By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party
Democrats in two different states now, Wisconsin and Indiana, have fled their state to avoid having to vote on budget bills that would be tough on public employees unions. Whether you support balancing state budgets by asking public employees to make reasonable concessions or not, I think most people would agree that these legislators should show up and do their jobs.
If they don’t, perhaps those states’ governors should hire someone to bring them back. Someone like Dog the Bounty Hunter perhaps? True, he’s a bit of a walking circus, but it’s no better than the democrats deserve.
You might ask why would they flee the state? Why not just cast their votes against the policies they disagree with? If the people agree with them, they’ll be rewarded in the next election, right? But what if the people don’t agree with them? What if the taxpayers are tired of footing the bill for public employees and their expensive “rights” (read benefits) that no one else gets to enjoy?
Eventually, the taxpayers will have their freedom from overburdening government. They will stand up and drop the yoke from their shoulders. In the meantime, democrats have been told by their union bosses to try and hold up the vote, and government, by remaining out of state where they can’t be forced into the legislature.
Unless, of course, someone gets tough on these jokers and sends some muscle out to get them.
I can see Dog and his crew now, tracking down the elitist democrats, holed up in fancy hotels eating caviar and tofu. With any luck, some will need to be tasered into submission. It would make for a great reality show as cowardly democrats flee more and more states around the country. Instead of paying bounty hunters with bail bond money we could give them a percentage of the billions returned to taxpayers when these democrat rascals are rounded up and forced to vote on spending cuts.
While this all sounds like fun it’s just tongue in cheek. What really needs to happen is a serious conversation about our need for public employee unions. Trade unions were originally established, ages ago, to protect workers in the private sector. Why do we need to protect public employees when they work for the government that passes and enforces workplace safety laws? If these public unions are such a good thing, why are union dues taken involuntarily? Shouldn’t those workers be given the choice to support such a good cause?
American taxpayers are suffering, and government has been right at the top of the list of financial burdens for a lot of families. We’ve had our taxes raised countless times in this country, but do you ever remember government cutting back and shrinking? When was the last time?
If Wisconsin proves anything, it’s that freedom from government is coming. It is sweeping across the land and 2010 was just the beginning. This is about more than money; it’s about getting government off our backs and out of our wallets. It’s about the social injustice of the working class being forced to support the fat cats of the government class. Once again, freedom and justice are coming, and they won’t be stopped by the democrats who are hiding from their responsibilities. If the people have to hire crazy television bounty hunters to force their legislative circus leaders to cast a vote, that sounds like American entertainment to me.
No discussion of wages would be complete without an umpire. For an honest reflection of wages one needs to use this calculator:
http://146.142.4.24/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
By using the calculator, one can see that a fifteen dollar an hour job in 1980 ought to pay over forty dollars an hour today.
In 1977, a friend of mine was making $22.67 per hour in wages and benefits working for GM as a member of the UAW. If his wages had kept pace with the price of the trucks he was building, he would be making $82.38 per hour.
I know of no one working on the GM line making that kind of scratch. Do you, Steve?
The private employee unions have been co-opted–else the line workers would make a fair wage.
The ONLY workers anymore whose wages have kept pace with inflation are government workers.
But this is too many for the fascists. They won’t stop until EVERY working stiff in this country is making as little as they pay the Chinese.
Quentin here’s a question for you and your calculator. Why should those wages and benefits have “kept pace” with the cost of the trucks? There are many factors that contribute to the price tag of a vehicle. The comparison is incomplete without our having knowledge of the other contributing factors.
What are some of those contributing factors? A bad economy, low inflation, and technology are three possibilities:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-10-15-cola-wages-drop-recession_N.htm
http://www.cfr.org/business-and-foreign-policy/technology-not-globalization-driving-wages-down/p12337
Higher insurance and parts costs would also contribute to a higher price tag on a product and lessen the ability to pay higher wages in manufacturing. Product liability Insurance is much higher today than it was years ago and we all know that health insurance rates have risen sharply. Workers comp is creeping back up again. Taxes and fees are higher and there are more of them. Every company I buy parts from is experiencing these higher costs so the parts I must buy are more expensive too.
The private employee unions have been co-opted–else the line workers would make a fair wage.
The benefits package that the car company workers union negotiated is unsustainable and would have bankrupted the companies had they not been bailed out by taxpayers. Qthey dont understand that the highest cost for a business is labor and if you push that number too high it becomes a house of cardseverybody loses.
The ONLY workers anymore whose wages have kept pace with inflation are government workers
And it doesnt occur to them that they are part of the problem.
“But this is too many for the fascists.”
What fascists?
They won’t stop
Stop doing what?
until EVERY working stiff in this country is making as little as they pay the Chinese.
Oh please.
People who think like you do are always talking about a living wage. But a living wage is about equality of outcomes. Isnt that what youre trying to say, that everyone deserves some mythical figure that would make life fair? How do we decides what that would be and who do we put in charge of doling it out? If you could what kind of a country would we have? A take from the rich and redistribute it kind of country? Do you really want to live under those conditions? You cant have it both ways. If you want to live in a free country you have to accept that some people will make more money than others. If youre going to live in a free country youre going to have to place the burden of making money on each individual. If people want more they will have to find a way to make more. If an employer is stingy consider finding a better job or acquiring better skills. Without this dynamic we will end up like the Chinese.
Steve,I don’t mind democrats engaging in a vigorous debate on the senate floor or follwing any of the prescribed rules of the state legislature to make their point, but I do have problem with representatives hiding out of state in order to avoid a vote. This is a tactic that if tried by anyone else it would get them fired. Remember what Reagan did when the Air Traffic Controllers walked out and were ordered to return or else?
So much for civility, liberals are a joke, they tore Palin apart for crosshairs on a map.
Where is the screaming about this congressman?
Democrat urges unions to ‘get a little bloody when necessary’
By Michael O’Brien – 02/23/11 07:57 AM ET
Sometimes it’s necessary to get out on the streets and “get a little bloody,” a Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday in reference to labor battles in Wisconsin.
Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) fired up a group of union members in Boston with a speech urging them to work down in the trenches to fend off limits to workers’ rights like those proposed in Wisconsin.
“Im proud to be here with people who understand that its more than just sending an email to get you going,” Capuano said, according to the Dorchester Reporter. “Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary.”
“he’s a bit of a walking circus…”
Fun stuff Jack…send in the “clowns”…with a camera crew!!!
News sources, including FOX, are reporting on this using words like:
“bill to cripple unions”
“end collective bargaining”
“shoot the wounded assault”
“stripping union rights”
“aggressive anti-union”
“busting budget fraud”
Coverage is scant that explains the situation that prompted this bill. Governor Walker addressed the union to explain the problem:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/18960
Taxpayers are under assault personally facing a lousy economy, few job prospects, limited personal budgets, enormous losses of assets, the spector of high energy prices and creeping inflation.
The stimulus “saved” public union jobs over the past couple of years. That solution is no solution at all, rather it exacerbates the problem. Public employees may not be experiencing the same level of stress that the private sector has but that is no excuse for this blatant and willful ignorance about the fiscal realities facing their state. Clearly the cowardly Democrats that have fled care little for working people in the private sector and those protesting union workers don’t care either. As long as they get what they DEMAND now and in the future….
They act like they are being asked to accept minimum wage pay, drop their benefits, vacations, and sick leave completely and work long extra hours without pay. This is insane and so incredibly childish.
The paid protesters and union goons are yelling this subverts the democratic process and here these morons are trying their best to stop a vote by elected representatives! Thats subverting the democratic process and they’re telling big lies to do it. There is nothing in the bill to stop unions from collective bargaining, it just stops the union monopoly over the rank and file workers and the legislators they own. This is about unions trying to maintain their control!!! Whats worse we’ve got the idiot in Chief in the White House backing the union play, so it’s government lobbying and supporting wage and benefits for government. Taxpayers lose.
Who will these teachers blame when the pink slips start rolling in? The truth is they have no one to blame but themselves and the power hungry union bosses and Dem representatives that let have them down. Making an agreement that is destined to fail is like making no deal at all. The longer this goes on the stinkier it gets.
Steve, the “serious conversation” took place prior to the election last November. Gov. Walker and the other republicans in WI ran on a platform of doing exactly what they are doing now. The voters of WI knew what he was planning to do and they spoke loud and clear at the ballot. Walker and the others are simply doing what they were elected to do.
The democrats that fled the state are AWOL and should be held accountable for not doing the job they were elected to perform. Recalls should be started for everyone of them for dereliction of duty. If the layoffs do take place it will be the democrats who will be held accountable.
Remember Mr. Obama so gleefully pointed out to Mr. McCain, “You lost.” And the democrats in congress with a majority passed the health care and other bills, while every republican still showed up to do their job.
If the WI voters don’t like what is taking place they have the next election to change what is taking place. The same applies to all the rest of the states, including Calif. with what Jerry Brown has proposed he will do with our budget.
I just saw this and now I am LMAO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Steve, Good one!!!