Go Get 'm, Scott

The stranglehold the public employee unions have on the citizens who pay the bills is in jeopardy in Wisconsin and do believe the Labor Goons know it.
Scott Walker, the newly-elected tea-party governor of Wisconsin is presenting the strongest challenge to the unions since Chris Christie in New Jersey and in fact his challenge strikes right at the heart of Big Labor – mandatory unionization and collective bargaining for all state employees. Most of my comments are prompted by this article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110216/ap_on_re_us/us_wisconsin_budget_unions_13

As Barack Hussein once said, “elections have consequences.” I am not sure he expected that to “come around” quite so soon. Last November Wisconsin voters by a large margin asked Mr. Walker to fix the state fiscally. One can assume that the vociferous self-serving groups now protesting a-la Greece did not vote for him. The conservative, sensible voters in Wisconsin, who are never the ones in the street (they are busy, productive people relying on elected officials to responsibly represent them while they manage their daily lives), knew what they were asking and Mr. Walker is delivering.

The major pieces of Mr. Walker’s initiative (backed by a conservative legislature) are:

• End collective bargaining for state and local employees. This makes sense on its face. There is no competition in the provision of public sector services so the unions have nothing to lose in their greed (except for some of their members due to layoffs but that never matters so long as the remaining continue to enjoy salaries well beyond their worth). Mandatory union membership, or “closed shops” does not stand the test of freedom of association or involuntary servitude, under our constitution. How the courts have allowed closed shops to remain is beyond the grasp of this thinking libertarian. Additionally, most states have abandoned “spoils” systems of employment in favor of “civil service.” This means that one need not be a player in a politician’s campaign in order to hold public employment. Well documented is that unions make all their political contributions to democrats and labor-friendly Republicans. This is de facto “spoils” because then in order to hold public employment, an individual is required to support specific philosophical dogma and candidates irrespective of his/her personal beliefs.

• Require employees to contribute more to health care and pensions. This too makes sense on its face even though the employees don’t like it. (Now THAT is a surprise.) Employees can “contribute” to managing health care costs by how they care for themselves personally. Collectively if employees adopt good personal care, in the end, costs drop. When Big Brother bails you out of every ill…..can you imagine one employee saying to another, “You really ought to lose weight”? I can’t but it was a fun fantasy for a moment. With respect to retirement (I work for the state of Washington) employees have no interest at all in the health of the state retirement system and so they can enjoy hating “Big Oil” and “Big Evil Corporations,” et al (except for GM and Chrysler which most of us taxpayers objected to keeping a-float with our taxes so the poor under-paid union members lost nothing.) Paying more attention to the health of the system and the mechanics of a free market may have a positive effect on how we trough folks view our economic systems. Can you picture a group of public sector employees gathered around the water cooler concurring that Shell Oil ought to begin drilling off the coast of California to increase profits, produce less expensive energy for America and keep their pension systems flush? No, actually, I can’t either.

• “Tort Reform.” Wisconsin has already implemented this and that is significant by itself. Bad things happen to good people and the victims should be made “whole.” But the “pain and suffering” awards are disgusting. Those awards make attorneys rich and provide obscene wealth to people who had nothing more than a run-in with bad luck and who in some cases contributed to their poor luck! “We” pay for these egregious settlements in insurance premiums and in the loss of goods and services that often have more value than negative consequences. Have you not often heard "We cannot sell you this," or "You cannot do this" because of "liability." Liability that as in informed adult you may freely accept?

Associated Press on February 16, had a particularly good article on Mr. Walker’s aims. That link is pasted above. We read in that article how “upset” people are by Governor Walker’s actions but the “people” are all public employees or students who have been taught to detest capitalism and to further their own “rights” as in the students objecting to what is likely to be higher tuition and the demise of socialism – albeit on a very small scale. The unions expect to protect usurious pay and benefits beyond their worth – contributing generously to campaigns with money extracted from the “non-believers.”

The state of Washington is in the same boat; the difference is that Christine Gregoire, our “governor” is bound and tied in bed (whips and chains optional) with the unions and will have nothing to do with any legislation that reins in union greed (bet you might not have heard the notion that unions, not just corporate America, are greedy). While this state is swimming in red ink to the tune of five billion dollars over the next several years she and the "progressive" legislature (Wisconsin, you do not know how lucky you are that all branches appear to be conservative) are earnestly debating whether coffee should be our “official state beverage” and how to punish local community groups who hold car washes – because the soap gets in to the water discharge systems.

Mr. Walker might be a “hero.” In a previous post I attempted to debunk our liberal use of the word “hero” as applied to public employees but this guy is on the cusp of turning Wisconsin in to a state with a great deal of personal financial freedom and public sector accountability. I hope that he is receiving the support he will have to have from within and outside of the state - to face these narcissists. Anyone who reads this wants to follow the progress of this effort.

Oh, any public sector employee who called in “sick” to protest should be disciplined until it hurts, no matter how long it takes or how much it costs. Deliver the message to them, Mr. Walker; don’t relent. Pure hatred and lies will follow but in the end you can look at yourself in the mirror; you are a hero to those of us who hope for a second chance.

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