The Real Perspective Of State Public Unions and the Taxpayers

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We May be in the Midst of a “Bloodless” Revolution

We may just be in the midst of “bloodless” revolution of epic proportions that is not far behind that of the Civil War or even the original American Revolution. With the far reaching and noxious tentacles of our ever burgeoning and increasingly tyrannical federal government that is sucking out our life’s work in oppressive taxes and restricting our rights and freedoms with infinite and costly regulations, this pronouncement is not hyperbole.

“Give me Liberty or Give me (Death)” is not an anachronistic chant as tens of millions of Americans have become thoroughly disgusted with our contemptuous, profligate, over-taxing, somewhat omnipotent federal government that has become too corrupted in the Progressive/Liberal design.

We need to ratchet up the decibel level of our disgust against the elitism and disdain of the Obama/Reid/Pelosi et al Progressives, neutralize and reverse their actions. Concurrently, we must relentlessly support those Conservatives and Republicans championing our causes, whether they are local, in our State Houses or in Congress.

We have an awful lot riding on this.

The Real Revolution Has Begun
J. Robert Smith  February 21, 2011

How delicious is irony, how fickle fate?

Just a little more than two years ago, liberals were ecstatic about Barack Obama's election and Democrats' control of Congress.  Liberal pundits were all atwitter about the brand new Democratic Era that voters had ushered in.  America would finally become what America should have been years ago: a European-style social democracy.

Boy, did Democrats misread their mandate!  With very little hindsight needed, it's apparent to all but ideologically-blinkered liberals that the Democrats' gross overreach isn't what voters wanted or expected.  Voters wanted a redo of the Clinton years.  Instead, in the person of Barack Obama, voters got an amalgam of FDR and LBJ with a dash of Neville Chamberlin thrown in.

But here's the real kicker.  Two years of Obama-Reid-Pelosi overreach and excesses may have been the table-setter for the real revolution now unfolding.  Voters and taxpayers first needed to see the irresponsibility and recklessness of unalloyed liberalism to appreciate that conservative government is far superior.  Thank you, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid.

Of course, the real revolution began last year with the 2010 midterm elections.  Yes, the GOP made the largest gains in U.S. House seats since 1948.  But the underappreciated story is that the GOP racked up huge gains in state legislative contests, and further down ballot, Republicans swept plenty of local offices.  State legislatures control congressional redistricting.  Republicans now dominate enough key statehouses to lock-in GOP congressional electoral advantages for a decade.

Had voters limited their ballots to throwing out the rascals in Congress, a fair argument could be made that 2010 was just a protest vote -- an attempt by voters to shake up the Democrats.  But when voters drill down to change party control of legislatures, city halls, and county commissions, you can bet that they're thoroughly repudiating the party in power.  The 2010 repudiation of Democrats was a clear expression of what voters did and didn't want from government.

Move now to the present time.  Republicans are on the march in Congress.  Late last week, House Republicans passed a budget bill containing $61 billion in cuts.  It's not the $100 billion that conservatives aimed for, but it's substantial and can be considered a down payment.  The House Republican proposal now goes to the Senate.  The budget process wrangling is just in its first phase.  Moving forward, the GOP will have multiple opportunities to push more cuts.

And look what else House Republicans are doing.  They're using the budget process to hamstring Obamacare by denying it funding.  Shutting down and then nixing ObamaCare would be an historic victory in the fight to end liberalism's nearly hundred-year dominance; it would be one of those critical turning points in history -- like Vicksburg and Gettysburg -- a momentum shifter that leads to other key victories, such as entitlements reform.

Also, Indiana Republican Mike Pence offered and passed an amendment cutting funding for the odious abortion mill called Planned Parenthood.  Another amendment, offered by Oregon Republican Greg Walden, that passed, chokes off funds for the Federal Communications Commission's net-neutrality gambit.  Net -neutrality would concentrate more power in the FCC's hands and stymie free speech across the internet.  Net-neutrality could well have been made in China.

Of course, the revolution just beginning isn't confined to the Halls of Congress.  Chris Christie, New Jersey's intrepid Republican governor, fired the first shots last year in the burgeoning struggle to bring sanity back to state affairs.  Christie's efforts aren't limited to balancing state budgets and reining in taxes, important as those things are.  Christie is working to limit government and expand the playing field for the private sector.  As we're seeing, government without proper limits is a ruinous beast.  California is a prime example.

Now newly elected Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is making headlines because he dares to say that his state is broke and that the public employees' gravy train needs to end.  Governor Walker wants to end collective bargaining for public employees, excepting police and firefighters, on the simple, common sense premise that employees shouldn't be negotiating the hours they work, among other things.

In Ohio, Governor John Kasich is gearing up to slash budgets, rollback taxes, cut regulations, and confront the Buckeye State's public employee unions.  There'll be fireworks aplenty in Columbus.

Thomas Jefferson is being proven right again.  The states are the laboratories of democracy.  Christie, Kasich, and Walker are seeking to demonstrate that limited, financially responsible government is best for economic and societal health.  If successful -- and we should all have high confidence that these governors will succeed -- the lessons will not be lost on voters and politicians in other states.  Revolutions are like that; it takes just a few courageous leaders to embolden others and for revolutions to spread.

A marvelous, if unintended, consequence of this burgeoning conservative revolution is what it's doing to liberalism.  The budding conservative revolution is starting to place strains on liberalism; beginning to make liberals and their allies fight defensive battles in multiple -- and multiplying -- places.  Call this a modified Cloward-Piven -- or Cloward-Piven turned on its masters.

Challenging liberal governance, and pressing limited government reforms, will help bring down liberalism across the nation.  And that should be an indisputable aim of the new conservative revolution.  Liberalism became a pox on the nation years ago.  Marginalizing liberalism would be an incomparable service to generations to come -- and to those kids being lied to now by too many Wisconsin teachers.

"Change We Can Believe In."  Mr. Obama's slogan always had a nice ring to it, but it was misapplied and a little ahead of its time.  With the conservative revolution, change we can really believe in has arrived.  How's that for rich irony?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/the_real_revolution_has_begun.html

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Obama Co-opting Increasing Power

By various means and schemes, Obama is co-opting increasing power - and some of it by bypassing the Congress.

This is not a good thing!

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Parallels Between Mubarak and Obama: Part 2

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Parallels Between Mubarak and Obama

The parallels between what is happening in Egypt with Mubarak and how Americans feel about the despot-in-the making, Obama, are quite close. It is unfortunate that Obama "can't" be overthrown like the Middle East situation.

The extent of suppression and oppression legislated on Americans by the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats has not reached the levels endemic in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world but our rights and freedoms are increasingly being abridged while greater and outrageous amounts of our earnings are being confiscated by an ever enlarging government with an insatiable appetite for spending.

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House Republicans Are Proceeding To Reduce Spending On Federal Programs

The American electorate sent an unmistakable message to President Obama and the Democrats in power this past November – “STOP SPENDING MONEY THAT WE DON'T HAVE!” The result was an historic reversal of majority party in the House and a six seat gain in the Senate for Republicans. A chastened Obama even admitted he took a "shellacking".

The article below lays out the Republican plan to cut spending to reduce the $1.5 trillion deficit for 2011 alone and begin to tackle the over $14 trillion national debt. But are the Republicans really serious about establishing a guideline for fiscal responsibility or are they just playing small ball? Will they stand their ground when they come under siege with vicious attacks and lies from Obama, Congressional Democrats and the far left news media?

Sure, they are proposing a return to the pre-2008 spending budget, which is a good start, but it is just a drop in the bucket compared to the massive entitlement bills that will come due in the years to come. Unless the current Republican leadership shows the courage and unwavering fortitude regarding the hard decisions on the largest expenditure areas that need to be reined in - Medicare and Social Security - rather than myopically focusing on the minutia in the federal budget, it may take another election cycle of Tea Party-type candidates to enforce the message in Washington.

"Get it done or get out" will be the theme of the 2012 election if things don't change in Washington. Let's just hope that the Congressional Republicans get it right this time around and are not just playing politics with our and our children's financial futures.

House Republicans move to slash domestic programs

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans controlling the House promised Thursday to slash domestic agencies' spending by almost 20 percent in their drive to bring it back to levels in place before President Barack Obama took office.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan announced the move as the first salvo in a battle with Obama as they seek to keep a campaign promise to cut $100 billion from domestic programs.

The cuts would bring huge changes to agencies used to budget boosts during Obama's first two years in office. The White House has vowed to fight Republicans, saying their plans could lead to widespread furloughs of federal employees and force vulnerable people off of subsidized housing, reduce services in national parks and slash aid to schools and local police and fire departments.

"Washington's spending spree is over," Ryan, R-Wis., said. "The spending limits will restore sanity to a broken budget process and return spending for domestic government agencies to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels."

Republicans made a campaign promise to cut $100 billion from Obama's request for domestic agencies like the Department of Education, for the budget year that began in October. But since the year is under way, they're so far falling short, just $58 billion under the plan released Thursday. They promise to try to fully impose the dramatic cuts during what is sure to be a contentious budget debate this year.

The GOP promise was to reduce spending for domestic agencies whose budgets are set by Congress each year back to levels in place under the last budget approved by former President George W. Bush.

Under the original pledge, the Pentagon could have been awarded Obama's proposed 4 percent, $23 billion increase. Instead, the military budget will grow by significantly less when the Appropriations Committee unveils its proposed budget cap later Thursday.

The $100 billion savings figure is measured against Obama's budget request, but the actual savings would be less since Obama's budget boosts were never approved and the government is operating at 2010 levels. Instead, the savings from domestic programs in making the switch from 2010 to 2008 would be about $86 billion, imposing cuts of 19 percent on average.

And the savings from domestic programs in the year ending Sept. 30 would be even less since Obama's budget boosts were never approved and the government is operating at 2010 levels. Republicans acknowledge they can achieve, at best, $32 billion in saving by the Sept. 30 end of the year once small increases for the security agencies — the Pentagon and the departments of Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs — are factored in.

A stopgap spending bill passed in December expires March 4. Enacting a full-year funding bill promises to be a difficult test of the new balance of power in Washington. Republicans control only the House, but Democrats acknowledge that — with the deficit on pace to hit $1.5 trillion this year — some spending cuts will have to be made.

"We're not burying our heads on the sand. We recognize that we have to do something," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Obama's most powerful ally on Capitol Hill.

Republicans say some agencies like the FBI, the Indian Health Service and NASA are unlikely to be cut all the way back to pre-Obama levels. But that means other agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, would have to bear even bigger cuts.

Returning to 2008 levels would produce dramatic cuts for many agencies: a 41 percent cut for EPA clean water grants; an 8 percent cut to NASA, a 16 percent cut for the FBI and a 13 percent cut in the operating budget of the national parks.

The hard-charging GOP freshman class — especially newcomers from Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York and New Hampshire — may have some second thoughts when confronted with big cuts looming to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, which provides home heating subsidies to the poor.

Republicans in Texas, Florida and Alabama — where NASA facilities mean thousands of jobs — are sure to fight against cuts to the space agency. NASA could have to abandon the International Space Station because of the cuts, the White House warns.

Lawmakers in both parties from rural districts are likely to resist what could be an almost 20 percent cut to a program that subsidizes service by smaller airlines to isolated cities and towns like Scottsbluff, Neb., and Burlington, Iowa. Smaller subsidies or tighter rules would probably mean some communities would lose service.

As local school districts cope with budget squeezes, they won't be able to count on the same amount of help from the federal government. Special education grants to states could be cut by $1.4 billion, or 11 percent, forcing hometown school boards to cut services or make up the difference with local funds.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gkeDfYvhT6TACrThCe5077sBo-bQ?docId=050645469a634a44b715c2d3035f9ff6

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Freedom Of Speech Should Not Be Sacrificed For Civility of Political Discourse

Political speech can and will never be completely civil given the nature of the beast. Attempts to reign it in will only curtail our freedoms including the freedom of speech.

Who will be the arbiter appropriate speech?

The Left? The media? The President?

We can see how that is working out presently. Obama and the Progressives, liberals and Democrats in general talk about civility in discourse except it apparently doesn't apply to them in practice.

We must never agree to trade some free speech for greater civility in discourse as we will ultimately have neither free speech nor civility (paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin).

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Public Sector Unions and Their Pension Liabilities Are More Than A Major Drag On the Economy

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Obama Administration Attempting Backdoor Approach To Impose the Rejected “Card Check” Union Friendly Legislation

To satisfy Big Labor (the single largest source of campaign funding for the Democratic party), Democrats have been pushing hard since taking control of congress in 2006 to pass a law that would circumvent the secret ballot process to unionize private businesses. Even with large majorities in both Houses and a “president” Obama eager to please his cash cow, Democrats have been unable to wrangle up enough votes to pass such a measure.

What to do now? Just as the Obama Administration is using the EPA to regulate carbon emissions because of the inability to pass Cap and Trade in Congress, it is now using the National Labor Relations Board to also do an end run around the legislative branch and impose regulations that are quite unpopular with the public and would not garner enough support as legislation in Congress. This bypassing of the electoral system and the imposing of rights denying rules is characteristic of a cynical, arrogant, authoritarian styled politician who is not looking out for the welfare, rights and freedoms of the citizens of this country.

As it stands right now, private business owners are obligated by law to allow union officials access to their workforce. The union representatives hand out "cards" to each employee to fill out - including their name - to see if there is sufficient interest to move to the next phase of unionizing - a secret ballot. Big Labor and the Democrats want to eliminate the secret ballot part of the process - a time honored American institution to protect voters from the reprisal of adversaries. They, instead, prefer the "card check" part of the process which does not allow anonymity.

This allows the Union bosses to learn the identities of those who voted against considering unionizing which will subject these employees to the bare knuckle tactics for which unions are famous in controlling dissent – both before and after the vote. Without a secret ballot, the unions have the upper hand at the expense of the employees (and employers).

If we elected our public officials in the same manner that Big Labor and Democrats want to determine the establishment of a unionized workforce in a private business, we all be exposed to the type of intimidation that we saw in 2008 when members of the New Black Panther Party harassed white voters as they approached a polling site in Philadelphia.

This is the stuff of Third World countries. Then again, Obama’s incompetence, arrogance, imposition of failed policies and ruling essentially by fiat, would qualify him to become the leader of a Banana Republic (where we seem to be heading under his rule).

Feds threaten to sue states over union laws
Sam Hananel  Associated Press    Jan 14, 2011

WASHINGTON – The National Labor Relations Board on Friday threatened to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah over constitutional amendments guaranteeing workers the right to a secret ballot in union elections.

The agency's acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, said the amendments conflict with federal law, which gives employers the option of recognizing a union if a majority of workers sign cards that support unionizing.

The amendments, approved Nov. 2, have taken effect in South Dakota and Utah, and will do so soon in Arizona and South Carolina.
Business and anti-union groups sought the amendments, arguing that such secrecy is necessary to protect workers against union intimidation. They are concerned that Congress might enact legislation requiring employers to allow the "card check" process for forming unions instead of secret ballot elections.

In letters to the attorney general of each state, Solomon says the amendments are pre-empted by the supremacy clause of the Constitution because they conflict with employee rights laid out in the National Labor Relations Act. That clause says that when state and federal laws are at odds, federal law prevails.

Solomon is asking the attorneys general in South Dakota and Utah for official statements agreeing that their amendments are unconstitutional "to conserve state and federal resources."

In his letter to South Carolina's attorney general, Solomon asks the state to take measures that would prevent the Legislature from ratifying the amendment. Solomon requested that Arizona's governor decline to make the amendment official.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he believes the state is on solid ground. He plans to coordinate a response with the other three states.

"If they want to bring a lawsuit, then bring it," Shurtleff said. "We believe that a secret ballot is as fundamental a right as any American has had since the beginning of this country. We want to protect the constitutional rights of our citizens."

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley also promised to "vigorously defend our South Dakota Constitution" against any federal lawsuit.

Unions long have pushed for the card-check legislation, but the effort hasn't won enough support in Congress. Union officials say companies often use aggressive tactics — borderline illegal, they contend — to discourage workers from organizing unions.

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group that spent millions to back congressional Republicans in last year's elections, was among the groups that pushed for passage of the state amendments. Phil Kerpen, the group's vice president for policy, said the NLRB's action "shows how determined the board is to accomplish card check by backdoor means against the wishes of the American people and Congress."

Kimberly Freeman Brown, executive director of the pro-union group American Rights at Work, said the board was confirming that "these initiatives were intended to restrict workers' rights to determine how they choose a union, disingenuously cloaked in the language of worker protection."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110114/ap_on_re_us/us_unions_secret_ballots

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Congress MUST Change!

The House of Representatives must change the "business as usual" approach which has included unfettered spending under the Democrats.

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