President Obama’s Uncivil Defense Of Spoiled, Uncivil Wisconsin Public Unions

By Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist —— Bio and Archives February 18, 2011

Comments | Print This | Subscribe | Email Us

Instead of seriously trying to reduce the federal deficit, President Obama has sought fit to attack Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for trying to balance Wisconsin’s runaway budget. President Obama claimed that Governor Walker’s proposed reforms to the public union collective bargaining rights and his demands for increased contributions by Wisconsin’s spoiled state workers to help pay for their cushy benefits and pension plans are an ”assault on unions.”

Governor Walker is confronting the public labor unions, whose sweetheart deals under previous administrations have pushed the state towards fiscal bankruptcy. If something is not done immediately, the state’s budget deficit next year could rise to $3.6 billion. Unlike Obama, who ducked the hard choices on entitlements and other controversial issues when he presented his own budget for the 2012 fiscal year, Walker is courageously confronting his state’s financial problems. Governor Walker’s proposed reforms have drawn union and Democratic Party-organized protestors to rally in Wisconsin’s state capitol, carrying hate-filled signs comparing the Governor to Hitler and to the deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and likening their protests to demonstrations in Cairo. In fact, the successor to President Obama’s own campaign arm – Organizing for America – has been playing an active role in coordinating the protests. Coupled with Obama’s charge that the Governor is committing an “assault on unions,” the President has evidently abandoned his call in Tucson last month for civility in political discourse. More...