"And still, yes still, they can successfully convince multitudes of voters of the notion that the financial problems in this country are teacher's salaries and collective bargaining."----
In many states, public sector pensions and benefits ARE one of the main causes of pending financial doom. Take California, long essentially a single party state where public sector unions dominate the scene like almost nowhere else:
'This year we're spending 10% less on higher education than we were 10 years ago, parks and recreation 40% less, environmental protection 80% less, while spending on pensions is UP 2500% PERCENT.'-David Crane, former Gray Davis and Arnold staffer and a Jerry Brown supporter in the last election.
Many progressives, at least in California as the problem there is a decade more advanced than states like Wisconsin, recognize the problems these unfunded liabilities pose. All of these people see money intended to go for infrastructure, stimulus, welfare, environmental protection, etc going instead to public employee bishopric. Over the next decade, California is slated to pay out $400-500 billion in pensions and benefits to public employees...and the revenue of California last year wasn't even $95 billion!
----"They can deftly organize to attack, once again, the little people and the safety mechanisms put into place to protect the little people..." ----
Who exactly are the 'little people'? The unions are BIG money. Five of the top ten contributors to congressional and presidential campaigns since 1989 are labor unions. In the last election, 10 of the top 20 PACs were union PACs. 'Little people'???
I don't agree with everything that is going on in an effort to combat this epic problem, but to pretend that the benefits and pensions that public sector unions have secured over the past decades aren't a HUGE problem is absurd. At the state and local levels they are the biggest budget issue on the plate.
The Federal government, however, has different issues and their employees benefits are far down the list. In fact, they dealt with this problem back in the early 80's when the pension system was scrapped for a more 401K type of retirement. "
I thought this was interesting take on WI from CA based Gawker commenter
In many states, public sector pensions and benefits ARE one of the main causes of pending financial doom. Take California, long essentially a single party state where public sector unions dominate the scene like almost nowhere else:
'This year we're spending 10% less on higher education than we were 10 years ago, parks and recreation 40% less, environmental protection 80% less, while spending on pensions is UP 2500% PERCENT.'-David Crane, former Gray Davis and Arnold staffer and a Jerry Brown supporter in the last election.
Many progressives, at least in California as the problem there is a decade more advanced than states like Wisconsin, recognize the problems these unfunded liabilities pose. All of these people see money intended to go for infrastructure, stimulus, welfare, environmental protection, etc going instead to public employee bishopric. Over the next decade, California is slated to pay out $400-500 billion in pensions and benefits to public employees...and the revenue of California last year wasn't even $95 billion!
----"They can deftly organize to attack, once again, the little people and the safety mechanisms put into place to protect the little people..." ----
Who exactly are the 'little people'? The unions are BIG money. Five of the top ten contributors to congressional and presidential campaigns since 1989 are labor unions. In the last election, 10 of the top 20 PACs were union PACs. 'Little people'???
I don't agree with everything that is going on in an effort to combat this epic problem, but to pretend that the benefits and pensions that public sector unions have secured over the past decades aren't a HUGE problem is absurd. At the state and local levels they are the biggest budget issue on the plate.
The Federal government, however, has different issues and their employees benefits are far down the list. In fact, they dealt with this problem back in the early 80's when the pension system was scrapped for a more 401K type of retirement. "
I thought this was interesting take on WI from CA based Gawker commenter
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