Bernie Sanders And Unions Have A Common Enemy: Scott Walker

Democratic presidential hopeful and self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders Tuesday went after Republican Gov. Scott Walker for limiting union power in Wisconsin.

“Needless to say I’m strongly opposed to his agenda,” Sanders told reporters during a phone conference, according Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I think we need leadership in this country that is ready to stand up for working families. We need to strengthen the trade union movement in this country, not break it.”

Though most of the major unions have yet to officially endorse a candidate, local unions have been increasingly moving to support Sanders. Walker, however, is loathed by organized labor for the labor reforms he passed during his first term as governor.

Though he has yet to officially announce, Walker is expected to run for the Republican nomination.

Sanders will visit Wisconsin Wednesday for what is expected to be his biggest campaign rally to date. Though he is expected to address income inequality, international trade and the minimum wage he is also likely to bringing up Walker’s labor reforms.

The reforms, known as Act 10, significantly changed the collective bargaining process for most public employees within the state. It also required public unions to hold a renewal vote every couple of years to determine if workers still wanted them. Labor unions and supporters adamantly opposed the law and even tried to get Walker thrown out of office.

“It’s worth noting that the reforms included in Act 10 eliminated requirements for seniority and tenure in schools,” Laurel Patrick, press secretary for Walker, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Many of the critics claiming these changes will cause harm are the same types of voices who said public education would be harmed because of our Act 10 reforms. Today, graduation rates are up, third grade reading scores are up, and ACT scores are second best in the country.”

Republicans in the legislature went a step further in the past year when they passed a law which banned mandatory union dues as a condition of employment. Though Walker wasn’t directly involved in creating the measure, unions blamed him anyways.

The support for Sanders among the labor movement comes despite Hillary Clinton being the frontrunner for the Democratic nominee.

Hillary lost favor with many within the labor movement for not taking a firm stance against President Barack Obama on his current trade talks. Sanders on the other hand was quick to stand oppose the trade talks.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/30/usa-court-unions-idUSL1N0ZG0R420150630

“The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to take up a case that could weaken public sector unions, a challenge by 10 nonunion public school teachers who say California’s requirement that they pay the equivalent of union dues violates their free speech rights.

The teachers have asked the court to upend a decades-old practice allowing public-sector unions to collect fees from workers who do not want union representation so long as the money is not spent on political activities.

The case comes as some Republican politicians, most notably Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, have taken aim at public and private sector unions, which generally align themselves with Democrats. In 2011, Walker signed a law that limited collective bargaining rights for state workers. Walker, a likely 2016 presidential candidate, then prevailed in a union-backed 2012 recall election.

Unions, including the California Teachers Association, had urged the court not to hear the case, as did California Attorney General Kamala Harris, a Democrat.........”

“.....Walker spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in a statement that Sanders’ comments, coupled with Obama’s visit, shows Walker’s “big bold reforms that have changed life for the better in Wisconsin” worries Democrats.

Walker was first elected governor in 2010 and within weeks of taking office he proposed eliminating nearly all collective bargaining rights for most public workers. The fight drew protests as large as 100,000 people and dragged on for weeks, but Walker prevailed.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/30/obamas-wisconsin-visit-comes-as-walker-prepares-ca/

“One can only pray that Sanders actually becomes the Democratic nominee.”

You may want to re-assess that.

While most on the right are busy with the Hillary distraction, the left is laughing because Bernie Sanders has gained more attention of the left than she has.

Hillary is little more than a diversion to keep the right off of Bernie’s back.

Remember the “Occupy” crowd? They have morphed into “Occupy Democrats”, which supports Sanders. This rather large crowd of socialist and anarchist millenials shouldn’t be underestimated. It’s pretty much the same base that helped put Obama in the White House. Twice.

And then there are those frequent news headlines that the MSM keeps pushing, such as “46% of Americans want socialism”. Do you really think that Bernie’s candidacy was just Bernie’s idea? No.. it was planned.

The main issue of the 2016 election, as far as the left is concerned isn’t about jobs or the economy, it’s: “How fast do you want full-blown socialism?”

This “inequality” jag the Democrat Party has been on shows that it REALLY IS the party of socialism.

Part of the problem in this country is that we’ve been trying to maintain too many undeserving people as “middle class,” at the expense of job creation, investment and capital formation. Scott Walker knows that, which is why he realizes that unions need to go and a true free market for labor should be re-established.

The post WWII “middle class” was nothing more than an over-privileged, over-paid invention of socialist maneuvering — starting with Roosevelt (who built upon on the damage done by the earlier “progressive” movement) before the war and continuing with EVERY president after that except Reagan.

It was never sustainable to have SO MANY people getting so much more than their economic contribution justified. Artificially high union wages, mixed with social programs funded with sky-high taxes and massive government borrowing created a Potemkin village kind of prosperity that was never going to last.

Meanwhile, while the rich got nominally “richer,” more and more of the nation’s GDP was pushed downward to fund a “right” to home ownership, and all kinds of consumer goodies (today’s version of bread and circuses) to keep people happy. It worked for a while, but it all came crashing down. And the “rich people” of today could not do anything about it if they wanted to.

John D. Rockefeller’s assets alone equaled almost 2% of GDP. If translated into today’s dollars, he would have been worth $340 billion. Andrew Carnegie would have been worth about $300 billion and Cornelius Vanderbilt just under $200 billion. Compare that to the “super-rich” Bill Gates, who is worth less than $80 billion.

The fortunes amassed before the progressive/socialist damage were vast enough to deploy capital — and do so in the capable hands of businessmen who had almost no “well meaning” regulations or restrictions to deal with. Today, we look to government printing presses for the really big money — and with predictable results.

I look forward to the time when we can once again have a legitimate, sustainable and smaller middle class — such as we had when this country was experiencing its greatest economic boom ever and great visionaries were amassing fantastic fortunes.

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