About those recall elections in Wisconsin

Six Republican seats were up for recall elections in the Wisconsin State Senate last night, and the Republicans held four of them.

The Tea Party effectively smacked the vitriolic left-wing progressive movement upside the head:

…[T]he union-backed Democrats picked up only two state Senate seats in Wisconsin last night, at a staggering cost in time, effort, and of course money. One of the seats was solidly Democratic, held by a Republican due to an apparent fluke of nature. The other was held by an alleged adulterer who had moved outside his district to live with his young mistress, and whose wife was supporting his recall.

[...]

The people” were supposed to be on the side of the unions who protested at the state capitol when Walker’s bill passed, limiting the unions’ collective bargaining privileges against taxpayers and school districts. But it turns out that “the people” had other ideas. In the end, even a massive infusion of cash and union volunteers was not enough to deliver the three state Senate recall races the unions needed, despite the fact that President Obama carried all six of the seats in question in 2008.

This marks the unions’ third huge defeat in Wisconsin this year. The other two were the passage of Walker’s bill and the re-election of David Prosser to the state Supreme Court. The grand talk of recalling Walker himself next year seems a bit blustery now, given the great failure of last night.

The implications are clear:

…[A]almost 350,000 people voted in Tuesday’s recall elections — and Republicans won 53 percent of the total vote. After blowtorching the state with negative ads and benefiting from a favorable timetable, the unions could still only get 47 percent of Wisconsinites to support their effort.

This should make the unions think long and hard about whether they want to embark on a mission to recall Gov. Scott Walker next year. Doing so successfully would easily cost them five times as much as they just spent — and even with their recent deluge of cash, most of the public still didn’t support them at the polls. Additionally, the extra time will also give Walker’s reforms more time to work — and once the public sees that schools can manage their affairs effectively without being hamstrung by union regulations, organized labor’s argument gets even weaker.

When establishment Republicans talk about shying away from political battles, the “hills” that are not worth politically taking a hit for, I would urge them to look at Wisconsin.  The Republicans there, with the Tea Party having their backs, stood for conservatism, stood for true reform, and won.  Twice.

And a major hat-tip to Governor Walker who, in my book, is Republican of the Year.  He stood up to the vitriol, to the onslaught of hate and violent rhetoric from the Left, to the deluge of union money and their thuggery, all for doing his job and standing up for conservatism.  He never resorted to chest-thumping, never spoke with malice.  He just made his case to the people of Wisconsin and they voted accordingly.  All of this in the cradle of America’s modern progressive movement.

Kudos to Governor Walker, the GOP senators who won, and to the people of Wisconsin.

[Hat Tip: Memeorandum]

Collective bargaining in public employee unions

The danger is clear to anyone with a brain:

“It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”

That wasn’t Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul, or Ronald Reagan talking. That was George Meany — the former president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O — in 1955. Government unions are unremarkable today, but the labor movement once thought the idea absurd.

The founders of the labor movement viewed unions as a vehicle to get workers more of the profits they help create. Government workers, however, don’t generate profits. They merely negotiate for more tax money. When government unions strike, they strike against taxpayers. F.D.R. considered this “unthinkable and intolerable.”

 

Government collective bargaining means voters do not have the final say on public policy. Instead their elected representatives must negotiate spending and policy decisions with unions. That is not exactly democratic – a fact that unions once recognized.

Common sense, people.  Common sense.

18 GOP Senators from Wisconsin receive death threats

Pure scum:

State Sens. Joe Leibham and Glenn Grothman said they are among as many as 18 Republican senators who received a death threat following their votes to eliminate most collective bargaining powers for public workers.

The threat was sent in an e-mail late Wednesday with the subject, “Death threat!!!! Bomb!!!!” according to a copy of the letter released by Grothman’s office. The e-mail also was addressed to Sen. Pam Galloway, R-Wausau.

Grothman, R-West Bend, said the e-mail is the latest example of “a new height in incivility.” He said in recent weeks he has received obscene phone calls at all hours of the night, been jostled at the Capitol and has been shouted down during interviews.

“This is another example of the anger which is being spewed by the government unions,” Grothman said. “This has been all about intimidating … Republican legislators into bowing to the public unions, and it has only steeled our resolve.”

Grothman said he is hesitant to completely disregard the threat given the volatile atmosphere in Madison. A note shoved under his door Wednesday night said, “The only good Republican is a dead Republican.”

I’m standing up and applauding  Senator Grothman for defending his vote and not being intimidated by these violent, vitriolic union douchebags, and for speaking truth to power about what the unions try to do by intimidation.  For too long public unions have had  their way with state governments by looting taxpayers, and expecting governors to ask “how high?” whenever they say jump.

No more.  It’s time to bring an end to this insanity.

 

What a Milwaukee teacher earns vs everyone else

With benefits, they make approximately $100,000 and the average teachers’ salary is $56,000.  Per capita income in Milwaukee barely breaks $20,000:

The superintendent who’s been in the school district for nearly forty years remarks at around the 1:26 mark: 

“This is the worst financial condition that I’ve seen in the district…the costs are way outpacing the amount of money that we have…”

If you see nothing wrong with what’s in that video, then you’re part of the problem.

Governor Walker does the right thing

Here’s what Governor Walker thinks about polls:

“Polls are nice, if they are on your side,” he said. “But in the end, you’ve got to govern based upon what you think is the right thing.”

Yesterday, Scott Walker and Wisconsin Senate Republicans did the right thing and scored a bold victory and took a huge step towards relinquishing the stranglehold that public unions have on the state budget and on Wisconsin taxpayers:

Bypassing Democrats hiding out in Illinois, Wisconsin Senate Republicans voted Wednesday night to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights.

Republicans voted 18-1 to pass the stripped-down budget bill in a hastily arranged meeting. None of the Senate Democrats were present.

The State Assembly is expected to vote on the bill Thursday.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker’s so-called “budget repair bill” — a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.. 

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved that bill a short time later.

Daniel Foster:

Thanks to this bill — which doesn’t touch any of the civil service protections afforded public workers, nor any private-sector unions — public sector workers will have a choice over whether to join a union. Thanks to this bill, public workers who elect not to join a union won’t be forced to pay dues anyway. Thanks to this bill, elected officials won’t be negotiating away taxpayer dollars the people who finance their campaigns. So, naturally, the Democrats call it the the undoing of fifty years of “civil rights.”

The blowback will be brutal–from the media, the unions, the professional left, etc–and as enormous as this victory is, the work continues.  And it will be rough.  Efforts to recall the governor and the state senators have been underway for over a week now and this will only help to accelerate them. 

The governor and senators made a gutsy move, as they’re risking their political careers over their actions, but that should suit voters just fine.  Isn’t that what Americans want?  Elected officials who do the right thing, in spite of the risk to their careers? 

We can only hope that what Governor Walker has done will inspire conservatives throughout the country and do the right thing for their own constituents. 

And let’s not forget–this is a blow to President Obama, the Democratic Party and their enablers in the public sector unions, which fund it all.  The President needs the unions, or more specifically, needs their cash. 

Speaking of which, here’s an interesting take:

Barack Obama paid for, organized, and is putting on this riot.

Repeat ad nauseam. This is what Barack Obama wants. This is what Barack Obama believes. Barack Obama thinks that, if laws don’t go your way, you form a violent mob and riot.

Look very closely, America. The pictures you see from Madison tonight are of Barack Obama’s worldview.

[Hat Tip: Ann Althouse via Ace]

NJ teachers union breaks the bank on ads, close to $7 million spent in 2010

The NJEA outspent every other special interest group in the state last year, and it wasn’t even close:

The state’s largest teachers union last year spent $6.6 million on an ad campaign targeting Gov. Chris Christie’s cuts to education, according to a report issued by the Election Law Enforcement Commission this morning.

The New Jersey Education Association blanketed the airwaves last year as it warred with Christie, and spent a total of almost $6.9 million on lobbying across the board, making it far and away the special interest group that spent the most to win over the public and elected officials. [...]

The report also showed that Reform Jersey Now — an issue advocacy group tied to Christie’s closest advisers — spent $403,000 on communications in 2010. The group, which disbanded in December, raised a total of $624,000 from private donors, including ones with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts with the state.

The pro-charter school group Excellent Education For Everyone was the second highest spender on communications behind the NJEA, shelling out $458,928.

The NJEA is a union with considerable financial muscle to be sure.  That’s what happens when you have a license to steal from fellow taxpayers.

 

Pro-abortionists rally in solidarity, infanticide continues with a smirk

Gabriel Malor posts some interesting photos taken at the Wisconsin communist socialist teachers’ protests.  One of them was this:

“Abortion without apology” reads the sign.

The one benefit you can get from liberals marching in the streets is that if one looks hard enough, you get to see their true colors, what really gets them going.  Money is power, and the more money funneled to the endless array of government-funded programs, keeps them in control of their agenda. 

Take for example Planned Parenthood, which receives about a third of its financing from Federal dollars.  The organization is a veritable abortion mill:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America recently posted on its web site its so-called service numbers for 2009. This document, dated February 2011, shows that Planned Parenthood committed 332,278 surgical and medical abortions in 2009—more than in any previous year.

The document also shows that Planned Parenthood provided prenatal services to merely 7,021 women and referred 977 for adoption services. These numbers were a 25 percent drop in prenatal care clients and a whopping 59 percent decline in adoption referrals.

“Despite its protestations that abortion is only a small part of its services,” said Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, “Planned Parenthood has increased its number of abortions for 15 straight years. During that time, it has gone from committing 9.3 percent of all abortions in the United States to committing 27.5 percent.”

Sedlak also noted that Planned Parenthood now does 340 abortions for every one adoption referral and 47 abortions for every one prenatal care client.

“The records show that Planned Parenthood has committed 5,320,095 surgical and medical abortions from 1970 through the end of 2009,” Sedlak continued. “We estimate that the income from abortion accounts for 40 percent of its annual clinic income.”

Without apologies and on demand–this is what they refer to as “reproductive rights”.  Their attitude toward what amounts to infanticide is condescending and barbaric. 

[Via Memeorandum]

Senate Democrats want your money

They want it bad.  After meeting with Vice- President Biden yesterday, Senator Lautenberg cleared any misconceptions of where Democrat priorities are:

“Show me the money, show me the revenue,” Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) told reporters following a Democratic conference meeting. “People like me fortunate enough to have done okay should — must — pay more for their share of this society.”

How much money is enough Senator Lautenberg?  What’s considered “fair”?  And where will all this money go?

I think I have an idea:

 

 

Governor Walker proposes a budget

No scalpel here:

Walker, whose state faces a $3.6 billion budget shortfall, outlined a two-year, $59 billion budget that would cut spending across the board. Over $4 billion would be gutted from state coffers, a 6.7 percent reduction. “The facts are clear: Wisconsin is broke,” he said. “It’s time to start paying our bills today — so our kids are not stuck with even bigger bills tomorrow.”

Walker, who is not shy about his fiscal conservatism, takes an axe to numerous state programs in his proposal. If passed, over $700 million in education funds and over $1 billion in county and municipal aid would be slashed. That state’s Medicaid budget would be cut by $500 million. Over 20,000 government jobs would be eliminated. The state commerce department would disappear. It would also require, as his budget-repair bill stipulates, for public employees to contribute 5.8 percent of their salaries toward their pensions and pay 12.6 percent of their health-care premiums. Taxes would not be raised.

“Our budget reduces the structural deficit by 90 percent,” Walker said. “Gone are the segregated fund raids, illegal transfers, and accounting gimmicks. Gone are the tax or fee increases. Our state cannot grow if our people are weighed down paying for a larger and larger government. A government that pays its workers unsustainable benefits that are out of line with the private sector. We need a leaner and cleaner state government.”

There will be a lot of financial pain for people in Wisconsin, people who are not in public employee unions go to work everyday to feed their families, depend on state services, etc.  I hope those people realize that they have their local union boss to thank for all of that.  Scott Walker is merely trying to clean up the mess.

Keep reading Costa’s post–Walker is proposing lowering taxes and expanding school choice.  More here.

POTUS and DNC walk back support for Wisconsin protests

Last week it was reported that the Obama administration, via the OFA and the DNC gave their approval and lent their support to the union protests in Wisconsin.

Today, the administration is distancing itself from all of that:

Administration officials said Sunday that the White House had done nothing to encourage the demonstrations in Wisconsin — nor was it doing so in Ohio, Florida and other states where new Republican governors are trying to make deep cuts to balance their budgets.

And, officials and union leaders said, reports of the involvement of the Democratic National Committee — specifically Organizing for America, the grass-roots network born of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign — were overblown to start with and were being inflated by Republicans sensing political advantage.

“This is a Wisconsin story, not a Washington one,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “False claims of White House involvement are attempts to distract from the organic grass-roots opposition that is happening in Wisconsin.”

Yeah.  A grass-roots opposition that has to bus in malcontents from other states.  I believe astro-turfing  is more like it.

In reality, the DNC was caught approving of the protests last week on Twitter (screenshot via Doug Ross):

Despite the DNC and White House lies, it’s obvious that they fully support and encourage the protests by union thugs and lawbreaking teachers.  Not only that, but by association they encourage the vitriol and anger spewing from the protesters, which is exemplified in tweets like this:

“Get in their face”

Methinks the walking back of support could be attributed to the fact that the longer these protests grind out, the more Americans across the country start to get weary of “workers’ not going to work, and their union thug tactics.   Indeed it does look like more people support Governor Walker than the unions.

Look, the President is a left-wing ideologue, who sees the public sector unions as his primary base of support and approves of their methods to obtain and hold political power.  That’s just the nature of that beast.  Conservatives and anyone who’s been paying attention have known this for years.  That being said, it’s still disturbing to see the President of the United States side with an organization that represents 10-15% of the total American workforce and a select few in Wisconsin, and the filth that comes with it, against every other American.  This is what class warfare looks like.

[Hat Tip: Memeorandum]