The New York Times: "Undermining public unions - and the support they give to Democrats - has been a long-sought goal of the Republican Party and many of its corporate backers. Koch Industries, one of the party's biggest supporters, spent $1.2 million last year to help elect Mr. Walker and other Republican governors who want to eliminate or reduce bargaining rights. On Wednesday, the State Senate's Republican leader, Scott Fitzgerald, told Fox News that if unions lose the battle for their rights, they would have less money to help President Obama win re-election."
Demonstrators gather in the Capitol rotunda in Wisconsin, 03/10/11. (photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
It's Not Over in Wisconsin
11 March 11
Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin have reversed half-a-century's middle-class progress in the state by erasing collective-bargaining rights for public employees. Union members, caught off guard and infuriated by the Senate vote on Wednesday and the Assembly vote on Thursday, immediately talked of legal challenges and general strikes, but the outcome was probably inevitable given the Republican success in the 2010 elections. Now union members have to make sure they do not stay away from the polls again when their rights are at stake.
The vote, pushed by Gov. Scott Walker, would have happened weeks ago if Democratic state senators had not fled to Illinois to deprive the Senate of the supermajority it needs to pass bills that are considered fiscal matters. Republicans then moved the bargaining rights from a larger budget bill to a separate bill that they could pass by proclaiming that the rights were not a fiscal issue.
And, in doing so, they reluctantly exposed the real truth behind the maneuver: stripping the unions of their rights was never about the budget, especially once the unions had agreed to significant concessions on pensions and health care. It was always about politics. Governor Walker had hoped to hide behind a cooked-up budget crisis, but the fleeing Democrats at least succeeded in pulling away that facade.
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Die for democracy and be forgotten... Just like all us war vets. Forgotten... Especially us old draftees.. It was us draftees that told America the truth. A volunteer Army will be more than happy to let YOU die for democracy.. They'll figure it out after they killed Mom and Pop on orders.. Since some of us have already stood against being shot dead.. Take your turn or put your body where your mouth will be if you do, In the dirt.! But the GOP did us all wrong. BIG TIME! BETTER THAN THE JFK COUP DE TAT' A Twin Ringer! Cpl.Pierson, 101st Vietnam..
Lest these myopic Repugnicans forget, here's a quote from their hero figure, Ronald Reagan: "Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost." He was a member of the Screen actor's Guild for most of his life. MY HOW THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS CHANGED 180 DEGREES FROM THEIR RECENT PAST! The ONLY reason is that they are bought-out by corporate interests and the Koch brothers and are NOT representing even their own constituent's best interests. VOTE THESE EVIL BUMS OUT OF OFFICE, RECALL OR IMPEACH THEM, NOW!
"Republicans...moved the bargaining rights from a...budget bill to a separate bill...they could pass [because]...not a fiscal issue.
"And, in doing so, they...exposed the...truth...[that] stripping the unions of their rights was never about the budget...."
FALSE.
I do not mean that neocon Republicans don’t want to bust unions: they do. I mean only that the NYT's point is factually false & a non-sequitur.
The matter is whether a bill bears SPENDING measures.
The bargaining rights are NOT (directly) SPENDING matters. But they ARE BUDGET matters: If the unions can’t bargain to up pay/fringes, government can avoid costs.
Still, the Republican senators' evil move suffers a legal trouble.
The senate can vote absent quorum if the vote concerns only non-spending measures.
But if the senate votes to split a bill's non-spending measures from its spending measures, isn't the senate voting on treatment of spending measures (vis-a-vis non-spending measures that were tied to the spending measures)?
Democrats ought challenge the separation-vote.
If the challenge prevails, the separation fails retroactively; and the non-spending measure vote must fail retroactively too, since it would have been a vote on a measure on which no vote could occur validly.
How far do we have to regress before the conservative ideologues in this country wake up and understand what's going on and what's in their best interest?
Talk about cutting your own throat...and everyone else's in the process!!!
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