The unions overreached in Wisconsin, failing in their effort to recall governor Scott Walker. Walker had taken away much of the bargaining rights of most public unions since he took office. The Democrats were able to recall some of the legislators who sided with Walker. But by now the people are tired of recalls and with the big money coming from out of state, Walker was able to win. I think by failing to oust Walker, the unions lost more credibility. They would have been better off and waited for the next election, when the out of staters are worried about other parts of the country. Obama would not have helped and he rightly did not want to be strongly associated with a losing cause. Now he will have to decide how much to spend on Wisconsin whereas before he could have counted it in his pocket and focused resources in other states.
In California, San Jose and San Diego voted to decrease public pensions. As I have said before, I agree with decreasing the power of public unions because they can help politicians who are in charge of the union members' compensations. There is nobody representing the tax payers in that bargaining situation. But I strongly disagree with the conservatives that overpaying public employees are the main economic problem facing America today. Certainly if salaries and benefits of public employees are not reigned in, we will eventually go bankrupt. But that will be a long time down the line and not in every place in the country. Compare to the greed and gambling tendencies of the bank and Wall Street, the public employees are relatively good guys. I mean, I can understand a guy making $50,000 a year wanting to improve to $100,000. But I don't understand somebody making $10 million wanting to use unethical means to make $100 million or more. The actions of the rich, crooked people will bring down this country a lot faster than the policemen, firemen and teachers of the nation.
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
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I am not surprised that Walker was able to hang onto his job. Wisconsin is doing well financially and people don't want to lose that. The more I think about it, people are motivated by money a lot more than they admit.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a politician will always do well if the economy does well, no matter his/her social values. "It's the economy, stupid."
I don't have a problem with unions fighting for their piece of the pie. I believe in free enterprise and for everyone to make as much as you can. Unions, like businesses, serve the interests of only themselves.
We don't have to like it. And don't get me wrong. I am not pro union, but why should union workers sacrifice when no one else does?
It's not like teachers, police or any public employees are living the high life. In fact, I think that they don't get paid enough at times. But every time you hear that government must cut spending, a cop loses his/her job.
Why don't we ever hear about politicians getting pay cuts? Instead, we hear about record campaign funding.
This leads me back to Gov. Walker who, because he was being recalled, was able to raise unlimited amounts of cash to defeat the recall.
It's all about money and I don't doubt he will be re-elected in a couple of years.
You are right, the unions, or liberals, lost credibility here. Poor strategy and money wasted, when they could have challenged him during the election.
-LBOAYM
I don't think most people like me have problems with cops and teachers making a decent wage. The trouble here in California, and I believe elsewhere also, is that the public unions put so much money in the pocket of the officials who negotiate their contracts that they are able to get ridiculous pays and benefits. Prison guards here routinely make more than $100,000. Cops and firemen can retire around 50 with full benefits and get a second public jobs while collecting almost full pay from the first job. A former police chief around here made almost $200,000 a year, retired in his early 50's and now works for another police agency as deputy chief while collecting his pension. I don't blame him for taking advantage of these rules. I would do the same in his shoes. But these are rules negotiated by officials who got elected with public union support. So that is why voters are mad.
ReplyDeleteWith the budget deficit and these stories of government excess coming out, I can see the electorate getting more conservative. Even though I believe that Wall Street is also lining the pockets of politicians so that they are not regulated like they should, people are not voting to stop derivatives on Wall Street! In the short run this discrepancy will hurt Democrats as they are supported by the unions. In the long term, the Republicans will be hit harder because there will be more poor people than rich people if things are not corrected.