Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate boldly advance to end collective bargaining!
After an exhausting three-week stalemate, Wisconsin Republicans maneuvered late Wednesday to curb collective bargaining for public-sector workers, passing an amended budget-repair bill by an 18–1 vote in the state senate. The surprise legislative gambit stunned labor activists, who have flocked to Madison in recent weeks, and stymied the 14 Democratic state senators who fled to Illinois on February 17 in protest of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal.
“The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused,” Walker said following the vote, which occurred on short notice in the early evening. He hailed the effort as a necessary step toward closing the state’s $3.6 billion budget deficit.
This legitimate strategy (repackaging the bill into a non-appropriation measure, thus not requiring a quorum) was proposed weeks ago; and while I understand that Gov. Walker and Republican Senators were hopeful that their Democrat colleagues would return to the state for a civil debate (despite the union incivility taking place), these Republicans showed great courage in moving forward for the sake of their state and as a beacon for others.
Gov. Walker released a WSJ op ed this morning explaining why he’s fighting for Wisconsin:
Most states in the country are facing a major budget deficit. Many are cutting billions of dollars of aid to schools and local governments. These cuts lead to massive layoffs or increases in property taxes—or both.
In Wisconsin, we have a better approach to tackling our $3.6 billion deficit. We are reforming the way government works, as well as balancing our budget. Our reform plan gives state and local governments the tools to balance the budget through reasonable benefit contributions. In total, our budget-repair bill saves local governments almost $1.5 billion, outweighing the reductions in state aid in our budget.
While it might be a bold political move, the changes are modest. We ask government workers to make a 5.8% contribution to their pensions and a 12.6% contribution to their health-insurance premium, both of which are well below what other workers pay for benefits. Our plan calls for Wisconsin state workers to contribute half of what federal employees pay for their health-insurance premiums. (It's also worth noting that most federal workers don't have collective bargaining for wages and benefits.)
He ends the piece with a vigilant message:
Taking on the status quo is no easy task. Each day, there are protesters in and around our state Capitol. They have every right to be heard. But their voices cannot drown out the voices of the countless taxpayers who want us to balance our budgets and, more importantly, to make government work for each of them.
Aside from noting how Gov. Walker’s proposal reasonably chooses structural reforms over slash-and-burn cuts, Dan Calabrese writes an intriguing piece that explores just how public employee unions rig the system and why Democrats will do whatever it takes to protect this scam:
Here’s what it was all about: Real reform of government kills the Democratic Party, which has become little more than a union money-shuffling racket.
He goes to acknowledge that this battle has only begun:
Now that the reform has passed, they are going to lead recall efforts against the Republican senators who voted for it. They will never, ever accept that they simply lost on this issue, no matter how reasonable the reforms put in place as a result of the reform.
If Democrats cannot get big money from unions, they’re in serious trouble. And if unions lose their power to rig the system where state employees are concerned, they can’t come up with the money Democrats need.
Thomas Sowell took a broader swipe at the whole union myth a few days ago:
The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians.
Nothing shows the utter cynicism of the unions and the politicians who do their bidding like the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act" that the Obama administration tried to push through Congress. Employees' free choice as to whether or not to join a union is precisely what that legislation would destroy.
He went on to give multiple examples to illustrate that there’s no ‘free lunch’ for what the public unions’ actions have cost the private sector. And public unions haven’t felt the pain of the private sector because they are shielded by the government:
That is why government unions continue to thrive while private sector unions decline. Taxpayers provide their free lunch.
So while Wisconsin Republicans show the rest of their colleagues across the nation what true courage looks like in the face of the Left’s bombardment, it is important to note that this is the decisive action that it will take to get many of our states, and our Nation, back on track to a prosperous future, for the Left will never relent in their utopian march.
Conservatives far and wide should take the advice of
Wisconsin's motto printed clearly on their flag: FORWARD!
UPDATES: The Wisconsin Assembly just PASSED the bill! On to Gov. Walker's desk! Congratulations, WI Republicans...and thank you for setting a clear path for conservative resolve on the national stage.
Gov. Walker signs the bill on Friday morning stripping most collective bargaining 'privileges' from state public unions. These Republicans have spines of STEEL, folks! To prove so, beyond the action they took, just take note of all the crap they've had to endure from the Democrat Left over the past several weeks! Then check out this quote from Sen. Glenn Grothman that made it into an American Spectator piece: "This has been all about intimidating, be it the death threats, the screaming in the face, the late night phone calls or the recalls, this has been all about trying to intimidate Republican legislators into bowing to the public unions, and it has only steeled our resolve." RIGHT ON!
Just to get an even better idea of what these brave statesmen are putting up with, as well as what is really going on with the other side (that the mainstream media refuses to address), here are a few choice excerpts from that same article:
Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry said Republicans had denied Wisconsin citizens a "voice." OK, just so we have this straight, fleeing the state to strip the majority of the duly elected Senate of a quorum, shutting down the capitol building, and intimidating the majority with phone and e-mail threats is OK, but passing a bill by majority vote after getting the OK of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Reference Bureau is silencing the people?
Gov. Scott Walker won election last fall with 52 percent of the vote. The state Senate went from 18-15 Democrat to 19-14 Republican. The Assembly went from 50-45 Democrat (with two independents) to 60-38 Republican (with one independent). Sen. Russ Feingold lost the seat he'd held for 18 years, and the House seat Obey held for 41 years went Republican.
It was a Republican electoral victory of historic proportions. And the Democrats and public-sector labor unions are trying to undo it by shutting down the legislature, intimidating the majority, and removing fairly elected politicians simply because they disagree with them. In Wisconsin, it's not the Republicans who are subverting the will of the people.
Right on, right on! To paraphase Obama, "Elections have consequences...and WE won!"
