Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has had an interesting week. Thousands have lay siege to the state capitol in Madison as public union members, often seen carrying violent, threatening signs calling the governor everything from cheap to being Hitler. They are protesting Scott Walker’s budget proposal which would make the state’s union employees pay a small percentage, half of the national average in the private sector, of their health insurance and pension contribution, as well as new limits on collective bargaining rights. Wisconsin teacher protests have led to the school system in several communities to be shut down. Yesterday, the Republican senate was to vote on passage, but a quorum was shine one senator as the entire Democrat delegation of lawmakers fled the capitol building and took a bus to Illinois to avoid their responsibility.
Like forty-three other U.S. states, Wisconsin has a budget crisis with a deficit shortfall of some $3.6 Billion dollars. Decades of generous union contracts to teachers and other public service unions are bankrupting the state. These contracts, and the state’s budget deficits, are unsustainable. Republican Senate Majority Leader, Scott Fitzgerald from Juneau, WI, said “This is the ultimate showdown, what we’re seeing today.” A battle indeed as Gov. Walker put the state’s National Guard on alert to step in if needed to perform some of the essential duties should union employees launch a prolong worker-strike.
Democrat Senators Jon Erpenbach and Tim Cullen vow not to return to the capitol building until Saturday, which means Friday will see yet another day of union protests. They consider the proposed legislation to be an anti-union bill. Even President Barack Hussein Obama chimed in on Thursday criticizing the budget-cutting measures.
But the simple fact is that the State of Wisconsin is broke. Gov. Walker has said that the alternative, should the bill not pass, would be laying off about 6,000 state workers. Some question just how many of the estimated 25,000 protesters were actually union employees. News reports that many teachers dragged their students to the capitol building under false pretences have emerged. Some of the protesters may even be ‘rent-a-mob’, consisting of people belonging to radical groups like the Socialist Workers Party and ACORN. During some local call-in radio shows, many state employees said they have no problem with paying a bit for their health insurance and pension. They would rather do that than face layoffs.
We shall see if thousands of union protesters continue their siege of the capitol building in Madison, today. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker won his election in November by a wide margin by promising to put the state’s budget in order. While Republican senators were prepared to vote on the measure yesterday, Democrat lawmakers fled to Illinois shirking their responsibility. The proposed legislation would have the state’s public union employees paying a small percentage of their health insurance and to contribute to their own pensions, at a rate half that of the private sector. Like 43 other state governments, Wisconsin is facing a budget shortfall, with a deficit of some $3.6 Billion dollars.
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February 18th, 2011 at 7:52 am
Governor Walker Stand Your Ground. Obama and his union thugs are finally getting a push back from their employer(tax payers). 50% of my income goes into taxes and I am getting fed up with their greed and nonsense. My kids went to private schools. They are better educated and are earning a higher income than their peers who went to the public school system.
What right does any teacher have to take the students out of class and put them in the picket line. The parents and principles should fire these teachers. Throw the bumbs out!
February 18th, 2011 at 7:59 am
The Democrats in Wisconsin are a bunch of lazy whimps. Democrats know how to confiscate wealth form Tax Payers but have no clue on how to be responsible adults and have govenment workers be accountable to the Tax Payer. Tax Payers want results not hiding in other states to avoid the tough stuff. These guys should all be voted out.
February 18th, 2011 at 9:30 am
We are seeing the beginning of Obama’s OA socialist push. The Republican governors and state houses need to stand firm. If they waiver, they’re through. We’re through!!
More importantly, the people must pay attention. If they buy the Democrats’ talking points it will be a major setback. This is exactly what you voted for whether you were aware of it or not.
February 18th, 2011 at 9:49 am
The DNC/Obama machine is sending in additional heads from across the country.
Nice huh ?
February 18th, 2011 at 9:56 am
FM,
I agree with you. This is just the start. I think it is important to see how the unions in other states are reacting. They say he is trying to “bust” the union. What they really mean is he is taking away their strangle hold. He is not doing away with the unions, he is trying to bring them into reality and have them shoulder some of the load for their benefits.
As far as Obama is concerned, anyone who does not think he was a Union supporter, has got to be blind. He has coddled them from the get go. Given them everything he can from the UAW to supporting TSA to unionize with collective bargaining.
We have to get the budgets of all the states under control. This is one way to start.
February 18th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
No Rowdym the governor, who just last week gave 150 million in tax breaks to businesses, then wrote this bill to pass this week avoiding any real review, is going to forbid collective bargaining on any issue like benifits for these unions which don’t include the police, fire, and state troopers union whcih supported his election. Essentially he’s trying to break unions which is a big right wing republican thing right now, but its not the unions that got us into this recession/depression. It was wall street and the bankers speculating. Big diff. In the end if you want to maintain any worker bargaining rights at all, you need the full package. this could spread thru the private sector that has kept a cap on middle class wages since the 1960’s as well as destroying pensions. next the right wants to go after their social security and medicare even though people have paid huge amounts into it.
February 18th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
So while wallstreet and bankers remain whole, fully paid back for their self induced losses, the corporatists controlling the right and now the republican party want to go after the social afety net, the last bastion left the middle and working classes. just amazes me to no end..
February 18th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
“No Rowdym the governor, who just last week gave 150 million in tax breaks to businesses,”
So they could hire employees who pay taxes and bring in revenues.
“is going to forbid collective bargaining on any issue like benifits for these unions”
No one can take away their constitutional right to assemble and vote among themselves.
The Governor doesn’t have to recognize their demands.
” Essentially he’s trying to break unions which is a big right wing republican thing right now, but its not the unions that got us into this recession/depression.”
Guess you conveniently forgot about GM and Chrysler ?
” It was wall street and the bankers speculating.”
Whom Obama paid back with our tax dollars.
Did you get your money back from GM or anyone yet ?
GM just gave out 4000.00 bonuses to all their employees on the false premise they paid back their entire loan !
“Big diff. In the end if you want to maintain any worker bargaining rights at all, you need the full package.”
Then the democrats should get their asses back in the state and vote.
‘ this could spread thru the private sector that has kept a cap on middle class wages since the 1960’s as well as destroying pensions.”
bullsht. You could grow some brains but that’s unlikely also.
“next the right wants to go after their social security and medicare even though people have paid huge amounts into it.”
Not even 1/8th of what they collect.
What don’t you morons understand about the simple mathematical fact that you cant spend more than you make ?
February 19th, 2011 at 1:19 am
The key is, the elephant in the room is, he wants to take the collective bargaining rights away from the unions.
This has nothing to do with money. All this has to do with is power. It’s like saying, we is gonna take some of your money away from you, for the good of everyone. Oh, by the way, pull down your pants so we can castrate you too.
February 19th, 2011 at 8:34 pm
while gm and chrysler were failing businesses with a lot of jobs dependent on them down the line, they weren’t a threat to the international banking system and global liquidity that wallstreet and the big banks were. They might have lowered our GNP a percent or two but they wouldn’t be toppling the global financial system. See learning how much weight to give a factor in an equation is a key analytic skill to hone to bind an argument into reality. Not bad, one swear word and one demeaning word. yeah that really strengthens your argument, which is?……?. You assume that by making a bad argument about ?what dude? means no one else has brains. oh, pleez….! Empathize with our fellow workers who are finding the rules changed on them in mid stream.
February 19th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Klo, what collective bargaining does is give unions the power to control state budgets.This should be the job of the state legislature.
With free health care, early retirement, and fat pensions, all supported by taxpayer dollars, over 50% of any given state budget is being controlled by government employee unions rather than the state legislators.
Tell me Klo, where do you think this money comes from?
February 19th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
If governors do their job well and cost account out the gov. employee expenses properly into the future and stop predicting such generous retirement asset returns(3% annually instead of 8% plus), we wouldn’t be in such a fix. Yes the other 5% may well have to come from increased employee contributions over time. If we fixed ss and mc it wouldn’t be as big an issue. For a decade before the dot.com boom many growth stock funds were returning 12% a year, year after year, and so nearly every big entity, government and 401k for the private sector made those inflated projections. Only recently they were saying stocks would return 7% after inflation, and within a year and a half stocks hadn’t returned even 0 percent for a decade. The yeild of 3.5-4% treasuries now, after “official” calculations of inflation at 1.5% in the US, returns only 2% and tiny change. In the UK inflation is 4% now. So suddenly we are facing the immenent prospect of retiree portfolios yeilding a paltry couple of percent. As QE 11 finishes mid year interest rates are likely to rise a little, perhaps a percent over 18 months time to even reach a 3% real return on high grade bonds. So a million dollar portfolio will return 30 grand before taxes. Add to that the average social security and people will be retiring on 45-50 grand a year pretax, 35-38 aftertax, or about 3000 a month with both income streams. Is that good? So there is no way state governments will be able to pay out 100,000 annuities into perpetuity, from say 62 years of age to 92. That is 4 million, plus another million in health benifits for a 5 million dollar retirement package, when in effect even a million dollar portfolio with social security will pay out only 1/3rd of that. So in effect, this kind of retirement, all too common, expecially with police, fire, paramedics, professional employees, teachers, etc is still 2/3rds underfunded with the “generous” assumption of a consistent market return.
February 20th, 2011 at 4:53 am
The difference between the UAW in GM and Chrysler, and the teacher unions, is that the UAW is a union for a private company. Well, sort of private, anyway.
If they have to raise the price of their cars in order to satisfy their union legacy costs, then the marketplace will determine if those companies succeed or not. At least, that is the way it SHOULD be.
In Wisconsin, the voters spoke in November and want a fiscally responsible government. Last year, the Democrats controlled bot houses of the state legislature and had a sitting governor. They passed a budget without any debate nor amendments from Republicans.
I heard one Dem lawmaker yesterday complain that ‘you can’t pass a 114-page bill in one week.’ LOL! Try going to Washington when Nancy Pelosi ruled the roost.
February 20th, 2011 at 9:19 am
“while gm and chrysler were failing businesses with a lot of jobs dependent on them down the line, they weren’t a threat to the international banking system and global liquidity that wallstreet and the big banks were.”
You missed the point, again, as usual.
We spent a significant amount of money paying benefits to the unemployed and bailing them out.
Did you get a 4000.00 return ?
February 20th, 2011 at 9:22 am
“If governors do their job well and cost account out the gov. employee expenses properly into the future and stop predicting such generous retirement asset returns(3% annually instead of 8% plus), we wouldn’t be in such a fix.”
“IF”
So, I guess you could say Walker “inherited” Obamas problems ?
Thanks for the brilliant hindsight
February 20th, 2011 at 9:27 am
“Empathize with our fellow workers who are finding the rules changed on them in mid stream.”
Tough sht, cry me a river.
The governor is doing exactly what he campaigned on. “To change the rules”
And that my friend is what the majority voted for.
Its their money in the end and they have the right to say how its spent.
The people protesting are just the gnat on the dogs ass compared to the majority who support the governor.
Thats what happens in public service be it a high ranking official or a street sweeper.
You can be voted out of a job.