I have one simple statement and brief as possible, an overview of the situation about Governor Walker of Wisconsin and his so-called anti-Collective Bargaining bill and the grumbling state employees, and especially the union thugs who are causing so much trouble over it.
First of all, state government employees, like federal employees have enjoyed, at the taxpayer expense higher wages than the average American worker in the private sector and benefits that most of us only dream about.
Beyond all the political rhetoric coming from the Democrats and their counterpart unions, whose tenure in the state of Wisconsin has only increased the state’s debt in their tax-and-spend mentality – this is not about the wages that state employees make, but the benefits they enjoy beyond what the average person has – as well as their selfish viewpoint concerning fellow citizens and the economic crisis taking place.
It is true that they, like the rest of us, pay taxes upon their income; however, the rest of the taxpayers, who outnumber them, help pay for those wages. How many times have you been treated rudely by some state government office and forced to pay higher taxes because they and their unions keep escalating their wages far beyond the income average of state citizens, as well as fantastic health care and pension benefits?
Are we, the taxpayer not pitching in to pay their wages – and aren’t they, like federal employees, supposed to be servants of the people? They wouldn’t have those jobs if it weren’t for the average fellow citizen.
The budget cutting plan of Governor Walker and the Republican majority in the Wisconsin state senate and assembly has a plan to make state employees to start pitching in for their pension fund, only asking a 5% investment from their paychecks to copay into their pension plan – presently they are paying nothing. The other change is in their health care package – they will now pay an increase from 6% to 12% for their better-than-average health care plans.
State employees have selfishly protested, using the old union ploy of calling in sick. With the unemployment in Wisconsin one of the highest rates in the United States, these people are obviously not appreciative. There are many who would love to take their place at the wages they make and the new benefits package that will help decrease Wisconsin’s phenomenal debt caused by two tenures of Jim Doyle who:
- Raised state fees and new taxes to the amount of $1 billion in the first month he was reelected during a period when many were out of work or their hours cut and with the rise of the cost of living because of several factors, one of them the high price of fuel.
- He also introduced and signed a $78 million tax on hospitals, and some people can’t understand why our hospital fees and insurance rates are so high.
- The Doyle administration robbed funds from Wisconsin malpractice trust fund.
- Doyle administration failed to payback a loan agreement with the state of Minnesota.
The people of Wisconsin finally woke up and the silent majority finally spoke out in the last state election – they wanted REAL CHANGE – like what has happened in the US Congress when the Democrats lost their majority because of the same old Sociocrat rhetoric and actions. As in many cases, it will take longer to fix the problem than it would have been to prevent the problem in the first place. So Americans are going to have to ride this out in order to correct a problem that must be fixed.
Unions should never have been allowed to enter the government employee system – it is the job of the legislature and executive branch of government to ensure that wage and benefit standards are set fairly according to skills and education requirements. No one is saying that teachers, firemen, police officers shouldn’t make a decent living in the important jobs they maintain that includes a usable benefit program such as health care and pensions; however, they should have realized when accepting such a career that they are servants of the people, governed by a government intended to be governed by the people. For too long they have considered themselves, especially the bureaucratic employees, above the people who help pay their wages and create their jobs by voting for certain policies and elected officials. Unions belong in the private sector and their power has become dangerous – the federal bailout of the American auto industry is a prime example of how the unions make out like a bandit via legislation.
Did you, as a Wisconsin voter, vote for labor/trade unions to operate our government or an elected official?
Cost of living indexes concern everyone and most Americans are feeling the bite of inflation heavily these days – but a political entity that constantly insists that all people should have same opportunities and preach the collective mentality of socialism surely are not walking the talk when it comes to government employees. It is because they believe in Big Government, a government that controls everything; a government slowly takes over the private sector until there are more government employees than the latter.
Changes for the good do not come easily, normally; so it is best to keep in tune with the ideas of what role government plays that the Founders of the United States intended, commonly called the Jeffersonian Republic.
It applies to state governments, like the Constitution of the United States and its amendments, just as surely as it does the federal government. It is high time that American voters ensure that their selected (or unselected) government officials perform their duties for what they are paid to do.
Wisconsin is not the only state with a governor who is initiating changes in order to retrieve state governments out of the enormous debts previous governors and state legislature has caused.
The wind of reform has taken hold, and the status quo liberal sociocrats don’t like it; ironic because it is the same people who provide propaganda against the evil corporations, when in fact it is their greed that drives them towards socialism. Our state motto is Forward and e pluribus unum - it's about time we begin to adhere to it.
If the state employees aren’t appreciative of their positions and employment, there are many in the unemployed line that would love to take their places.
Governor Walker has already put the National Guard on standby and they can fill those positions while state employees sit home pretending to be sick. If the plan is not implemented and the bill is not passed, 1,500 state employees will find themselves, like too many Wisconsinites, standing in the unemployment line.
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NOTE: It is interesting that the Huffington Post removed an anti-union comment about thugs and protesters and their violent unethical behavior. This is the only part of the comment I was able to retrieve: "Don't let the union thugs, including..." Huffington used to be a conservative, at least she stated she was when she churned syndicated columns; but she turned and took the side of the Sociocrats.
While Walker tries to undo the damage unions have done to the Wisconsin state budget, Obama and the Democrats are actually trying to unionize the TSA. (http://nevadanewsandviews.com/2011/02/16/obama-and-senate-move-to-unionize-tsa/) This is exactly the kind of idea one would expect from a man whose only "job experience" is community organizing.
ReplyDelete2012 won't come soon enough!
By the way, so far I've only heard one mention about the ranking of Wisconsin's schools. Apparently, they're ranked 44th in the nation! Maybe those teachers need to go back to school themselves, but then they'll just end up in the system that created them.
http://education.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2009/12/09/americas-best-high-schools-state-by-state-statistics