[Archive] Public Response, Vol 1

I'm just going to respond to some of my comments in a more public form.

ScottD said...My tax $ should not pay anyones pensions. 401k like the rest of us.

--I completely agree. Especially in a state like Wisconsin, where the public sector is making more on average then the private sector, it's insane to suggest that the people making less money should pay for the health care and pensions of people who make more money.

Josh said...Teachers always get the butt end
HillDog said...That is rough, it's not the teachers fault though. most make little and have it generally bad.
Ashton Chase said...I feel like teachers are already underpaid as it is, but that is just my opinion.
Innovations said...teachers always get fucked over

--In Wisconsin it's the private sector employee getting the butt end. But according to some popular teaching websites, the average salary for a teacher in that state is $55,000/year. That does not include their Health Care or Pension plan benefits--things that they don't have to pay into at all, it's all free. I don't get free health care, or a free retirement plan, neither should a public employee.

Likepie said...
Senators skipping town to delay vote is BS! They are elected to vote, not to freaking hide and waste tax dollars.

--Yes, it absolutely is. This isn't a dictatorship of the minority. They need to man up, take their votes, and if it's as bad as they say it is, the Republicans will no longer have control after the next election cycle so they can change it back.

Charmander said...These people have every right to protest. Just because a guy gets elected with 53% of the votes doesn't mean those part of the 47% should put their heads in the sand if they disagree. Taking away a unions right to collective bargaining is a terrible way to lower the budget.

Charmander said...Also Walker just gave $117 million dollars in tax breaks to Wisconsin businesses and then shoved this down the state's throat with out even thinking about negotiation. You can't dictate democracy.
Sorry I will stop now. Great blog. Gotta love political debate

PoliticallyInsane said...@Charmander No, you don't need to stop.
They have every right to protest (unless they're public employees doing it during working hours, because that's illegal) but the percentage of the vote is irrelevant. By that logic, no president should have any authority at all, because almost every presidential election is that close.

Wisconsin is losing private business faster than a stoner looses his keys. Without those tax breaks, more business will leave the state, reducing tax revenue even further. Besides, that is the platform he ran on.

I'm thinking my next topic will be "Why unions are poison." :)

Thanks for your great comments! If anyone has any pro-union or anti-union stats, link 'em in the comments and I'd love to include them in my next post.

You can view the original post and any comments here; http://werepoliticallyinsane.blogspot.com/2011/02/public-response.html

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[Archive] Wisconsin!

It's such a large issue that it's hard to tackle with a single post, but I'll try.

If you're here, you likely already know what's going on in Wisconsin, so feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph. If you don't know, I'll summarize. They've got a massive budget deficit. Depending on the source, upwards of $1.9billion. One of the state's own news papers rates their state in the top ten for worst budget problems in the nation.

The paper's take

Their budget problem was a major issue in the last state elections, in which the Democrats were ousted and the Republicans who were voted in ran on a platform on fixing this problem -- and doing it without raising taxes. Not an easy task, obviously spending cuts would need to be drastic. The new bill is just that, drastic. But it's what the voter's voted for, right? In order to balance this horrible budget, the Governor and the Republican house/senate proposed a bill that hurt public employee unions. It's important to note that these public employees are making bank -- the average public employee is getting paid upwards of $100,000/year including their benefits. So, the bill cuts that, and in response the democrats who managed to hold onto their seats fled the state to avoid the vote, teachers called in sick, students weren't being taught, it's insanity.

So, now that we're all on the same page, it's time for my opinion.

1.      The teachers should all face penalties, as it's illegal for public employee's to strike, and mass sick-calls is pretty much a strike.
2.      The senators should be forced to return to the state and take their vote. These senators are paid public employees, and it's a terrible use of tax dollars to pay them to hide.
3.      This is obviously what a majority of the tax paying voters wanted, they hired (via election) to fix the budget and that's what they're doing. This is a democracy, right? What the majority votes for, everyone gets? That is why we're stuck with Obama after all, right?
4.      It takes a lot of political courage to do what the Republicans in Wisconsin are doing. Instead of kicking the problem down the road and making the next guys deal with it, they're taking the bull by the horns and trying to fix the problem. They have my support, in the next election cycle, for sure.

You can view the original post and any comments here; http://werepoliticallyinsane.blogspot.com/2011/02/wisconsin.html