Obama out of touch on government labor dispute
Image by LaDawna's pics via FlickrWading back into the battle between Republican governors and public employee unions, President Obama on Monday told governors gathered at the White House that balancing state budgets will require shared sacrifice and that it doesn’t do “any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified.”I take it that he does not mean the union thugs should stop denigrating and vilifying Gov. Scott Walker who is being compared to Hitler and called all sorts of names by the protesters, many of whom are skipping work.
Mr. Obama used the shot, which seemed to be a veiled jab at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other state executives trying to curb public union rights, to defend public workers, whom he said have already agreed to sacrifice additional benefits to help close budget shortfalls.
“Everybody should be prepared to give up something in order to solve our budget challenges,” Mr. Obama told members of the National Governors Association. “Many public employees in your respective states have already agreed to cuts … I don’t think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified, or their rights are infringed upon.”
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He also does not seem to recognize how the process of collective bargaining distorts the process and plays into the hands of the corrupt bargain between Democrats who are selling out taxpayers to repay the unions for electing them at all levels of government. This inherent conflict of interest needs to be addressed if government is to get a grip on its budget.
Either the President is being extremely cynical and disingenuous or he is just out of touch. I hope it is just the latter, but I would not bet the house on it.
Notice how inane the sign held by the protester above is. Walker was just elected by a majority of voters in Wisconsin. It is ridiculous to suggest that he is a dictator, when he is asking the legislature to pass laws consistent with policies he favored during his election campaign. The insult is gratuitous and makes no sense, but that is the kind of "denigrated or vilified" response the unions have had and Obama is not criticizing them.
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