactly the same conclusion that I have. There’s movement in the Democrat Party to retake the middle ground, a return to Bill Clinton’s triangulation and a redefined, “Third Way”.
Do a search on the “Third Way.” and read how perfectly moderate and reasonable it now sounds. There is no longer any mention of a changed world structure or a one world government. It’s simply, “Can’t we all just get along?”
The big question is timing. Will the so-called moderates try to take back the Democrat party at the convention or wait another four years? It’s obvious that some adherents of the “Third Way” are already distancing themselves from Barack Obama and his far left ideology, that is really not as distant from the “Third Way” as I would like.
I liked this part:
And where is the president in all this? On his way to Anna Wintour’s house. He’s busy. He’s running for president.
But why? He could be president now if he wanted to be.
Made me laugh right out loud! :-D
I am glad this has been brought to light.
When you read some of the writing of the New Third Way people, you hear echoes of George Bush’s compassionate conservatism and other strains from the DC insider Republicans, as well. It’s all about compromise and not offending anyone.
I am afraid the Mitt Romney may be a Third Way adherent, as well.
Me too. These people are not on our side.
retire at 41 with less more than 100% of their base salary or go out on disability for mental stress at 100%, in their thirties.
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