Scott Walker gets serious about domestic policy as Hurricane Donald enters its eighth week, launching a salvo at the public employee unions:
At a town hall meeting in Las Vegas, Walker will propose eliminating unions for employees of the federal government, making all workplaces right-to-work unless individual states vote otherwise, scrapping the federal agency that oversees unfair labor practices and making it more difficult for unions to organize.
Many of Walker’s proposals are focused on unions for workers at all levels of government, while others would also affect private-sector unions. Labor law experts said such an effort, if successful, would substantially reduce the power of organized labor in America.
Mr. Dilettante on why it’s important:
The key for Walker, and all the other Republican candidates, is to get specific and force The Donald to start getting specific as well. Trump wins if he gets to use the force of his personality to drive the debate. As long as the debate is about personalities and borscht belt insults, Trump the Insult Comic Dog will continue to dominate. He’s turned the campaign into a Friar’s Club roast (vid is NSFW, of course):
I’ve broken my usual cover early in this campaign, and been an “out” Walker guy since roughly sixty seconds after he won his re-election bid. It’s always important for the GOP to put forward the right person; I think Walker, with the right VP (I like Susanna Martinez or maybe Nicky Haley) is that person.
If he can just get the GOP, and then America, to get the starry-eyed obsession with novelty and celebrity that led us first to Obama and then Trump, we could start going places again.
I think there is one other thing that must be overcome, and that is this notion that if we just elect the RIGHT person as President, all of our troubles go away and we can plop back down on the couch for four more years. We don’t need somebody qualified, and we certainly don’t have time to examine the “issues” or “solutions” (whatever those are), we just need somebody with an overweening self-confidence and well-spoken platitudes.
We do not want Nicky Haley. She has been a decent Governor, but only because she has a lot of grown-up supervision.
I’m a Walker/Carson guy.
Hillary! and Walker had a wonderful Twitter exchange yesterday. Hillary! tweeted something to the effect of “Scott Walker’s anti-union policies in the state of Wisconsin are not leadership. That is bullying.” Walker retorted with “I am fighting to preserve workers rights, Hillary. Including the right to not support a candidate like you.”
I felt that one all the way over here in MN.
” Including the right to not support a candidate like you”
Yes, more like that, please.
Carson as Surgeon General, not VP, and only if he doesn’t talk 2A issues.
As to Walker’s Union Reform, it’s about Damned Time he played to his strengths. He needs to change the perception that his support is slipping. This should bring some people back.
“These are the values inspiring those brave workers in Poland. The values that have inspired other dissidents under Communist domination. They remind us that where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost. They remind us that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. You and I must protect and preserve freedom here or it will not be passed on to our children. Today the workers in Poland are showing a new generation not how high is the price of freedom but how much it is worth that price.”
Ronald Reagan, Labor Day Speech at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey, September 1, 1980
The feds operate under different rules than the states. I think Walker is off-base, if he thinks that de-unionizing the federal work force is going to accomplish what it did in Wisconsin (I am not sure what Walker is really proposing. The Strib, of course, gives us a reporter’s interpretation of what Walker will propose.)
The problem with federal bureaucracies is that they have become a fourth branch of government, untouchable, for all intents and purposes, by the elected representatives of the people who supposedly hold sovereign power in the United States. The federal workforce these days is rapidly becoming an aristocracy. Federal employees tend to be better paid, more highly educated, and more secure in their jobs than the average voter. They make rules for people that are not like them.
“The problem with federal bureaucracies is that they have become a fourth branch of government, untouchable, for all intents and purposes, by the elected representatives of the people who supposedly hold sovereign power in the United States.”
I offer Lois Lerner as Exhibit A, Your Honor.
Carson for HHS Secretary. Also that is the best parallel, Trump is the Triumph the Insult comic dog of the field. I hope Carly Fiorina mops the floor with his ass tomorrow.
Carson for HHS Secretary. Also that is the best parallel, Trump is the Triumph the Insult comic dog of the field. I hope Carly Fiorina mops the floor with his ass tomorrow.
A critical distinction lost on many is Government Union versus Private Union.
The purpose of a union is to protect workers from arbitrary and exploitative bosses. Does a tenured university professor need a union for job security against the Board of Regents? Does a clerk in the DMV need AFSCME to get fair pay from Mark Dayton?
I have my choice which plumber to hire – union or non-union. I have no choice where to buy my license tabs. If private unions become excessively expensive, I’ll switch and they’ll die. If public unions become excessively expensive . . . .
In addition to Joe’s point above about public vs private unions, public sector unions engage in a massive fiscal conflict of interest. They are funded by (involuntary) taxpayer provided revenue, via (involuntary) union dues of public sector workers. They use this money to campaign for politicians who they will then negotiate with for future compensation.
At the very least, public employee unions (as organizations) should be barred from ALL political spending.
Say Emery, I forget. Did Ronnie give that speech before he shitcanned every whining ATC Union thug, or after?
Don’t be a such a tosser Swift. I was thinking of you as I tee’d that one up.