Public Employee Unions Guarantee National Bankruptcy
View from the Mount
Sober Thought Provoking Essays
and the TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE . . .
“The
Assembly Public Safety Committee today is considering one of the most noxious, special-interest pieces of legislation we’ve
seen in a while—one that will endanger public safety, tread on the California constitution and reinforce the perception
that some government workers are part of a special, coddled group that’s exempt from the normal legal and ethical standards
that are applied to other Californians.” The Registry
Public Employee Unions Guarantee National Bankruptcy
Presidential executive orders have a long history. Both
Democratic and Republican presidents exercise such commands. Are EO’s a privilege in law or are they simply a technique
to skirt passing a Congressional statute? The executive branch adopts a pattern of rule that undermines the fundamental purpose
of separation of power. The historic result is that the legislature is relegated to a junior collaborator in their partnership
of crime. The bureaucracy has developed into a full-fledged imperial juggernaut that has a life of its own. Who started such
an ill-conceived practice?
"Executive Orders have two main functions: to modify how an executive branch department or agency does its job (rule change)
or to modify existing law, if such authority has been granted to the President by Congress. Executive orders are not mentioned
by the Constitution, but they have been around a long, long time. George Washington issued several Presidential Proclamations,
which are similar to EO's . EO's and Proclamations are not law, but they have the effect of statutes. Executive orders are
subject to judicial review, and can be declared unconstitutional".
The
Kennedy pandering to government "hired help" put the bankruptcy of state and federal budgets into motion. Consider
for a moment the absurdity of encouraging a permanent class of government slackers who conspire to steal from the productive
wealth creators of society. Anyone who accepts that state or federal employees provide invaluable and necessary public services
must be a "civil servant" or come from the long tradition of government parasites.
One of the most destructive
of initiatives encourages the unionization of state and federal public employees.
"In 1959,
the state of Wisconsin enacted the first state statute permitting municipal employees the right to form, join, and be represented
by labor organizations. Three years later, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988, which granted federal employees the right to join and form unions and to bargain collectively. The order
established a framework for collective bargaining and encouraged the expansion of collective bargaining rights to state and
local government employees. Beginning in 1976, the federal courts have ruled that the First Amendment's freedom of association
prohibits states from interfering with public sector employees' right to join and form unions. These decisions invalidated
the sovereignty doctrine, contributing to the growth of unions.
The Supreme Court held in Smith v.
Arkansas State Highway Employees, Local 1315 (1979), (3) however, that nothing in the U.S. Constitution requires public employers
to either recognize or collectively bargain with public employee unions. Employees can form and join unions without the benefit
of protective legislation, but public employers are not compelled to recognize or bargain with unions. Public employers are
required to bargain only under laws that mandate bargaining. The duty to bargain can be imposed only by statute".
"According to a survey
last month by the Pew Center on the States, a nonpartisan research group, eight states -- Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky,
Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and West Virginia -- lack funding for more than a third of their pension liabilities.
Thirteen others are less than 80% funded.
According to the latest compensation survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the average state and local employee out earns his counterpart in the private economy with an hourly wage of $26.11, versus
$19.41. That's before benefits (pensions, health care, paid vacations and sick days and leaves) drive the disparity even higher,
to $39.60 an hour for public employees and $27.42 for private workers.
Besides the politicians, the primary culprits
are the public-employee unions, which have used their growing power to dramatically enhance pension benefits. They curry favor
with sympathetic politicians, lavishing them with large donations and manning campaign phone banks. They also engage in full-court-press
lobbying at all levels of state and local government".
Watch the video Plunder! by journalist Steven Greenhut, who details a number of ploys that both workers and management use to maximize
their retirement checks. The brilliant WSJ article, Public Employee Unions Are Sinking California by Mr. Greehut points out the insane aftermaths from allowing public employee unionization.
"Approximately
85% of the state's 235,000 employees (not including higher education employees) are unionized. As the governor noted during
his $83 billion budget roll-out, over the past decade pension costs for public employees increased 2,000%. State revenues
increased only 24% over the same period. A Schwarzenegger adviser wrote in the San Jose Mercury News in the past few days
that, "This year alone, $3 billion was diverted to pension costs from other programs." There are now more than 15,000
government retirees statewide who receive pensions that exceed $100,000 a year, according to the California Foundation for
Fiscal Responsibility.
Many of these retirees are former police officers, firefighters, and prison guards who can retire
at age 50 with a pension that equals 90% of their final year's pay. The pensions for these (and all other retirees) increase
each year with inflation and are guaranteed by taxpayers forever—regardless of what happens in the economy or whether
the state's pensions funds have been fully funded (which they haven't been).
A 2008 state commission pegged California's
unfunded pension liability at $63.5 billion, which will be amortized over several decades. That liability, released before
the precipitous drop in stock-market and real-estate values, certainly will soar".
If you think that there are exceptions within the public
sector unions that are above criticism you are wrong. Teachers like to cling to the myth that they are essential and sacrifice
to educate the children. By any objective and empirical standards the results of their social engineering and indoctrination
is an underclass of illiterate and brain dead idiots. Government schools are tombs for zombie reproduction. NJ Governor Chris Christie is spot on in his assessment of the Teachers Union video.
It is beyond common
sense and pragmatic necessity to sit back and allow the "dumbing down" of America by a system that rewards
failure and steals tax dollars to pay the Teacher Unions blackmail. If you think reform is possible, forget it.
In, The Teachers’ Unions’ Last Stand, Steven Brill writes."The teachers’ unions have become accustomed in recent years to fighting
off reform efforts by Republicans and think-tank do-gooders. They ignore the rhetorical noise, while sticking to the work
of negotiating protectionist contracts with the politicians who run school systems and depend on their political support".
The fact that the education bureaucracy comprises a union paradise is obvious. Why citizens swallow this
insult might best be explained that most feudal subjects were trained to accept unlimited abuses from the state in
government schools.
Municipal jurisdictions do not fare any better. View the
Public Sector Union Bosses' Stranglehold on Mayors video. America does not need cradle to grave government services and certainly cannot afford its cost.
"The bottom line: Public-safety officials have
many ways to gin up their already generous retirements benefits to astronomical levels. Most garden-variety government employees
get lucrative pensions also. It is common for them to retire at age 55 with more than 80 percent of their final year’s
pay. Most public employees receive defined-benefit retirement plans, in which the taxpayer promises a set rate of return,
as opposed to private-sector workers who have 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans in which the market sets the return".
Public
Employee Unions came into being because of harebrained executive orders. The legislature has the authority to put an end to
the abuse of power from the executive. Indeed the theory is sound. The election of courageous representatives dedicated to
unwinding of the tyranny from the public sector is remote even under the best of circumstances. The lobbying and funding from
public service unions keep a stranglehold on the process.
The U.S. is broke. Public Employee Unions refuse to void
their unconscionable contracts. The taxpayer can no longer afford this destructive fraud. Society can only be rejuvenated
through a total downsizing of all public services. The biggest deadbeats that skim off the system are your phony public servants.
The only bright spot from a collapse and natural bankruptcy is the evaporation of the public sector. Can you say Bye Bye
to those decadent pensions? The government wants total control and public employees have made their - UNION - bargain with
the devil.
SARTRE – August 29, 2010
"Most
Americans believe that federal employees and other government employees are paid more than comparable private-sector employees.
When we've asked about 10 percent pay cuts for public employees, people have overwhelmingly supported that." - Pollster, Scott Rasmussen
