The president has pulled back his overt support for unions in Wisconsin. This is an attempt to mollify the majority of Americans, who view unions as the greatest impediment to balanced budgets at the local, state and national levels. Don’t believe for a minute that the president isn’t still supporting the unions with every asset at his disposal. It has been reported that the president’s campaign, known as Organizing for America, has been bussing in union loyalists from the states surrounding Wisconsin to join the fight in Madison. No doubt the logistics and coordination for these protests are coming from the top of the Democratic Party.
These protesters are the anti-Tea Party, whose ultimate goal, using the authority of government, is to suck as much from their fellow citizens as possible. The unions lost 612,000 members last year, and, if states begin protecting employees’ freedom of choice, unions undoubtedly will see an exodus of members.
In today’s lopsided world, public sector unionism swamps that of the private sector. This is a cause-and-effect situation in which, as public sector unionism has grown, government has grown with it. In order to fund government, taxes have gone up. Companies have been forced to send jobs that would traditionally employ private sector unions overseas.
Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute and Jason Richwine of the Heritage Foundation have completed a study in which they find that unionized employees in California are paid roughly 30% more than their private sector counterparts working at large companies. In a state facing the kind of disastrous budget balancing-act that California is, an adjustment to the norm is in line for public sector workers.
The impediment to change is the Democratic Party and its ability to fund campaigns, which comes directly from union dues. Union members pay dues of about $400 a year, but can be higher than $1,000. Those dues are then appropriated by union bosses to fund the Democratic political machine, which in turn increases the number of government employees (dues payers) and their salaries.
To end this mad cycle requires an end collective bargaining for public employees. Many states don’t allow public employee collective bargaining, and they are among the most fiscally sound in the country. For example, in Virginia, public employees do not collectively bargain, and Virginia’s budget is balanced. Beyond that, pushing the retirement age higher for public sector workers would be useful. Many public sector workers can garner two retirements. It’s known as double-dipping. Being paid one retirement while working on a second. Help stop union madness by supporting Governor Walker at www.StandwithScott.com.
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