In Unfolding War on Public Employees, State Lawmakers and Media Likely to Do the Work Themselves

[Joanne98]

A few weeks ago, James Pethokoukis made waves with an article suggesting a “secret GOP plan” that would give states the ability to declare bankruptcy and basically default on their public employee union and pension contracts. Now, before the election, Pethokoukis’ big scoop was that the Obama Administration would order Fannie and Freddie to forgive mortgage debt on underwater borrowers. As it turned out, the Administration gently nudged the GSEs, who promptly resisted the principal reduction program. So the track record is not dead solid.

There’s no question that Republicans have introduced a bill which would require more transparency on state public pensions, and that they hope this would provide a road map in the states for where they can cut budgets; namely, on the backs of public employees. That doesn’t mean it will happen in exactly that way, however. And the idea that the next Congress will overhaul the 30s-era law allowing states to go bankrupt seems fanciful to me.

But I don’t think states or municipalities need much help from the federal government in their desire to rewrite public employee union contracts. There has been a concerted effort for years to demonize and delegitimize public employee unions, from both Republican pols and the media in general. This has left a distorted impression about greedy union contracts and well-paid government functionaries. So the new class of Republican governors would certainly want to capitalize on that by pleasing the public, who now favors things like wage freezes (which Obama just instituted at the federal level) and furloughs and bigger pension contributions, punishing those workers. And they are animated by a general hatred of unions, which have maintained their strength in the public sector while fading away in the private sector.

Alongside that, there are legitimate budget problems in the states. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates a $118 billion dollar shortfall in state and municipal budgets in 2011. And there are certainly some states and municipalities with currently unfunded pension liabilities. While federal aid could offset some of that, there’s no chance it will happen – expect the House to pass, early next year, a resolution basically forbidding “bailouts” of the states. At that point, state governments will either have to cut spending or raise taxes to balance their budgets, which almost all of them are constitutionally required to do. With public employees – or rather, cops, firefighters, nurses, teachers, the people who prepare your state tax refund, the people who get you your driver’s license, the people who get the roads and bridges fixed and basically secure your safe passage through the commons – seen in a negative light, they will in many states be lined up for cuts.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/12/27/in-unfolding-war-on-public-employees-state-lawmakers-and-media-likely-to-do-the-work-themselves/

We can bail out the TBTF banks but not our states. That tells you who's more important in this country.

And I want the citizens who hate unions to MOVE!

Get out of my country before you get the shit knocked out of you!

[MadMaddie]

1. They are the ones that are surprised that they lost their jobs

even after all of the labor and love they gave the companies.

The continued attack on hard working Americans is going to backfire. How and when I don't know but it can't continue. Faux is perpetuating the lie about unemployed Americans not looking for work.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. There are people here...

...on this board, who hate unions, because they're corrupt and full of hacks and price things out of the reach of everyone else, and think that public sector employees are a bunch of overpaid, unaccountable civil-service drones just marking time till their inflated pensions can be claimed.

On Democratic Underground. Why would the outside world be any better?

[Recursion]

4. I accept the importance of unions but aspects of them still bug me

When you've been in a situation where all hiring is done through the hall, and the hall won't take you in unless you're hired, it's hard not to get really frustrated with unions, especially when the local's chief's brother-in-law magically gets a waiver to join. Now, this was when I was being a longshoreman back in the mid-90s and I get that that's probably the one union that really does live up to the stereotypes. But still.

I wish more jobs were union than are now (and thank God SEIU and the Wobblies still are trying to increase organization). But I also wish unions didn't end up doing so much of management's work for them by all too often actually being corrupt and nepotistic.

[WingDinger]

3. Wrote a song about it, and it goes like this

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/WingDinger/37

[zbdent]

5. Akron Beacon Journal already helped the Repukenicons on that one ...

they did a hit piece earlier this year on the Teachers' pension funds ...

[Bgno64]

6. I think public employee unions are going to have to make concessions

Particularly in cities, where the tax base is stagnating, where many taxpayers' income is also stagnant as wages are frozen or worse, it astounds me to see unions still getting 3 percent raises year over year.

Make no mistake - as a private sector employee I would LOVE to have that sort of deal. But I don't and won't, and most people are in that situation. So how - in this environment - can police unions, teachers unions, etc. - insist on salary hikes, or resist bigger payments for health care?

It's not a matter of, don't they deserve what they get; they do. But there's only so much money to go around, regardless of what everyone "deserves"