Posted by
Bill Crawford on Friday, February 18, 2011 8:47:43 PM
This has all been coming for a while. The biggest accomplishment of Obama's explosion in federal spending since he took office was the flow of fed money to states, counties, cities and towns for two years, so they could kick this day down the road. Many of these non-federal entities did not have the power to print money and had to deal with lower tax revenues in 2008-2009 with the bottom line always in mind. They used tons of stimulus ,money to allow themselves some breathing room to keep things somewhat static.
With the last election and the rise of the Tea Party, that all ended, and the wall everybody has been careening towards is June 30, 2011- the end of almost every state's fiscal year. In the great laboratory of federalism, each state has gone a different way. NY and California, being the worst off, have done essentially nothing to date, for similar reasons. Andrew Cuomo has talked himself almost out of the Democrat caucus, but accomplished nothing because the state House and Senate are in virtual anarchy. Jerry Brown knows he doesn't have a chance to stop Sacramento from driving them all off a cliff, so he hasn't even tried.
Others have done the good Progressive thing and raised taxes. Illinois and Connecticut are both trying to lead the way on this. Wisconsin, New Jersey and Ohio went after spending, and it stood to reason that there were so many sacred cows out there that a fight would be picked somewhere along the line.
I wasn't expecting a single flashpoint, however, and Wisconsin is certainly serving itself up for that. The public service unions know that their hard fought contract gains are being threatened, and as the old saying goes, they've decided that this is the mountain they are going to die on.
And what a circus it is. It has been enough here to put the incredible popular unrest still going on in earnest in the Middle East and shunt it off camera. The teacher's unions, barred from striking, have all called out en masse -wink, wink- and shut down many school districts entirely. They have also been good enough to take busloads of students away from school, too, to give them all real-world civics lessons.
And many other unions have come in to help keep things going. They've turned the state capitol building into a party zone. It is not in use because the Democrat state Senators have bailed out to Illinois so the Republicans can't get a quorum and pass a bill everybody knows they have the votes for.
Is it a PR problem for them down the road? You bet. But I don't think that is a priority for them right now. They are fighting a survival game, and most unions in the country obviously feel that if they lose here, it will be the beginning of the end for them in many other places. Hell, if I were in their shoes, I might well feel the same way.
Walker can argue all he wants about collective bargaining not being a "right" and he is not proposing them losing any collective powers over salaries, just benefits and pensions. All this will do is raise or lower his reasonability quotient with the swing voters down the road. The unions will not budge.
You see, the unions have given back about all they think they can at this point. Many contracts over the last ten years deferred salary increases to better benefit packages, and many times there were new hiring limitations and freezes on the table. In their minds, they HAVE been making sacrifices all along. From my interactions with many of them, they think their sacrifices have been the equivalent of the private sector, and they are happy to use that as a talking point.
And that is where they will fail. It's not as if I found this equivalency questionable. I thought it was uproariously funny. The average federal worker has a pay package (salary, benefits, pension, etc.) that is TWICE the average in the private sector. Many states are somewhere in between, but all significantly higher. Most of us in the private sector are left to our own devices for pensions.
So I say, let this drag out. Keep the party going. Make your speeches. In time, the numbers they are fighting over in Madison will come out, and the voters will wonder where they can get the benefits that the unions there think are the new Calcutta. Take that to the polls in 2012. I've gone over those numbers. I can't wait for them to be part of the national debate.
Earth to the teachers there: do you actually think you are going to get rewarded for acting like this? You have the eternal trump card, because we're doing this for our children and the future. You're throwing more of that away than you realize.
Enjoy the circus. Watch the balloons and the Walker = Hitler signs in the capitol. Watch the DNC and "Organizing for America" (Obama's baby) bussing more people in- it's happening already. Watch the demonstrators dancing on Legislator's driveways and scaring their kids. At least the cops will make lots of OT.
This is it, folks. The battle has been enjoined, and there is no going back. Either the public workers are in charge, or the taxpayers are. This will all be settled next year. I'm looking forward to it. It's way, way overdue.
Governor Christie of New Jersey is betting his new career that getting out in front of the spending problems in our governments is a political asset going forward. The Tea Party types do, too. This is what they voted for. The circus in Madison so far only has Hatfields at the table. The McCoys have not shown up yet. That is coming. That was the unholy surprise of the Tea Party: the Democrats no longer own the streets.