Posted on 02/21/2011 7:08:09 AM PST by SeekAndFind
There are 49 more Wisconsins waiting to erupt. At least half the states are positioned to be bankrupted by their government-employee pension systems, but even the best-governed states are facing insolvency because of a factor that is mostly beyond their control: Medicaid. It’s interesting that the first battle is being fought in Wisconsin, but that is mainly because Illinois, the true-blue embodiment of fiscal imprudence, has basically surrendered without a fight.
What does this mean for near-term politics? Leave it to USA Today to get it exactly wrong:
In last year’s congressional elections, AFSCME, the largest public-employee union, gave $2.2 million to Democrats and $10,000 to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks money in politics. In 2008, AFSCME, founded in Wisconsin in 1932, spent $2.3 million opposing Sen. John McCain, Obama’s Republican opponent.
Union support will be vital to Democrats next year, especially in battleground states such as Wisconsin, to offset the flow of corporate funds into campaigns allowed by a 2010 Supreme Court decision. Last year, 11.9% of U.S. workers were represented by unions, down from 20% in 1983, the Labor Department says.
“Offset the flow of corporate funds.” This is the old “Big Business Backs Republicans” canard. It is not true. It has not been true for a long time. It would be difficult to find any Big Business sector that backs Republicans as lopsidedly as unions back Democrats. (And let me remind you for the 11,000th time that Barack Obama & Co. were carried to power on a wave of Wall Street money, with Goldman Sachs leading the way.)
For instance, take the software industry, a very big business indeed. Out of the five biggest recipients of the software racket’s political money in 2009–10, all five were Democrats: Patty Murray, Suzan DelBene, Barbara Boxer, Charles Schumer, and Harry Reid.
What about the mortgage bankers and the real-estate gang, a.k.a. the Committee to Reinflate the Bubble? Three out of five of the bankers’ top recipients in the last cycle were Democrats — Paul Kanjorski, John Adler, and Barney Frank, purported scourge of the banking world. The real-estate lobby’s top recipients were three Democrats — Schumer again, Alexander Giannoulias, and Kirsten Gillibrand — one independent trying to defeat a Republican — Charlie Crist — and one Republican — Carly Fiorina.
What about the fine gentlemen of the private-equity industry, fighting tooth and talon to defend the carried-interest tax rules that give them an enviably low tax rate? Their top dogs were Democrats Schumer (again!) Gillibrand (again!), Reid (again!) Michael Bennet, and one Republican, Mark Kirk.
Republicans do kill with dentists and coal miners. (Although Democrat Joe Manchin was the blacklung lobby’s No. 2 recipient.)
When people scream about the wicked evil corporations and their influence in Washington, they usually are really talking about the FIRE businesses — that’s finance, insurance, and real estate. Taken together, these industries do, at the moment, slightly favor Republicans, though their two largest recipients were — see if you can guess — Schumer and Gillibrand, again and again. But it is a myth that Republicans own Wall Street, or that Wall Street owns Republicans. As Open Secrets puts it: “The sector contributes generous sums to both parties, with Republicans traditionally collecting more than Democrats. Yet in the past two election cycles, bankers have suddenly shifted their cash toward Democrats.” But look at the charts for 1990 through 2010: hardly a runaway advantage for the Republicans, and nothing like the 220-to-1 advantage the Democrats enjoy when it comes to treasury-raiding union goons like AFSCME.
The narrative of Wall Street vs. Labor in the race to buy political influence is a false one. As often as not, Wall Street and Labor are on the same side, as they were when they helped elect Barack Obama.
What do Wall Street titans and Wisconsin government employees have in common? Above-average incomes, for one thing, and tight relationships with government that help them to maintain them. You bailed out the first gang of miscreants in 2008, and a lot of them came back for more. You bailed out the second gang of miscreants under the stimulus, and a lot of them are coming back for more, too. And they will keep coming back for more until one of two things happens:
A. There’s no money left, or
B. We stop them.
My money’s on A. Where’s yours?
— Kevin D. Williamson is a deputy managing editor of National Review and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism, just published by Regnery.
Rick Snyder didn’t take the unions on directly but his $470 per child cut to school funding will lead to a fight.
I think the states that cannot meet their payroll obligations should print out ‘scripts’ or IOU’s.
That in a nutshell is the problem. Public unions should be prohibited from supporting any candidate. The old argument that they're offsetting business support of republicans is a crock. By and large business supports whoever they think will win, sort of like protection money. The proof is that most of the big Wall Street firms supported Hussein, or at least they hedged their bets.
can someone post the information regarding the Sick Out note Excuses being scrutnized by UW Health, but not the University’s medical school - wisconsin State Journal and Minneapolis-St.Paul Post Dispatch through an Ap article is starting to gain traction. I do not know how to post on FR. thanks
By and large most corporations donate to both sides. It covers their bases, just in case.
“Public unions should be prohibited from supporting any candidate. “
Shockingly, on Morning Joe, they touched on this. Joe pointed out that public workers are forced to join the union to get a job, then they are forced to pay dues, and these dues are used to support candidates that the contributing workers may not support.
It was a rare moment of backing away from communism for the bought and paid for Joe Scarbourogh.
Mika and the merry band of commies on the set were totally unmoved by Joe’s observation about the lack of democracy in support of democrats.
What about the other 7 ???? Are their residents living under rocks??? :D
What’s stopping public union members from sending in their $25 and $50 checks to the candidates they support, just as I do?
In my Michigan district nearly $8 million was spent by democrats and unions to lose. That’s one district of 15.
No, this can’t be true! Republicans...corporate interests...big business...*head explodes*
and meanwhile here in california, they just re-elected the guy who brought the unions to the state government. the unions put him in office.
One needs to know how to read and write to make out a check????
What is going on in the other 8 States? For a long time,I though that there were only 50, but I leraned from the wisest individual in the history of the world, according to the main stream media, that there were 57.
>By and large most corporations donate to both sides. It covers their bases, just in case.<
But most of the companies are lib companies. AFSCME as a union, gave $2 mil to Dumocraps while $10K is given to the GOP. It definitely is not a level playing field.
AT&T for example, last time I checked, gave close to the allowable equal sum to both parties. They covered their bases nicely. Google on the other hand when interviewed by a reporter right after the GOP win in November were shaking in their boots after some congressman said they need to be investigated and Google spokeswoman emphatically stated they gave $$ to the GOP, but it was smaller than what they give their overlord Odumbo.
California started issuing IOU’s a while back to contractors working for the state. The banks would not accept them as actual funds.
Saw it here on FR about 2 years ago.
Anybody or any group can support any candidate they wish. The problem is that public union dues are mandatory and the members have no say in how they're spent.
WI wants to end that practice. They will allow the public employees to join or continue they're union membership, but it won't be compulsory and dues will have to be paid directly by the employee, not deducted by the state.
If all 57 states did this, much of their financial burden would be lifted and the and the dems would lose much of their campaign dollars.
The tea partiers have cost the unions big money. Even in John Dingell’s district they had to spend far more than they expected to win it. The same thing happened again and again across the country where democrats expected an easy walk to victory.
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