Michael Barone: Public unions force taxpayers to fund Democrats

How many people would have chosen FDR over Reagan when asked who was one of the greatest 20th century Presidents against unions for public employees who have civil service protection? Certainly not me!

That's why one of the great 20th century presidents was against unions for public employees who have civil service protections. No, not Ronald Reagan. It was Franklin Roosevelt who said, "Action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable."

Those words are as true today as when FDR said them. Looks like the Democrats rewrote history about FDR as well as everything else.

This article from Michael Barone clearly explains what a lot of us have been complaining about -- union dues from public service unions go to fund Democrat candidates from President to the local governments. They are funding their Democrat candidates to get more benefits and higher pay. There is something unseemly about that and is an affront to the taxpayers.

Stimulus money made sure states wouldn't lay off workers and now that is time to pay up health benefits and pensions for those who were kept on the job thanks to Obama/Pelosi stimulus, states are nearly bankrupt. Those employees should have been laid off.

Then you can add health benefits for some state legislatures like Oklahoma who only work officially for 60 days from February to end of May but their health benefits are paid like they are a full time state employees for the year.

Public unions force taxpayers to fund Democrats
By: Michael Barone 02/22/11 8:05 PM
Senior Political Analyst

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker walks away after talking to the
media at the state Capitol in Madison, Wis., Monday, Feb. 21,
2011. Opponents to the governor's bill to eliminate collective
bargaining rights for many state workers are in the 7th day of
protests at the Capitol.-Andy Manis/AP

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker walks away after talking to the media at the state Capitol in Madison, Wis., Monday, Feb. 21, 2011.

Opponents to the governor's bill to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many state workers are in the 7th day of protests at the Capitol.-Andy Manis/APEveryone has priorities. During the past week Barack Obama has found no time to condemn the attacks that Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has launched on the Libyan people. 

But he did find time to be interviewed by a Wisconsin television station and weigh in on the dispute between Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the state's public employee unions. Walker was staging "an assault on unions," he said, and added that "public employee unions make enormous contributions to our states and our citizens."

Enormous contributions, yes -- to the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign. Unions, most of whose members are public employees, gave Democrats some $400 million in the 2008 election cycle. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the biggest public employee union, gave Democrats $90 million in the 2010 cycle.

Follow the money, Washington reporters like to say. The money in this case comes from taxpayers, present and future, who are the source of every penny of dues paid to public employee unions, who in turn spend much of that money on politics, almost all of it for Democrats. In effect, public employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party.

So, just as the president complained in his 2010 State of the Union address about a Supreme Court decision that he feared would increase the flow of money to Republicans, he also found time to complain about a proposed state law that could reduce the flow of money to Democrats.

And, according to the Washington Post, to get the Democratic National Committee to organize protests against the proposed Wisconsin law. Protests that showed contempt for the law, with teachers abandoning classrooms, doctors writing phony medical excuses, Democratic legislators fleeing the state and holing up in a motel. The lawmakers played hooky without losing any salary, which is protected by the state constitution.

It's true that Walker's proposals would strike hard at the power of the public employee unions. They would no longer have the right to bargain for fringe benefits, which are threatening to bankrupt the state government, and they would no longer be able to count on government withholding dues money and passing it along to them.

But what are the contributions that public employee unions make to our states and our citizens? Their incentives are to increase the cost of government and reduce down toward zero the accountability of public employees -- both contrary to the interests of taxpaying citizens.

An argument can be made that higher pay, generous benefits and lavish pensions will attract better people to public employment. But where are the studies that show that citizens of states with strong public employee unions get better services than citizens in states without?

What citizens of states with strong public employee unions do get are higher taxes and enormous pension burdens that threaten to squeeze out funds for ongoing services, as even Democratic governors like Andrew Cuomo of New York and Jerry Brown of California have figured out.

Excerpt:  Read more at the Washington Examiner