Face It: Teachers Run an Easy Money Scam on Fellow Citizens

RUSH: Remember, we had the audio yesterday, these teachers leading students in an anti-Walker chant, "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Scott Walker's gotta go!" Can we get rid of the myth once and for all that school teachers, anymore, are these average, ordinary (as Obama wants to say), next-door neighbors who are just doing everything they can to further the educational experience of your children?

That's not who they are. They are left-wing activists, active members of unions who are oriented first by a political agenda, second by their own well-being, and your kids come last. Can we just get that out in the open? And it's been apparent since this whole thing started.

Now they're taking these little students and turning them into pawns to advance the union agenda. And it's all about -- I know I'm gonna get in trouble for this but it's all about -- people who know full well that they're getting a deal their states can't afford, being paid for by people who aren't earning half as much as what they are paying these public sector employees.

We saw the protests in this state, we've seen them in Greece, we're going to see them in Ohio and Indiana, and it's a moment of truth. It's a moment of truth in defining what kind of country we're gonna be going forward.

Are we finally gonna put the foot down and say, "There's gonna have to be some reason and sensible action, behavior, here on how public sector employees are paid. Or is the country going to exist -- are the taxpayers of this country going to have as their first responsibility -- the lifestyle support of public sector union members?" Is that the primary reason for the existence of taxpayers?

Could these people who are making what they're making as a result of state and federal accidents, could they earn that money in the private sector on their own? Do they have the skills? Do they have the talent? Could they? Do they have the ability to even do what they're doing now reasonably well?

You see them leading the students in these protests, so let's throw out the window here this Norman Rockwell version of Miss Carter in the second grade with the little students bringing in the apples. "Hi, Miss Carter! Hi, Miss Carter! I'm ready for my math test today." That's not what's going on.

The whole educational system has been co-opted by people who have found an easy way to a good living, and they realize it and they don't want to give it up without a fight. It's always about the money, particularly from people on the left who claim they are motivated by everything but money. They're motivated by good intentions, by their big hearts. They're inspired and motivated by their desire for good works.

It's always about the money -- and as easy money as they can get. "Yeah, let's form a nonprofit! Let's form a little charity here. We'll start asking people to donate to our cause and we'll siphon some of it off and call it 'salary,' and that will be our living and we'll convince people we're oriented toward good works and a good cause."

I know this is probably not possible. I would like somehow to have a calculation on how many people in this country actually WORK for a living rather than siphon for a living. I have a sneaking suspicion that the number of people actually working for a living is decreasing and the number of people who siphon for a living is rising, 'cause it's considered easy money -- and along the way, you automatically get to call yourself an expert!

Yeah, all you gotta do is start a foundation. All you gotta do is start a 501(c)(3) or whatever and start asking for donations for the purpose of your cause. You only have to give away 10% every year. The rest you can take for salaries, or "expenses," or what have you.

You know how some of the charities, you've seen the numbers, the net that actually ends up going to the so-called cause. Which is why, by the way, all the charities we associate with on this program are basically "pass-throughs," where 95 to 100% percent dollars go to where you intend the donation to go.

RUSH: Stevens Point, Wisconsin, we start with Joe on the phones today, Open Line Friday. Great to have you here, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Okay, Rush, I love you. It's a dream come true to talk to you, and I mean I just wanted to tell you, though, that's why this hurts. Because I love you like a brother and I've been listening to you since I was 18 years old, but you gotta stop with the broadside attacks against teachers because there's a lot of good that happens, even in the public schools, and there's a lot of talented people working in them, and I'm one of them, and the fact that I'm, you know, where I am at the salary scale, I would never apologize for it. I believe if I was working in a private business, if I worked as hard as I do I would probably make a lot more. I mean I just want you to know, Rush, I love you like a brother but there's a lot of good teachers out here and a lot of us are conservative.

RUSH: Then where are you? How come we never hear from you conservative teachers when the school systems are being torn apart, when they're being ripped apart, when these bad apples are running the show and getting away with it? How come I only hear you when you call the program? I never see you on television. I never see you taking issue with the way the bad apples -- you're acting like I'm the one giving you guys a bad name when I'm not. I'm just reporting what I see.

CALLER: Oh, no, but I mean in general, Rush. There's a lot of good education that goes on in Wisconsin public schools, and the Stevens Point district itself. I mean we have a lot of good achievement. So I mean don't act as if like the American education is falling apart or anything like that. That's a lot of hype. I mean there's a lot of good happening, but, you know, I think the reason you don't see or hear from conservative teachers, I know because you can't really be out there that much. I mean you can't imagine how hard it is to be a conservative teacher in this atmosphere.

RUSH: Yeah, I can. 'Cause I know how hard it is to be a conservative media guy. I know hard it is to be a conservative anywhere in this country. I'm working in a business like you do that's dominated by people that don't like me.

CALLER: Yeah, that's true, but believe me, Rush, on the issue of pay, I really believe, yeah, if I worked in the corporate world for 20 years as hard as I have worked, I really don't think I have to apologize for the salary I make. And if I have to go out to the private sector, I'm not afraid of that.

RUSH: Wait a second, now, it's the second time you mentioned that, so that must be something I said that either offended you, irritated you, or bothered you.

CALLER: Well, it's an argument often repeated in this whole debate about teacher salaries and stuff like that, and would they be commensurate if they worked in the private sector, or would they be talented enough. I mean, there are teachers who work in the public schools who wouldn't be talented enough to go out into the private sector and make the kind of money they make. I will.

RUSH: That's not my question. See, this is what I can't relate to. I can't relate to somebody who makes a hundred thousand dollars a year paying me $200,000. I can't relate to that.

CALLER: I'm willing to take a cut for now, Rush, but honestly, I have high expectations, and if the public sector didn't pay me enough I would go and seek other places to make better money. It's pretty simple that way. But we also have to be on guard, Rush. This kind of atmosphere we're in is gonna almost guarantee liberal domination of education, for a long time.

RUSH: Yeah. But if you guys aren't gonna speak up about it, and if you can't, who can? Don't you have tenure? Can you be fired?

CALLER: You know, I don't even know what that circumstance is anymore. I'm 18 years in, so I mean I have tenure, but I mean I don't know the circumstances under which I can be let go.

CALLER: I don't worry about it, frankly, because if it's gonna happen, then there's a lot of other things I can go do. But I'm hoping that this opens up a door in that conservatives have a bigger voice in education, Rush, but I'm fearing that it's going to produce an even more reactionary left that gets even more political and dilutes the curriculum with a lot of political things instead of substance.

RUSH: Wait a minute, now. Wait a second now. If we operate on that basis all of us conservatives should just shut up. If all of us conservatives believe that speaking up against liberalism is just going to produce even more reactionary liberalism that gets even more political, what is the point of being conservative and believing in it? In my case, how many times have I said here I'm talking about bad apples, about liberals, about union bosses? If you can make more money in the private sector, then do it. You know, what is the problem? You say you're willing to take a cut, and that's the problem. It's not about what you're willing to take from the taxpayers.

It's what the taxpayers are able to pay. Somehow I have not been able to make myself clear on that. It's not about what you will accept, conservative or liberal or wherever. It's about what can be afforded to be paid and we are way beyond what can be afforded, which is the problem.

RUSH: It's teachable moment in a series of never-ending teachable moments. The left does not stop with the law. The left doesn't care.

They will do whatever. They will get these teachers, these people they want us to think of as the kind of people we see in a Norman Rockwell painting -- and they'll bring the little students up to the capitol building and make them say, "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Scott Walker's gotta go! Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Scott Walker's gotta go!"

So the left is showing us once again who they are, and what is it they're trying to preserve? What are they trying to preserve? Snerdley, what are they...? (interruption) They are trying to preserve the union money laundering operation. That is what's going on here. Never forget that that's what the public sector unions are.

They are money laundering operations. They are doing their best and pulling out all the stops to make sure the money keeps flowing. This is all about union dues. It's all about union dues which end up as campaign donations to the Democrat Party in Wisconsin and Washington, where have you. That's what's at stake.

Secondarily, make no mistake. This is a close second, and I know people don't like this word. It fits for the perception I wish to create, and that is: The freeloaders don't want to give up the gravy train. So you got freeloaders who don't want to get thrown off the gravy train.

I'm talking about the teachers, all right? Let me put it right out there: The freeloaders don't want to give up the gravy train, and the unions and the Democrats don't want to give up the money laundering operation.

I'll answer this as often as it's asked, even if it is asked by me. This is not about what the teachers are willing to take from the taxpayers in terms of salary and benefits. It's not about that. It is about what the taxpayers are able to pay. Wisconsin's taxpayers cannot afford what they are paying for a lot of things.

Federal taxpayers can no longer afford what they are paying. Now, when it comes to public sector union members, we all know that when you combine the salaries and benefit packages and the pensions and the health care until you die, their total package is (on average) twice what the people who pay them are making.

So it doesn't matter when the public sector union, whoever it is, or employee says, "I'd be able to take a little less. I'm willing to take a few dollars less." It's not about what you're willing to take! It's about what taxpayers are able to pay. Again, I, El Rushbo, live in Literalville. Realville. (sigh) I don't know.

This is a bugaboo of mine, and I know that it's not gonna create a whole lot of friends for me. I know this. But I just don't have it in me to know that somebody making $100,000 a year is paying me $200,000 -- and I certainly would not be belligerent in demanding it, and I wouldn't have the guts to run around and act like I'm owed it. But that's just me. It's just me. I also don't think things can sustain themselves this way. I just...

CALLER: Well, I was just calling to tell you that I'm doing what you have charged me to do. I'm teaching our viewpoint. I have to counteract other liberals that I work with.

CALLER: No, never, ever. I just counteract what they say, if a teacher teaches science in my school and she uses Algore's movie to teach it, when they come to my class I have to contradict what they're learning in that science class. I teach language arts, so it gives me a lot of time to have discussions with my students.

RUSH: Snuck in and out. Nobody knew I was there when I was there, but I was there. All right, Claire, I appreciate it.

This is Baron, Pensacola, Florida, next on the EIB Network. Open Line Friday. Hi.

CALLER: Yes, I was calling in reference to unions and what they develop. What I was saying was, my term for unions is they're social fetuses not for all people that are in the union, because the majority of people in the unions take a job, they appreciate the pay, they like the benefits, they're loyal where they work, but there are --

RUSH: Wait a minute. I want to make sure I heard you right here, Baron. You believe that unions are like the fetus of the Mafia?

CALLER: The structure is the same. The structure is the same. The development comes from a development to create a need and they have an entitlement and they get committed to that, and they're frustrated to think that they'd lose it. When you talked about in the Mafia, they want to dirty a guy, they dirty him, and then he's protected, and he knows that, you know, his --

RUSH: This is Baron's way of explaining the money laundering operation and how it works. When they dirty a guy up, they corrupt you, they own you, then you're paying them protection and all that. It's a problem because these fetuses are never aborted. That's your one problem with your comparison.

The majority of teachers are the same as the majority of parents: selfish animals who don’t give a damn about their children

This “home-schooling” nonsense needs to end. Most parents are not fit to home-school because they are just as stupid, demented, and evil as the leftist teachers. At the very most only about a million adults are fit for the task.

The majority of children are totally screwed and it would have been better if they were never conceived.

this nation is being held hostage by union thugs.

Definitely, the parents of 57 million+ public school primary and secondary students are being held hostage to the public school union monopoly. So long as other taxpayers are footing most of the bill, most of these parents are going to support unlimited funding for the public school union thugs.

64 million students attend primary and secondary schools in the USA. Nine percent of these are from single-parent families. 57,088,000 (89.2%) of these students attend public schools.

5 million students (7.9%) attended 33,740 private elementary and secondary schools in 2007.

In 2007, approximately 1.5 million children (2.9%) were homeschooled, up 74% from 1999 when the U.S. Department of Education first started keeping statistics.

I have to LOL that they think they could make more in the private sector.. never happen, they have no clue about the “private sector” they have fed too long at the public trough .

this nation is being held hostage by union thugs.

Right. I know we have a lot of anti-Beck listeners here but Beck is right on showing by their own words that union leadership is corrupt gangsters. Most of the leadership are communists/Marxist that force the person to join or they cannot have the job. It is a closed shop. It is anti-American and will lead to so much violence in America that we may never recover.

P.S. Did you see Letterman's Top 10 "How you know you are a public sector union member?"
#1. Your union dues cost you more than your health insurance.

One of Letterman's writers ripped off an old joke that I first heard back in the 80's.

Very funny and true though.

The majority of children are totally screwed and it would have been better if they were never conceived.

Wow—quite a rant. Who pi$$ed in your coffee this morning? I though Soothsayer’s were supposed to be calm.

"This nation is being held hostage by union thugs."

That's exactly correct.

It is way past time we did something about it.

What exactly do they have to look forward to?

Its really up to them. Life is what you make of it. It seems all my life I’ve heard people voice similar opinions. And I’m sure they said it even before I was born. Yet I’ve had a pretty good life for someone who had “nothing to look forward to”.

Lighten up.

The leftists have a way of corrupting the weak-minded and insecure children. Many people here on FR are among the small minority who had the natural intelligence and sense to overcome the insanity. Many young people are not so fortunate.

The majority of children are totally screwed and it would have been better if they were never conceived.

Some things never change do they? I'm old enough to remember that being said in the late 50's and 60's. And by the time the 70's rolled around it was almost billboard material.

Apparently you’re one of the lucky ones whose parents didn't take it to heart.

Everyone thinks public eduction is a mess, but their kids schools are fine. If you look at almost any school about 10% of the students are doing great, 10% are on their way to jail, the rest are a toss up.

The Bell Curve was not wrong.

Same logic comes into play when you ask about the Congress that has a 13% approval rating, but their own congressman is great, which is why an incumbent is rarely defeated.

The system also protects lousy students. When I was a kid, we had alternative schools, they were called reform schools, otherwise known as prisons. No one I knew wanted to go there.

Of course in those a policeman said “Stop or I will shoot.” and would you believe it, people actually stopped, unlike the standard foot race police have to engage in now.

{This “home-schooling” nonsense needs to end. Most parents are not fit to home-school because they are just as stupid, demented, and evil as the leftist teachers. At the very most only about a million adults are fit for it.}

You and John Dewey sing in perfect harmony, and look where that tune got us.

Don’t you find it strange that Beck is so unpopular on a forum dedicated to Christian Principals, and Patriotism? I have seen no evidence that Beck has posted anything but the truth. Insults about his weight or emotions substitute for reasoned debate. That is more appropriate on DU, than here.

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