Wednesday, February 23, 2011

DAVID BROOKS ON THE REALITY IN WISCONSIN

I don't always agree with New York Times columnist David Brooks but, I think he is spot on in his recent column concerning the goings on in Wisconsin. Here are some of the money quotes:

"Walker’s critics are amusingly Orwellian. They liken the crowd in Madison to the ones in Tunisia and claim to be fighting for democracy. Whatever you might say about Walker, he and the Republican majorities in Wisconsin were elected, and they are doing exactly what they told voters they would do. It’s the Democratic minority that is thwarting the majority will by fleeing to Illinois."
So much for the runaway Democrats who flee our democratic principles and their responsibilities when they can't get their way.

Brooks goes on:
"In Wisconsin and elsewhere, state-union relations are structurally out of whack.That’s because public sector unions and private sector unions are very different creatures. Private sector unions push against the interests of shareholders and management; public sector unions push against the interests of taxpayers. Private sector union members know that their employers could go out of business, so they have an incentive to mitigate their demands; public sector union members work for state monopolies and have no such interest. "

What the Liberal Democrats and their fellow travels in the teacher and other unions have to realize that the bad economy has finally caught up to them. Those of us who have be living under what GE executive Jeff Immelt called "the New normal" have been deal with it for awhile now. It's time for them to face reality and not keep plundering the taxpayers pockets because there is no more money there.

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