The Rude Pundit: Your Union-Busting State Sucks

[meegbear]

Man, those of us in public employee unions just fucking suck. We are awful, horrible human beings whose very existence is the very thing that's going to bring about the end of the United States. Our irrational demands for health insurance and raises that just barely keep up with the cost of living and retirement funds and wages that allow us to live relatively secure lives as good consumers and homeowners and all the things that Americans are supposed to do to keep the economy going, all that is nothing but greed as we take money from people to teach their kids and fix their potholes and pick up their trash and put out their fires. Goddamn, fellow AFL-CIO members, don't you understand that only sacrificing our benefits and collective bargaining rights can save the rich pukes of Wisconsin and Ohio and New Jersey from having to pay one more fucking dime of their precious fortunes? And if we don't like it, well, if we want to protest it by, you know, striking, a right that's been stripped from us in many state constitutions, then the National Guard will deal with our traitorous asses.

That's not hyperbole. Governor Scott Walker, who teabagged his way into office, has said that if unions have a problem with his plans to no longer negotiate with them, he'll call in the National Guard to fill in for things like prison guards. And as long as they've been called, well, it's a slippery slope to anarchy, no? Walker's trying to force workers to contribute nearly double to their health insurance and start paying part of their retirement, which one could say seems like fair belt-tightening and all that. Except that it's not. It's an 11% take-home pay cut on all public employees except firefighters and cops. You know what's one way to do some of these things? Negotiate in good faith through binding arbitration and collective bargaining agreements.

But Walker wants to terminate 'em and make workers have to vote every year to see if they want to stay unionized. Funny thing is that, even in supposedly union-friendly Wisconsin (which was stupid enough to not reelect Russ Feingold for the Senate), Republicans control both houses of the legislature, and the Senate's already announced it's got the votes. So it's bye-bye collective bargaining. Oh, and right now Madison is on the verge of becoming Cairo. Thousands of people are marching against the governor's budget. You know that Walker's feeling itchy about using the National Guard to shoot some hippies.

Yep, we're the convenient scapegoats now for years of rampant tax cutting and loophole-opening. Gov. Walker, for instance, just pushed through a tax plan that will cost the state $117 million over two years. His plan for cutting workers' salaries will save the state $30 million in the next year. Now, the Rude Pundit may not be an economist, but he's pretty sure that not cutting taxes would have accomplished a fuck of a lot more.

In Ohio, Republican then-Governor Bob Taft and the legislature slashed individual and corporate taxes back in 2005 when the state had a surplus of revenue. The Buckeye State has lost $2 billion in revenue per year, and, despite the usual desperate promises of the filthy, avaricious tax cutters, Ohio has not reaped a bounty of new jobs. No, in fact, Ohio's fucked, in the hole for $8 billion, which, again, while not having a degree from the Milton Friedman School of Suck It, Hobos, the Rude Pundit can calculate that that budget shortfall would not be there without the tax cuts. And current Republican Gov. John Kasich's solution? Maybe raise those taxes back to 2004 levels? Fuck you, commie. No, it's time to get rid of collective bargaining because it's the unions that are dragging the state down.

This is the pattern. All around the nation, against public sector employee unions, Republicans are on the attack. Fuck, New Jersey's Chris Christie's probably had a hard-on for destroying teachers since his high school gym coach made his tubby ass waddle around the track. (See, that's funny because Christie is dangerously obese.)

You know who hates unions? Bosses and people who aren't in unions and therefore don't understand what it means to have a union behind them. In Wisconsin, essentially Walker's just another boss and he's got his scab labor in the National Guard ready to step in. Maybe it's time for labor to start demonstrating again that in union there is strength.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[Blue Owl]

1. The Hose Bowl

Following the Rose Bowl in January and the Super Bowl in February, now Wisconsin faces its biggest challenge yet:

Scott Walker's Hose Bowl.

[gratuitous]

2. The Milton Friedman School of Suck It, Hobos

Ooh, The Rude One said that "maybe" it's time for labor to start demonstrating again. He's inciting riots! He's dangerous! There's no telling what might happen! Call out the National Guard! Aaahhhh!!1!1!!Eleven!

Now, let's all watch Glenn Beck demonstrate, with no visible means of support, that shooting someone you don't know who belongs to an organization you've never heard of, will solve every problem facing America. But if anyone actually does something like that, you can't blame Beck, because he's just an entertainer, see. And he didn't really mean it when he said "shoot" someone.

But when the Rude One says it may be time to demonstrate "that in union there is strength," the discerning fascist mind can read an unambiguous clarion call for insurrection. Which calls for appropriate countermeasures.

[northoftheborder]

3. Texas is going to be next