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It didn't happen overnight. Walker's plan was publicly known since at least last August when the teachers' union rep made a statement complaining about it. WI taxpayers elected Walker on the basis of this plan.
If you've lived in WI for 69 years, how do you explain not knowing about Walker's plan to balance the WI budget and help local governments rein in runaway costs? Did you not pay attention during Walker's and Barrett's campaigns?
WI taxpayers DID NOT elect Walker on the basis of eliminating cb rights for unions. Recent polls bear that out. 52% are opposed to elimination of cb 'rights' at least the manner in which it is being done. I've seen three polls this past week - Dick Morris 54% against, Wausau Herald 55% against, Rasmussen - 52% against.
Or don't you believe any of these?
What exactly did that rep say? I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the verbalized fears of anyone on either the left or the right, especially when they are politically motivated.
Now, if Walker had said, over and over in his campaign, he would dilute union bargaining power, then I might have paid attention to a union comment.
My problem is not with elimination of these 'rights' so much as the manner in which Walker has attempted to do so.
For me and 52-55% of the Wisconsin people, this is a total surprise. You may not be surprised, but most of the public is. Somehow a whole bunch of us missed that meeting.
Balance WI budget and rein in runaway costs is not synonymous with partially eliminating cb rights, imo.
Reining in costs and balancing the budget can be a number of things, such as balance the budget via tax increases and reduction in spending, freeze on wages in the public sector, require more contributions to pension and health care. I happen to believe balancing the budget needs to require concessions on both sides of the ledger. But that's just me.
WI taxpayers DID NOT elect Walker on the basis of eliminating cb rights for unions. Recent polls bear that out. 52% are opposed to elimination of cb 'rights' at least the manner in which it is being done. I've seen three polls this past week - Dick Morris 54% against, Wausau Herald 55% against, Rasmussen - 52% against.
Or don't you believe any of these?
Gallup reports that 71% of Americans don't want to pay more of any type of tax, including property tax.
How do the public employee unions reconcile that with their expectation to be able to demand more from the taxpayers?
Quote:
What exactly did that rep say? I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the verbalized fears of anyone on either the left or the right, especially when they are politically motivated.
This:
Quote:
The state's powerful teachers union opposes Walker's plan and is signaling a fight over it if Walker is elected and moves the idea forward.
"Our members oppose taking away their rights to collective bargaining, so they would definitely raise their voices against it," Christina Brey, speaking for the Wisconsin Education Association Council, said of Walker's plan.
Walker's plan would give school boards, city councils and village boards the ability to join the state health insurance pool even if unions object.
The Barrett plan would require local governments to insure their workers through the state pool but not schools.
The state's powerful teachers union opposes Walker's plan and is signaling a fight over it if Walker is elected and moves the idea forward. "Our members oppose taking away their rights to collective bargaining, so they would definitely raise their voices against it," Christina Brey, speaking for the Wisconsin Education Association Council, said of Walker's plan.
Health insurance carriers is a very narrow construct of what Walker actually included in the BRP.
"Removal of collective bargaining rights" in the JS article referred only to which health insurance carrier the municipality could choose, NOT pension benefits.
Walker's plan to rein in costs was publicly known all along, and the fed up WI taxpayerselected Walker to enact it.
Walker's INTENT to rein in costs was publicly known.
What was NOT KNOWN was that he would immediately legislate removal of cb for benefits.
Wisconsin taxpayers elected Walker to rein in costs.
Agreed. HOWEVER,
THEY DO NOT LIKE HIS METHODS.The people of Wisconsin - 52-55% of them - OPPOSE removal of cb rights.
Why do you keep talking about Walker's plan, when the issue really is Walker's heavy-handed approach to implementing his plan?
WISCONSIN VOTERS OPPOSE WALKER'S METHODS - 52-55%. They want him to rein costs, but to take a different approach.
We shall see. Wisconsin is a joke right now because of the circus created by democratic lawmakers fleeing state. I think the majority of Americans side with Walker.
We shall see. Wisconsin is a joke right now because of the circus created by democratic lawmakers fleeing state. I think the majority of Americans side with Walker.
Well, Wisconsinites are his constituents. So, he answers to them. When he is elected POTUS, then he can worry about what America thinks.
Wait--first off, Citizens for Responsible Government is a tea party group--not a neutral media watch dog. Go check out their site. I'd give them about as much credibility as I'd give Glenn Beck
Since when is it a crime for a Mayor to contact his State representative about an issue impacting city government? Do you think perhaps that the mayor might want to avoid throwing city government into immediate chaos if the bill passed, and the entire structure changed, with no warning, especially since they were trying to wrap up contract negotiations? Remember--the initial R plan was to pass this bill in less than a week with no public debate. They even initially lied to the D's in the house about the vote time so they couldn't try to offer amendments or demand a debate. I'm sure there were lots of school boards and local governments trying to figure out what was going on. A request to buy time was not unreasonable--bills like this are usually passed with months of debate, and time to make plans.
If the mayor was trying to do a sneaky backroom deal, do you think he would have put it in a written request to the rep? You've got to be kidding me. This was about as above board as it gets.
Where, any place in all of this, do the unions come in? Did they contact the state rep? The accusation of collusion has absolutely nothing to back it up that I can see.
Last--it didn't happen. They didn't slow down the printing of the bill. The request was rejected. FOX couldn't find any record of the Dem Senators leaving for any of these reasons--they admitted that in your own link and FOX broadcast.
Are you this desperate?
Are you trying to say that you don't know the difference between Fox News and the local Fox channels that are all over the country? If so you just attacked the local channel that Sanrene's link was from along with the Fox News (national) and I think you did it not knowing the real deal.
Wait--first off, Citizens for Responsible Government is a tea party group--not a neutral media watch dog. Go check out their site. I'd give them about as much credibility as I'd give Glenn Beck
Since when is it a crime for a Mayor to contact his State representative about an issue impacting city government? Do you think perhaps that the mayor might want to avoid throwing city government into immediate chaos if the bill passed, and the entire structure changed, with no warning, especially since they were trying to wrap up contract negotiations? Remember--the initial R plan was to pass this bill in less than a week with no public debate. They even initially lied to the D's in the house about the vote time so they couldn't try to offer amendments or demand a debate. I'm sure there were lots of school boards and local governments trying to figure out what was going on. A request to buy time was not unreasonable--bills like this are usually passed with months of debate, and time to make plans.
If the mayor was trying to do a sneaky backroom deal, do you think he would have put it in a written request to the rep? You've got to be kidding me. This was about as above board as it gets.
Where, any place in all of this, do the unions come in? Did they contact the state rep? The accusation of collusion has absolutely nothing to back it up that I can see.
Last--it didn't happen. They didn't slow down the printing of the bill. The request was rejected. FOX couldn't find any record of the Dem Senators leaving for any of these reasons--they admitted that in your own link and FOX broadcast.
Walker's INTENT to rein in costs was publicly known.
What was NOT KNOWN was that he would immediately legislate removal of cb for benefits.
Complete BS, and here's why. Read my post on how the Wisconsin teachers' union's own insurance corporation has been overcharging WI taxpayers $50-68 million per year. http://www.city-data.com/forum/18144413-post143.html
Walker's Dem predecessor Doyle did nothing about the teachers' union's abusive overcharges for insurance for 8 years, costing taxpayers a minimum of an extra $400 million. Walker was elected by the WI taxpayers to end this and other public employee union abuses.
Sure, the unions are screaming about having this cash cow taken away, an extra $50-68 million per year is a nice take, wouldn't you say?
Walker is trying to make sure the union won't be able to scam and rip off the WI taxpayers anymore.
You complain about your high property taxes, and yet you want to continue to enable the union to rip off the taxpayers for $68 million per year (current estimate)? Really? You have no right to complain. You advocate enabling the corruption and taxpayer abuse.
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