Public Employee Unions,  Scott Walker

Why Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker MUST Stay the Course

March 1, 2011 /

Mickey Kaus makes the argument.

It’s all about the deficit to Brooks. But the damage done by public sector unionism isn’t mainly the producing of deficits. It’s the crippling of government, so that bad teachers can’t be fired and productivity stagnates and virtually everything the government does it does crappier than private industry does it. That’s a big, ongoing problem for Democrats, which is why maybe it doesn’t trouble Brooks. But it should trouble even non-neo liberals. Democrats are the party that needs the government to be good at something other than mailing out checks.

Is Gov. Walker using the deficit as an excuse for making long-term institutional changes? You bet. It’s “all or nothing” because when you threaten the core institutional basis of AFSCME and the SEIU they will make it all or nothing. They have no choice.

It would be a disaster for union reform if Walker succumbs to Brooksian flaccidity now–whether his position is popular or not. The message, as gleefully interpreted by the MSM, would be that Republicans go too far when they threaten the treasured institution of government unionism (never mind that Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana ended state employee union collective bargaining six years ago, by executive order, and he still stands). That would be worse than if Walker had never made the attempt. He has the votes and can pass the bill whatever the polls say–just as Obama had the votes on his health care bill despite poll-measured popular disquiet.

Obama pushed his law through, took the heat, and may emerge victorious. Walker should do the same.

Oh, I think Scott Walker will stay the course. A man of conviction, he has done it before and knows he is “all in.”

This may be another “Scott Brown” moment for the GOP. Remember when the GOP was faced with the Democrats controlling the House and having a filibuster-proof Senate?

And, don’t get me started talking about how Jerry Brown’s decision to allow public employee unions to collectively bargain in 1977 has affected the K-12 public schools and Community Colleges. The short answer – it ruined them and corrupted their governing boards.