Unions prove that Act 10 works

"Dear Brothers:

“We write to express our grave concern that MTEA has asked their legislators to introduce and work to pass legislation which would enable MTEA and the Milwaukee Public Schools to enter into an agreement in which MTEA would make economic concessions such as those enacted by Governor Walker’s WI Act 10.

‘The undersigned believe that such legislation would be detrimental to our members’ best interests: i.e. our Districts would likely push for similar legislation, given the precedent established by MTEA. Further, we believe such legislation will have an adverse impact on all Wisconsin public employees. Such legislation will enable Governor Walker to claim victory of his policy to reign [sic] in public employee wages and benefits. Because he did not adequately fund education, we are all currently suffering. Allowing Governor Walker to make such a claim just before the recall election will prove detrimental to recalling him and, therefore, will only enhance his ability to further harm all Wisconsin public employees.

“We ask that you immediately withdraw your request for this legislation.”

The letter was signed by the following union representatives from Madison, Kenosha, Green Bay and Racine:

Peggy Coyne, MTI President
John Matthews, MTI Executive Director
Mary B. Modder, KEA President
Joe Kiriski, KEA Executive Director
Toni Lardinois, GBEA President
Keith Patt, GBEA Executive Director
Pete Knotek, REA President
Jack, Bernfeld, REA Executive Director

This is a copy of the letter sent to the Milwaukee School District after they had requested that the WI State Legislature give them an open window in which to renegotiate fringe benefits without nullifying their existing contracts.

So, what are the unions really telling us? "Such legislation will enable Governor Walker to claim victory of his policy to reign [sic] in public employee wages and benefits." Asking the legislature to renegotiate the part of the contract affected by the collective bargaining clause of Act 10 will give Walker points to use against them in the recall. "Allowing Governor Walker to make such a claim just before the recall election will prove detrimental to recalling him and, therefore, will only enhance his ability to further harm all Wisconsin public employees."

So the Milwaukee School District rushed a contract through which left them with a deficit of $10 million dollars in their pension fund, and now they want to renegotiate to cover that deficit without nullifying the full contract. And the unions don't want them to be able to make up the deficit through contract concessions. BECAUSE....

Act 10 worked,

it brought about the ability of School Districts to bring their contracts into line with the actual cost of doing business without union collusion. This letter is another example of the thuggery the unions are willing to commit to keep the school districts in line. Because the union have been used to using school districts against each other in the negotiation process, they feel that they can use this same tactic against the Milwaukee School District now to smack them back down.

In their own words, Milwaukee wants to "make economic concessions such as those enacted by Governor Walker’s WI Act 10." They themselves are admitting that ACT 10 has worked, is working and will continue to work. That is why they have to redirect the argument back to the collective bargaining that they lost. If they can re-frame the argument back to collective bargaining they think they have the moral high ground.

But as long as the school districts are thriving financially, the unions will continue to lose the argument...financially. And having only 15% of the working class in the public unions, they will continue to lose the argument as long as the taxpayers see the benefits financially as well. And their antics during the protests and their death threats to opponents have also weakened their position.

The unions, by their own admission, admit that Act 10 has done what it was promised to do. Make school districts better able to control their budgets, and save money. You heard it from the Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, and Racine Teachers Unions.

Why is anyone working?

Okay, I am ready to rage against the machine.

I am sick to death of the takers, "Nearly half of the US population (49.5%) does not pay any federal income taxes," Heritage Foundation. So in essence 51% of the country is working their asses off and paying taxes so the other 49% can sit on their hands and just keep demanding more. The whole idea of taxing the rich so you can live in the lap of luxury is ludicrous. And to add insult to injury, "The average individual who relies on Washington could receive benefits valued at $32,748, more than the nation's average disposable personal income ($32,446)." Heritage Foundation.

So why should I work hard and pay taxes? Those lazy good-for-nothings are collecting more from the taxpayers than most taxpayers make in wages, if that is not f***ed up than I have no idea what is.

And the saddest part is, if you do some math, there is no way that we the taxpayers can afford this. If the government is giving away more than we make, and half the population is contributing nothing, where is the money coming from? Borrowing. We are mortgaging our future on lazy do-nothings.

• How the H*ll is this compassionate? Tell that to your kids when the bill comes due, "We had to make you sacrifice your future so we could lay around doing nothing and create more children to pay for our laziness." INSANITY!!
• The government is now wondering if enough tax revenues can be dragged out of the taxpayers to pay for just the interest on our debt, much less paying it off. INSANITY!!
• Our President is proposing even more spending we cannot afford. INSANITY!!
• Congress has not passed a budget for over 3 years so they have no limits on what they can spend. INSANITY!!
• The Congress has raised the debt ceiling twice since they promised they would only need a small increase to get them through to some future date. They have blown through the increases in mere months not years as promised. INSANITY!!
• We have become embroiled in additional wars in the middle east, even though we don't have money to fund these wars. Where is the anti-war crowd calling for an end to unfunded conflicts? INSANITY!!
• Now our king wants to make birth control available to all women free of charge and demands that the church pay for it when it flies in the face of their deeply held beliefs. This is a power grab of unparalleled proportions. INSANITY!!

Having found myself recently among the unemployed in this nation, I am doing the responsible thing and trying to find another job, and not taking the government handout. How many people are willing to stand up for this country and do the patriotic thing that made this country great? Hard work and sacrificing for future generations has been the hallmark of the United States. I for one want to make the future for my children better than I had it. The problem is the progressives don't believe in the future, they want to spend everything on today. Why the H*ll would anyone want to work, why would anyone want to succeed, why should anyone do anything for anyone else? There is your progressive compassion: spend it ALL today. Why should this generation sacrifice when the next next generation will pay for me?

What part of NO don't you understand?

We the Bank of America (i.e. the taxpayers) say no we will not increase your credit limit. You have not wisely spent the trillions of dollars we have already loaned you, what makes you think we can trust you with even more money. You have reached your credit limit, that is all there is to it. You can either stop spending so much borrowed money, or you can default, the choice is yours. The answer is NO.

I am also tired of everything being a "crisis" in the eyes of the Democrats. Oh for crying out loud, first it was global warming, then health care, and now the debt ceiling. It is not a crisis, you just don't want to be responsible so you make it look like the responsible party, the people who are saying no, are nothing but a bunch of party poopers who don't want to give you what you want. Suck it up, stop the temper tantrum already. SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME ON YOU!

We saw a huge temper tantrum in Wisconsin this spring, the unions were all over the place with their "Walker=Hitler" signs, the "F**k Walker" signs and all kinds of Communist slogans marching on the Capitol square. So what has happened? Why hasn't the world ended already, collective bargaining was the holy grail. The schools were going to implode, the teachers were going to get shafted and end up on the streets, the unions were going to dissolve in to piles of liquid goo, patients were going to be piled three or four to a room, and nobody was going to get their meds.

Well guess what, none of this has happened. The world goes on, in fact, of the 18,000 new jobs created in the United States this last month, 9500 or so were in Wisconsin. So unions, how is that drumming working out for you? How is "recall Walker" going to bring jobs back? Guess what, the jobs are coming back because of Walker's budget, even though you think all he did was give tax breaks to the rich. So the rich just decided out of the goodness of their hearts to hire people this last month? The companies that are hiring are doing this because they feel the pain of the unemployed and want to contribute to society. NOPE!

They are hiring because the climate to hire is more positive here in Wisconsin, they don't need to worry about taxes being raised so they can now use some of the capital they were sitting on due to the uncertainty of taxes and use it to hire some new people. That is how capitalism works, that is how profit motive works, that is how private industry works. And guess what, when private industry works, so do private industry employees who consequently are paying the taxes that pay your sorry a** wages.

Maybe someday you will also be able to grow up and become mature adults who pay their own way instead of demanding that someone else sacrifice so you can live high on the hog. The government unions have become the bane to society that was predicted so many years ago, by none other than FDR.

This video explains it so well.

The answer is to tax the rich more?

The tax man cometh!

General Purpose Revenue (GPR) Taxes By Source

GPR Tax Collections

($ Millions)

% of % of Change %

Tax Source FY 09 Total FY 08 Total FY09-FY08 Change

Individual Income $6,222.7 51.4% $6,713.7 51.5% $-491.0 -7.3%

General Sales & Use 4,084.0 33.7% 4,268.0 32.7% -184.0 -4.3%

Corporation Franchise & Income 629.5 5.2% 837.8 6.4% -208.3 -24.9%

Excise 647.6 5.4% 540.2 4.2% 107.4 19.9%

Inheritance, Estate & Gift 20.9 0.2% 158.8 1.2% -137.9 -86.8%

Public Utility 320.1 2.6% 297.5 2.3% 22.6 7.6%

Insurance Companies 136.3 1.1% 156.6 1.2% -20.3 -13.0%

Miscellaneous 52.1 0.4% 70.3 0.5% -18.2 -25.9%

TOTAL GPR $12,113.2 100.0% $13,042.9 100.0% $-929.7 -7.1%

Taken from the Annual Fiscal Report FY2009 http://www.doa.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=7830&locid=3

What all these numbers add up to is the amount of money that the taxpayers put into the running of the state of Wisconsin.

The total we need here is 12.1 billions dollars, this is the total amount that the taxpayers contributed to the legislature. And what kind of influence did we buy with our money? A big fat ZILCH. We still don't have a seat at the collective bargaining table. The unions are spending money to get into the taxpayers pocket, and we have NO say? Maybe big business and the labor unions are no different, they are all trying to screw us. But at least I can choose to not spend my money at a business if they offend me, I have no recourse with the public sector employee contracts. The tax man tells me what to pay or go to jail. Some choice.

Taxes going up again.

Look here is the plain and simple truth. I am a taxpayer, I have not jealousy about your benefits package. I couldn't give a rip what you make, and how it is funded. But I will be damned if I am going to be told that you teachers need a raise this year, and I MUST make the sacrifice to pay you.

Okay, this is what it boils down to. I am told I will not be getting a raise, this year, so now I have to make adjustments for inflation, I have to figure out how I am going to continue to make ends meet with less money. How am I going to afford the rent, the car payment, the food, the utilities, not to mention anything left over for fun. And then I turn on the news and am told that the teachers will be getting a 4% or 5% raise, the number doesn't matter. Now I have to figure out how am I going to make a car payment that I can no longer afford, while you get to go out and buy a new car if you want to this year. Once again realize I am NOT jealous of your benefits. I am sick of being told that I need to make sacrifices for because you, for some ungodly reason, are more important to this world than anyone else. All because you teach our children, bah!, and what exactly are you teaching our children right now; how to break the law by holding an illegal strike, how to cheat the system with phony doctor's slips, how to bully people by holding the government hostage, how to swear and disrespect others who don't agree with you. Some fine lesson you are teaching my kids. I am sick and tired of your bullshit and I am not going to pay for it anymore. If you want to teach someone kids to lie, cheat and steal from whomever you can con, than find another way of raising money. Your system is broken and very soon, if you continue this lunacy, it will also be broke. Do not think you are somehow more righteous than I am, that you are for some reason more important to society. The day you are ready to lay your life down for your country is the day you can claim that society owes you something. Our men and women in the armed services deserve more than you, and what do you have for them? Nothing but disdain. You are the maggots that are infesting our body, and if you continue down this path, the maggots infesting the rotting corpse of what used to be a damn fine country.

Who is actually paying these people?

Have you driven by this gang on the side of the road? We see this every year during construction season. Maybe this is why these projects cost so much money, and who is paying for this, you me and all the other taxpayers. And if that isn't enough, these people all probably make more than you do, even the guy in the hole doing the only, actual work.