by Michael Reagan
The turmoil and shocking thuggery we are now witnessing in Madison, Wisconsin, is at a level seldom seen in America in this era. School teachers, of all people, are setting bad examples for their students. Some engage in outright fraud, aided by medical doctors giving them phony diagnoses of nonexistent illnesses to give them an excuse for near rioting instead of doing their job of teaching.
There is a name for that kind of thing — it’s called a crime. You know, the kind of offense that can get you tossed in the slammer. In the process they show students how to commit fraud against their taxpaying parents.
Faced with the sorry fact that his state is flat-broke a la Greece, Gov. Walker — who has sought to reduce the deficit threatening to drown Wisconsin in debt the citizens will never be able to repay — is asking the state’s teachers to contribute to their own retirement funds, which they now enjoy virtually free of charge. To listen to the outraged union you’d think he was trying to put chains on their ankles and enslave the teachers.
Aside from the fact that unionizing government employees removes them from the status of being public servants — instead, making them into just another category of allegedly exploited workers — it also empowers them to hold the public hostage to whatever demands they care to make, no matter how unjustified.
That’s the real issue here, being studiously avoided by the dominant left-wing of the media, which grovels at the feet of the labor bosses and the Democrat Party bosses who rely on the obedient media to help keep their political campaign coffers full of union members’ dues money by slanting their reporting or simply refusing to cover the facts about dangerous union activities.
To put it bluntly, no government employee — local, state, or federal — should be allowed to join a union. To repeat: They are not your ordinary workers — they are servants of the public, a status they accept when they seek government employment. It goes with the job. In return, they can look forward to a pension or an early retirement — benefits not readily available in a lot of civilian jobs.
Early in his administration my father, President Ronald Reagan, faced a walkout by air-traffic controllers which threatened to completely shut down air travel. Their union, known as the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), went on strike — at the time a totally illegal action.
He ordered them back to work, and when the PATCO members refused, he simply fired them and replaced them.
The unions have broken Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, and California, to name a few. It is time to rein in the unions and save our states. The Reagan you are looking for is sitting in Republican governorships, not in Washington.
Why do Democrats always side with unions when they defy the public’s interests? As Jonah Goldberg cites statistics from the Center for Responsive Politics, “From 1989 to 2004, AFSCME — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — gave nearly $40 million to candidates in federal elections, with 98.5 percent going to Democrats.”
Goldberg answers the question of why an organization of local union workers contributes so generously to federal campaigns: “Because government workers have an inherent interest in boosting the amount of federal tax dollars their local governments get. Put simply, people in the government business support the party of government.”
The war cry against unions holding taxpayers hostage should be: “Remember PATCO!”
Please share this post with your friends and comment below. If you haven’t already, take a moment to sign up for our free newsletter above and friend us on Twitter and Facebook to get real time updates.
Follow @WestJournalism
Loading ...
Just an honest question: Wisconsin has lowered corporate taxes repeatedly during the past few years. Do you think that we could avoid asking the middle class to pay more if we would increase the corporate taxes back to where they were a few years ago?
NG, in answer to your “honest” question is this…yeah, go ahead and raise the corporate taxes, then watch JOBS leave! The corporate taxes were lowered to encourage job growth. If you want to further cripple the economy, start raising taxes on the sector that CREATES jobs! You think like a liberal, probably because you ARE a liberal.
But that is not what this is about. The unions have promised more than they ever knew they could pay out. This may work for a while by putting the load on the tax payers, but eventually the shortfall is going to catch up with you…which it has! This is NOT about taking anything away from these union people but asking them to HELP PAY FOR WHAT THEY ARE GETTING! Something that was OVER PROMISED to begin with. This is the most cowardly thing I have ever seen and the most selfish! The ONLY THING that WE, THE PEOPLE, are ENTITLED to is FREEDOM to do for OURSELVES. What these people are calling entitlements are actually PRIVILEGES, not inalienable rights as they seem to believe.
The greatness of Calvin Coolidge has been overlooked for many, many years. He was a greater man and President than what history has told us.
Public Sector Unions to the American Taxpayers:
Sorry you have to pay out of your own wages each week for your “own retirement" (401k), but brother, could you dig a little deeper in your wallet and keep funding my pension also. I have a second home that needs some work done on it before I retire at 55 years of age! Keep up the good fight and support your local Public Union Worker…..and his benefits!
How can a Union member get his Union dues refund?
http://www.unionrefund.org/
Thank you for the link!
To NG
The corporate structure in this country already pay the highest taxe rate I believe in the world. It has fostered a massive exodus of firms relocating to other countries. Our country refuses to apply tariffs for imports for the largest importers, we constantly run deficits in trade which has bled the treasury, we are bankrupt. Some strong decisions have to be made, because the public sector has allowed this to go on in Washington over the last 30 some odd years we are at the point of paying the piper. Unions have at one time served a purpose today the are power crazy, way to politically involved and at times have swindled their own membership. The public sector is just that, the PUBLIC SECTOR, they are public servants because they are paid with tax revenue, thats mine and your DOLLARS that quite frankly over the years through inniiatives and thier Union have done quite well for themselves, but like everything else today's in our goverenment its all for one and all for themselves. They are not asking them to commit themselves to slavery, just to pick up some of the cost for medical LIKE virually EVERYone else in the private sector