protest by public employee union members and their
allies began at the Capitol in Madison, my state's
capital city. The Democrats are trying, in various
ways --- including all of their fourteen state senators
playing "hide and seek" --- to preserve an unjust
and unsustainable status quo, manifested in the form
of a cozy collusion of public sector unions and state
government. For years, the latter approved deals
concocted with the former which cut the taxpayers
out of the action while at the same time appropriating
their money to make the payoff.
With no place at the table, Wisconsin taxpayers have
been made to foot the bill for a system where public
employees pay almost nothing toward their pensions
and pay a pittance toward their health insurance. On
the whole, a worker in the private sector makes less
than his public sector counterpart for doing the same
work, in both category and description of duties when
wages and benefits are compared. But the private sector
worker is taxed more and more in order to provide the
public sector worker with such generous compensation
on an ongoing basis. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's
budget plan would still leave state employees with a
considerable compensation package, and would not,
as the public employee unions wrongly claim, bust
those unions; they could still negotiate wages for their
members but not benefits, which is the big multiplier
for worker compensation and Wisconsinites' tax bill.
Many of the state employees have called these budget
reform measures "slavery"; what we now have, and
have had for far too many years, is truly slavery! For
making taxpayers pay increasingly onerous state taxes
in order to compensate the state workforce at greater
rates than the taxpayers themselves are compensated
in their private sector jobs is forced servitude! This,
by the way, is why employers have been fleeing my
home state for more fair and reasonable environs,
why out-of-state employers have been hesitant to
locate or expand operations here, and why retirees
on fixed incomes move to other states where in their
"golden years" they won't lose their gold!
But the public employee unions and their Democrat
sugar daddies pay no mind to any of that; they just
want us to pay more and more money into the jumbo
compensation packages that the former receives, for
which these fat cats reward their Democrat patrons
with lavish cash campaign contributions and votes.
This is what Gov. Walker, the Republican majorities
in both legislative chambers, and we Wisconsin tax-
payers are up against. As your favorite Peasant has
mentioned in a recent post, similar showdowns are
now under way or soon will be in other states. My
state is just the first battleground in this war for fiscal
sanity and economic justice. What happens here will
set the tone for the rest of the country.
My fellow Wisconsinites, let us set a triumphant tone.
Let us all stand up for our governor, who is courageous-
ly standing up for us. We each should call, fax, write,
or e-mail Gov. Walker and let him know that we are
grateful for his looking out for our interests in the face
of selfishness, greed, and hatred. Let us also contact
our representatives in both chambers who are also
standing with us and thank them as well for their
heroic actions. Together, we shall prevail!
MEM
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