Democrats: In the way and on the run
By JR Hoeft | Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 | Columns, PolicyFrom my Daily Press column today:
Governments across the nation are facing the harsh reality of years of overspending and special interests having too much access. Republicans, as they were elected to do, are leading the charge to promote private-sector job growth and cut government spending, while Democrats obstruct, avoid or outright run away from taking action against a failed status quo.
I wrote this before seeing what is also happening in Indiana, Ohio, and, to a certain extent, Michigan. In all these states, budget deficits are crippling the government. What do they all have in common? They all have a public sector union that has forced compensation and benefits well above what the private sector earns.
This is why we have elections. We have a debate in the campaign. Then we have a debate over legislation. And then we have a vote. We don’t take our ball and go home or shout-down the opposition in debate so that they cannot be heard.
Democrats are behaving worse then petulant, spoiled children.
What does this say about the future of democracy if an opposition party, also duly elected, won’t even participate? This is quickly growing into something much larger than a discussion about collective bargaining.
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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17 Responses to "Democrats: In the way and on the run"
What a shame that you disparage civic dialogue and instead promote fighting like children in a sand box. Fact is, republicans seem to have forgotten about job creation and rushed full tilt on social, cultural, and religious issues, not only in Wisconsin, but elsewhere as well. Well intentioned people in both parties know that reducing public spending is necessary, but so is reducing tax credits and breaks for multinational corporations and for the rich. The new republican focus on labor unions, abortion, contraception, and the ten commandments ignores the mandate given in the last election; that is, jobs. Apparently, that was just to get elected.
Mike,
It seems to me that the only ones who are disparaging civic dialogue and promoting fighting like children in a sand box are the Democrats who have fled their own statehouses rather than debate the issues and let a democratic institution function as intended.
Why is it that when Republicans are in the minority and oppose legislation they are called “obstructionists,” but when Democrats flee the jurisdiction to prevent a quorum they are involved in “civic discourse?”
I’m beginning to wonder if the title “Democratic Party” isn’t an oxymoron. It reminds me of a quote from Winston Churchill, “I don’t know why they call themselves the Labour Party. They’re not the only ones in this country who work.”
Yes His Roc; it certainly helps civic discourse for you to continue with the insults. Of course, you blame the democrats in Wisconsin for leaving the statehouse, but I dare any poster herein to provide any documentation that Governor Walker ever said on the campaign trail that his first priority was to abolish employee bargaining rights. Rational citizens on both sides of the aisle, in Wisconsin or Virginia, agree that we do have a short term revenue problem and have to balance the budget. That said, that necessity should not be used as an excuse to implement social and cultural priorities under the guise of budget reform.
Mike,
Hate to tell you this but Federal workers do not have collective bargaining rights. FDR warned against it. Gov Walker isn’t even abolishing collective bargaining rights – he’s restricting them. Public sector unions are organized against the taxpayer unlike a private sector union. Historically govt workers had good benefits but very low salaries compared to the private sector because they had Job Security. Please choose between higher salary and few benefits or low salary and high benefits. Lets ban automatic union dues collection by the government as well. You want to give people a choice don’t you? These tired fact free diatribes are like Obama standing up there and saying government must live within its means as he demagogues a 5% cut in his 1.5 annual trillion dollar deficit.
Gee, last time I checked, Wisconsin was a state.
“What a shame that you disparage civic dialogue and instead promote fighting like children in a sand box.”
Huh? I must need to work on my writing skills because the whole point of my column and this post was to point out how we need to have a debate and vote on a great many things such as the federal budget, state budgets and right-to-work laws, bills killed in sub-committee, etc.
In addition, Mike, what’s disparaging about me giving you the opportunity to write a series on transportation and the ability to comment daily as much as you choose?
Mike Barrett, this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which ran the morning after Governor Walker’s victory, should qualify as documentation he was VERY clear during the campaign. Still not convinced? Read the comments by WI voters – they knew he was ready to take on public unions BEFORE the election. Excerpts:
…”Walker said he would declare an economic emergency on his first day in office and call a special session of the Legislature to address his economic plan. He pledged to bring 250,000 jobs to the state by the end of his first term and cut an array of taxes, starting with those on multi-state corporations and businesses with 50 or fewer employees.
…Once in office, one of the first challenges confronting him will be a two-year budget hole of $3 billion. He has promised to never raise taxes and will have to cut programs and find efficiencies to make ends meet. A key plank: clamping down on the wages and benefits of state employees, which is expected to meet stiff resistance from unions.” [http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/106580158.html]
J. R.,
Careful. Tread lightly here. It is only the “Democratic” blogs who block or ban posters whom they disagree with.
Gosh, I hope that Mike didn’t take that as an insult…
Well Jay D, I think that proves my point. If that is the best you can offer that he ran on dismantling the right to collective bargaining, I think you have lost the argument. The employees have already agreed to the salary freeze and the reductions in benefits in order to help reduce the budget deficit. His effort to dismantle the unions is a case too far, although he can be thanked in a sense for displaying once again that the rich can buy their influence, the working class has to have representatives.
I am just making a point: if Walker saw the unions were abusing the situation and were a large cause of the financial situation, I can understand his position of wanting to dismantle what caused the damage. It will only come back if there aren’t serious consequences.
Sometimes you have to realize that you have a good thing. Killing the goose that was laying the golden eggs may be what is going on here and on a national scale with entitlements, defense spending, and special interests profiting at the expense of the country. Why ruin a good thing?
I haven’t looked into it and can’t really comment with confidence. It could be that Walker is going too far. I don’t know. I have however, seen countless examples elsewhere where people had a much better than average deal going and lost it all due to excessive insatiable greed.
Mike, this isn’t an argument I’m willing to spend more time on winning. Behind your ‘dare’ was a false charge the Governor pulled a bait and switch on WI voters. Walker is doing exactly what he said he would do, if elected. He won plus republicans gained control of the house and the senate. And, if you’ll bother to read press reports filed during the lead up to the D’s walk out, union leaders had NO intention of budging – both sides were hissing and spitting in December. If the voters of WI aren’t happy with Walker, they can vote him out on the next round and replace the legislature with dems.
Britt, BINGO!! Overreaching is exactly why taxpayer support for state employee unions is in the toilet. When private unions overreached, industry shuttered doors or moved off shore (or to right-to-work US southern states). Without taxpayer support, legislatures can’t cut the sweet deals anymore – without risk of blow-back.
No, Jay D, that is not the case; he never promised to abolish labor unions. As you said, he commented that changes in benefits may be opposed by employee unions, but he did not run on restricting their right to bargain. His over reaching has created the spark for middle class workers to realize what he and other far right republicans really seek; that is, a straight path for their corporate masters to control the political system for their corporate benefit. Remember, the rich always take care of themselves, and the super rich make sure they are in control. This is just one more step toward corporate america calling all the shots.
Sorry Mike – can’t go there. No new vehicles in this household since 1990. Why? Because I needed over $100K to pay private school K-12 tuition for our last child because this community’s formerly outstanding public school system failed 2 decades ago. That child now attends private university costing over $40K per year – of which 3/4 of the cost is funded by evil, selfish, in control, slimy, rich bastards … who also fund scholarships and endowments for young people like our son.
Give me a break! The Promise of America is not a guarantee everyone, regardless of effort or ability (or plain damn luck!), gets an equal shot. America’s promise is regardless of your birth status, you can rise as far as your education, talent, ability, luck, hard work, and perseverance will take you. This progressive perpetuated war pitting rich against poor is disaster in waiting. Instead of blaming the evil rich, expose the tax laws, loopholes, AND legislators that write the bills you think are unfair. But as you beat your class warfare drum, remember one truism – the rich CREATE the jobs that employ you and I (unless you work for Uncle Sam) … and when the rich leave YOUR town, jobs (and financial support for community organizations, services, and churches) leave, too.
The odd thing is that Republicans think they are winning this. Gallup shows 61 to 33 opposed to taking away collective bargaining rights. Republicans didn’t run in 2010 talking about taking out unions at the same time they are granting big tax breaks to their corporate donors. Or on tighter abortion restrictions. Or on redefining rape. They ran on getting the economy moving, the unemployement rate down and repealing health care reform. They made a good faith effort at the latter, but haven’t been very serious about the other goals. So far, they’ve proposed a lot of measures that will increase the unemployment rate.
Steve, you’re cherry picking data. The USA/ Gallup poll also shows “…majorities of Democrats (approximately 6 in 10) oppose each of the three main strategies tested for reducing deficits.” IOW, democrats don’t support ANY debt reduction solutions.
The poll also shows the majority believe that public unions are MORE harmful, rather than helpful to states.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/146276/Scaling-Back-State-Programs-Least-Three-Fiscal-Evils.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=morelink&utm_term=Politics
JR wrote: “Democrats are behaving worse then petulant, spoiled children.”
I believe he was refering to the Wisconsin Republicans in the later terms in that sentence…
BTW: I’ve spoken with my fire union brothers in Wisconsin and they say (very clearly) Walker never indicated he would attack their collective bargaining rights if they supported his run for office. The fire and cops unions supported Walker but not now that he has flip-flopped and attacked them. They say he has gone power mad and wants a higher political office. Seems like a male Sara Palin…
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