My theory is that the protest is sustaining itself because it's actually fun. People are enjoying themselves in Madison.
Please stop saying that. It's such trash and you sound like an idiot. Taxes are the price we pay for the US have the most prisoners in the world. Taxes are the price we pay for the U.S. military budget accounting for 40% of global arms spending (six times larger than the military budget of China). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto "A heavy progressive or graduated income tax” is Plank #2 of the Communist Manifesto
His statement, along with a lot of the other posters in here, does not imply he agrees with *all* of the taxes nor *all* of the spending. Your monolithic, fingers-in-the-ears, i'm-a-hammer-and-every-problem-is-a-nail approach to government is what is really idiotic.
Tracey Bailey, 1993 winner of the National Teacher of the Year & director of education policy at the Association of American Educators, on how teachers unions are destroying American education (2/25/2011) <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vn1b7mpJluE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I agree with both of the points that you brought up as far as expenditures. I would axe the War on Drugs altogether, turning the budget around by about $100 billion a year. I would also cut ~$100 billion or more from the defense budget if I had the power. However, neither of those would retire the deficit, much less the debt. We will have to raise taxes in order to accomplish the goals of eliminating the deficit and retiring the debt. It is that simple.
Get over yourself. Unions are born of necessity, if we didn't need them, they'd go away and become obsolete, don't you support people's right to organize, "free-will/free-market" crusader?
post of the day. Of course you probably already know that arguing with rtsy is as pointless as arguing with all the other D&D trolls. (cool how both D&D's have trolls)
Oh course I do, but not government employee unions. I despise government teacher unions for all the reasons that Tracey Bailey explained. I also support the right not to join a union without getting hate the mail etc that he described.
Wisconsin Republicans Catching Hell At Town Halls <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IFflNLSKorw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The wisconsin taxpayers except for the taxpayers that belong to public unions are paying for it. Those tax payers that belong to public unions are allowed to go visit the Democratic Senators in a stretch limo, and get their own hotel room in Il. That is also at the tax payers expense. Then the tax payers foot the bill to get each Democratic runaway Senator a new home entertainment center, as well as each member of a public union. That's just what happened because of collective bargaining.
WI Senate Democrats need only 3 of the 19 republican senators to cross over to defeat the bill. Ground Shift: Are Wis. Republicans Now Getting Worn Down? http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...are-wis-republicans-now-getting-worn-down.php 1 State Sen. Dale Schultz has been publicly undecided since a week ago. Late last week, he sounded awfully critical of the bill -- and indeed, tired of the whole controversy -- in a radio interview: "All I know is, we're not talking. We're wasting valuable time about collective bargaining, which I don't ever remember being a part of the last election whatsoever. But most of all, you know, to me, this just looks like the classic overreach we see every two years." 2 And on Monday, state Sen. Robert Cowles told the Green Bay Press Gazette that Republicans should look at compromising with the Democrats, having already won the major financial concessions on union employees' contributions to their health care and pensions. "The important part is the monetary concessions. That's the part that helps balance the budget. The other things are less monetary in nature," said Cowles. "It's the challenge of the senate to go through those and find a conclusion on items that have little or no connection to finance." 3 Also on Monday, state Sen. Luther Olsen told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the Dems should be negotiated with:
Internal Affairs: The fight over Councilman Constant's missing secretary By the Mercury News Posted: 03/05/2011 07:00:00 PM PST Updated: 03/05/2011 08:29:43 PM PST http://www.mercurynews.com/internal-affairs/ci_17548349?nclick_check=1 Employees' union wants councilman to hire an assistant At a time when San Jose faces more than a $100 million budget deficit and the prospect of hundreds of layoffs, San Jose City Councilman Pete Constant is battling with a City Hall employees' union over whether he should be forced to hire an administrative assistant. Judge Kevin McKenney of Santa Clara County Superior Court recently ordered that the case be taken to a costly arbitration instead of the state's Public Employment Relations Board -- something both Constant and the city's attorneys had sought. That decision pleased the city's 214-member Confidential Employees Organization, which contends the city was required to confer with the union before Constant decided to eliminate the position. The job -- which requires answering phones, scheduling appointments and making photocopies, among other duties -- pays about $70,000 a year. "My concern quite frankly is not who decides the issues. It's getting a resolution on the core issue, which is: Who should determine how I staff my office?" said Constant, who was re-elected last year to a second term representing West San Jose. The City Council's only Republican contends that residents of the district support his ability to make decisions for them. Besides, Constant said, he prefers to do all of the secretarial work himself, with help from four full-time council aides. And he contends that the $70,000 can be better spent on things such as resource fairs, helping neighborhood associations, an online database that updates Constant's office with constituent information and inquiries, and license fees for an iPhone app that allows residents to easily report problems. But LaVerne Washington, president of the employees' association, said it is not Constant's prerogative to create his own "process and procedures," which she said conflict with labor agreements between the city and the union. "This is not just somebody's job. This was a process the city designed well before Pete Constant got there," Washington said. "It's my belief that they want some consistency and regularity in the council offices, which is why each council member has an administrative assistant." City Attorney Rick Doyle, however, said there is nothing in the union contract that prohibits Constant from not hiring an assistant. No word yet on whether his office will appeal the judge's ruling.
The Republicans took the collective bargaining part of the bill out and voted on it separately. It passed 18-1. They got around the quorum issue because it wasn't part of a budget bill, therefore proving unequivocally that it had absolutely nothing to do with they budget.
This was exactly my point. The Dems had no legislative end game and as a result, Walker was always going to get what he wanted. The only way out was for Dems to negotiate with moderate GOP Senators and create an end-around the Governor. Whether they tried or not, I have no idea. But they'd have been much better off trying to improve the compromise that the one GOP Senator offered. The Dems won lots of political points, but the people of Wisconsin got screwed.
