The Democratic/government-union days of rage in Madison, Wis., are a disgrace. Paul Ryan calls it Cairo coming to Madison. But the protesters in Egypt were pro-Democracy. The government-union protesters in Madison are anti-democracy. In fact, Democratic legislators are fleeing the state so as not to vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cuts.
The teachers union is going on strike in Milwaukee and elsewhere. They ought to be fired. Think Reagan PATCO in 1981. Think Calvin Coolidge police strike in 1919.
Governor Walker is facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit, and he wants state workers to pay one-half of their pension costs and 12.6 percent of their health benefits. Currently, most state employees pay nothing for their pensions and virtually nothing for their health insurance. That’s an outrage.
Nationwide, state and local government unions have a 45 percent total-compensation advantage over their private-sector counterpart. With high-pay compensation and virtually no benefits co-pay, the politically arrogant unions are bankrupting America — which by some estimates is suffering from $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
Exempting police, fire, and state troopers, Governor Walker would end collective bargaining for the rest. Unions could still represent workers, but could not get pay increases above the CPI. Nor could they force employees to pay dues. And in exchange for this, Walker promises no furloughs for layoffs.
So, having lost badly in the last election, the government-union Democrats have taken to the streets. This is a European-style revolt, like those seen in Greece, France, and elsewhere. So it becomes greater than just a fiscal issue. It is becoming a law-and-order issue.
President Obama, who keeps telling us he’s a budget cutter, has taken the side of the public unions. John Boehner correctly rapped Obama’s knuckles for this. If the state of Wisconsin voters elected a Chris Christie-type governor with a Republican legislature, then it is a local states’ rights issue.
Obama should stay out. And Governor Walker should stand tall and stick to his principles. Otherwise, a nationwide revolt of state-government unions will destroy the country as well as its finances.
Fire all who called in sick. There are plenty of people in this economy who will gladly move to Wisconsin and get a respectable job as a teacher at the entitlement rates Walker has proposed.
Dare I wager those who would start teaching anew might even be better than those who think it's intellectual to compare Gov. Walker to Hitler or coerce students to pick up their cause? Yeah, I think I would take that bet.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's hard to pick out any one aspect of this story as more outrageous than the rest, but it is particularly outrageous how they use their victims as stage props. It is the children who are being brought to the protests whose future will be ruined if the unions get the unsustainable levels of debt and spending that they demand.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHey -- I'm in Illinois and would gladly move . . . .
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere are some tangible ways to support the GOP and the voters of Wisconsin.
Please take a look at this post: AWOL Wisconsin Democrat State Senators: Contact Them and Demand They Show Up to Vote, and If They Don’t, Recall Them
This is a historic hinge moment. Whoever wins in this confrontation, it will have nationwide implications.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePublic employee unions are the most harmful force in America for two reasons: (1) they increase the cost and reduce the quality of public services, and (2) they co-opt state legislatures to the point that states are operated for the benefit of the unions rather than the citizens.
What is the public policy rationale for public employee unions. Are employees exploited by their government employers? Wisconsin's governor isn't going far enough.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTurn about is fair play, if the teachers want to shut down the schools, then lock them out. Let the Wisconsin National Guard occupy the schools until enough non-union teachers or those who are willing to sign a contract under the Governor's rules are found to replace them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"This is a historic hinge moment. Whoever wins in this confrontation, it will have nationwide implications."
I think you might be right.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"But the protesters in Egypt were pro-Democracy."
No, the protesters in Egypt were anti-Mubarak.
According to a Pew Research Poll conducted in 2009, 85% of Egyptians favor sharia, a system that is theocratic, not democratic.
Insofar as the teachers in Wisconsin are concerned, Walker should channel his Inner Reagan and fire them. People who are so ignorant that they equate reducing government expenditures with the Holocaust are insufficiently intelligent to instruct children.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis disgrace in Wisconsin goes to show, once again, that there is no limit to the depths the Democrats will sink to in order to subvert the democratic process, whether it be fleeing the state on buses like the rats they are to prevent a quorum or unlawfully using reconciliation to force ObamaCare on an unwilling public.
Fire the absentee teachers, smash the public workers unions. As Obama likes to say, "Elections have consequences."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI live in Madison. I've already seen a "Recall Scott Walker" bumpersticker. Many protest signs compare him to a "dictator" or even Mubarak. What an insult to people who actually have to live under dictatorships.
The response of the teachers (and then the legislators) who are against this is to not show up for work. What is this, Russia? ("we'll pretend to work while you pretend to pay us.")
Most of the people that I've talked to about this who are against it value unions a great deal and think it would have been better had Scott Walker come to them in a more conciliatory manner, so as to not be seen as in "attack" mode. I'm not so sure it would have made any difference.
I wonder how many parents had to stay home from work because school was canceled....
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, let's fire all the teachers. This great idea is put out by all of you who are grousing about having to stay home with the kids for 2 days...how about 22 or 122? Boy, we'd save a whole lot of money if we just stopped providing education at all...then we wouldn't have to worry about the teacher's union.
If the governor had gone to the unions and asked for concessions, this would be a different story. Then he could say that he asked for reasonable concessions and the unions refused. But that's not what he did...
This is union-busting plain and simple. What's next...child labor laws?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseKudlow, you know..you just show the big corporation, anti government, self absorbed ....need I say more person you have become. Look in the mirror someday and you'll see the true definition of a person who abhores the middle classes and champions the rich. Remember what happened in the French Revolution with Marie Antoinette. "Let them eat cake" she said...I think she lost her head to the guillotine...It's what's going to happen in this country as well...you will be one of the first in line.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse>"If the governor had gone to the unions and asked for concessions, this would be a different story."
What makes you think that the unions should have any say in the matter? This is an issue for the state government - not for the unions.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGovernor Walker should declare that all schools are hereby closed until further notice and that all teachers who have called in sick will either have to provide a medical excuse or be fired. He should then announce that any teacher who does not return to their jobs immediately will be forced to make the time up this summer and school will be extended to make up all time lost by teachers.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd what about using students as "useful" idiots to go with the teachers to protest? How did the kids get there? Public school buses? If so, the school district superintendents, who are not union, should be immediately fired. And Walker should spend the next two months recruiting laid off teachers from other states while his Republican Congress passes a "right to work" law.
Jan Maxwell, whould you perfer that Governor Walker lay off 6,000 public sector employees, including teachers, police and firefighters? Is that your answer? Or do you support the greedy unions (you know, how the left is always yapping about the greedy) who want all the benefits of the good times but never want to have any "skin in the game" in down times?
Walker should announce that since the Democrats abdicated their responsibilities and fled the state (or are at least hiding under their beds) and he can't get his bill passed, he will announce the names of those 6,000 that are going to lose their jobs on Monday.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh, geez, Jan. Take a breath and try not to overreact as much next time you submit a comment.
It wouldn't take 122 or even 22 days for replacement teachers to get to Wisconsin, and I have yet to see anyone "grousing" over spending two days with their children. Wisconsin tax payers are paying for their children to be at school and get an education. The teachers union, through behavior that would get them fired instantly in the private sector, has decided to take that tax money and not provide any actual service.
Child labor laws? What the heck does that have to do with anything the protest or attempted lawmaking is about? That's just silly talk from, probably, a silly person.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJust one little quibble with Mr. Kudlow's post. His last sentence should read (change in CAPITALS):
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Otherwise, a nationwide revolt of state-government unions will CONTINUE TO destroy the country as well as its finances.
Hopefully, the behavior of the Democrats and their Public-Sector union backers will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. My fervent hope is that a majority of voters throughout the country will decide that America should try to remain exceptional and not turn into Greece or Spain or Ireland...
PS..or California, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio....
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePeople like Jan think drinking milk leads to heroin addiction.
Ask Gov. Christie how that conversation went when he had a sit-down with the education union in New Jersey. Does anyone really, seriously think that Gov. Walker would have had a different result? The unions have had free reign for years; they don't take kindly to a challenge.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseChad...who is grousing? National Review is full of it - here's Jay Nordlinger: "some are having to stay home with their school-aged children, who have been locked out of their classrooms by their teachers”.
Are you so sure that replacement teachers would cross the picket line? I'm not. From what I read today, even the Green Bay Packers are on my side of this fight...so you go ahead and take the team on along with the teacher's union. I mean, the players are in the players union - and since you believe all unions are bad - let's just relocate the Packers to a state where they like unions. Oh, you may have to relocate the police as well - they also seem sympathetic to the teachers.
You apparently have some vision of enhanced learning, respectful children, and 2400 SAT scores if we only could get rid of the union....I tutor kids on the SAT and believe me, it's not the unions that cause low scores - it's uninvolved parents.
As for child labor laws... Well, if the governor wins on this, who knows what he'll do tomorrow. It's a slippery slope when Republicans are talking about their tax money.
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