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Who is watching Wisconsin?
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jsteele
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What an interesting situation! For those who haven't been paying attention, the Republican Governor and Republican-controlled State Senate and State House of Representatives are attempting to strip state employees of their collective bargaining rights, lower pensions, increase benefits costs, and a host of other things. State workers and their supporters have risen up in huge protests and have been occupying the the state Capitol building. Unable to stop the Republican measures, Democratic Senators have left the state of Wisconsin. This has deprived the Republicans a quorum and prevented them from voting. The Senate Majority Leader, whose father is the head of the State Police, has ordered the State Police to round up the Democrats. The Democrats left the state to escape the State Police's jurisdiction. Given how close Madison is to the Illinois border, they probably are all in Illinois now. If so, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, a Democrat, will hopefully treat them hospitably.
First the Superbowl, now this. Go Cheeseheads! |
Anonymous
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State Dem party spokesman:
"I know the whereabouts of not a single Democratic senator. I do not know what latitude they're on, or know what longitude they're on. I assume they're in this hemisphere, I'll say that." Love it. |
Anonymous
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The workers need to realize that they need to give some and not just take take take. The same thing but not on that scale is going on in Montgomery County with the union and the County going to arbitration on issues this weekend. Mostly bus operators at first a sick in on Monday when 1/4 of the operators called in sick. Who suffers? The senior citizens that rely on the bus, the students that now have to pay to get to their jobs or after school activities. It is going to come down to two things, caving into the union that has taken advantage of the weak leadership of the County or the County finally calling their bluff. Stay tuned.
The union members and government workers have gotten fat and happy for many years and it is time to stop that. There is so much waste in Montgomery County yet the cut programs such as the youth cruiser pass on Ride On, Building Rec Centers that they can't staff because of RIFs-basic math there, you cut your staff and open more facilities=you do not have the staff to run and maintain them, funding the Filmore project in Silver Spring, Establishing a zero tax for developers on various projects in the County, $65,000 bathroom for the County Exec, a 16 screen HD brand new Council meeting room when the old one was perfectly fine. If the government workers don't realize that they are causing a lot of the financial problems-then they are stealing from the honest hard workers who pay taxes. The union is Montgomery County is so fat with ridiculous perks; it would make the tax payers cry. |
Anonymous
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I agree that there are a number of public sector benefits and wages that have gotten out of control in recent years in many places. MoCo is particularly egregious.
But what is happening in Wisconsin is not a serious and moderate attempt to find solutions to fiscal problems - it is class warfare and an attempt to break the last vestiges of worker power in this country. The plutocrats who run this country now are attempted to turn private sector workers' anger at their own diminished benefits against public sector workers, rather than where it should really be aimed - the political and economic system that has allowed 1 percent of the population to gain 60 percent of the benefit of growth in the last decade. |
Anonymous
| Public "servants" should not be allowed to unionize. It pits the government against the people, makes it impossible to fire losers. No money left, and it is over, kaput, end of story. The pretending that we can afford this crap is being slapped into submission by reality. Riot and strike all you want, the money isn't there and it's not going to be. Lots of people want your jobs. If the public servants are so valuable, they are free to quit and reach their potential elsewhere. We know and most importantly THEY know that they are not worth the compensation they recieve. |
jsteele
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Those in the private sector who somehow look at public sector employees as "others" who are lazy, overpaid, incompetents are playing a fools' game. Who do you think benefits from this sort of divide and conquer? Wall Street went from being bailed out to once again paying outlandish bonuses. Yet, it is the garbage man that is said to be overpaid.
Don't be fooled. What Wisconsin is doing is trying to break the public sector unions. If it happens there, it will happen in other states as well. If public sector salaries are reduced, it will be used to drive down wages in the private sector. If you are comfortable with the middle class being destroyed, then go ahead and support the Wisconsin governor. |
Anonymous
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This is class warfare, and party warfare, plain and simple. Unionized workers are largely skilled, working- and middle-class, and vote Democratic.
If the Republicans can break the backs of the state workers' unions, prepare to see a lot of non-union, non-public job protections go out the window right after. It boggles the mind to see how easily the GOP turns pettiness against pettiness -- playing the weak-minded and easily led against their fellow middle-class denizens, while the real robber barons (hint: not state employees) get tax break after tax break, bonus after bonus, all on the middle classes' dime. |
Anonymous
Those complaining are the same ones who say that teachers are undereducated. It is class warfare and I hope those Democrats in Chicago are having the time of their life. Wasn't something like this tried earlier in another state? |
Anonymous
Yes it was in Texas but I don't remember what it was over. |
Anonymous
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#1, the proposals are actually very reasonable. asking them to contribute towards medical costs is fair (and much less than I have to contribute). and a right to work state is fair as well - you shouldn't have to be a member of a union if you choose not to.
#2, teachers not teaching is criminal, and I wish they all could be fired. #3, fleeing the state house is not good political discourse. that is what we want to get away from - hopefully the moderate senators can form some bipartisan compromises over the budget - and not one side running and hiding. #4, I love the signs in Madison. Hitler and of course, the "target" motif. I can't remember, are target signs good or bad again? |
Anonymous
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The "target" thing is so confusing. I think it boils down to situational ethics:
It's OK to discuss bringing a gun to a knife fight if you feel like it. It's OK to call in sick because strikes are prohibited in your congtract then go and demonstrate. It's OK to corrupt the system by not showing up to vote when that is your sworn duty. Yadda, yadda, yadda |
Anonymous
| I heart Wisconsin. . .and miss it. . .wanna go home. |
Anonymous
| So a month into office, the Governor signs a bunch of tax cuts for business into law, then declares a fiscal emergency and says to save money he needs to force unionized workers to vote every single year on whether to remain unionized (unless they happen to be part of the union that endorsed him for Governor)? I might have some issues with MoCo pensions around the edges but this stuff in Wisconsin is just a war on working people. |
Anonymous
ummm, no |
Anonymous
WTF does "ummm, no" mean? That you have faith in the tea party gov, no matter what facts are brought up? |