Posted on 02/18/2011 1:45:01 AM PST by Scanian
When Wisconsin governor Scott Walker looked out the window of his office at the Capitol in Madison Wednesday he saw more than 10,000 people gathered to protest his decision to require public employees to contribute more to their pensions and health care. Walker says he’s not surprised that the proposed changes have generated such a ferocious response. “You’re messing with the way people make their living,” he said Wednesday in a phone interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “It’s understandable they’ll be upset.”
But Walker is unapologetic. These are difficult times. Wisconsin is facing a budget crisis. And there have to be cuts. Walker believes the changes he’s proposing are relatively modest. “I’m asking them to contribute 5.8 percent of their salary to their pension – right about the national average for contributions. And I’m asking them to pay 12 percent of their health care premiums – up from 6 percent. The national average is around 25 percent."
So Wisconsin’s public employees will still have benefit plans more generous than most workers across the country. And these steps are being taken with the express purpose of avoiding major layoffs and dramatic paycuts. But the unions don't like it.
Walker's reforms are unacceptable to protestors, many of whom are teachers participating in a “sickout” so that they can attend rallies against Walker’s proposals. And that’s ironic. According to the state of Wisconsin, the average teacher salary in Wisconsin is $49,093 annually. (With benefits, the average total compensation is $77,857.) With 190 school days per year, Wisconsin public education employees make about $258 per day. So in an effort to avoid contributing to their own pensions and funding 6 percent more of their own health care premiums, teachers have taken unpaid leave to protest and have given up nearly $500 – so far.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Educated children are every bit as important to the NEA as quality autos are to the UAW.
So in an effort to avoid contributing to their own pensions and funding 6 percent more of their own health care premiums, teachers have taken unpaid leave to protest and have given up nearly $500 – so far.
Hahaha. That’s called cutting off your nose to spite
your face.
Why do we allow Public Unions?
Go Scott Go....
Stay strong Scott. You have the majority support.
Why should government employees enjoy such benefits on the backs of taxpayers who do not, their jobs are cush, they produce no product, they are not held accountable to a standard that is measured by independents,let them see reality..
“We’re trying to stop whatever this dude is doing.”
The dude is only doing what he campaigned on and was elected to do. A voter majority approved these actions.
Many of these protesters are from out of state. and should be sent packing.
Where is the Tea Party?
Excellent point.
I had just posted my response to you and this popped up -
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2675712/posts
Great minds...I mean yours... :)
Huh? What should the Tea Party be doing: Standing guard over the capital building?
YES! How in do you expect this to pass without positive support!
It would have made him appear weak. It’s better this way...I hope they get a large crowd since they don’t have school kids to exploit.
I hope you are right....but in liberal states like WI, there are too many people who will view the conflict as “working people fighting for their rights” and, if the battle drags on, citizens will start feeling sympathy for the unions, even if it is to their fianancial detriment to do so.
Are the kids actually in school today? I heard the kids were figuring out they will have to make these days up.
Because they CAN.
They don’t have to negotiate with business owners who feel the pinch of making concessions to unions. They negotiate with politicians and/or bureaucrats who have no personal skin in the game.
Any proposed contracts should go to a public referendum so that the state’s “owners” can have the final say.
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