So the new leftist demagoguery, apparently, is collective bargaining 'rights'. There is, of course, no such right. The proof of this is found in The National Labor Relations Act and, even more germane, The Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act passed by the Wisconsin legislature in 1959. These are simply statutes and not constitutional amendments. Like all such acts, such as social security, what the legislature gives the legislature may take away...just like ethanol subsidies for that matter.
The left won't mention it but Walker's proposal doesn't even touch collective bargaining privileges of private sector unions. Why? Well, simply because it doesn't have to. The legislative proposal addresses a concern that differs from that in the private sector. Private firms are in the business of making a profit and therefore are an effective force to check the natural (human) tendency of any financial overreach of its employees, whether they be union members or not. Likewise, organized unions can be seen as a check on the same tendency of over zealous management. In the private sector unions are also checked by the fact that the company they are bargaining with may decide to go away, either geographically or existentially.
Such is not the case for public sector unions. The imbalance between the unions and the management (politicians) of federal, state, and local governments goes further. What happens when 'management' bargains with someone else's money? What happens with labor negotiations between GM, Chrysler and the UAW in the future will be interesting but what if the union got to actually choose the management who would then know their job security depends on how the union feels about the outcome of said negotiations? Well, what happens is New York, California, New Jersey, Illinois, and now Wisconsin like financial meltdowns. Reports that these financial problems are simply ginned up to kill unions are about as credible as Truther claims. Such efforts are irresponsible when we Americans are trying to solve these serious financial state and federal problems.
So we see the leftist comedy (in the traditional theatrical sense) has now given us the beginning of an almost Seinfeldian story thread involving Wisconsin (and now Indianan) Democratic Party legislators (Fleebaggers?) fleeing their homes and states along with their legislative,nay, patriotic and civic duty. One can only wonder how the left would have labeled the GOP federal legislators, given a similar choice, and, subsequently, abandoning the Capital for, say Cancun, in an effort to demonstrate 'solidarity' with the American public's anger against Obamacare. Such principled acts of Democratic principles could bring tears to patriotic eyes if warranted but
Michael Barone gives a much simpler explanation for these AWOL legislators:
Quote:"Walker was staging “an assault on unions,” he [President Obama] said, and added that “public employee unions make enormous contributions to our states and our citizens.”
Enormous contributions, yes — to the Democratic party and the Obama campaign. Unions, most of whose members are public employees, gave Democrats some $400 million in the 2008 election cycle. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the biggest public-employee union, gave Democrats $90 million in the 2010 cycle.
“Follow the money,” Washington reporters like to say. The money in this case comes from taxpayers, present and future, who are the source of every penny of dues paid to public-employee unions — who in turn spend much of that money on politics, almost all of it for Democrats. In effect, public-employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic party.
Emphasis mine--JM
I believe, if the country is fortunate, this Seinfeld episode of Hope and Change, Pragmistic reality, and WTF (Win The Freedom, of course) moments will come to its pinnacled end and give us a better, stronger America. The left has miscalculated badly and done so with its usual litany of mis-directions (class wars, identity politics, name calling, etc.). Obama and his leftist allies have now nationalized another local issue. A number of union leaders want him to come to Wisconsin. He should go. Imagine President Obama standing there amidst those signs of images of 'Hitler' and 'crosshairs' trying to convince unemployed voting Americans that the special 6.9% of those still employed that are in the public sector unions should get just one more raise and one more paid sick day while the rest of America dutifully pays more taxes... if they are still working, so that this privileged minority can be so appeased.
Barack,"I owe these guys", Obama and his leftist buddies ignored the American people and they got "shellacked" in the 2010 elections
if they continue their ways they will lose even more in 2012.
JM
