Obviously, the only solution is to cut corporate taxes to make Wisconsin more business-friendly. That way all the laid off teachers and uneducated high school graduates can get cushy jobs in the mines and factories.
Does anyone believe cutting the pay and benefits for public workers will actually balance the budget? I suppose if they get paid nothing, it might work.
Walker already made a huge tax cut to corporations in order to create the deficit that will be solved on the backs of workers. Walker seems emboldened. The demonstrations have not made him rethink a move he has made. I am sure he has more in mind. Some workers somewhere in Wisconsin make too much money. That must be corrected.
Sick poor people are such a pain. But cutting their medical care will solve that. They can die and go off the dole.
Pension benefits cannot be cut. The unions retain the ability to bargain on wages and there is nothing in the bill that cuts them.
The current shortfall of at least $137 million is real. The $3.5 billion hole heading into the next budget period is real.
The tax cuts don’t even take effect until July 1.
That may be technically true, but it’s whoppingly disingenuous without mentioning the constraints. For instance – and please correct me if I’m wrong, for I’m simply going by news reports and the like – raises are capped at the inflation rate, which is, at best, no raise in “real” money at all.
Similar rebuttals can easily be made to your other points.
Not trying to be disingenuous, just trying to debunk the myth that there are large wage and benefit cuts for all workers.
Thanks, I’ll look for those when I get back home tonight.
This is disingenuous.
The bill only allows them to bargain on wages as long as they do not exceed a cap based on the Consumer Price Index.
Essentially, they are limited to bargaining on wages that keep their salaries in line with inflation. They can never get a raise in essence…just maintain their current effective salaries.
Unless you mean they are free to bargain for lower wages.
The wage and benefit cuts, as I understand it, have nothing to do with the contested bargaining rights. Rather, those stem from already agreed to concessions by the unions, if only Walker (and crew) would accept them.
It’s not that they don’t work, but who in the private sector can retire at 55 with full bennies, accrue sick days till they’re blue in the face, not have to contribute to their medical plans or their retirement and then have the collective bargaining power to negotiate with their employer about the host of other items they would rather not have to pay for or things they’d rather not do. It’s insane.
Name any person in the private sector that has the same benefits.
It’s not that we don’t appreciate their work or the hours they put in, but over the years (and especially now) they’ve managed to put themselves in the role of unfairly treated underdog while fighting for benefits and pay that out-pace everyone else who can’t collectively bargain. It’s the simple truth. I am a testament to that fact. My total package (wages and benefits) is about 20K per year less than the average state worker. I feel I do as much or more in an average 8 hour day and get compensated way less.
Walker is not trying to knock these workers out, he’s merely trying to give the local municipalities the means to treat those workers in each municipality fairly. Collective bargaining does not allow each municipality to deal with its budget shortcomings or windfalls appropriately.
It’s much simpler than you guys are making it out to be.
Financial pros who killed the economy make many millions. When they retire they eat a stock portfolio and a payout worth millions. They failed miserably at their jobs and took millions for their trouble.
Most jobs have a pay ceiling. You do not go up forever. Eventually you make as much as the company is willing to pay or a s much as the job will command.. Then when a guy who just graduated comes in and will work a lot cheaper, you are fired.
First of all, it’s certainly not true in all cases. I’m a software engineer for a private company, and my medical benefits are far better than my wife’s, who is a public elementary school teacher. So much so that she didn’t sign up for her plan, and is under my plan instead.
But even if it is true in the aggregate, then instead of bringing public employees’ benefits down to the level of private employees, why don’t we focus our efforts on raising private employees’ benefits up to those of public employees? We want our society to be as good as possible, not bring everyone down so we’re all equally miserable.
It reminds me of that science fiction story where everybody is supposed to be the same, so instead of helping the stupid people become as intelligent as the smart people, they create devices to make the smart people stupid.
Upon further reading, wage increases above the rate of inflation are possible, requiring the voters to approve a referendum.
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut. And there are people on the Unions Borg Us All side of this thread that have used that image for THEIR side of the argument.
Class war! Everybody come see the commie arguing for class war!
So you have a date with a hottie and you get to talking books, and she really really likes Harrison Bergeron but it’s the only Vonnegut she’s read…
“Check, please!”
It’s only class war when we hit back.
Indeed but that does not mean they have bargaining rights. If the public deigns to grant them a raise then lucky for them.
You and I can bargain over the price of a widget I want to sell you. We are not bargaining if the price is fixed and some other group has to vote to see if I can ask for a higher price than that.
The actions of the Republican governors should have offended all working people. Yet, as this thread shows, many will turn on fellow workers with glee. Bring them down then I will be better off. How?
The public employees already made the financial concessions that Walker demanded. It is not about money. It is about union busting. Walker slashed taxes to create a deficit. Then you people think it must be real. Panic ensues.
Yet people think the Dope is some kind of Liberal sanctuary.
A piece of the teachers meat has been thrown to the people and they are ripping it apart with their teeth.
Walkers bill slashes Medicade . It is health care for the poor. Yet the bill adds money to funeral homes that bury the indigent. They will have more work to do. Seems right.
Hey, I’m not arguing for class war. Just the opposite. I have nothing against rich people. People should be able to make the most of their lives. But that includes public employees that belong to unions. If they have a better situation than some of us, I’m happy for them. They made it happen. Just as I’m happy for a person that becomes rich because of clever entrepreneurship.
Class warfare goes both ways: Against the rich-- “They have too much money!”, and against unions – “They have too much power!”. I support both the rich AND the unions.
What power do the unions have? They are under 7 percent of the work force and the Republicans have put them under siege? How is that power? They are fighting against huge corporate directed political power. They are being over powered badly in the papers and on TV.
Buffet said it was class warfare and his class won.