Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has done what no Republican since Reagan has done. He took off the gloves and politically slit the throat of the Progressive Democrats. He decided last night to remove the collective bargaining reform from the budget bill. This allowed the Wisconsin Senate to pass it without the twenty needed for a quorum. This is payback for the method the Democrats used to pass Obamacare. Politics is war and finally a Republican gets it.
In 2010, Megan Sampson was named an Outstanding First Year Teacher in Wisconsin. A week later, she got a layoff notice from the Milwaukee Public Schools. Why would one of the best new teachers in the state be one of the first let go? Because her collective-bargaining contract requires staffing decisions to be made based on seniority.
Ms. Sampson got a layoff notice because the union leadership would not accept reasonable changes to their contract. Instead, they hid behind a collective-bargaining agreement that costs the taxpayers $101,091 per year for each teacher, protects a 0% contribution for health-insurance premiums, and forces schools to hire and fire based on seniority and union rules.
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While it might be a bold political move, the changes are modest. We ask government workers to make a 5.8% contribution to their pensions and a 12.6% contribution to their health-insurance premium, both of which are well below what other workers pay for benefits. Our plan calls for Wisconsin state workers to contribute half of what federal employees pay for their health-insurance premiums. (It’s also worth noting that most federal workers don’t have collective bargaining for wages and benefits.)
For example, my brother works as a banquet manager at a hotel and occasionally works as a bartender. My sister-in-law works at a department store. They have two beautiful kids. They are a typical middle-class Wisconsin family. At the start of this debate, David reminded me that he pays nearly $800 per month for his family’s health-insurance premium and a modest 401(k) contribution. He said most workers in Wisconsin would love a deal like the one we are proposing.
Read the rest: Why I’m Fighting in Wisconsin
I wish the Republicans had more people like Gov. Scott Walker. Ever since Reagan left, the GOP has acted like political eunuchs who would rather appease than fight the Progressives. The result is that over the last decade, America has become economically uncompetitive, workers wages have been stagnant and living standards have declined. This economic stagnation is now starting to have consequences. Our debt has exploded and now now one of the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. has dumped US debt from its holdings. Our trade deficit continues to grow at unsustainable levels because we no longer produce goods as we used to here. This is due to our antiquated tax and regulatory structure that can’t compete in a 21st century globalized economy.
Gov. Walker and other reform minded governors like Chris Christie and John Kasich, have decided to turn this economic stagnation around at state level. For long public sector unions have leached off the taxpayers. They use their political clout to force state governments to raise taxes so that they can get generous raises and benefits. That at a time when the average American worker isn’t get pay raises and their benefits are cut. It is time for the public sector workers in these union dominated states to live in economic reality like the rest of us.
Hopefully the Republicans at the national level will emulate what Gov. Walker and others are doing. It is time to politically destroy the Progressive movement. This vile movement has been a curse upon our nation ever since the vile racist and pathetic human being, Woodrow Wilson, was elected. Our future as a nation depends on destroying the power structures that prop up Progressivism.
update from savage….
There is a very pertinent post regarding this coming up at 14:00 Eastern time. Stay tuned. It’s illuminating to say the least…
Update II:
The Police are finally doing their jobs and removing the protesters from the Wisconsin State Capitol.
Madison – Demonstrators were carried out of the Assembly by police Thursday as Gov. Scott Walker’s administration again closed and then reopened the building to the public.
About 11:30 a.m., the statehouse was opened after police cleared the Assembly so the body could vote on Walker’s bill on union bargaining.
After protesters said they were willing to risk arrest to block a vote, police began escorting or dragging some of them out.
Good, these leaches need to go.
