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American Politics Today

Sun, 02/27/2011 - 3:41pm | Penteller

For many years, politics has been broken down into Left and Right ideological categories. In this paradigm, left is always characterized as liberal, socialistic and therefore a threat to security, while the Right has been the conservative, individualistic persona that associates with iron fisted ideology.

Although the socialist beliefs that Karl Marx first proposed are still in socially evolutionary stages today, they are still at the very core of the Left/Right division. Even after a hundred years the struggle continues between those of lesser monetary power and those of imperial financial strength. Economic strength that fuels political power, afforded through capitalistic doctrine that rides on the backs of those who toil in producing the wealth.

At the turn of the last century, to be called a Socialist or Marxist was one of the most demeaning terms. Meanwhile the socialist protest “pledge of elegance” that in following decades became America’s pledge, was universally derided by clergy and politicians. A Right Wing, national call of condemnation that sent the socialist who wrote it into poverty because he could no longer get a job and anonymity upon his pauper death.

The power of the right has always been pervasive because of the deep pockets and central philosophies of its practitioners, but it is the ultra right that breaches socially considerate norms and becomes abusive. These ultra-right wings become so far right that they can no longer be considered “conservative” but regressive in nature, trying to take us back to a feudal state of rulers and surfs, or at best oligarchs and laborers.

Today we see countless right wingers who can be classified as hawks, individuals who want to regress us back to a former time and place, business and political predators who believe that those who rule must be iron fisted, with police and military might making all things right.

American politics has constantly been terrorized by regressive hawks but none more so than today, where we see the resurgence of the late 19thcentury Robber Barons, breeding a new generation of hawk men, predators who feed on others.

From our penal system which imprisons more people than any other nation on earth, the denial of health care for those in medical need, to law enforcement and the military which must be funded at all cost, the hawk Regressives rule in America today.

Our airwaves are saturated with the likes of Limbaugh and O’Really, who repeat the message enough times to make their devotee’s believe whatever the coordinated talking point of day is. Spewing hate against those who may think differently and marginalizing all who question their stance, even attacking the First Lady for promoting a healthier lifestyle, justified by saying that she doesn’t look like a swimsuit model. Voices with no challenge, voices never allowing reply.

Even within our political system this predatory belief in brutality and the practice of division, creates a perpetual them and us, which allows for draconian laws and bad social constructs. It is a totalitarian belief steeped in age old traditions that if you spare the rod you spoil the child, so that beating us more must be the best and then lock them away if they doth protest.

It is a Calvinistic like practice of damning anyone who thinks outside the cloistered order of the whip, which has led us to create a them and us drug culture. A culture where anyone taking the plethora of drugs given by the legal pill pushers that cost us untold billions are ok, while anyone taking anything else must be punished severely.

It is a philosophy of domination and terror that extends beyond our own social order and national border, a predatory practice of global view from high above, searching for the most delectable morsel to pounce upon. Repeatedly sinking our sharp talons into far off resources such as oil by way of curried brutal rulers, backed by our military might and justified through a false belief in manifest destiny.

Today we see the Regressive Predators in action, wherein the governor of Wisconsin funded by modern day robber barons, does their bidding by waging war upon the socialist unions. Using the power of his regressive legislative thugs, he terrorizes those of lesser powers, scattering them in all directions to the point he can no longer hunt.

This Wisconsin crisis it but one more example of how predatory politics fueled by corporate wealth, controls the national dialog. It is an example of how code words are so ingrained in Regressive nomenclature, wherein the codeword for union busting is titled “collective bargaining”. Meanwhile the controlled national media never shows the 100,000 plus who rally in opposition to the hawk attacks.

Yes we have a national crisis of debt. Yes it is problematic that we have government employees determining government employee wages. Yes we need to bring in line the wages and benefits of public employees with those of the private sector. Corporate labor called “private” who have seen their wealth vanish into the coffers of international corporations and the banking cartel which now owns our children.

But it is a conversation that need not be terrorized by the likes of a Governor Walker and his cabal of unbridled capitalist whose nostrils flare and hooves twitch at the potential of trampling some more peasants. It must be done by leadership such as Governor Christie of New Jersey, who sees the picture not as them and us but “our” dilemma to be resolved. Else our ability as a people to control international corporate powers will be diminished even more.

Today America has reached its limits in all respects. Today the Bankers have won and own us all through the power of corporate control in the private sector. The last bastions of social equality in the public sector are under attack by the most Regressive Hawks ever know, terrorizing and threatening us all and our future.

Trained hawks who do their handlers business of consolidation and social control, bringing home the freshly killed prey to the bankers who enjoy the delivered bounty. Knowing there is ever more tender flesh to be caught, as usury becomes the dining delight of the money men who hold all our mortgages, both public and private.

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buzorro wrote on March 14, 2011 at 8:03 am

Again...the 'pension'

Again...the 'pension' thing...

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/politics-and-government/2011-03-14/pens....

Penteller wrote on March 04, 2011 at 6:03 pm

Buz, No I’m say that once you

Buz,

No I’m say that once you contract with someone to pay them a set amount, how “they” proportion their money is their business. Be it contributions to a union as an employee or what they pay for the goods provided as a supplier.

BTW it was a lovely link and one I could not agree with more. The writer skimmed across the top of nearly all the major issues facing us today and the one which hurts us the most is the two party system, a single coin with two different heads.

One could say in today’s chosen ignorance by the Amerrika people, with regard to our politics - that if the definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results, then as a society we are truly schizophrenic.

But back to the point at hand, all employers contribute in some way to their employees well being, be it workman compensation insurance, retirement funding, etc. Yes, today our public servants have negotiated into their pay structure, compensation amounts for these same things.

Compensation and wages have ran amuck for several decades, because everyone was Bright Sided by the positive thinking crowd who kept everyone believing that if you think positive it will all work out. Just put off paying those retirement funds, because next year will be better and everyone’s pay will go up.

You will find that statistically, governmental employees are on average paid less than the private sector for similar work. I know it doesn’t seem like it from our perspective, but then you and I both know how manufacturing employee’s like us, have been thrown face down in the dirt by the corporate thugs when it comes to pay.

The difference between us and them is the retirement funding. Years ago the money men had reached their limit on Wall Street, needing new money to continue funding old time profits. The solution? Why start deleting retirement funding by corporations in lieu of a highly risky ponzi scheme called 401, a fund tied to the stock market and therefore easily liquidated.

In short, the public sector workers have paid for corporate risk taking, repeatedly losing tremendous funds over the last several decades, while the government retirement funds have continued to accumulate liabilities through underfunding.

The very idea that workers need to be “taken care off” is a radical new idea in the history of man. These are socialist ideals that until a hundred years ago were unthinkable, since it was a time when you slaved with low pay, horrible conditions without a safety net of any kind, for those of unfathomable wealth.

In the ensuing years against even religious beliefs, a new paradigm was created that entitled those who produced the goods and services, to some of the financial bounty gained through those labors.

It was a bitter pill for those who once controlled not only the labor but the shops from which the workers bought their foods and clothing, along with the housing they lived in. America was simply a feudal state masquerading as capitalism.

Now the powers that control 98% of the wealth in this country are ready to take back their lost slaves and what began with the Air Controllers union, now comes down to the servants of Wisconsin and the fascist oligarchy that moves against them.

I repeat again. Yes, we need to reign in our governmental workers salaries and compensations. Yes, we need to have greater accountability in their work, especially the teaching profession. Yes, we need to put in place greater scrutiny and tougher negotiation practices.

But mark my words, if the oligarchy that now moves against us is successful in Wisconsin, be prepared for your wages to get cut by 10%. Because if our servants can give up some of their compensation, then any one else can too.

buzorro wrote on March 05, 2011 at 10:03 am

Some history, then some

Some history, then some counterpoints:

Politicians were traditionally opposed to public employees’ right to unionize, strike, or collectively bargain for wage and benefit increases. They saw their constituents as the taxpaying public and did not think that the government was such an abusive employer that unionization was necessary to protect workers...

All of this was changed in 1958 when an aide to New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. suggested that city workers could be a large enough voting bloc to ensure his reelection. Wager signed an executive order authorizing city workers, notably those of the transit system, to unionize and bargain collectively. As the percentage of Americans working for the government grew, other politicians began to see support for public employee unions as a way to get votes. State politicians around the country allowed public employees to unionize shortly after Wagner’s executive order. (ironically, Wisconsin was the first) President John F. Kennedy allowed federal government workers to unionize starting in 1962.

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2009/09/07/history-of-public-employee...

'You will find that statistically, governmental employees are on average paid less than the private sector for similar work.'

I've heard this before and it might be worth verifying because this guy says that, 'Given the relationship between politicians and public employee unions, we should not be surprised that public employee wages and benefits often average 45 percent higher than their counterparts in the private sector.' http://www.lewrockwell.com/williams-w/w-williams72.1.html

'The difference between us and them is the retirement funding....Why start deleting retirement funding by corporations in lieu of a highly risky ponzi scheme called 401, a fund tied to the stock market and therefore easily liquidated.'

I realize that my company is rather unique in that we have a pension plan as well as a 401k plan. In a 401k plan the employee makes weekly contributions and the employer matches those contributions at a percentage rate. Some are as high as 100% (usually by companies that don't have a pension plan). My company only matches at a 25% rate because we also have a pension plan. In my 401k plan, and I imagine all other as well, there are five different ways to invest your contributions, from very risky to very safe. Most have their monies invested in a combination of those five ways. But the point I wish to make is that none of the money in my account is directly tied to stocks, as you have stated above. Mine is in the 'very safe' mode, which are the money markets. These are generally municipality bonds and the like.

'In short, the public sector workers have paid for corporate risk taking, repeatedly losing tremendous funds over the last several decades, while the government retirement funds have continued to accumulate liabilities through underfunding.'

From the above link citing Philip Greenspun:

'...most of the money extracted from taxpayers will be taken in the form of long-term health care and pension promises...Pushing most of the spending out 10-50 years gives the politicians who agreed to the obligations at least 10 years in which to move to the next level of government before the true cost of the agreement becomes apparent...Most importantly, the pension obligations of governments were tiny compared to today because they’d only had a decade or two to develop.'

Again, funding for public employee pensions comes from We the People in the form of higher property taxes. The corporate influence came when the middle-class, with their high-paying manufacturing jobs, was/is being decimated by off-shoring. Property taxes are even harder to pay.

'America was simply a feudal state masquerading as capitalism.'

A feudal state, or a corporate state?

'...what began with the Air Controllers union, now comes down to the servants of Wisconsin and the fascist oligarchy that moves against them.'

The air controllers went on strike. Does this make a difference?

'But mark my words, if the oligarchy that now moves against us is successful in Wisconsin, be prepared for your wages to get cut by 10%. Because if our servants can give up some of their compensation, then any one else can too.'

If my property and other taxes go up by 10% to give public workers a higher wage and benefits packages, then the oligarchy and I both lose? I lose either way? Thanks for the 'happy thoughts,' Comrade Penn.

As a side-note, the last union contract that I agreed to included a wage cut. A lawyer iwth the international union that we belonged to assured us that it was the only way to keep our plant from shutting it;s doors. We moaned and groaned, but signed it. The company still closed it sometime later.

Penteller wrote on March 03, 2011 at 4:03 pm

Champaignlife – all good

Champaignlife – all good points and could not agree with you more. Although you didn’t read it all, disagreed with what you read and yet you say nothing of it? Interesting indeed.

Buz,
As usual your precision point is well taken. However, let’s follow the logic you presented and see where it takes us.

So your telling me that once government contracts with someone, be it an employee, or contractor, how they proportion their money determines how much we give them? With that kind of logic, it would seem appropriate to dictate how much an employee family spends on food or how much the contractors profit is determined through manipulating their purchasing.

Yes, NAFTA and all the other oligarchy strategies that have destroyed the American dream, have brought us to this place and time. It is a moment in our history where our great nation now teeters to the other side of the totter equation and we begin our descent carrying the millstone of usury around our necks.

But it is one more example of how “they” so effectively divide and conquer us, by pitting brother against brother as the fiscal morsels become harder to come by. Watching us thrash about and scurry for cover as their predator trained hawks like Walker terrorize the people and their process.

Yes, our employees will have to adjust their expectations, their paychecks and future retirement plans, there is no question there. But to destroy one of the last remaining strengths of the peoples right to grievance, is to eviscerate the last remaining wall that separates us from the oligarchies pit bulls.

When you have corporate powers such as those behind the Fascist Walker, who sees no wrong in giving big business everything it wants by taking from the working class to do so, you have a recipe for truly regressive trends.

If this latest WAR on our employees is successful, you will see broad and wide scale rollbacks in wages not only in the public sector, but private as well. A wage concession campaign by the Corpocracy, based upon the argument that if “public servants” have sacrificed, so can you.

Yes we need to get a handle on the spiraling cost of government union employees, especially those in the educational field. Here is a good example of a financially troubled community that you live in Buz, where nearly 60% of the population lives below the poverty line. Yet many teachers receive salaries greatly inflated with retirements guaranteed by law.
http://allarounddanville.com/MiscHTMLpages/D118_salaries.htm

So isn’t it the most ironic of all things. The hawks like Walker and his handlers like Koch, attack, divide and conquer without hesitation. Their battle cry - that socialist unions need to be broken in order to maintain public fiscal balance, as they give the corpocracy any and all they want.

Personally I see little difference between the likes of Walker and the Politburo members of the old USSR, where all the workers labor with declining benefit, while the elite travel in limo’s to exotic isles for regular vacations.

Walker is the worst of corporate socialism and unless stopped will drive another nail into the coffin of the American worker. Of course all of this will soon be a mute point as the dollar collapse and the usury floodgates are open, since we will all be standing in line for the loaf of bread thrown from the back of military trucks.

And how do I know this? Well look up anything to do with the devaluation of the dollar. And, the fact that when you have an alleged “business” party that spent four times more on investigating the oral sex of a President than we spent on investigating who was responsible for the housing fraud crisis to which no one will be held accountable, you know what the plan is for us.

buzorro wrote on March 03, 2011 at 7:03 pm

'So your telling me that once

'So your telling me that once government contracts with someone, be it an employee, or contractor, how they proportion their money determines how much we give them?'

Not at all. How much they contribute to their fully-funded pension plan is determined, not by the employee, but by the pension plan.

I do not know (am ignorant) of the specifics in Wisconsin, but a retired public union employee (custodial engineer, aka janitor with the school district) here assured me that his pension is one of the safest in the country because it is fully funded. He also made it a point to assure me that he had contributed over the years to this fund, that it wasn't costing me a red cent. This sounds like the system that Wisconsin has. I did a little research on this miracle pension fund and discovered that my little retired friend did indeed 'defer' part of his pay to go toward this fund, but this amount is only a small part of his retirement fund. What makes up the other 90% in monies to make it 'fully funded' is part of the school district's portion of our property taxes. So, how much 'we give them' is determined by the language of the labor contract agreed to by the school board and the union.

It's exactly like what your or my company charges as 'labor costs.' Even though we might only be making $15/hour, the company charges that plus the cost to provide you with health insurance, pension, and any other benefits, which will total many times more than that $15/hour. A garage charges $60/hour for labor on the bill, the mechanic gets paid $15/hour. Get it?

Illinois is officially $11 billion in the red, if you factor in the coming pension costs for soon-to-be-retired state workers now we're talking $70+ billion. And this money will come from....?

Is it a 'moot' subject? Please take the time to read this article titled, 'People without Dreams.' The author explains what it took me close to two decades, as a self-taught historian, to discover.

http://www.rense.com/general93/dreams.htm(Jenne forgarch

Penteller wrote on February 28, 2011 at 6:02 pm

Oliver Which gravy train are

Oliver

Which gravy train are you referring to?

Foreign Aid?
Israel @ 3.1 billion
Egypt @ 1.5 billion
Eastern Europe @ 2.2 billion
Near East and South Aisia @ 3.3 billion
And the list goes on.

How about the billions in profits for the Pharma Cartel, since it’s against the law for the Federal government to negotiate drug prices for all the drugs provided to governmental employees, our veterans, troops and supplied to other lands?

Are you referring to the billions in tax breaks given to corporations every year, so they can reap ever greater profits and leave the infrastructure costs to the citizens? Corporations that leave town as soon as the citizenry tries to hold them accountable.

Are you referring to the US Senate where 60% are millionaires who receive $176,000 a year salary, plus all the health benefit they want? Alleged public servants who gave themselves raises in the midst of a recession as our wages dropped?

How about the banking industry that created a bubble that popped, convinced lawmakers to give them billions to prop up the house they built on sand, then gave their execs hundreds of millions over the last year because they instantly became profitable again on our tax dollars?

Maybe you’re referring to the billions lost, stolen, pilfered or misused in the Iraq and ongoing Afghanistan war. Billions that made millions for people like Dick Cheney, who would have died long ago if he was a normal citizen, because no regular insurer would have allowed him to spend millions on his heart related illness and artificial heart.

Are you referring to the Hawk Man Walker whose funding drives him to attack unions?
Concerned Realtors Committee, Realtors PAC, KochPAC Natural Resources, Wisconsin,
Wal-Mart Stores/WAL-PAC, Republican Party of Wisconsin, Republican Party, Managed Health Services/Centene PAC, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, Deere & Company PAC – WI, Eli Lilly and Company PAC, WellPAC Wellpoint Inc, Insurance Alliance PAC, WI Pipe Trades PAC

And the Questions could go on forever, but I think you get the drift,

But whatever you do Oliver – DO NOT VIEW THE FOLLOWING – because it contains images and information only suited for truth seekers.

The Hawk Walker sends in the muscle to throw the bums out and the muscle joins them (and walker thought by excluding them from the first round of killing would help him out).
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/not-all-cops-are-union-busti...

In the midst of all of this, Walker talks with someone he thinks is his mentor and benefactor, expressing the beliefs of a True Hawk Man that is ready, willing and able to kill.
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/politics/scott-walker-20-minute-...

Taxpayers do not contribute to Wisconsin State Employee pension funds, yet that’s one of the hawk men screeches’.
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/02/25/the-wisconsin-lie-exposed-t...

But all of this does not matter as the siege of the Capital now grows grim. Surrounding the building to prevent food and aid from arriving are new orders and armed men, ready to prevent citizens from enter the hallowed halls of the peoples building. Inside, they now become prisoners as the windows are bolted shut.
http://www.squattable.com/news/022811/walker-losing-control-and-getting-...

The real irony in all of this, if the rabble gets to unruly, the citizen solders who were fighting and watching their comrades die in far off lands for another peoples right to assemble and speak, will be called upon to crush the voices now dissenting against the Fascist Hawkman of Wisconsin.

I know I know… Don’t confuse you with facts, but could you at least try and be a little more specific next time.

buzorro wrote on February 28, 2011 at 9:02 pm

Although I haven't read all

Although I haven't read all of the links that you posted, and I wouldn't propose that Gov. Walker isn't corrupt, I did read the blog by Rick Ungar yesterday, the title of which implies that taxpayers do not contribute to public employee pensions. If you would have read the comments following the article, you would have read that Mr.Ungar admits that the title might've been misleading.

'As for the title, sometimes it can be really hard to title a piece. I actually worked on this title because there wasn’t one that was working. I may have missed it a bit – but isn’t it the content of the piece that matters?' - Rick Ungar

Yes, I suppose it can be hard to 'title a piece' if the purpose is to mislead.

'Seriously, yes the taxpayer pays the salary of public employees. However, characterizing the contribution to the state pension fund as some additional ‘gift’ is false. It is a lie.' - Rick Ungar

He doesn't specify who is characterizing it as an 'additional gift.'

Of course taxpayers contribute to their pensions, the taxpayers are the source of all income for public employees. The article points out that the employees defer part of their salary (that comes from taxpayers) to their pensions. Nothing more, nothing less. But since some use the title only of articles as the basis for opinions, then Mr. Ungar has succeeded in planting a lie.

Frankly, I'm a little surprised, Comrade Penn. Let's be sure that we have our ducks in a row and that one of them isn't a chicken masquerading as a duck.

The host of the whatreallyhappened.com website suggests that we must support the striking Wisconsin teachers because a line must be drawn to halt the further destruction of the middle class. The horse is already out of the barn, thanks to NAFTA and TARP. Where were the protesters when corporations moved high-paid jobs overseas, or when banks that were deemed 'too big to fail' were handed $700 billion borrowed tax dollars up front (many times that amount behind closed doors)? Now the tax base that the former middle-class had created is gone (forever?). The millions of public employee union members are to be compensated how? By saddling another generation of taxpayers with a debt that cannot be repaid?

Note to public employee union members: Game over

Oliver wrote on February 28, 2011 at 3:02 pm

Fine. YOU pay for the gravy

Fine. YOU pay for the gravy train. Thanks.

buzorro wrote on February 27, 2011 at 7:02 pm

I'm not going to disagree

I'm not going to disagree with what you have posted, I'll merely offer my own humble opinion on some of the issues you have brought up. The fat lady is, indeed, warming up.

As far as our present political system is concerned, I think that a quote by Mayer Rothschild is apropo. Mayer was, of course, the paterfamilia of the Rothschild dynasty...the super-bankers, if you will. He said: 'Give me the power to issue money and I care not who writes the laws.' The reason being that if laws are passed to take his money away (wealth redistribution), he can merely print up some more. It's important to note that the 'owners' of the Federal Reserve, along with various Central Banks in Europe, include Rothschilds. Mayer's wife is also quoted as saying: 'If my boys want war, then there shall surely be war.'

Sen. Durbin stated in a radio interview several months ago that: 'It's obvious that the bankers control Congress.'

So, do we want the Dems to bankrupt the nation, for the bankers, with their domestic policies, or do we want the Repubs to bankrupt this nation, for the bankers, with their foreign policy? That is the only difference that I have seen between the two parties that control the governance of We the People. Bankers end up with more of our money regardless of which party holds the nation's purse-strings. Whether the middle-class is destroyed with a national health-care plan or endless pre-emptive wars matters not to those who will ultimately profit from either scenario.

Are these pre-emptive wars un-Constitutional? You bet. Are Bush and his cabal of neocons war criminals? Only under international laws.

Is Obamacare un-Constitutional? You bet. A health insurance policy is a product. The Federal Government does not have the right to force anyone to by a product, anymore than they have the right to make us wear seatbelts while driving or wear helmets while riding a motorcycle. I like the health insurance coverage I have. Why am I being forced to switch to a government health insurance plan? What's been the success rate of other systems that our federal government runs? 0? Yet some of us are wanting it to take over the healthcare system as well? What's the definition of insanity? We've simply got to have a nationalized healthcare system because...why? We've never had one before. Have we always been 'uncivilized' compared to Western Europe nations because of that? Why do we have so many foreign medical students and doctors? Is this apples and oranges?

Has Obama stopped the un-Constitutional wars? Nope. Stopped torture? Nope. Stopped screwing with other governments in other countries? Nope. Stopped the Patriot Act? Nope. He's one of 'them.'

But, hey...what did Bush say about the Constitution? 'It's only a g***amned piece of paper.' Obama = Bush-lite

What we are witnessing today is the fall of the US Empire. The Corporate powers are ready for it after the bankers had their puppets pass NAFTA with Clinton's approval (he is, after all, one of 'them'), The bankers are ready for it after the passage of the TARP program. The Federal Reserve owners are now purchasing US debt, since no one else will (which will enslave a few generations of We the People.... a return to the feudal system?)..

It's now estimated that China will become the world's largest economy in 2020, India will be #2 in 2050. I think the bigger question will be will the planet still be able to support the human population in 30 years? And I'm not referring to global warming. I'm referring to carcinogens in our food, drinking water and air. Nuclear fallout from all the DU weapons that we and our allies have dumped on various lands. 90% of the oil from the BP disaster that remains on the floor of the Gulf. Mad Cow disease. Man-made Aids-like viruses. On and on, etc., etc.

Let a smile be your rainbow...

thechampaignlife wrote on February 28, 2011 at 10:02 am

I'll be honest that I didn't

I'll be honest that I didn't read all of either of your posts and don't necessarily agree with some of what I did read but I did want to chime in on the collective bargaining and a solution to alleviate some of the tiresome left/right battling.

On collective bargaining, I understand where these governors are coming from and labor unions have been able to secure far too generous of benefits in general. I disagree with their solution, however, to disband the unions and instead the state simply needs to get more aggressive in the contract negotiations. I think a lot of the work could also be outsourced and a good time to do that is when a contract expires and negotiations break down. Road workers should be outsourced. K-12 teachers should be local workers and not a factor in state finances. Social services should be outsourced to local providers. This would eliminate a large number of unionized labor which puts a drain on state finances. Instead, they could be union members of a private company which has to operate at a profit, unlike states, and so has more bargaining power to ensure unions don't get out of hand. The reduced administration and benefits costs should be more than the excess cost paid to the private company for their profits and a competitive bidding process should help with that excess cost as well.

On the partisanship, we would be well served to bring sortition back to democracy by selecting the House by lottery for the pool of eligible voters with required service. Just like this works for our jury duty, this would bring a citizen review and check on our elected Senate and help put a stop to the pork spending and bring us into a balanced budget.

buzorro wrote on February 28, 2011 at 5:02 pm

I'll note just one example of

I'll note just one example of public vc. private sector jobs that I think pretty well sums it up. There are tool-and-die makers where I work and they are the highest paid hourly workers, which is normal for any manufacturing plant. More than one has been fortunate enough to get a job at the U of I, where their work is a lot less demanding and they're paid close to double what they got at our plant.

Concerning collective bargaining, when the two sides cannot come to an agreement, if state law allows it, the workers can vote to strike and usually a mediator is called in. If it goes that far, both sides agree to abide by the mediator's decision. The employer has to prove to the mediator that the best offer is being made to the union. The union has to prove nothing. If the employer has the ability to raise taxes, then nine times out of ten the mediator will rule in favor of the unions. A private company has the option of closing it's gates, government entities do not. They can either raise taxes or layoff employees to meet the union's demands.

Partisanship? By all means. The pork-barrel crap is the result of bi-partisanship, Term limits would go a long way toward helping Congressmen stay true to their values.

For those who are unaware, originally the Constitution intended for the Senate to protect states' rights, not We the People's. Senators were originally appointed by their respective state legislatures, not voted for by us. But in 1913, the same year that the Federal Reserve Act was passed and the 16th Amendment (which established an income tax) was ratified, The 17th Amendment was ratified (which established that Senators were elected by the people instead of appointed by state legislatures). Then all the various lobbyists could stay in DC instead of DC 'and' the state capitols. Interesting year,...1913.