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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (100100)	2/17/2011 9:08:33 PM
From: lorne	1 Recommendation Respond to of 224724

Power Play Obama Sides With State Government Unions Against Cuts By Chris Stirewalt Published February 17, 2011 \| FoxNews.com foxnews.com Obama Takes Sides in Wisconsin Labor Battle “Some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain, generally seems like more of an assault on unions. I think it's very important for us to understand that public employees, they're our neighbors, they're our friends.” -- President Obama in an interview with Milwaukee’s WTMJ Wisconsin has been wracked with protests and work stoppages as government employees fight a fiscal austerity proposal from new Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Now, President Obama is weighing in against Walker and sticking up for government workers. Walker’s plan would force state workers to cover half of their pension contributions and 13 percent of their own health insurance costs. Walker would strip government unions of the power to collectively bargain for higher wages unless approved by a public vote. The plan would also end compulsory dues payments for state workers. Walker has said that if lawmakers don’t agree to his plan, he will be forced to lay off 6,000 of the state’s 170,000 workers. The reaction has been intense in Madison, which is one of the great strongholds of organized labor and liberalism in the nation. Ten thousand labor activists jammed the state capitol, chanting and screaming at lawmakers. Schools have been shut down as unionized teachers conducted an organized “sick out” and brought their students to join the march against Walker. New Jersey’s Chris Christie was the first and most famous part of the trend of governors getting tough with public workers, but the class of 2010 has quickly followed suit. New York Democrat Andrew Cuomo has been battling government workers over pay and benefits. In California, Democrat Jerry Brown is also asking for state workers to take pay cuts and has frozen hiring. The cause for the nationwide crackdown is massive budget shortfalls threatening to crush state governments as they prepare spending plans for the next year. The collective shortfall for the coming fiscal year has been estimated at more than $120 billion. Obama’s home state of Illinois has the worst budget problem in the nation, driven largely by massively under-funded pension plans for state workers. But Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is bucking the trend of austerity. Quinn, wearing an African Kente cloth in honor of black history month, laid out a $52.7 billion budget proposal Wednesday that would increase spending by $1.7 billion and borrow $8.75 billion with bonds backed by new taxes approved last month that double rates. In Wisconsin, which took a sharp turn to the right in the 2010 elections, Walker has vowed to close his state’s $3.7 billion shortfall for the next two years by cutting costs and not raising taxes. Obama also blasted Walker for rejecting a project to build a high-speed rail line as “short sighted” in his interview with the NBC affiliate in Milwaukee. But Obama was strongest in his defense of the protesting labor activists. Obama said that while it was necessary for state workers to perhaps make some “adjustments” he accused Walker of an “assault” on unions and praised government workers for their value to society. The president echoes an attack from congressional Democrats who claim that federal budget cuts proposed by House Republicans would jeopardize federal jobs. Government worker unions are crucial to Democratic hopes for 2012. Walker’s proposal is especially upsetting to the president’s party because it would no longer have the state government skim union dues from state paychecks to pass on to labor groups. Instead dues, which fund Democratic campaigns, would be paid on a voluntary basis. Public union membership now outnumbers that of private unions and continues to grow. As the spending battle plays out in Washington and across the country, Democrats will work hard to protect government unions from cuts

To: lorne who wrote (100100)	2/18/2011 10:02:50 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	3 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224724

A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee declined to respond to Mr. Boehner’s accusation of spreading disinformation. But officials confirmed that Organizing for America, an arm of the party, has been “quietly, but significantly, involved in building grassroots energy and organizing protests.” The political efforts on behalf of the union workers in Wisconsin were undertaken at the direction of Tim Kaine, the D.N.C. chairman, according to officials at the party. In addition to helping build crowds for two rallies in Madison this week, O.F.A. organized 15 “rapid-response phone banks” aimed at getting supporters to call state lawmakers. The effort covered 10 cities in Wisconsin, officials said. Volunteer leaders of O.F.A. helped organize the rallies and youth leaders at college campuses brought buses to help transport people. Another O.F.A. program sought to get letters published in 23 targeted newspapers in Wisconsin. O.F.A. also used blogs, Facebook, Twitter and e-mail messages to rally opposition to Mr. Walker’s efforts. Mr. Boehner, in his comments Thursday, said Mr. Obama should call a stop to those efforts. “I urge the president to order the D.N.C. to suspend these tactics,” Mr. Boehner said. “This is not the way you begin an ‘adult conversation’ in America about solutions to the fiscal challenges that are destroying jobs in our country.” .