Addressing the Symptoms, Not the Disease
The mixture of unions and politics, is this debilitating disease destroying our government?
Newscasters and political talk show hosts continue to rail at the symptoms of an administration run amok and America’s inevitable path to oblivion. They rant about the deficits, the expensive programs, sleazy politics, idealism, the road to socialism, and what we must do to fix these problems and to “Take Back America.” However, as they are mired in the details, and as the audiences become numb to an information overload, the “disease” continues to spread. It is understood that if you’re going to cure the disease you first must make a correct diagnosis in order to prescribe effective therapy. This is not happening. People are missing the forest for the trees.
While it is true the Obama Administration has no clue how to manage or govern, the real problem lies in the political process itself and its susceptibility to ideology and corruption. Several states, including California, New York, Michigan and Illinois, have preceded the U.S. Government to the brink of bankruptcy. The media has chosen to ignore the easily identifiable symptoms, as recognizing them would run counter to the social justice issues which the media loves to utilize to justify their positions.
If you go to a doctor and you have a cough and a runny nose, it’s a pretty good bet you have the common cold, or perhaps a case of the flu. In the case of the severe financial condition plaguing our country, it’s easy to see by analyzing the symptoms that the states’ and federal government’s costs are out of control due to massive spending on wages and benefits for government sector employees combined with unsustainable entitlement programs. (See Three Reasons Public Sector Union Employees are Killing the Economy).
We need look no further than France or Greece to see ourselves in the mirror. It is time to call a spade a spade and to treat the disease. Unions were at one time necessary to prevent employer abuses; however, today they are the abusers attempting to survive extinction at any cost. Until we wake up and understand this simple fact and prescribe the necessary treatment, our great nation will continue to decline. Unions, as I have described previously, are dinosaurs that do not know how to operate fairly and honestly in today’s modern world. Instead, misinformation, defamation, bribery, coercion, intimidation and corruption are their calling cards. The union hierarchy understands that the only chance they have is to control the government and recruit government workers, since unionized employees in the private sector have fallen to around 7%. If unions are to survive extinction, government employees are their only chance, and their actions support that they are determined to seek a national monopoly. (See Unions Seek National Monopoly).
Labor unions are determined to be the new face of government. (See The New Face of the Union Movement: Government Employees). The November elections spoke volumes to the lengths they will go, and at the expense of the rank and file who’s dues they used shamelessly in their attempt to elect politicians who would in turn attempt to pass laws to increase union membership, especially in the public sector (See Union Bigs never Take Enough). However, it does not stop at the public sector. The Obama Administration, openly supporting the unions, has made appointments, given directives, and written executive orders to the DOL and NLRB that unnecessarily favor unions over business. (See Obama Admits to Favoring Big Labor).
All of this plays into the attempts of the Obama Administration and its handlers (i.e. Soros, Big Labor, and far left radicals) as they continue their plan to destroy America as we know it and to rebuild it into a socialistic state. They use the social justice premise to justify their position and a large majority of Americans and the media are naïve and gullible enough to buy the hogwash. This has nothing to do with social justice or correcting wage imbalances, it is all about money, power and survival. Don’t believe it? Harry Reid, puppet of the Obama Administration and Big Labor, is attempting to force a bill through the Lame Duck Congress titled “The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act.” This bill, like the Employee Free Choice Act, sounds great but is no more than another law to impose forced unionism on employees without a secret ballot election, this time for government / public employees! Reid, of course, owes Big Labor for their efforts in almost single-handedly getting him re-elected in November. (See Reid Pushes Union Monopolies for States in Lame-Duck Session).
Read the following articles covering the cost of unionized government employee’s wages, benefits and pensions and how they are bankrupting many states like California and the federal government, and decide for yourself if you believe Obama and his cronies should be allowed to force their will upon the American people and destroy our country’s future.
The “Golden State” Still Doesn’t Get It
Labor’s New Critics: Old Allies in Elected Office
Three Reasons Public Sector Employees are Killing the Economy
Unions Battle for Public Job Benefits
Teachers Bragging about Bulletproof Tenure!
State Pension Woes Only Worsening
The answer isn’t increasing taxes and revenue for the government (See Higher Taxes Won’t Reduce the Deficit).
We already know that doesn’t work; G.M. and Chrysler are prime examples. It’s all about controlling your costs. It’s all about living within your means and being productive. The federal government is fat, dumb and happy and is living outside its means thanks to union influence on elections over the past 30 years (See Public Unions Step Up Spending).
California, despite being on the verge of bankruptcy for all intensive purposes, remained an entirely blue state due to union shenanigans. It has become a voracious animal eating itself to death. It is the same destiny our country faces if we don’t wake up to the simple fact that we must once and for all stop the self-centered and ruthless union political machine. If not, history tells us we will become another Argentina (See Don’t Cry for Me Argentina).
Author David A. Bego is the President and CEO of EMS, an industry leader in the field of environmental workplace maintenance, employing nearly 5000 workers in thirty-three states. Bego is the author of “The Devil at My Doorstep,” based on his experiences fighting back against one of the most powerful unions in existence today.