Wisconsin Vote Fallout
Well finally it’s done. Scott Walker finally followed Charles Krauthammer’s advice and split the collective bargaining section out of the budget bill. Civil servants, who have apparently forgotten they are servants and have acted quite uncivilly during this imbroglio, have lost this battle.
What is the likely fallout from this bill?
Nothing much. Walker is at the beginning of his 4 year term and by the time he’s up for re-election there will be other issues on the minds of voters. The same cannot be said for the Republican legislators, some of whom will be up for reelection next year. I expect that unions will put nice big bullseyes over them – both figuratively and perhaps literally. Democrats will make gains – and not necessarily because of this vote; the popular vote swings between both parties and it has reached its greatest arc rightward. Democrats will replace Republicans as the pendulum swings left.
Wisconsin public sector employees will not be reduced to penury. The collective bargaining portion passed still allows for the practice to be used for raises up to the rate of inflation – something that has been skyrocketing (although the Fed says otherwise). Having to pay a few percent more for pensions and health care will continue to leave the employees in better shape than the majority of people in the private sector. Those are the people who actually pay the civil servants’ salaries and benefits, and they will experience some relief from this bill (though not much given the size of the state deficit.)
Although they have lost in Wisconsin, they put up such a fight that unions have already killed similar bills elsewhere and will most likely limit their losses nationally. Even the most conservative governors aren’t in a hurry now to pick a fight with the public sector unions while they enjoy the public’s sympathy.
So who won? The Wisconsin taxpayer, Gov. Scott Walker and the unions.
Who lost? The Wisconsin Democratic and Republican parties, and public sector employees.
Charles Krauthammer has been advocating that Walker should do that for weeks. I’m a big Krauthammer fan, especially since we’re both ex-liberals (he worked for the Mondale campaign, and I cast my first presidential vote for Mondale – regrets, I’ve had a few…) In the end I’m not sure why Walker didn’t split the bills to begin with. Part of me thinks he didn’t know he could do that, another part makes me think he wanted to provoke the Dems in order to make them look stupid. He’s succeeded.
But he’s also damaged the Republican party in Wisconsin; I fully expect some of those Reps to lose their jobs in ‘12. Walker is secure until 2014 but I’m sure the Republican state legislators are going to pay for this sideshow. In fact I think that those reps, the fleeing dems and the civil servants (who forgot they were servants and acted very uncivilly throughout this affair) are the losers. The unions – who pretended to justify the dues they collect from each civil servant’s paycheck, the WI taxpayer and Walker – who delivered on his campaign promise – are most likely the winners.
I hope other governors out there learn from this event. One lesson is that when you make cuts, you make them quickly – AFTER you’ve determined you have the votes for the bill to pass. If
you don’t have the votes, don’t support the bill. It’s freakin’ PoliSci 101 stuff.
Another is that Walker allowed the unions to frame the debate. Civil servants were portrayed as indentured servants of “the Man” instead of the overpaid, pampered servants of the citizenry they are supposed to be. I don’t know why Walker let that happen given the current climate. Again, is because he’s new at the job or is he plain stupid? Only time will tell.
David:
I am amazed. The democrats/unionists are stating the new legislation was “pushed” through. And making other such accusations, that is, implying it was hurried through in the middle of night. This has been going on for weeks and headlined in the national news.
10 March 2011, 7:35 pmThe Wisconsin state capitol is the forum for conducting the state business of Wisconsin. A large number of the democrats LEFT THE STATE. They choose not participate in the functions of Wisconsin state government. They failed to represent their constituents; they ran from their state and from their duties.
Brad S:
I am a concerned citizen of this country like many others are, and see that the direction that we are heading in is not good. Something must be done. Sacrifices must be made… by all. I don’t have all the answers like many others do.
10 March 2011, 8:28 pmMany people of this country have lost there faith in our government. The venom spewed from both sides is toxic, and pulling our country down the gutter. More time is spent trying to undermine each other and create controversy, than accomplish anything. I am not well versed in debate. I am just an average U.S. citizen who tries to do his best at his job everyday and help out my fellow man when ever I can. I want our country to always be that shining light on the hill. I care too much about our children’s future, and what we could be leaving for them… if anything at our current rate. I have views on both sides of the political spectrum.
Just curious what a fair wage is for the police or fireman who puts his life on the line everyday, and maybe one day for you. It’s a job I would never want to do. In the grand scheme of things are they really overpaid that much? Is minimum wage fair? How about the teacher that go to school for years to earn a teachers degree and pour their heart and soul into their job trying to deal with all the social and family issues that 20-30 different families present… every single day. I don’t know what a fair wage is for them… I know none of these people are in the fortune 500. There are a lot more “unethical” jobs on wall street and in the banking, and insurance industries causing more harm than any of these “public servants”. I guess what I am trying to say is these public servants (which I am Not) seem like they are taking a bad rap on recent issues. I would think if this whole issue was handled with a little more respect, there might not be quite the outrage there is about this issue… just my two cents…
Scott Kirwin:
Brad
What you think a fair wage is and what I think a fair wage is will differ. That’s why a free society will allow the free market to decide wages. The way it is supposed to work is that if a particular job is needed, wages will rise until people work to get the skills necessary to do that job. The more people able to do the job on the market fills the demand and wages stabilize.
That’s the way it is supposed to work. I’ve seen politicians from both parties try to short circuit it. For example I founded the IT Professionals Association of America (ITPAA.org) and lobbied against the importation of skilled labor on the H-1b and J-1 visas. These visas short-circuited the free market system. IT firms including Microsoft and HP always complained that there wasn’t enough skilled labor in the USA, but the truth is that there wasn’t enough skilled labor willing to work for the wages Microsoft and HP decided they wanted to pay. If there was more demand for IT professionals than supply, wages and salaries should have risen. They didn’t. Instead they dropped because of offshoring and by increasing the pool of foreign workers in the USA. These foreign workers were paid roughly a third less than American citizens; plus they were indentured to their sponsoring firm and couldn’t quit without losing their place in line for a green card. I termed the H-1b a form of “labor dumping”, a concerted attempt by industry and both political parties to drive down the cost of labor by importing cheap labor from abroad. They succeed. American IT has been wrecked.
Here in the South I am seeing a similar thing happening with illegal immigrants. Illegals are driving down the wages of tradesmen and building professionals. Is the solution to unionize? No, the solution is to allow the free market to work in the country by actually limiting immigration – which is the right of every sovereign nation. Democrats who have allied themselves with unions tend to support open borders with Mexico, which then drives down wages further. The reason why unions put up with this is that they think they will be able to unionize these undocumented workers – but unions are dead in the private sector and will remain so. All that has happened is the situation we have now where the unions have moved their power base into government and the flow of illegals drives skilled workers to improve their skillsets or become poor.
Back to your point… I think it’s unethical that Hollywood stars and sports players make obscene amounts of money when my wife, a physician who works in a rural area of the USA 11 months of the year and spends 1 month a year working at a hospital in Africa, makes less per hour than a plumber. But that’s the result of more market-meddling by bureaucrats – who set Medicaid/Medicare reimbursements by fiat just as the Soviet nomenklatura set the price of bread in stores throughout the Soviet Union. I don’t blame the Market, I blame the meddlers.
10 March 2011, 10:07 pm