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Wisconsin’s new Republican governor Scott Walker, Teachers Union

When Push Comes to Shove



Uncle Sam is broke. So are a lot of the states. Unlike those of us locked in a state of penury thanks to a drunken sailor policy of spending money we don’t have, a lot of politicians and labor unions insist on continuing to spend the public’s money as if there was an endless supply of it.

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There isn’t. For the most part, in many places, it’s almost all gone. When the average American family finds their income reduced for whatever reason, they are forced to adjust their spending accordingly, understanding that you can’t spend money you don’t have. That’s a simple fact Wisconsin’s new Republican governor, Scott Walker, understands. Part of his response to this crisis is a bill that would eliminate excessive collective bargaining rights for many state employees. His solution: affect significant changes to measures dealing with wages, benefits, work rules and the bargaining power of government workers. This is not a program designed to find favor with the state’s powerful teachers’ unions who have been holding the state and its citizens hostage, long extorting pay and very favorable work rules their state can’t afford to enforce and they are loathe to surrender. Faced with a situation where their Democrat state legislators are outnumbered by Republicans who support loosening the grip teachers have on their state’s education system, the Democrats have up and fled the coop, thus preventing the GOP controlled legislature from doing what Wisconsin’s voters sent them to Madison, the state capitol, to do. They crammed themselves into a school bus, of all things, and reportedly fled or are in the process off fleeing the state, apparently displaying their version of democracy in action. Needless to say, the very liberal media in this very liberal area thinks that having Democrat legislators abandon their duties and flee is all fine and dandy. Frustrating the will of the voters seems to be job one in their opinion. The governor dispatched police officers and the national guard to round up the fleeing legislators and bring them home to do their sworn duties. According to the Associated Press (AP) Democrat state senator Sen. Jon Erpenbach told them that he and his fellow Democrats hoped to force negotiations over the Republican-backed bill, but he would not say where the group had gone. Senate Democrats did not show up when they were ordered to attend a midday vote on the legislation. The AP reported that although Republicans hold a 19-14 majority, they need at least one Democrat on hand and present to vote. The bill is "tearing the state apart," Erpenbach told the AP. According to CNN, reports indicated Democrats state legislators had boarded a bus and left town. "I think the hope is that Republicans would start listening to the folks who have rallied here, the people who have flooded our offices with calls," said Mike Browne, communications director for Wisconsin Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. Said Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, "This is the ultimate shutdown, what we're seeing today." As for the school children – it appears that their teachers think they don’t really count. According to the AP “hundreds of schools canceled classes as teachers called in sick to protest.” Once upon a time, schools were institutions that existed to teach America’s youngsters reading, writing and arithmetic. Nowadays, it seems, they exist to coddle the powerful teachers’ unions. The kids can fend for themselves. Push has come to shove and Governor Walker has taken a stand that appears to be based on the belief that his state’s school system solely exists to teach the students, not coddle their teachers –a unique idea that if it takes hold will get the state’s priorities straight. Kids come first, taxpayers second, Teachers’ unions last. Dead last! Hang in there, governor.


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Philip V. Brennan -- Bio and Archives

Monday, Jan. 6, 2014:
Former columnist, Marine Corps hero, and Washington insider Phil Brennan passed away on Monday. He was 87 years old.

Born in New York City, Brennan served with the Marines during World War II before tackling a series of jobs in the nation’s capital, beginning with a campaign to win statehood for Alaska. —More…</em>


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