While the Wisconsin SB11 is purportedly about saving the state from deep deficits, the justification goes, in part, along the lines of how public sector employees are overpaid and have unusually good benefits. If this were true, then why aren't the Wall Street financiers and corporate CEO's ditching their private sector gigs and lining up to go to work for the states? The pay differential is a big lie, but one that is believed by enough supporters of the Tea Party conservatives to be a substantial talking point. As noted in The Economist, this argument is absurd when given a little thought. How many folks would say they or someone they know goes to work for the government to rake in the big bucks?
There are real budget problems at the state and federal level -- financially many of them are showing deficits. It's appropriate for elected officials to take a hard look at the programs they have and the revenues they expect and make difficult choices. But revenues are falling for states and that has nothing to do with the pay of public sector employees or their union contracts. The real culprits behind the fiscal problems are the folks that broke the economy and looted the taxpayer for their bailout. Why do people like Gov. Scott Walker and his Koch brothers-financed supporters want to blame the unions and let the financiers off the hook?
The political purpose of Walker's posturing isn't to save the state's budget. His goal is to break the unions and impose his (and his wealthy backers') fiscal policies for the state, and the manufactured budget crisis is just part of a Koch-financed strategy to further widen the gap between the very wealthy and the rest of us.
Recommended reading for this issue is Naomi Klein's excellent book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
I been thinking about us, too, about our people living like pigs and good rich land layin' fallow. Or maybe one guy with a million acres and a hundred thousand farmers starvin'. And I been wonderin' if all our folks got together and yelled...
