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A Further Perspective

Sick Democrats and Mob Rule

By on 2.21.11 @ 6:06AM

No doubt Jerry Brown is watching.

In countries ruled by despots, if you want change you demonstrate until you get it. In Wisconsin, you send a mob to the state capitol to prevent the legislature from doing its job.

Several thousand teachers, clueless students and an assortment of thugs did that in Madison last week to prevent the legislature from voting on a bill to require teachers to pay into their retirement program and to increase the minuscule amount they pay for their health care plan. The bill also would restrict collective bargaining by their union to wage issues.

The new Governor, Scott Walker, was elected last November on pledges to do the very thing he and the legislature have been doing the last week or so. The voters returned Republican majorities in both houses. It’s fair to assume all have been carrying out the wishes of the voters with this legislation.

The Democrats, now in the minority in the state senate, didn’t agree with that assumption. All of them took a powder last Friday, fleeing across the state line to Illinois. Since Wisconsin law requires at least one member of the minority party to be in attendance to form a quorum, business was stalled. Clearly, these Democrats believe in majority rule only when they are in the majority.

On Thursday, more than 1,000 teachers called in sick. What kind of message does it send for a teachers to call in sick when she is not sick? Most people call that lying. Furthermore, is it not fraud when they call in sick while spending the day shouting and carrying protest signs at the state capitol and being paid sick leave by the taxpayers?

The numbers are revealing. Wisconsin teachers average $89,000 a year in salary and benefits.

The average U.S. private sector worker gets $61,000. The Wisconsin proposal is to raise teachers’ contributions to their health care plan from five percent to 12.5 percent and to contribute half of their monthly pension plan deposit. By contract, private sector workers with 401(k) plans, pay in 100 percent. Their employers may (but are not required to) supplement this, usually at the end of the year when profit and loss figures are toted up. 

In Washington, the president chimed in by saying he thought the state’s proposed legislation amounted to “an assault on unions.” It is, of course, none of his business, but then, once a community organizer, always a community organizer. Saul Alinsky would have loved the scene in Madison.

The Democratic National Committee and the National Education Association (the umbrella teachers’ union) probably connived in the planning of the disruption. If not, it certainly had their tacit approval. 

Meanwhile, in California, Governor Jerry Brown has submitted a budget with some cuts, but the center piece of his plan is to call a special election to let the voters decide if they want to extend certain taxes scheduled to “sunset.” If vote they “no, ” Brown has made a list of draconian program cuts that would follow. This is a smart ploy. He must get two-thirds approval from the legislature to put these items on the ballot. Some Republicans threaten to vote against it. If it goes down, Brown will blame them for (1) refusing to let the voters vote and (2) move directly to the draconian cuts and blame the Republicans.

Meanwhile, there is not a peep out of him about reforming the state’s overly-generous public employee pension plans. They are unsustainable and he is the one person who gets the unions to swallow reform. Perhaps he is waiting to see the outcome of the special election matter before showing his hand. Ironically, it was he in his first stint as governor in the Seventies who issued the order to permit public employee unions to engage in collective bargaining. 

About the Author

Peter Hannaford was closely associated for a number of years with the late President Reagan, beginning in the California Governor’s office. His latest book is Presidential Retreats.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (58) |

Ken (Old Texican)| 2.21.11 @ 7:08AM

Decent Califorians must be in a state of despair.

RJ| 2.21.11 @ 12:48PM

Yes. Election night was the worst - a real wipeout. Truly dreadful Democratic candidates (e.g. Barbara Boxer winning a 4th term) won by 10 points or more.

However, these days we are seeing the government spending sharks beginning to eat their own. California has been in decline for over 20 years. It is committed to destructive economic and cultural values. It will not choose reform, but reform will be forced upon it when it crashes from its own weaknesses.

Jerry Brown and his friends will soon have to deal with the budget crisis, because it can't be held back much longer. I don't think California will return to normal, but market forces will compel some reform which will make it somewhat better. No federal bailouts for California. It will only allow the madness to get worse.

Alan Brooks| 2.21.11 @ 7:34PM

"The bill also would restrict collective bargaining by their union to wage issues."

You want to DESTROY collective bargaining- and don't deny it, otherwise you ought to be wired up to a polygraph.

Skinner| 2.21.11 @ 8:36PM

For public sector unions, yes,

It is a conflict of interest to put the private concerns of the union over the good of the taxpayer. If you don't think that is wrong.....

MikeD| 2.21.11 @ 8:47PM

As long as public employees are unionized, they should lose the vote. it is a clear conflict of interest. However, I don't think ANY public employees should be unionized. In the distant past, way back when Americans really loved their country and wanted the best for it, it was called public service and it was a noble calling. now it's a joke with the "What's in it for ME!" mentality.

But, we have two generations that have been told that "they're the most important person in the whole wide world" by Sesame Street and other PBS shows. We've gone through two "Me Generations" with the "Whoever dies with the most toys wins" mentality.

Our media and entertainment, and a U.S. president have been obsessed with sex. We wonder why a girl can kill her baby with absolutely no emotional reaction at all, mostly because the "pleasure at any cost without guilt of any kind" Hollywood philosophy has ruled her formative years.

With this background, none of us should be surprised at the obscene spectacle playing out in Madison.

The worst part of it all is that they really think they're right; and that there is nothing wrong with lying and cheating in front of their students and encouraging them to do the same thing. Every one of them should be fired and arrested for fraud. If Governor Walker and the GOP Senators do not hold firm and crush these hypocrites it is all over and our Country is lost. We're THAT close.

Alan Brooks| 2.21.11 @ 9:38PM

"In the distant past, way back when Americans really loved their country"

It was better for whites; but in the '50s the black poverty rate was 50 percent, and that couldn't last forever. Thing is, both of you: if one of your loved ones joins a union then all of a sudden you are pro-union.

All depends whose ox is gored.

Alan Brooks| 2.21.11 @ 9:44PM

" if one of your loved ones joins a union then all of a sudden you are pro-union."

PS, even if it is public sector union, you are for whatever your loved-one wants. IMO your values take second place to whosoever's ox is gored.

You look out for your & your's,
and differ little from the Me Generation.

Albert| 2.22.11 @ 11:00AM

You're a liar Brooks. You have absolutely no idea how one person would act if his relative joined a union, public or private sector. Your assumptions are wishful thinking, not facts and it would behoove you to not present them as facts. Your lame attempts to taint everyone here as "racist" are as offensive and despicable as they are ridiculous. Get a life, Bozo.

MikeD| 2.23.11 @ 10:13AM

Good to see you back. We haven't crossed swords for a while. So, TOUCHE'!

First, don't be so quick to make assumptions. I was in a union for nearly 10 years, and I was a real thorn in their sides the whole time. I hated the forced mediocrity and lack of individual achievement. So I left and got a job where my own efforts were rewarded, for better or worse. (And, YES, I ended up making several times what I would have made if I'd have stayed there.)Second, why do you constantly have to play the 'race card'? Particularly when it has nothing to do with the discussion. But, since you brought it up; barry would never have been elected if he were white. So many Americans got sick of being told that any criticism of obama was race driven that many just voted for him to shut the morons up. Additionally, way too many white liberals voted for him for the stupidest reasons, like:

1. "It's time for a black president."
2. "It's their turn."
3. "It'll prove that we're not a racist country."

They're all a load of crap! If barry had been a republican and had said and done the things he did, the media would have destroyed him. But, since he was black (well, close enough, anyway) he could have been in the KKK and the gestapo and the libs and media would have canonized him; kinds like they did. If any republican had hid his background, just think of the screaming by the media: "WHAT IS HE HIDING!?" By the way, what IS he hiding?

You have, as usual, pulled your poverty statistics right out of your butt. Prove them. Black Americans live just as well as White Americans, and, thanks to the dems and spineless republicans, we're all sliding into the abyss together. Trust me, I've been in 78 countries and around the world more times than I can count, and I've seen REAL poverty. It's not what we have here. The lowest of us live better than the middle class in almost every communist country and about every one here has a car, television, electricity, and a satellite dish.

That's enough, I have very little energy these days, so this is the best I can do.

RacerJim| 2.24.11 @ 11:55AM

Typical libtard...a$$uming you're so smart that you know what others would/wouldn't do.

Oldefarte| 2.22.11 @ 1:18PM

AB, you still have this guy leading your charge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQj-xBH30-I

boomerbabe| 2.22.11 @ 12:16AM

Ken, we left my once beautiful state 4 years ago. WE still own 2 homes there, and are trying to get them out from under so we can sell them and be gone for good. And I am a 3rd generation Californian, and one of those houses was built by my great-grandfather. The problem for the conservatives left behind is that those that could leave, have left, and there just aren't enough votes to counter the moochers and takers.

Richard Baker| 2.21.11 @ 8:01AM

The party is over. The public service unions forget, or don't care, who is paying their salaries. There's a reason that Wisconsin has a Republican Governor and legislature and that's because the taxpayers of Wisconsin have had enough. Go Governor Walker!

Alan Brooks| 2.21.11 @ 9:47PM

Pardon, you look out for YOU & your's,
and differ little from the 'Me Generation'.
It is a fact, the only difference between you and Clinton is you didn't seduce interns-- and he is smarter.

Albert| 2.22.11 @ 11:13AM

Despite your mealy-mouthed references to the "me-generation", the bottom line is that if EVERYONE looked after himself and his family and friends FIRST, then there would be far fewer people begging the government to confiscate other people's money and give to them. The selfish ones are the takers who take from the hard work of other people. It is the hard working, self reliant people who are in fact the most generous. Charity begins at home. This does not mean give your money to your spoiled kids. It means that unless you take care of your family first you are in no position to give charity to others, lest out of your charity, you and your family come to be in need of charity yourselves. It also means that instead of letting your best friend go on welfare, you might try to help him yourself. And this is what Americans do more than any other people. Bozos like you think government jobs and spending other people's money are "charity" when they are not. These things are working a cushy job with lifetime security and good pay and benefits, and producing absolutely nothing, while you are paid out of other people's money. Brooks, you denegrate self reliant people and praise the leeches who take from the hard work of others. You have no moral position to stand on.

idalily| 2.22.11 @ 11:50PM

AMEN.

Oldefarte| 2.22.11 @ 1:18PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQj-xBH30-I

RacerJim| 2.24.11 @ 12:05PM

Clinton is so smart he let the Democratic Party throw his wife under the bus in 2008.

Dave | 2.21.11 @ 8:25AM

- Trailer Park Lessons -

I'm not trying to play the poor me card here, but the mid to late 1950's left me a few not-so-upscale-memories of living with my mom and dad in some really small trailers situated within those bare bones places regular folks called ... trailer parks. Sometimes our little moble casa was balanced only on two wheels and a short steel pole attached to the bottom of a hitch that kept it from tilting forward. Now when I say trailer park, I'm not refering to what today is generally called a moble home village. You know the type of moble homes I'm talking about. Some of these newer, larger units are actually pretty nice and in many cases can be considered small houses or even manufactured homes. However, for families living just below the financial Mendoza line of the '50s, the kind of trailers we occasionally lived in were of the type and size you could back a pickup truck to, hook it up, then pull out and haul it down the road to the next park, providing you could find a space with a bargain rent. We're talking -- actual traveling trailers here.

A few of those parks didn't even provide indoor plumbing access with your space. I recall one year, a visit to the bathroom or to take a shower required a short walk down a weed sprouted, asphalt path and into what would probably be considered today a row of upgraded port-a-potties. The shower "facility" was simply a few shower heads at the end of a pipe surrounded by 3 plywood type boards, a top cover and a basic wooden door with a simple slide latch to keep it closed when in use. Of course you always knew when it was in use because (a) you could hear the water running and (b) see the feet and ankles of the person using that shower as those 3 plywood boards and door covering the shower stall didn't reach the floor. There was about 10 inches of space exposed so that someone coming in could kneel down a make sure there was no one inside ready to turn on the water.

Yep, that was '50s life in a low tech-residential trailer park. Today, some might call it a campground. But back then, we and a few neighbors called it home.

Bill Clinton's former political consultant, James Carville, once implied that people like my folks and me might be ... trailer park trash. I guess it was easy to spit out vindictive lables like that when Bubba and Hillary needed a boost in approval ratings among their liberal elites. That, and due to better circumstance, probably never had to live in one of those places. But then, sometimes circumstance and limited income forced you and yours to make do and just do what you had to do in order to make the ends meet. Back in the day,it was ingrained in me that taking welfare, expecting government handouts or getting a boost from someone other than immediate family was usually a last resort and not considered an entitlement. Accepting it would have been embarrasing. Sadly, the mind-set of self sufficiency desolved itself a long, long time ago. And today, the entitlement mentality is too often the first rule of resort - not the last.

As I became a bit older, Mom managed to work us up a little higher up on the real world food chain. I'll always remember that little student desk we had in the kitchen. That's where she kept 4 or 5 monthly budget envelopes. They were usually labled rent/ food/ utilities/ phone or misc. When payday came around, she'd cash her check, bring it home and stuff those envelopes. You might ask - "Why didn't she just put it in the bank? That'd be the safer thing to do." Well, back then, and still today, in order to have a basic checking account, the local B of A and others required a specific amount be kept in the account otherwise they'd ding you with a monthly fee or drop you altogether. Generally, in Mom's case and after the bills, there wasn't enough left over to cover those ding fees for going below the limit. But somehow she always managed to keep us on course, cover the nut most months, yet still manage to find a few spare sheckles for ... a few extras. It's called many things: living within your means, don't spend more than you have or if you have to ask, you can't afford it. It's a simple rule and one I try and live by today. Unfortunately, it seems that kind of bottom line thinking has become lost on many among this current generation of working Americans, especially several thousand of those Americans working on the taxpayer's dime in Wisconsin, U.S.A.

For those who don't have time to follow this stuff, the state of Wisconsin, like the states of Ohio, New York, and California, to name a few, are busted, in the hole, ka-put. For the slang speaking among us -- El Brokeo. Either way you phrase it, these states and others across the fruited plane have finally reached and over-extended their cash flows, collections and budgets way beyond that financial Mendoza line my folks lived under in the '50s. Going back to some earlier mentioned basics, for too many decades, these states spent and handed out way more than they took in. Or as President Obama's former spiritual advisor, the Reverand Jeremiah Wright, said: "The chickens have come home to roost." He was right. And today, they be roostin' big time.

Reading from the *Milwaukee Journal/Sentinal, I came across a few facts that may drown down a little of the mob hysteria. Or at least for those looking in. In a nutshell, the new governor of Packerville made good on a campaign promise and announced (again) that the state of Wisconsin's cookie jar was empty and there were no more extra cookies to be handed out to state employees. At least not without some adjustments to the next grocery list. As we speak, they're standing in a 3.6 billion dollar defict hole. Governor Scott Walker and the new Republican majority are asking their state's government workers (teachers, bus drivers and other taxpayer funded employees) to give a little. There's a lot of bottom line minutia here, but basically the governor is proposing that state and public employees will cease being able to negoiate over anything other than ... wages. And the result of those new negotiations would be linked to the Consumer Price Index. The proposal also asks that all workers pay half the cost of their pensions and at least 12.6% of their healthcare premiums. When all is calculated, state employee costs would increase by an average of 8%. Right now, they pay nothing. The other issue is this: Unions could still represent their workers but could no longer force them to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized. Thing is, the workers and their unions don't want to give up the semi-rigged leverage they've enjoyed for many decades. Neither does anyone residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

When I first began reading and running the numbers, I, too, thought that asking state workers to hand back 12% toward their healthcare premiums was kind of stiff. On the surface, it sounded so. Then I whipped out my handy dandy Radio Shack caculator and ran some additional numbers. Turns out I pay around 14% a year toward my own healthcare needs. I'm not up on the new math, but that's a bit more than the 12%-plus the state of Wisconsin's asking for. Me? I'm just happy to be able to provide for my-own-self in these so-called golden years. At this point, I don't have the benefit of automatically debiting the taxpayer for any manditory cost of living increases or upward adjustments in my benefits. Matter of fact, as a one of those grizzled seniors livin' large on Social Security and a moderate savings account, I haven't had one of those cost of living adjusts in the past two years and may not have one next year in spite of what the administration says about current "non-inflation" levels and the (alleged) minimal increases to the cost of living in the real world. Anyone buying gasoline every few days know what a pant-load that is. But at the end of each month, quarter and year I refer back to one of those earlier rules of thumb my ol' Mom drilled into me: "Try to make do and .. just do what you can."

One of the major road blocks to fiscal sanity in Wisconsin and other states is that in several cases, wage and benefit negoiations with the state are, as I said earlier --semi-rigged. In the cheese state, for example, state employees don't actually negoiate directly with their elected officials on each contract for those increases in benefit packages. Those negoiations are done directly with (here it comes) their unions. It's kind of like reaching into a cookie jar, then asking yourself - "Would you like to have two? Sure, go ahead. Ahh, make it three." In the meantime, those elected politicians who accepted union campaign cash each cycle by way of that funnel called membership dues, end up in the hip pocket of those very union leaders. When the final election votes are counted, and the bought and paid for fannies are seated, the selected/elected are then beholden to most anything negoiated down the road. If (said) politican hedges or even refuses a major request, the flow of campaign cash is cut off next time an election rolls around. Like I said, it's a semi-rigged process. Again, what the governor is asking: "When it comes to pension and healthcare funding, you need to negoiate with us directly to see if the state can afford your request. What it is, is basic budgetary math. It also slips into a quality quote former Prime Minister of England, Margret Thatcher once made: "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." And so too, with the states.

Could be just me, but I suspect the taxpayers already got the memo.

I have no idea how this foot stomping in Wisconsin will turn out. To be fair, most government workers are decent folks, just trying to make a buck and a good living. But if you look deeper into what they make as opposed to what the state takes in from Joe Taxpayer to fund their packages, these protests you see in Wisconsin and soon Ohio and California are being directed against, not the governors or legislatures ... but you the taxpayer who always end up paying the freight. Remember, grasshoppers: It's not so much the wages at issue as it is the billions of dollars in unfunded mandates (pensions and lifetime healthcare benefits) that are snuffing the golden goose.

For now, it might be a good time to hide your wallet.

*http://www.jsonline.com/

SCM| 2.21.11 @ 1:04PM

Dave,
When I see long posts like yours, I usually just scroll past them. Yours, however, was emminently readable.
Little is said in the news about how my State got in this mess. After 8 years of the democrat Doyle administration and democrat legislature, it is not surprising. Doyle raided the state's (supposedly) segregated Patient Compensation Fund of $200 million to "balance" a previous budget. This has to be paid back, since the courts determined that the raid was illegal. It is up to Walker and the Republican to do so now. Prior to that, Doyle had raided the state Transportation Fund for the same purpose. Now we have roads that we can't afford to fix. The democrats (allong with some colluding republicans) have been doing this kind of thing for years, never really facing the problems and creating honest budgets.

Petronius| 2.21.11 @ 9:12AM

What's a tapped out taxpayer to do?
Move

Nightmare on Obama Street| 2.21.11 @ 9:52AM

One thing the article forgot to mention is that Governor Jerry Brown is already collecting two pensions from the same rotten state pension system which has bankrupted the state. Think he is going to kill his golden goose. I think not and don't underestimate the stupidity of the California voters who just may vote in more crushing taxes.

California is terminal!

jolizoom| 2.21.11 @ 1:48PM

What happens when a state goes bankrupt? I'm hoping my husband's employer will move out of California before the hammer comes down, but of this I am not confident. And yes, we would move with them, in a heartbeat. We live in the conservative heart of California, surrounded by beautiful scenery and wonderful people, but we have too small a voice in this state to make a difference.

So, what does happen when a state goes bankrupt? Specifically, what happens to the citizens, how will we be affected, and how can we prepare?

Louis Jenkins| 2.21.11 @ 10:02AM

The Wisconsin Democrats are cowardly. They pick up and run when the sh-- hits the fan. And they'd best face their demons, the demons they have created. And Gov. Moonbeam? He can slide this way and that, but he too will have to face the music. We cannot continue to pay for the Democrats (and Republicans) largess.

Jack London| 2.21.11 @ 11:34AM

Hmmm. Guess where Wisconsin is on SAT/ACT scores. Guess where states that don't allow teacher collective bargaining are. Give up?

Wisconsin - ranks 2nd.

South Carolina, 50th; North Carolina, 49th; Georgia, 48th; Texas, 47th; Virginia, 44th

But I digress. Delivering benefits to the rich and the Kochs and cutting them for those who didn't create the fiscal crisis is what you all want here so who cares if you throw education in the trash too.

Ken (Old Texican)| 2.21.11 @ 12:06PM

Jack,
thank you for that egregious lie.

Jack London| 2.21.11 @ 12:59PM

Hmmm. So you don't want to cut worker benefits and also cut rich people's taxes? I thought that was in your DNA - dreadful, nasty (I'll leave you to fill in the A).

John Navratil| 2.21.11 @ 6:16PM

Jack London,

Non sequitor! This has nothing to do with Ken calling you on your bogus (see below) statistics. But, in response....

The only workers benefits one can cut are those who work directly for one or those who work for the state and which, by one's vote, may be affected. I don't care what you make. I do care that public sector employees, with civil service protection, are making what appears to me to more that they are worth. In the case of public school teachers making more than private school teachers, for example, and delivering inferior results.

I'm also all for cutting taxes for the rich and for everyone else. Once we get through cutting the size of a parasitic government we can talk again. No need, I'm sure, to repeat the breakdown of who actually pays those income taxes.

I'll fill in the 'A' if I may... anti-communist (pardon the shorthand).

SCM| 2.21.11 @ 1:19PM

Jack,
I disagree with your cause/effect argument.
I put two children through schools in Madison, beginning in with my son in 1986. Four years later, when my daughter started, we could see obvious declines in the caliber of teaching across all the grades she went through up through high school. And this in what was suppesed to be the best district in the state! I can only imagine how bad Milwaukee is.
High test scores are a result of parent involvement and student ability. I doubt that unionized teachers have that much to do with it. If I remember correctly, the last three state spelling bees have been won by home-schooled kids.

tj| 2.21.11 @ 2:43PM

Yes Jack thank you for lies, lies, lies and more lies

John Navratil| 2.21.11 @ 5:51PM

Jack London,

Please review http://www.act.org/news/data/10/states.html and notice that the bottom five ACT composite scores, by state, are Mississippi, Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee and Michigan.

Your list should rank South Carolina - 44; North Carolina - 22; Georgia - 37; Texas - 33; Virginia - 12 (D.C. is in the list of 51, which is at 46). Wisconsin, by the way, comes in at #17 - a significant stastistical difference from position #2.

The ACT data doesn't seem to correlate very well with yours. What was your source?

Now I know that the ACT is not the SAT and I haven't provided those state's data but I presume that, within some minor statistical variance, the result are the same. Perhaps I have missed something.

irish19| 2.22.11 @ 1:40AM

One suspects his source was the thin air. Or possibly the A he referred to earlier.

GavInTucson| 2.21.11 @ 11:10PM

Jack, please explain how a teacher's salary and benefits package enhances their ability to teach.

Teachers in private schools don't receive these kinds of benefits, yet their students are kicking the snot out of government school students.

RacerJim| 2.24.11 @ 12:12PM

Obviously you either didn't get an education or threw it in the trash.

Purple Lips| 2.21.11 @ 11:40AM

The Hotel 6 in Rockford Ill had a lot of Wis lic plates. And you should have seen all of the Wisconsin Dems quein up for the free salad bar at the Rib Shack across the street. Most returned for 2nds and 3rds, as well as leave with doggy bags. A great time was had by all!!!!

Cpm| 2.21.11 @ 12:56PM

Where else would cowardly democrats flee for asylum but the home of cowardly democrats, my state, Illinois.

martin j smith| 2.21.11 @ 12:07PM

Hey Purple Lips: Let them stay there and infact move to Rockford, Ill. Great idea and good incentive. I wish the the best.

irish19| 2.22.11 @ 1:41AM

We don't want 'em! We have way more than enough already.

Clint| 2.21.11 @ 12:57PM

Notice, The Democraps ran to Obama's Illinois.

American Taxpayers are fed up with Big Government Democraps force confiscating our money to give to Teacher Union Parasite Leeches.

Herb| 2.21.11 @ 1:09PM

Hey, Jack, I could just as easily say states with the highest proportion of White students score highest on the SAT/ACT. You can gin up specious correlations anywhere when you select the variables. Bet the Koch Brothers could explain it to you.

gary siebel| 2.21.11 @ 1:45PM

Ironic, don't you think, that Jerry B vs the Guv of Wisconsin, whoever wins (succeeds without fragmenting their State), will probably act as kingmaker for 2012. Right now my money is on Jerry.

But both Guv's have a trait useful in their current struggles, namely, personal austerity. Can you imagine the near riots in Cali if rich-bitch, job exporter, hypocrite Whitman was the one doing Wisconsin style cuts?

It is one thing to cut pay; it is quite another to cut collective bargaining.

cowgirl| 2.21.11 @ 2:45PM

I am a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and have lived 50 years of my 52 years in California. I know it well.

I literally hope that Jerry Brown continues to let the unions hide behind his back. There is one solution and one solution only to California's financial crisis. Let it run out of money and go broke. All entitlements, union salaries and pensions as well other the 100's of regulatory bureaus will cease to exist. There will then be no argument, no protests and no issues. It will be done, finished and over. All the king's men and all the king's horses won't be able to put California back together again.

jawin| 2.21.11 @ 4:35PM

What a lot of people don't realize is that public employees' unions have essentially set themselves up as non-competitive contractors with the ability to determine whether or not taxes will need to be raised, and governments have allowed them to do so to taxpayers' detriment (typically, the more liberal the government, the more detrimental to the taxpayers).

Unions don't have contracts, they have collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). As those CBAs expire, the unions and the government enter into negotiations -- very much like professional sports unions do with their respective ownerships. This is done about every three years or so. The government employees' unions have the upper hand since they have the power to strike coupled with the governments' need to maintain services of all sorts. As an example, one of those services is education. Since every state has some sort of mandate requiring parents ensure their kids go to school, theirs is a special double control that education unions have over the taxpayers. Another example is trash collection. Ever seen an American city without trash pickup? Yes, we all have.

It is a conflict of interest that should not be allowed to stand. AND, to top it off, it's a conflict of interest with no competition allowed!! So then this really is a type of extortion, as neither the government nor the people have any other recourse except what the unions will accept. Afterall, the government, by law instituting the CBA process, isn't allowed to turn to other contractors. Likewise, citizens don't have another government responsible for repairing roads.

Yet, many private companies can do the same job for far less money and with much less waste and in far less time, thereby reducing the need to tax at such high rates. But, those private companies don't even get a chance to write a proposal to win the contract, because the governments don't even consider negotiating with anyone else but the current contract holders -- unions.

Another aspect of the current arrangement between public sector unions and governments is that the sole contractor (unions) is allowed to donate to politicians. Usually those donations are given during campaigns; sometimes they're not. Either way and no matter when, those donations amount to being bribes from the contractor to the contractee (or potential contractee). Politicians then decide what pay and benefits the unions get. This is clearly a quid pro quo. In private business, this practice is specifically outlawed. Every respectable American business finds it contemptible behavior and goes to great lengths to prevent it from occurring. Should a megacorporation based in the US be caught in the act, liberals of every stripe will make a public outcry, as they ought. Yet, with public employees unions, those same liberals will use every political ploy and strategy to keep the practice alive and well as most of those donations go to liberal politicians.

Make no mistake, in Wisconsin (and soon to be in other states), the fight is over who controls the power to tax. The power to tax should remain with government, without any form of corollary systems allowed or any undue influence from government employees themselves. In other words, public employees unions' should be outlawed.

John Navratil| 2.21.11 @ 6:21PM

jawin,

Bingo! Note the hue and cry over "Citizen's United" as an example of irony.

GavInTucson| 2.21.11 @ 11:19PM

Even FDR, a hero of the left, would agree with this. He was fundamentally against the idea of public sector employee unions.

There's a quick solution, though. Since federal employee unions were created via executive order (JFK), a simple rescission by the next president would likely cause a massive trickle down effect that would hopefully wipe out public sector unions altogether.

michigander_sandusky| 2.21.11 @ 4:36PM

I'm a "government worker" of sorts and have absolutely no sympathy for the Wisconsin teachers, etc. I'm on the faculty of a major state university in a state bordering Wisconsin. I pay half of my retirement and about 30% of my health coverage. The Wisconsin public employees need to wake up and smell the economic coffee!

GavInTucson| 2.21.11 @ 11:23PM

And the economic coffee sure smells like Sanka these days.

irish19| 2.22.11 @ 1:44AM

Sanka!!? Yuck!!!

redcar| 2.21.11 @ 8:18PM

make our day, year, decade

Marc Jeric| 2.22.11 @ 4:14AM

All government employees unions, teachers included, should be prosecuted under RICO laws as being criminal conspiracies against the people.

Shirley| 2.22.11 @ 5:07AM

Is there anyone on here that could explain to me why the representatives in the State House can't go ahead with out the cowards that left the state?

Seems to me that if you didn't do your job, the employers would get someone else will to take your place. At least that is what happens in the private sector. So much for unions doing the best for anyone.
Yes, I have relatives in unions and they do know how I feel about their unions.

GavInTucson| 2.22.11 @ 9:26PM

According to Wisconsin law, debates and votes on a law can't begin until a quorum is reach, and their laws state at at least one member of the opposing party must be present for a quorum to be reached.

GavInTucson| 2.22.11 @ 9:27PM

Meant to say "bill," not "law." Sorry.

Christian Louboutin | 6.23.11 @ 5:41AM

The Democratic National Committee and the National Education Association (the umbrella teachers' union) probably connived in the planning of the disruption. If not, it certainly had their tacit approval

Reebok | 8.11.11 @ 3:15AM

is good

العاب | 4.11.12 @ 5:34PM

Obviously you either didn't get an education or threw it in the trash.

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