Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s attempt to balance the state budget is well known. Like many other states, Wisconsin faces a $3.6 billion budget shortfall in the next biennium, and something has to be done.<\/p>\n
The proposal is not nearly as “extreme” as the left wants us to believe. Under Walker’s proposal, government workers would contribute half their pension costs (5.8% of their salaries) and pay at least 12.6% of health-care premiums, up from about 6% now. These are reasonable measures. Simply stated, “business as usual” is not an option for states trying to balance their books. Unlike Washington, most are required<\/em> to balance their budgets; printing and borrowing are not viable options. But what I find most interesting about the proposal and the protests is what we’re hearing from two outsiders.<\/p>\n Several days ago President Obama invited a local (Wisconsin) radio station into the White House to discuss the situation and commented, “\u2026some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where they’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like more of an assault on unions.” Meanwhile, the Washington Post<\/em> reported that the White House’s political arm, Organizing for America, has been active orchestrating phone calls, e-mails and Twitter and Facebook messages to rally opposition to the plan.<\/p>\n As with Arizona’s efforts to curb illegal immigration, President Obama sees nothing wrong with meddling in state affairs. The President claims a willingness to make the tough decisions necessary to cut the federal deficit, but is unwilling to sit on the sidelines while a sovereign state tackles similar issues on the state level. For Obama this is about union power, plain and simple.<\/p>\n The second outside influence here is a bit more intriguing. At least some of the leaders of the Egyptian uprising are siding publically with the union protestors as well. An interesting website (www.minimubarak.com<\/a>) emerged a few days ago likening Government Walker to Hosni Mubarak. Click on the link to the site, as a picture is worth 1000 words.<\/p>\n The union response to Walker’s proposal in Wisconsin was predictable, but what is going on outside Wisconsin is just as important. His recent official tone might be more moderate, but the President still can’t resist meddling in state affairs, and his affinity for actively supporting his union friends hasn’t changed. Ironically, the union notion is based on the idea that workers have the right to bargain collectively with management\u2014if they choose\u2014without outside interference. If Obama supported a genuine union-management balance, he would resist commenting on this issue altogether.<\/p>\n The response from the Egyptians is a bit more troubling. It’s not possible to tell if the Egyptian solidarity with the union protestors reflects the views of Egyptian movement as a whole, but I think I’m hearing “workers of the world unite” in the background. Having lived in Cairo for 5 months in the 1995, I’m not sure what the protestors there really want, but I’m guessing they want a dubious and irrational mix of freedom, socialism, and Sharia law. The protests in Egypt and neighboring countries have been compared to 1776 and the crumbling of the Berlin wall. Judging from recent events, such comparisons are both premature and grossly overstated.<\/p>\n Sources:<\/p>\n http:\/\/chronicle.com\/article\/U-of-Wisconsin-Faculty-Would\/126354\/<\/a><\/p>\n