President's 2012 campaign begins in Wisconsin
Image via Wikipedia...Rove has a way of framing issues that drives Democrats crazy and they will definitely go crazy over the last quoted paragraph. That it is true only makes them more crazy.
Why is the president trying to bully the Wisconsin governor? After all, Arizona, Utah, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and West Virginia are among the states to explicitly prohibit collective bargaining for public employees, which is far beyond what Mr. Walker is seeking. The answer is found in four digits: 2012.
Unlike those states, Wisconsin is a 2012 battleground. Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, told a reporter from this newspaper last week that a union defeat in Wisconsin "can put [Mr. Obama] in some danger" of losing the next election. Labor spent $400 million to elect Mr. Obama in 2008: Mr. McEntee was sending a not-so-subtle message that unions would be unable to spend so generously on his behalf in 2012 if they continue hemorrhaging members and dues money.
And hemorrhage they have. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), last year alone 612,000 U.S. workers dropped their union memberships, each representing as much as $500 in lost dues. While labor is still powerful, its decline has been precipitous among private- sector workers. According to the BLS, just 6.9% of private-sector workers (7.1 million) are unionized, while 36.2% of public- sector workers (7.6 million) are. And the number of public-sector union members is rising.
The growth of public- employee unions has paid off handsomely for some. The BLS reports the average annual wage for a state-government employee is now $48,742, but $45,155 for a worker in the private sector. What's more, the Bureau says the cost of benefits for state and local government workers has risen 50% more than those for private-sector employees since 2001.
This matters to taxpayers. Public-employee unions push to increase their numbers and get more benefits by expanding government's cost and size. This often puts them at odds with the citizens who pay the bills.
Union demands have helped produce an estimated $3.5 trillion in unfunded liabilities for state and local government pension and health-care plans. They've also led to personnel practices that tie the hands of local elected officials, often resulting in perverse outcomes. For example, union insistence on "Last In, First Out" often means the best and brightest teachers are let go when districts downsize or schools close.
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Events in Wisconsin have offered a vivid contrast between two chief executives. One (Mr. Walker) is taking meaningful steps to achieve fiscal balance. The other (Mr. Obama) is encouraging public employees to violate their contracts while his policies cause record deficits and reckless spending.
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What these unions have done to government finance is unconscionable and must be stopped. It should not be a matter for further negotiation. That is what got us in the mess to begin with.
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