When the Left
celebrates “choice,” they’re generally talking about one
macabre subject. They’re studiously anti-choice
on a host of other issues, because liberty
doesn’t always work out so well for them (via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel):
Wisconsin’s public employees are
leaving their unions in droves, which should be no surprise: With passage of
Act 10 in 2011, public unions in the Badger State lost many of their reasons
for being. The “budget-repair bill” pushed through the Legislature by
Republicans and signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker limited bargaining to wages
only, and then only up to the cost of living; it also required unions to
recertify each year and barred the automatic collection of union dues.
Relying on federal financial
records, the Journal Sentinel’s Dan Bice found union membership has declined by
50% or more at some unions, including the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees District Council 48, which represents Milwaukee city
and county workers. It has gone from more than 9,000 members and income
exceeding $7 million in 2010 to about 3,500 members and a deep deficit by the
end of last year.
Walker inherited a budget mess
from the administration of former Gov. Jim Doyle. He was facing a sizable
deficit and entrenched public sector unions that had big political power bases
that they used to protect their members. That often put them at odds with both
good government and overburdened taxpayers. It was necessary to ask more of
public workers — to have them pay a larger portion of their benefits. In
particular, Walker needed to get control of spiraling health care benefits.
We touched
on this effect a little over a year ago, and it seems the trend
has continued. The editorial above goes on to complain that Walker’s non-fiscal
measures, such as requiring annual union re-certification and ending compulsory
dues-paying, were unnecessarily political. He pandered by exempting first responders! His GOP
“coup” damaged Wisconsin’s political climate!
Yes, he did exempt
first responders, which I’m confident was a savvy and calculated move. Whenever
these sorts of reforms are proposed, Statists employ the strategy of holding up
police and firefighters as popular ‘victims’ of the cruel, cold-hearted
reformers. Walker denied his critics this turn-key demagoguery…..To Read More….
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