Stephen Lerner Now In Print; Desires Destruction of Banks, Economy

March 30, 2011 Leave a comment

Rather than running away from his comments at Pace University, Radical leftist and SEIU executive Stephen Lerner is going forward with his plan to take down the American economy. Lerner has written an op-ed in a publication called “In These Times” wherein he states his case in print. It is Lerner’s goal to bring down the banks, which in turn will bring down the entire American and world economy. The reason he and others want this is because they’re prepared to take over when chaos erupts.

Lerner begins his op-ed attacking the usual left-wing strawmen such as libertarian outsiders the Koch brothers. He goes on the offensive against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, claiming that he and other Republicans are anti-union. He pretends like government employees are well liked by voters to the point where most folks find it outrageous that any pol would try to take away their benefits. In reality 2/3 of Wisconsin voters support Walker’s plan to have government employees pay more of their healthcare and pension benefits. But why get bogged down in reality?

It is banks that are the real problem. They ‘created’ the economic downturn don’ you know. If only that were true. The economic downturn wasn’t created by banks, it was created by government. It was government that ordered banks to lend to people who couldn’t afford to pay. It was Democrat run Fannie and Freddie that lent money like wild beasts. It has been a Democrat President who, just like FDR in the 30′s, has prolonged the recession by expanding the size of government and the national debt. None of this has anything to do with banks, it’s the fault of government.

Lerner then lays out his plan in four easy steps:

The Potential Power of Government—Don’t Do Business with Bandit Banks

The Potential Power of Homeowners and Students—Don’t Pay Unfair Debt

The Potential Power of Public Employee Unions—Bargaining to Protect Public Dollars

The Potential Power of Private-Sector Unions—Bargaining for the Greater Good

Lerner lays out his plan in print exactly as he laid it out in person at Pace University. He wants cities to refuse to do business with banks and demand lower interest rates, which would result in bank bankruptcies. He wants homeowners and students to refuse to pay their mortgages and loans. This would of course bankrupt the banks. He wants unions to bargain away the use of certain banks, which of course will result in bank bankruptcies.

We must understand why bringing down the banks is so important to Lerner and other leftists. These people aren’t against banks per se. Unions, including SEIU, use banks on a regular basis. For all their whining about Wall Street, the unions have never backed away from investing. Lerner and his band of radicals have other goals in mind. This isn’t about workers, banks or fixing the economy. These guys are after power. They’re after a revolution.

We can never forget that these people are at heart Marxists and they believe in Marx theory of history, which states that all of history will lead to a workers revolution and a utopian communist society. Lerner and others like him want to get to this utopian society sooner rather than later, so they’re coming up with plans to push things along. In taking down the banks, Lerner would take down the entire economy. Inflation would skyrocket as the dollar becomes worthless. The United States would not be able to borrow money, which in theory sounds good but in reality would devastate the nation.

People would lose their jobs, their savings, their futures. This is exactly what Lerner and his leftist cohorts want. Why? Because they’re already organized to offer a ‘solution’ to their mess they have created. It would of course be some sort of Marxist, left-wing utopia wherein we lose all of our freedoms. Lerner and his gang are staging a power play because at the end of the day this is all about power. Lerner is creating conditions for a revolution, which if he is not the leader he will certainly be one of them.

SEIU and other unions have already protested at banks and shut them down, as I wrote about over the weekend. The UAW shut down a Bank of America in Detroit for no particular reason and SEIU shut down an ESSA Bank in Pennsylvania last year. These people aren’t kidding around. They aren’t a bunch of pot smoking, big talking college students like the Noodles & Company communist.

Stephen Lerner is dead serious and he has the organizational skills and contacts in the leftist community to make his plan happen. Whether or not he is successful remains to be seen but he has the ability to make a good run at bringing down JP Morgan Chase and other banks. In the very least, it appears he’s going to try and we need to be aware of this. These people want to radically change America and they’re willing to stage a revolution to get their way.

Filed under socialism, unions Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

AFL-CIO To Label Government Employee Union Opposition Racist

March 18, 2011 Leave a comment

AFL-CIO President Richard Tumka is planning nationwide labor rallies on April 4th, the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death. Trumka and the historically racist AFL-CIO seek to argue that the current government union battle in Wisconsin is the same as the Civil Rights movement of the 50′s and 60′s. It’s just a little bit of a stretch to suggest that government employees fighting for more tax money is the same as blacks rightly fighting for an end to Jim Crow and other racial injustices.

Jesse Jackson made a similar argument last week when he declared Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s plan a ‘confederate agenda.’ Jackson claims that Walker’s plan, and other Republican plans to limit the bargaining ability of government employees, is a racist agenda because the black middle class is allegedly working for the government. Jackson of course provides no evidence of this.

I suspect that Jackson and Trumka are coordinating their efforts. Since the left lost the battle in Wisconsin they’ve shifted their focus to race rather than class. It’s pretty clear that no one buys the left’s class warfare argument.  A recent Dick Morris poll that shows support for Republican Governors plans in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana up 47-39, while opposition to the Wisconsin Democrats leaving the state stands at 61-25. The class battle has been lost, so Jackson and Trumka are moving on to the next battle in the war which is apparently going to be race.

The idea that trying to limit government employee unions is racist or some sort of confederate agenda is not only bizarre but it’s outright slander. What Jackson and Trumka are doing is setting up Republicans to be labeled as racists for desiring spending cuts, whether they’re at the state or Federal level. After all, that’s what the heart of this fight is.  Walker and other Republican Governors want to get spending under control. Jackson and Trumka oppose spending cuts and apparently their battle plan is to label spending cuts as racist.

Jackson and Trumka want you to ignore the fact that government employees on average earn more than private sector employees. They receive better benefits and a far more lucrative pension. States have fallen into debt because of these lucrative benefits and seek to get them under control by limiting government employee unions and reducing benefits. Keep in mind, in order for the state to spend any money they have to first tax someone. What Jackson and Trumka want is to tax you to pay for extra benefits for government employees. Trumka and other union leaders also want you, the taxpayer, to pay for government employee union representation as well.

Make no mistake, the unions have their hand in the taxpayer cookie jar and they have no intention of removing it. The Democrats want the unions hand in the cookie jar because the unions pay for their campaigns to the tune of $180 million in just the 2010 election. If the unions lose in Wisconsin and other states, they’ll likely become irrelevant to employees and ultimately the union and the Democrats will lose support and funding. They’re desperate to try anything to save their money and power, including pretending like Republicans are racist.

Jackson and Trumka are despicable characters. To call someone a racist for favoring spending cuts and for favoring government salaries getting in line with the private sector is insulting and outrageous. To demean the civil rights movement by equating a legitimate fight for racial civil rights with government employees wanting to remain high on the hog is disgraceful. I hope the American people see through this nasty, hateful campaign by the AFL-CIO.

Filed under socialism, Taxes, unions Tagged with , , , , , , ,

GOP and Gov. Walker Victorious Over Radical Unions in Wisconsin!

March 10, 2011 Leave a comment

It appears that Gov. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Senate Republicans have won their battle over the unions and the Democrats. This is a great day for taxpayers in the State of Wisconsin and dare I say for the rest of the country. Senate Democrats fled the state in order to nullify last years election. They were supported by the radical unions who want to tax the productive in order to pay for their lavish salaries and benefits. We’re talking about a state where bus drivers are getting paid over $100,000. If that doesn’t scream out for reform I don’t know what does.

For those who think that Gov. Walker is going to go down politically because of this I think the opposite will be the case. Wisconsin taxpayers support Gov. Walker’s proposal to force government employees to pay a portion of their healthcare and pension. While he doesn’t have majority support for curtailing union bargaining power, he isn’t going to lose an election because of that. I’m here to tell you taxpayers are going to like seeing a balanced budget and no tax increases more than they care about government union bargaining power.

This whole situation exposed the radical leftists in the unions. Who protested in Madison for the last few weeks? It wasn’t just union workers, they haven’t been there for a couple weeks in any large number. It’s been radical socialist, marxists and communists. It’s bratty little kids like the Noodles & Company socialist and others from the University of Wisconsin. It’s bused in astroturf socialists who want a revolution in America. This protest wasn’t about middle and upper middle class government employees, it was about radical socialists and their vision for America. It’s a vision that most Americans completely and totally oppose.

Like I wrote yesterday, Gov. John Engler was able to overcome protests and unionists here in Michigan in the early 90′s by balancing the budget and cutting taxes. He beat a top notch Democrat with 60% of the vote. The same can happen for Gov. Walker in Wisconsin so long as he balances the budget and cuts taxes. He’s stuck to his principles so far and that goes a long way in winning an election. I’m so proud of the Wisconsin Republicans, they stood up for what was right, they held firm and they did the right thing. Wisconsin will reap the benefits of this legislation for years to come.

Filed under socialism, unions Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Taxpayers Tired Of Paying Massive Union Benefits

March 9, 2011 Leave a comment

Taxpayers in Wisconsin are fed up with paying for the lucrative benefits that government employees receive. Government employees receive pay, benefits and pensions that those of us in the private sector can only dream about. What’s worse, they’re living high on the hog and we in the middle class are the hog they’re living high off of. With the Wisconsin’s state budget in massive deficit thanks to eight years of Democrats, it’s up to Gov. Scott Walker and the Republicans to balance the budget. Rather than raise taxes on the middle class, Walker has proposed modest cuts in government employee benefits and a reduction (not an elimination) in bargaining rights.

The howls from those living off the taxpayers are loud. But the taxpayers of Wisconsin also have something to say about this situation. The middle class is tired of paying taxes to support government employees, who are doing less work and receiving more pay, benefits and pensions than those in the private sector. If they were doing a good job, there would be less brush back but it’s pretty clear that Wisconsin schools are failing and we all know how awful government ‘customer’ service is. When nearly two thirds of 8th graders can’t pass an 8th grade reading test, it’s safe to say that the schools aren’t doing a good job. It shouldn’t be any surprise that Wisconsin taxpayers are sick of paying obnoxious salaries for people who don’t do a good job.

Wisconsin’s budget is out of control, in part thanks to government employee unions. Did you know the highest paid employee in the City of Madison is a bus driver who earns nearly $160,000 a year? Thanks to government employee unions, you can make three times the average Wisconsin resident by driving a bus. In Racine the government employee unions demanded that prisoners not be allowed to cut the grass for free. According to the union, government employees have a right to cut the grass, all at a significant cost to taxpayers of course. In Wausau an 86 year old volunteer crossing guard was ‘fired’ because the unions insisted that a union employee serve as crossing guard, all at taxpayer expense of course. No wonder Wisconsin’s budget is out of control.

Government employee excess has to be reigned in. Gov. Walker wants government employees to pay 12.5% of their healthcare and around half of their pension. That is hardly unreasonable. He wants to restrict bargaining power to salary only, again that’s hardly union busting. Remember that the unions aren’t fighting for a share of profits, they’re fighting for a share of your tax money. If they get more tax money, odds are your taxes will be increased. Essentially government employee unions are fighting against you in the middle class. Especially those of you who aren’t getting paid around $160,000 a year for driving a bus.

State budgets are a mess all across the country thanks to government employee unions and the massive benefits they’ve been given by Democrats. These unions are little more than a form of patronage for the Democrats. They fund Democrat campaigns and provide votes and the Democrats in turn dole out huge sums of cash at taxpayer expense. Taxpayers cannot afford this patronage anymore in Wisconsin or anywhere else.

Filed under economy, Politics, Taxes, unions Tagged with , , , , ,

1/3 Of Wages Come From Government; Scott Walker Must Stand Firm

March 8, 2011 Leave a comment

Nearly 1/3 of wages in the United States come from government. Which of course means that the 2/3 of wages that don’t come from government are subject to massive taxation in order to come up with the money to pay off the third of the country living off the government. Of course the nation cannot afford this sort of wage disparity and we surely cannot afford the massive debt that Obama has given us over the last two years. Yet that doesn’t stop the Democrats from crying bloody murder over a measly $61 billion cut in government offered by the weakling Republicans.

Our nation cannot sustain the welfare state as it is currently constituted. Republican Governors like Scott Walker are trying to bring state budgets under control yet they face attack from those who are living off of the taxpayers. We all know about the teachers unions protesting in the streets of Madison, as though they are entitled to the fruits of taxpayers labors. Walker is facing stiff resistance, though it appears the Democrats are beginning to waiver. I would think that the unions would at some point tire of endless protests, just like they do when a private sector strike goes on more than a few weeks or months.

Walker is down in the polls right now, though not as far as the left would have us believe. Walker has hit the low 40′s, not much lower than President Obama. According to one poll if he ran today against his Democrat opponent in 2010 he would lose 52-47, exactly the opposite of his victory. I frankly don’t think this is a very impressive number, if Walker were so hated you would think he’d lose by much more. Walker isn’t in bad shape, in fact he’s in better shape than John Engler was in Michigan during his first term in the early 90′s according to former US Senator Spencer Abraham.

Engler tried to reform Michigan in the early 90′s by cutting taxes and government spending. The end result was massive protests from the welfare and government employee class. Democrats fought hard against Engler’s policies. In the end not only did Engler win the political battles in the state legislature but he beat entrenched Democrat insider Howard Wolpe in 1994 with 60% of the vote. He went on to win a third term in 1998. The fruits of Engler’s victories propelled Michigan to balanced budgets a business friendly environment. Michigan went down hill only after Jennifer Granholm replaced Engler.

Engler didn’t just take on welfare queens and the anti-business Democrat establishment. He also took on the teachers unions. In Michigan it is illegal for government employees such as teachers to strike. Prior to Engler teachers unions held taxpayers and students hostage by striking all the time. The school district where I lived saw strikes every three years because of the teachers union. Thanks to Gov. Engler, the teachers are no longer able to strike. This is good for taxpayers. It would be good for students if the government schools were actually capable of educating children.

The key though is that it is possible to take on the teachers union and win. Not just win the political issue when it comes up also but win the next election. If Gov. Engler can do it, so can Scott Walker as long as he holds firm. But holding firm is the key. Those of us who support Walker must let him know we back him. Even those of us who are out of state.

Filed under economy, Education, Michigan, Politics, Republicans, socialism, Taxes, unions Tagged with , , , ,

Noodles & Company Communist Exposes Revolutionary Socialists in Wisconsin

March 2, 2011 Leave a comment

International socialist hellbent on revolution have been out in force in Wisconsin for several weeks now. Make no mistake, the organizers of the protests in Madison are affiliated with international socialism. These people want a radical left-wing revolution here in the United States and are looking to Egypt for inspiration. These international socialists are of course in bed with the unions. I’m not sure that the rank and file recognize the extent of radicalism within the unions, though I think the government employee union rank and file are more aware than private union rank and file.

One video on You Tube is illustrative of the radical left-wing nature of the organizers of the Wisconsin protests. The video shows any number of leftists planning events and speaking to groups of socialists. They clearly are itching for a revolution here in the United States and particularly in Wisconsin. These people are radical left-wingers who want to fundamentally transform the United States via leftist revolution. Their logic is bizarre considering the protests surround government employee unions. Apparently government employees are the lowly downtrodden worker and the government is the big mean capitalist oppressor. This of course makes no sense whatsoever when you consider the fact that he government isn’t in the business of making profits. But of course facts and logic don’t matter when revolutions are being planned.

The more amusing portion of the video begins at the 3:38 mark where one protester rails against his capitalist oppressor, Noodles & Company. This guy allegedly workers for Noodles and is offended, that’s right offended, that his boss tells him what food to make, how to make it and what time to come to work. If he doesn’t do as he’s told, he claims he’ll be fired. I’m sure you’re terribly shocked to hear about such oppression. But our young friend has a solution for his problem. The owner of Noodles should give up his title as owner and he and the workers can all work together as one. It sounds like a regular workers paradise circa 1931 USSR.

What this young communist doesn’t understand is that there wouldn’t be a Noodles & Company but for the owner of the restaurant. The owner provides the capital with which the restaurant is built. He buys the food, the tables, the kitchen equipment and he rents or buys the property on which the restaurant will be located. He takes all of the risks involved in opening a restaurant. The employees may be important to the company, this is after all a service industry. But the notion that employees should run the show and decide what they want to cook and when they want to cook it is absurd. Noodles & Company, like all businesses, doesn’t just make money because it’s open for business. It makes money because they sell a product that is pleasing to customers.

This is where the socialists and communists fail to understand the purpose of business. Business doesn’t just exist to exist. It exists to serve customers. At the end of the day, it’s customers who determine what is served at a restaurant and when it is served, not the owner of the store. If people don’t like the food at a restaurant or they don’t like the hours of operation, the restaurant will lose money and go out of business. But our communist friend isn’t interested in serving customers, he’s only interested in battling his boss.

While it’s easy to mock the Noodles & Company communist and it’s easy to debunk his foolish statement, we should not be blind to what’s going on in Wisconsin. Kids like the Noodles & Company communist are being sucked in by the revolutionary international socialists who want to fundamentally change America. Is this sort of change the kind of change we want? Do we want to give up freedom for socialism? Do we want a radical revolution here in the US? This is the goal of many of the astroturf Wisconsin protesters. The issue in Madison isn’t even about Scott Walker and the unions, it’s gone beyond that at this point. The issue is international revolutionary socialism. We need to wake up and recognize the real forces at work in Wisconsin.

Filed under Politics, socialism, unions Tagged with , , , , , ,

Government Employee Unions Work Against Taxpayers, In Bed With Democrats

February 28, 2011 Leave a comment

Public-employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party. —-Michael Barrone

FDR, a President I am loathe to agree with, said that “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” Until the late 50′s, even major unions like the AFL-CIO opposed collective bargaining for government employees because government is not in the business of earning profits. Therefore government employees aren’t bargaining for a larger share of profits, they’re instead bargaining for more tax dollars. Thus when government employees go on strike, they are not striking against management but against the American taxpayer.

By the 60′s government employee unions were all the rage. This happened for two reasons. Union membership began declining in the late 50′s and throughout the 60′s. One way to boost union membership is for unions to find new fields to push their unions into. With millions of workers in Federal, state and local governments, government workers became an easy target for the unions.

Unions had long been in bed with the Democrat Party, going back to FDR. The in the late 50′s and 60′s Democrats saw government employee unions as a political benefit to the Democrat Party in two ways. First by allowing government employees to unionize the Democrats ensured that they would be the recipients of millions in campaign donations extracted from this new group of union members. Second, they ensured that those government workers would vote for Democrats. In the 2010 election unions spent over $170 million on Democrats. Government employees voted overwhelmingly for Democrats as well.

Essentially government employee unions are transferring tax money directly to the Democrats. In 28 states, employees have no choice but to join the union. Their salary, our tax money, is extracted from them, sent to the union and ultimately spent on campaigning for Democrats. It’s quite a little racket.

Unfortunately government employee unions are doing the opposite of what unions were created to do. They aren’t fighting for a larger share of profits, they’re fighting for more tax dollars. The more tax dollars they obtain, the higher union dues are and the higher union dues are the more money the unions will have to spend on campaigning for Democrats. It’s no wonder that the unions are screaming bloody murder in Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker threatens to cut off the one party gravy train.

It is outrageous that taxpayers are being held hostage by government unions that use their money and power to elect one party. Even if the unions did not spend hundreds of millions electing one party, government unions create a conflict of interest for elected pols. Pols are elected to protect the public interest and they cannot do that while negotiating with a government employee union that seeks to suck as much tax money out of the system as they can. When you consider that the government employee unions work for just one party, it is clear that Democrats are in a conflict of interest because they will never do what’s best for taxpayers and risk losing the support of their union benefactors.

FDR for a change was correct. Government employee unions are bad news for government and taxpayers. Such unions fight for tax money rather than profits, thus defeating what unions were created to do. They create a conflict of interest for elected pols who must decide if they want to do what’s right for taxpayers or what’s right for their union benefactors. Government employee unions do little more than funnel tax money to the Democrat Party, which is a conflict of interest all the way around. The Democrats aren’t working for taxpayers, they’re working for their union overlords.

Filed under Politics, unions Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Obama Rendered Irrelevant In Wisconsin; Outrageous Dem Behavior

February 26, 2011 Leave a comment

The American people are allowed to peacefully assemble according to the Constitution. Those on the left have just as much right to protest the actions of government as those of us in the Tea Party. It’s become very clear that the union protests have become incredibly violent and are full of racial attacks. That said, it’s been incredible to watch the Democrats over the past two weeks in Wisconsin. They essentially want to nullify the 2010 election by refusing to show up for work. Democrat Senators in Wisconsin continue to camp out at a resort in Illinois, thus nullifying the 2010 election. Oh yes, they say they’ll come back for a vote. But only if the Wisconsin Senate votes on a bill they approve of. Democrats in Indiana have attempted to pull the same stunt.

But it gets worse for Democrats. The Wisconsin State Assembly voted on Gov. Walker’s bill a couple days ago. The bill of course passed, as the GOP has a firm control of the State Assembly. The reaction of Assembly Democrats is nothing short of outrageous. They booed, chanted ‘shame‘ as Republicans left the floor and behaved in a generally abhorrent way. For all the left-wing whining about conservative lack of civility when they were in control in 2009 and 2010, they seem to have no care for civility today.

The Democrats are facing a serious problem in Wisconsin. Generally the public is opposed to seeing legislators flee to other states to avoid voting. Long term this is going to hurt the Democrats because they look like they’re trying to nullify elections. If there is one thing voters don’t like it’s when our voices aren’t heard via elections. Worse for the Democrats, other than Obama making a few comments about Wisconsin last week the President has been largely silent about what’s going on in Madison. While I tend to think a Federal official should stay out of state affairs, it doesn’t look good for a party when the head honcho keeps his distance.

Obama may have other reasons for keeping quiet. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that Obama is the head of the Federal government and therefore the boss of around 2,000,000 employees. Federal employees are prohibited from collective bargaining for salary and benefits. It wasn’t a bunch of dastardly anti-union Republicans who passed such a law. It was passed in 1978 by a Democrat Congress and signed by Democrat President Jimmy Carter. It doesn’t exactly make sense for Obama to fight for union rights in Wisconsin while he is the head of the Federal government who has for 30+ years banned workers from organizing. Worse, Obama had two years to allow Federal collective bargaining when Dems had overwhelming majorities in Congress and he never pushed for it.

In the short term unions and their left-wing allies will make news for stamping their feet and creating chaos in state capitols. But in the long run Democrats are going to be hurt for fleeing the state and behaving like petulant children. The inconsistency from the President doesn’t help matters at all. He has two choices with regard to commenting on Wisconsin. He can comment on the matter extensively and get out and picket like he said he would during his Presidential campaign and thus look like a hypocrite. His other alternative is to say nothing and thus be rendered irrelevant. He’s chosen to be irrelevant and that cannot be good for Democrats on the ground in Wisconsin or elsewhere.

Filed under 2012 election, Politics, socialism, unions Tagged with , , , , ,

AFL-CIO President In Obama’s Ear; Unions Deny Freedom of Contract

February 24, 2011 Leave a comment

Have you ever wondered who influences the Obama administration the most? According to New York Magazine, in his first two years in office he never called or spoke privately with six of his cabinet members. So he must not be getting much advise from them. Interestingly AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka claims he speaks with someone in the White House every day and visits the White House two or three times per week. I suspect this explains why Obama hasn’t thrown the unions under the bus yet. He’s taking his cues from radical leftists like Trumka.

Obama weighed into the Wisconsin situation last week, which is just a little bit inappropriate. The states are separate political entities, Federal officials have no business getting involved in the states political affairs. Unfortunately this doesn’t stop many Presidents, particularly President Obama. Interestingly Obama claims that Wisconsin’s plan is an ‘assault’ on unions. It just happens to be the same language the unions are using.

Unions deny employers and employees the right to private contract. Once a  union shop is created, all of the workers lose their right to bargain individually and the employer loses all sorts of rights. It’s one of the reasons why early union cases before the court were filed not by employers but by employees who were being forced to be part of a union against their will. Free people ought to be able to negotiate their own salary and benefits and free businesses ought to be able to contract with whomever they want to contract. It isn’t the place of government to get involved, especially when they are restricting the right to free contract.

The situation is even worse when we’re talking about government employees. Government employee unions are holding taxpayers hostage for more money and benefits. There are any number of people who might be sympathetic to employees of profitable businesses who want to unionize but we’re not talking about a profitable business, we’re talking about government. The profit in government is made by taxing you and me. The fact is, the tax increases never come from the so-called rich, they always come at the expense of the middle class. The unions want the government to abuse its taxing power to pay them.

It should come as no surprise that Obama pays his dues to the AFL-CIO and other unions. Those folks helped him get elected and they share a similar socialist ideology. We must never forget though that unions deny individuals freedom. In the case of government employee unions, they want government to raise your taxes. At the end of the day, we’re all worse off because of unions. They cause the price of goods and services to increase and they cause your taxes to increase. Not to mention they’re associated with international socialism and communism, which Richard Trumka so much admits.

Filed under Obama, socialism, Taxes, unions Tagged with , , , , , ,

Union Rank and File Breaking in Wisconsin

February 22, 2011 1 Comment

While the young Communists and various socialist groups protest in Madison, Wisconsin in support of government employee unions, the rank and file union members in private industry break ranks. Even the New York Times has noticed. Wisconsin, like most midwest states, has lost a lot of manufacturing jobs. The remaining private manufacturing employers have demanded and received concessions from union employees.

The result of those concessions is that union rank and file aren’t much interested in supporting government employee unions. Like the rest of us in the private sector, they wonder why government employees shouldn’t have to pay for some of their healthcare and retirement. Especially so when the alternative is having taxpayers, including private sector union rank and file, see their tax bills increase.

Let’s be honest about the protests taking place in Madison. They do not include any significant amount of union solidarity. Most of the protesters are hardcore government employee union harpies, left-wing University of Wisconsin students and assorted radical leftists who want to pretend it’s the 60′s again. Even the rank and file government employees haven’t bothered to show up in Madison. Very few have taken part in protests in Madison or called in sick.

This battle isn’t just raging in Wisconsin. There have been protests in Ohio over a similar plan put forward by Gov. John Kasich. Protests are planned for Michigan later today, which will be met with a counter protest from various Tea Party groups. (interestingly the media ignored the fact that there were 15,000 Tea Partiers supporting Gov. Walker in Madison last Saturday)

Nationwide, around 50% support Gov. Walker while less than 40% support the unions according to a Rasmussen poll. This suggests to me that the folks who voted Republicans into power are serious about seeing state budgets reduced. The best way to reduce state budgets is to bring government employees salary, benefits and pensions under control. There is no reason whatsoever why government work should be more profitable to a person than private sector work. Government has no business creating a brain drain in the private sector and taxpayers shouldn’t be stuck footing the bill for obnoxious benefits and pensions for people who work 9 months a year.

Gov. Walker needs to stand firm. Other Republican Governors need to ready themselves for a fight. The government employee unions are loud and organized. The left-wing media will support them at all costs. The Tea Party needs to be prepared to step in to support these Republican governors when they do the right thing. State and Federal budgets have to be reduced. Taxpayers cannot afford tax increases and we cannot afford more debt. Gov. Walker is doing the right thing for Wisconsin and we must encourage Republican governors elsewhere to do the right thing. Cutting government employee salaries, benefits and pensions to balance the budget is the right thing to do for taxpayers.

Filed under Politics, unions Tagged with , , , , , ,

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