Re: Wisconsin vs Total Recall
I can't speak for WI public Union employees, but here in MA, people are really starting to get fed up with their same old games. It is now a proven fact that state/Govt workers make more pay than their private sector counterparts, in many cases SUBSTANTIALLY more pay. They retire oftentimes 10-20 years earlier than their private sector counterparts. They retire with huge pensions, often jacked up through borderline legal loopholes and scams that their democratic lawmakers put in place solely for their benefit. In the meantime, private sector workers work until their late 60's or longer and have to live off of Social Security and or off of their self funded 401k's, which again, pale in comparison to the lavish pensions that most state workers get. There probably isn't enough RAM on this website to list the MA state employees that are retiring with $100K+ annual pensions. These workers get outrageously generous health insurance benefits and they keep getting them after they retire (that's right, no medicare), right up until their deaths. They get a ridiculous amount of sick days, personal days, holidays and vacation days that nobody keeps track of, then when they retire, they sell them back (even the ones they used that nobody noticed, wink, wink) for cash, with many getting hundreds of thousands in payoffs when they retire. They get automatic raises, in addition to cost of living raises and take advantage of countless scams and loopholes which allow them to stuff their pockets with more cash, retire early with bogus disability claims, be able to work two full time jobs at the same time (of course one being a no-show job), as in same hours, etc, etc, etc. The list of these shenanigans is endless. The Boston Herald lists the salaries of state workers and your jaw hits the floor after about two seconds of looking at it. Whether it's cops, firemen, gym teachers, janitors, toll booth collectors, bus drivers, secretaries, DPW workers, Electricians, it doesn't matter, the salaries are through the roof and only growing! As these public worker costs continue to skyrocket, what happens? Your property taxes go up 10% per year with no end in sight, every possible fee or tax (car registration, license renewal, excise tax, cigarette tax, meal tax, sales tax, fishing license fees, parking ticket fees, etc) in the state seems to double every couple years, not to mention the new ones they come up with every month or so. So, as a result, we now have to pay for our kids to take the bus to school, pay for them to play sports at school, our roads, bridges, highways and infrastructure in general are falling apart, we have to pay to have our garbage picked up and it's only getting worse! Have you seen what's going on in CA? They have something like a $50 Billion dollar unfunded public employee pension liability that is going to sink that state long before any earthquake does. And every last politician knows what the problem is, but not a one will dare ask the Unions for any type of concessions, better to just to go down with the ship I guess.. Unless of course, Obama does another one of his "Stimulus" packages, which are nothing more than our tax dollars being used to keep afloat the run-away freight train that the CA public workers union has become. If ONLY, the Public sector Unions could see how good they have it compared to the rest of us, and give just a little back.... but they don't, only if they get something back in return will they negotiate and even then, they usually want more back for what little they give. He11, in MA, after it was discovered that many ON DUTY firemen were high on drugs or drunk, the state eventually had to give in and give them pay raises just to allow them to be random drug tested. There are public workers getting caught left and right falsifying time sheets, stealing public property and money, threatening and intimidating people, getting caught with drugs and even dealing drugs, falsifying EMT test exams, faking injuries and nothing ever gets done. Unless you are on film with 100 witnesses having seen you murder 50 innocent children, your job is safe, end of story. Look at NJ, when in an effort to help resolve the budget crisis, Chris Christie had the nerve to ask teachers (who I might add have the best benefits of any teachers in the country) to pay something like $5-$10 more per month towards their health insurance or temporarily delay some type of cost of living raise (I forget exactly what he was asking, but it wasn't much) he had death threats made against him and they wanted to burn down the Governors mansion. Remember folks, these Public Union types are A LOT better off than the democrats would have you believe, so it's a total joke to suggest that Scott Walker or any other Governor that is trying to take away some of these Union's collective bargaining rights to help prevent a total collapse in state finances is hurting the middle class, because from where I sit, these folks are a lot better off than "Middle class", A LOT better. They have second summer homes on the Cape, with a mint boat at the local dock and go on vacations that most of us could only dream of. And worst of all, many are retired in their 50's or earlier! If you work for the MBTA for example, it's 23 years, then full retirement, can you believe that, start at 18 and retire for life at 41 with a sick pension and free health insurance for life; how can we afford such outrageous things? For the record, I have absolutely NOTHING against private sector unions, only when politicians put policies in place such as taking away a states's right to work law that serves nothing more than to kill the taxpayer. Wake up people, unless things change soon, you are looking at the Greek situation here on our own shores
