Last week former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich wrote a commentary entitled “Someone Has to Stop This Shameful Attack on Public Employees,” which was published on Business Insider. Reich’s comments, which essentially attribute these “shameful attacks” to an assortment of “Republican tricks,” invite a rebuttal, especially since he claims “the right’s argument is shot through...
One of the greatest misconceptions on the left may be the suggestion that “us” refers to workers (hopefully unionized workers), along with government programs and regulations, and “them” refers to big business, their friends on Wall Street, and their puppets in government. At the risk of merely presenting an opposing paradigm that is equally over-simplified,...
Here is a story of a laid-off firefighter blaming the wrong thing for his woes. Meet Jason Pickering begging for money. “We took an oath to save people’s lives … and the city just threw us to the curb,” Jason Pickering told WGN-TV. The 34-year-old Pickering, a 10-year department veteran and one of 34 Gary...
U.S. House Resolution 6484, the “Public Employee Pension Transparency Act,” will finally require public employee pension funds to adhere to the same regulations that govern private pension funds. The reason for this is clear enough – by not reporting sufficient information about the financial status of these massive funds, there is greater potential for them...
Please watch this CBS 60 Minutes interview on the crisis that states face. I have been talking about this for several years while most bloggers and nearly all of mainstream media have ignored the story. It is no longer possible to ignore the story. State Budgets: Day of Reckoning – CBS 60 Minutes Unlike the...
Cincinnati, like every union-plagued city in the country is having huge budget problems over untenable union wages and pension benefits. Big problems call for big actions. I am pleased to report that several thinking members on the Cincinnati City Council proposed to outsource the entire police department to the local sheriff’s association. Unfortunately, the mayor...
It should come as no surprise that principled Democrats are realizing that public sector unions, through relentless demands for ever higher compensation and benefits for public employees, are crowding out the social programs and infrastructure projects that Democrats love. And it is no coincidence that in the cities and counties across America where Democrats still...
California’s “Fantasy Land” budget finally comes to light of day. Jerry Brown said “We’ve been living in fantasy land. I’m shocked. The mess is much worse than I thought.” In turn, educators and unions were shocked by Jerry Brown’s and state treasurer Bill Lockyer’s statements “cuts are coming”. Brown promised more cuts but no tax...
Tim Pawlenty is the latest governor to take on unions, public sector unions in particular, as evidenced by his Wall Street Journal commentary of December 13th entitled “Government Unions vs. Taxpayers.” While it is important to note that Republicans are only somewhat immune to the agenda of public sector unions, the fact that Republicans took...
Labor luminaries such as George Meany and FDR agreed on the dangers of a unionized government. More recently, prominent Democrats such as California’s former assembly speaker Willie Brown, or current San Francisco supervisor Jeff Adachi, have found themselves criticizing or confronting public sector unions. The reason is clear – private sector unions must be reasonable...
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...
A few days ago I noted Hamtramck, Michigan Seeks Bankruptcy. That Hamtramck is clearly bankrupt, unable to bay bills, saddled with unions salaries, pension promises that cannot be met, as well as other problems it desperately needs to get rid of without burdening taxpayers even more, is of no concern to the current governor of...
In Monterey County, Maryland, the Washington Post reports the county government spends 80% of their budget on personnel costs – a not unusual percentage. In their November 27th editorial entitled “Taming Montgomery’s Unions,” they further report that in the past 10 years salaries for Montgomery County employees have gone up 50% and health and pension...
It is not the best of times for unionized workers in America. However, while some workers have become resigned to new post-recession economic realities, others seem to be living in a dream world of rigid and righteous entitlement. And not surprisingly, it seems to break down by sector — private and public. A case in...