Wisconsin - What It's About. (Orig. 2/18/2011)

Things are coming to a head in Wisconsin. At this point, it looks like there could be a vote at any time. The Democrats did what they could yesterday to delay a vote and allow public pressure to build, but the smart money is betting on passage of the bill within the next few days.

The dominos are already beginning to fall. I heard on the news this morning that the Tennessee State Senate has passed a bill stripping public school teachers of collective bargaining rights. Ohio is in the process, then keep an eye on New Jersey, Missouri and Pennsylvania.

Please recognize that this situation is not about solving a budget problem. The Wisconsin bill requires public employees--with the exception of police, firefighters and state police--to greatly increase their contributions for their pensions and healthcare. That will ease a budget situation which was not created by public employees. Taking away the right to bargain collectively, making unions run what will amount to continuous campaigns to be recertified each year, refusing to deduct union dues from paychecks, and making union membership optional will not add a single penny to the Wisconsin budget. They are simply measures designed to break the union.

I could connect you with lots of writings from the Wisconsin Educators' Union, but I would really like to share 3 items with you from mainstream folks with no dog in the fight.

1) The first is a column from today's "Washington Post" by E.J. Dionne. Here's one paragraph from his column:

"But this isn't just about budgets -- or even primarily about budgets. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is drumming up a crisis to change the very nature of the relationship between public workers and the government. He would strip their unions of their bargaining rights on everything except wages. And, as The New York Times has noted, "any pay increase they win would be limited by the consumer price index." Whether you think the second is good policy or not, it essentially renders collective bargaining meaningless. Why shouldn't this be seen as a Republican governor and a Republican legislature looking for a way to strike a political blow against allies of the other party -- and using budget issues as an excuse?"

Here's the link to Dionne's entire column:  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/02/gov_walkers_overreach.html

2) Dionne refers to the lead editorial in today's "New York Times." According to the editorial: "Like many governors, he wants to cut the benefits of state workers. But he also decided a budget crisis was a good time to advance an ideological goal dear to his fellow Republicans: eliminating most collective bargaining rights for public employees. " Here is the link to that editorial:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/opinion/18fri1.html?ref=opinion

3) Dionne also refers to a column by Ezra Klein, also of the "Washington Post." Kline begins his column with this statement: "Let's be clear: Whatever fiscal problems Wisconsin is -- or is not -- facing at the moment, they're not caused by labor unions. That's also true for New Jersey, for Ohio and for the other states. Here's a link to that excellent column: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/02/unions_arent_to_blame_for_wisc.html

You may have noticed that police, firefighters and state police are exempt from the provisions of this bill. Care to guess who they supported in the last election? Oh, one other thing. It seems that the Majority Leader of the State Senate and the Speaker of the State Assembly in Wisconsin are brothers. Somehow, their father was just appointed by the governor to head the Wisconsin State Police. Curious...