Unions and Pensions

All right its time to write something and that something is what is going on in Madison Wisconsin. I am sure you all have heard the story and have your own opinion so lets just stick to the facts. First of all Wisconsin actually had a budget surplus for the 2011 fiscal year of about 120 million dollars. Governor Walker then gave tax breaks to business owners wiping out said surplus. Governor Walker then demanded the teachers and other public union employees not only give up some pay and benefits such as part of their pension to balance the budget, he demanded that their right to collectively bargain be ended as well. The unions then agreed to help the states deficit by giving up the pay and benefits but would not budge on their right to bargain. For two weeks there has been protesting going on at the capitol in Madison, all of it peaceful. Fox News has shown footage of rowdy protesters, but if you look at the background you catch a glimpse of some palm trees. Didn't know Madison had palm trees. So when we look at the facts, some say why should I pay tax dollars for a pension fund for public employees? Good question. It's part of their pay. Educated public employees make less than their counterparts in the private sector. In fact the average pay for a teacher in Wisconsin is 48 thousand a year. Not a lot of money for someone who has a Masters Degree which is what you need to be a tenured teacher. In return for taking less pay, they negotiate a pension. In 2003 the company I work for came to our union and told us if we did not take pay and benefit cuts they would file bankruptcy, which would destroy our pension fund. One reason our union voted for pay cuts was to keep our pensions. Since then our management has taken millions in bonuses. This is the same thing that's happened in Wisconsin without the threat of bankruptcy. I think it's crazy that Governor Walker would give tax breaks to millionaires and then try to make up the deficit by taking more from someone making less than fifty thousand a year. Communism is redistribution of wealth, but it works both ways, not just from the rich to the poor but from the working class to the rich and its going on all over this country right now. The problem with public pensions is the school administrators (management) who work a few years and then collect a full pension. Or the Governor himself who could be voted out of office after only one term and collect a pension for the rest of his life. Lets take this a step further. In Ohio, Governor John Kasich along with their legislature is trying to do the same thing Wisconsin is doing citing budget shortfalls. It doesn't help that their pension fund is about 480 million dollars short. Why is it short? Governor Kasich used to be a manager at Lehman Brothers, the now defunct investment bank. While at Lehman he convinced the state to invest 480 million dollars from its pension funds in Lehman and their toxic mortgages. Lehman is now gone and Kasich is the Governor. As Governor he wants the workers to make up for that shortfall he created. What a piece of shit. So hear are the facts. A Wall Street Journal poll (Readers who are educated, professional and generally well off) shows that 81% of people polled feel millionaires should be taxed higher. 74% of people polled said that tax subsidies to oil companies should be stopped. 72% of people polled feel that public employees should have the right to be in a union. And 68% of people polled said the Bush tax cuts should be eliminated. The government is not listening to the people any more. They listen to the businesses who give them money to get re elected and that borders on Fascism.