Okay I have waited for the bugs to be worked out, I have commented on some diaries and recommended quite a few, so I am ready I am mad about the union bashing activities of Ohio and Wisconsin, it seems Ohio will push their anti union law across the finish line before Wisconsin does, it passed their Senate by one vote and they also have a Republican majority so Kasich will get his win.
It also turns out Walker is not so much about just busting the union he is also pushing vouchers for private schools for rich people that instead of covering families that made less than 38,000 for a family of 4 he is removing the caps and all children will be covered at private schools under the state voucher system where the parents will get back 66% of the tuition thus depriving the local school districts of the funds they should have received if the child went to public school, who will pick the students of the private schools the admission boards of course and it won't be by lottery, the kids admitted will be by the parents who are screened and the kids admitted on "merit" the merit of who they are and who their parents know and how much money they have.
In order to shove this down the throats of public schools they have to break the unions so they can increase class size to 40-60 students, close band classes, drama classes PE etc the extra's that aren't required in public schools. They also need to get rid of tenured teachers so they can impose lower wages and be able to fire "trouble maker teachers" who won't take this sitting down and shutting up. Of course the great teachers will be working at the private schools where the real money will be for smaller classes and more funds available for the "arts" that public schools will be deprived of.
Charter schools at the expense of public schools will be the downfall of public education, if people think schools are bad now wait 3-5 years and compare them then if this plan is approved. You can not remove tens of millions of dollars from public schools and expect better educations with less capabilities.
Tjis is also the republicans attempt to stop collecting union dues that contribute funds to democratic candidates for elected office, as Gov Walker has shown he is not stripping the police and firefighters of collective bargaining rights as they supported his election bid, he is only attacking the unions that used their funds to support democratic candidates across Wisconsin and are the same unions that support national democratic candidates for federal offices. This is war on unions nothing less.
Now they can't force the 14 Senate Democratic holdouts back across from Illinois state lines so now they are passing laws to penalize them a hundred dollars a day in fines for not showing up for the vote, they are banning their staffers from using state copy machines for work, and now stripping them of their state parking places. They have sent state police to their homes in the middle of the night in attempts to catch even one of them in order to get the quorom they need to pass this law.
The longer it drags out the worse the polls show how the voters in Wisconsin and across the nation feel, they support the union workers at a 77% level, yes they should make financial concession on pensions and health care and they have agreed to these demands, they reject the idea of stripping them of union bargaining rights.
I grew up in a union household, my father used to hold UAW meetings in our basement in Lansing Michigan since I was a child in the 50s, the strikes, the bargaining, the years they got contracts meant the strike war chest was used to buy a new freezer, or new winter coats, but every payday 10% went into the bank in case of the next contract going to a strike so we could make the house payment of 55 a month and buy a ham bone and navy beans and dad had to walk his turns on the picket line, if we were lucky the strike only lasted a week or two, if it was bad it lasted months. It was part of being a auto worker and a member of their family.
I thought I had escaped that life when my Dad retired and moved us to calif in 1963 and a car came off the assembly line and nearly amputated his left leg. Little did I know in the 80s I would become an aircraft painter at Rorh Industries and a union member and became a card carrying member of the IAM member, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin, the first space mechanic walks on the moon. the first man on the moon was a union member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
In 1984 I quit the aerospace industry and a pay scale of 12.00 an hour to move to the Postal Service and to rid myself of strikes and leaving my family at the mercy of strikes and lockouts by the companies. I went from 12 dollars and hour to 11.00 dollars an hour but I gained security, I would get paid every two weeks and never be laid off again, the post office didn't go on strike, President Reagan had just fired the air traffic controllers and I don't think any federal unions were willing to test his resolve again, contracts got settled.
The major difference between Postal employees and federal workers was a lot considering we had the same employer the federal government over my 20 years at the PO, a GS 5 and a PS 5 saw a pay separation grow to over 10,000 a year in difference when I left I was making 37,000 a year base wage a GS 5 made about 25,000 a year based on the generosity of the govt annual pay raises, the unions the NALC, Rural Carriers, Mail Handlers, the clerks union all negotiated seperately but overall the contracts were pretty much the same and it was President Nixon that gave us that right in 1970. He tried to get the National Guard to deliver mail but they just could not do it, he settled that contract quickly THE STRIKE THAT STUNNED THE COUNTRY
I support union workers now and have for my entire life, employers do not give wages and benefits from the generosity of their heart, if they did we would all still make 15 cents and hour and there would be no holidays, and the rich would just be richer, it's that simple.
What is going on in Ohio and Wisconsin is class warfare and nothing more and nothing less and who gains, it is not the middle class, and it is not the tax payers, it is the top 2% of the nation, the wealth holders of this nation, be it the Koch brothers, other rich individuals, hedge fund managers, people who live in gated communities, the people who pay 15% in capitol gains taxes, but I promise you it is NOT the middle class, it is not the poor and it is not the 98% of average taxpayers.
Sadly as we have watched for the past two months there has not been one bill to pass Congress to create a single job, the time has spent to push social issues, and nothing to help the economy, they demand cuts on social programs that amount to chump change, they refuse to cut oil and gas subsidies about 30-40 billion dollars, they refuse to allow a millionaires surtax to help fund the wars or the deficits, for get most of them pay 15% capitol gains taxes a far cut from the 39.6% they paid under President Clinton when this nation created 22 million jobs, and the Bush tax cuts have only pushed us deeper into deficits, after a decade no one can prove they have helped the national economy, the republicans who claim to be conservative passed medicare Part D which again costs billions and was never paid for, they fought Iraq and Afghanistan on the nations credit card and the trillions in VA medical care and compensation that will have to be paid over the next 60 years and asked NO ONE to help pay for it, except out kids and grand kids with the interest charges to go along with it, what is conservative about that, this compares to letting crack addicts pay for their drugs on IOUs signed by their kids, their parents, their nieces and nephews and people they don't even know, just give us the drugs and someone will pay you plus 30% interest in the years to come, trust me I am the government I have the full backing of the US behind this promise and we have never reneged on our obligations, so suckers pay the bills and we will get the money from you one way or another, and now we have the TEA party demanding we take it from the least among us who can afford to pay it, medicaid, food stamps, the nations poor, our school kids, where is the call for the top2% to make any sacrifice and do not tell me they create jobs, show me where, all they do is go to Tiffanys and to tahiti and anywhere else they want to spend money on jewels and vacation and 3rd and 4th homes at the beach, Snow Valley etc, but are they paying their "fair share:? Hell NO there is nothing fair about this, I know disabled veterans and their families that are sacrificing more than the top 2% are giving proportion wise and in some cases in actual funds.
We don't mind paying our "fair share" I am tired of who is deciding what is fair......get a committee of some union workers, disabled vets, some serving military members and some fire fighters and police and 2 or 3 of the top 2% put them in a room and don't let them come out until we have a fair way to pay off the deficit and what social programs are needed and which ones aren't and set what the surtax should be for the millionaires and billionaires after all their money comes from the poor and the middle class or the federal government which they all, pay for, if not it's all drug money and it should be taxed at 90% if they can't prove how they earned it legally.
I know I am a radical maybe it comes from being a totally disabled vet who has paid my dues