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Subscribe to RSSOn “Meet the Press” yesterday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) defended his budget proposal that would strip public workers of collective-bargaining rights. He twice deflected when asked by NBC’s David Gregory why he wouldn’t take concessions from unions to balance the state budget. On the third time he was asked, Walker said as a former local official, “I know that collective bargaining has a cost.” He even claimed that the budget repair bill was “less restrictive” than the federal government. (It’s unclear what he meant, since many federal workers are unionized.) On the perception of hypocrisy, on why he wasn’t trying to strip police or fire fighters of their collective-bargaining rights (both groups endorsed his candidacy), Walker said this is “not a values judgment” on teachers, but “is about protecting public safety,” noting that he couldn’t afford police or fire fighters striking for even a day.
State police didn’t remove about 600 protestors from the state Capitol.
There’s this headline from Saturday’s Wisconsin State Journal: “More than 70,000 protesters participate in rally at Capitol.” “For a second straight Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets around the state Capitol — braving temperatures in the mid-teens — for the largest day yet in their continuing struggle to stop Gov. Scott Walker's plan to essentially end collective bargaining rights for most public employees. Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said early Saturday afternoon that the number of protesters — nearly all of whom opposed Walker's plan — was in excess of 70,000, the estimated number of protesters in attendance last Saturday.”
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Scott Walker ~ This Week In Lies #1
When Governor Walker announced his “budget repair bill,” he claimed the bill was necessary to close a gap in the current budget. It wasn’t, as was demonstrated immediately and has been reinforced repeatedly, most recently by Rachel Maddow’s debunking of Politifact. The hole in the current budget was in fact caused by Walker and the legislature ramming through $140 million in new tax breaks. The hole certainly wasn’t caused by public employees, and neither was it caused by teachers’ unions. While Wisconsin does still have a structural budget deficit, Walker’s predecessor, Jim Doyle, had already taken steps to furlough public employees and obtain concessions to close the current biennial deficit. Prior to Walker’s move in January, legislative analysts predicted an actual surplus. Thus, except for Walker’s recklessness in introducing new tax breaks we can’t afford, there was no current budget “hole.”
When you think about the causes of the longer-term structural deficit, you need think no further than the Wall Street driven recession, which has created huge deficits in many places other than Wisconsin, including those that don’t have public employee bargaining -- like Texas, for example, where the deficit estimates I have heard range between $22 billion and $27 billion. Compare that with $3 billion in Wisconsin, which is not even a current deficit, but merely a projection for 2014. This morning, it was reported on MSNBC that the National Governor's Association estimates the current shortfall for all 50 states at $175 billion. Wisconsin's unions aren't responsible for that, so then, what is? Well, when they're away from home seeking federal help, and no one is listening to their union-bashing rhetoric, the governors actually attribute those deficits mostly to Medicaid. Whatever Texas attributes its own deficits to, it’s certainly not public employee unions, as they have none. In addition to Medicaid, one might surmise that also relates to the high unemployment rate overall in this country caused by the Wall Street driven recession. When people make no money, they pay no taxes. When tax collections go way down, we get deficits. Add to that billions of dollars in unnecessary tax breaks for the wealthy, and the soaring, and still unchecked, costs of health care, and it’s a recipe for disaster.
I challenge anyone to explain why it is fair to punish public employees and their unions for deficits caused by Medicaid and by the recession. The only reason, of course, is that's the only way to avoid raising taxes. But sometimes, folks, it just can't be helped. And this may be one of those times.
By golly Miss Molly: You are spot-on in every comment. Maybe you would consider reposting these comments ahead of First Thoughts so more people can get a good look at Wisconsin's lying Governor.
Ron, Im struck by the fact that First Thoughts didnt detail it!!! But I ahve less and less confidence of the impartiality of US media!
I thought about First Thoughts, Ron, but it wasn't up yet, and it isn't mostly about Walker. I see hardly any conservatives wanted to give it a go. Sigh.
Scott Walker ~ This Week In LIes #2
When questioned about the need for the budget repair bill, Walker claimed that he was just doing what he had done in Milwaukee County when he was county executive. Well, to be perfectly fair, this may not strictly be a lie. What Walker did in Milwaukee County is legendary and demonstrable, and effective fiscal management had nothing to do with it. He drove the County to the brink of bankruptcy, causing the State to seize control of several public assistance programs that Walker had mismanaged. He dummied up an “emergency” to fire courthouse guards and replace them with private contractors – a unilateral move over the objection of the County Board that didn’t save much money and was overturned by a seasoned labor arbitrator as having been unnecessary. Sound familiar? The Greater Milwaukee Committee, chaired by the same person who was Walker’s campaign chair, deliberately suppressed a report it had commissioned until after the election because it was so critical of Walker’s management. If you want more details about this, you can read them here –
http://badgerherald.com/news/2010/10/12/milwaukee_county_to_.php
By the way, the Badger Herald is the UW-Madison’s conservative student newspaper. Here’s a little taste of what the GMC report said:
http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2010-12-scott-walkers-legacy-of-ruin
maybe the conservatives need to look at what Walker did to the Milwaukee county when he was county excutive he drove the county to the brink of bankruptcy. with a debt of almost 100 million dollars by 2014. no lie . this is true
I wonder why no journalists are questioning Governor Walker about this - since it is in black and white. I second a comment by First Read last week where they said journalists were doing the public a disservice by not clearly stating what is factual, and not, about the health car law, amongst other things, as that is their responsibility. It seems they have done another disservice by not reporting on this very important issue so the good folks of Wisconsin could make an informed voting decision. AND by not now having Governor Walker explain himself. If he cannot run a county how can he run the state. This is awful and frightening. This affects all of us, as it seems what one GOP governor will do, so do others. Well, we have our own genius to contend with.
BTW, I thought public safety officers could not strike. They can't in Florida.
Good luck to us all!!!!!
Scott Walker ~ This Week In Lies #3
When the unions caved in and offered to give all the concessions that Walker was seeking in the budget repair bill, he said that his proposal to take away their collective bargaining rights was still non-negotiable. He further claimed that banning collective bargaining was necessary to give local governments the flexibility that they had been seeking for many years to deal with local budget issues.
This particular lie has been refuted by the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, the Wisconsin League of Municipalities, and the Wisconsin Counties Association. They have never asked for the kind of “flexibility” that Scott Walker has summarily and unilaterally given them, at the expense of employees’ long-standing statutory collective bargaining rights. In fact, many administrators do not agree that this move is either necessary or desirable. Read more about that here --
http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=32445
So now we have a newly elected governor who never finished college himself, knows nothing about education, and is a proven failure as a fiscal manager attempting to tell local governments and local school authorities what is good for them.
What he's really telling them is what is good for his corporate paymasters. Read on.
Governor Walker lied in the interview.
He said teachers unions require municipalities use a teachers health insurance company. That is false. In fact, Milwaukee area teachers didn't use the insurance company Walker refers to until recently. (I mention this because Governor Walker was involved in the negotiations, so he knows they weren't using the insurance company he refers to).
Every insurance company in Wisconsin, offers several different tiers. Governor Walker
In addition, Walker has stated some of these insurance companies cost too much and must be switched to Wisconsin's state plans. Of particular interest, is one insurance company repeatedly criticized by Governor Walker is actually in the states lowest cost for the state health plan.
It's very strange that Governor Walker forgets these facts, yet runs around saying Reagan defeated communism, by firing air traffic controllers who would not negotiate.
Notice, the unions in Wisconsin have agreed to every financial change Governor Walker put in the bill. If this was not enough for the budget, shouldn't Governor Walker have asked for more? That's what leaders do, they tell their workers what they need.
Debbie ~ This is all part of the plan. He wants to destroy WEAC, so he also has to destroy the WEA Trust. The use of WEA Trust is, of course, a collectively bargained item. I know districts that are not using WEA Trust, including one that is using the state plan, having been grandfathered in.
So you're right. I can confirm with firsthand knowledge that this is yet another Walker lie.
Scott Walker ~ This Week In Lies #4
When public employees erupted in protest over Walker’s proposal, he claimed that everyone knew exactly what he was going to do, and that’s why he won the election. Again, demonstrably false. Walker did not run on crushing employees’ collective bargaining rights. While it is true that everyone expected cuts and concessions, Walker’s predecessor Jim Doyle had managed the deficit without resorting to such a measure, so there was no reason for anyone to suspect that Walker would need to adopt such a drastic measure, either. I challenge anyone here to produce evidence that Walker made this promise during the campaign. If he had, the police and fire unions who are marching with the protesters now would never have endorsed him, and it’s unlikely he could have been elected.
That is, of course, exactly why he didn’t.
Scott Walker ~ This Week In Lies # 5
While speaking on the telephone to the prank caller pretending to be David Koch, Walker lied and told the faux Koch that the crowds had been small and mostly from out of state. Anyone who was there will tell you that the crowds were huge – the Saturday before last was between 70,000 and 100,000, and they were mostly state residents. Now, the tea party crowds, which made up just a small fraction of that total, are something else again. Those were mostly bused in from out of state by the Koch brothers’ organization. How Walker could have been so foolish to lie to his corporate paymasters is difficult to conceive. They had already established a lobbying office directly across the street from the Capitol with several employees. Surely, they knew the truth. If Walker would lie to his own bosses in order to impress them, they may be having a little trouble trusting him now, but that’s their business. They may feel compelled to dance with the one who brung ‘em, but the rest of us don’t have to. By the way, pre-recall organizing has already begun.
Scott Walker ~ This Week In Lies #6
On Friday, Walker stated that the Capitol police wanted to close the building to demonstrators, at least at night, for safety reasons. That this is not exactly correct is clearly established by the reaction of the Capitol police, who immediately announced that they would sleep along side the demonstrators in the Capitol on Friday night in a show of solidarity. And so they did.
On Sunday, with rumors flying that the building would be closed and protesters arrested, members of the police association announced that they would remain with the protesters and be arrested, should it come to that. This is Wisconsin – it didn’t. The building closed at 4 p.m., but many demonstrators remained inside, including at least one state representative. What the Capitol police really wanted to do was to clean, and they managed to figure out how to do it around the demonstrators.
A poll on the local news tonight indicates that most people, at least here, believe the protesters should be allowed to continue inside the Capitol next week. It is, after all, the people's house.
Scott Walker ~ This Week In Lies #7
During his conversation with the phony David Koch, Scott Walker told Koch that he planned to trick the democratic state senators into returning to the state by agreeing to talk, and then, when he had them in session, he planned to listen for maybe an hour, and then, perhaps when they left the room for a break, take a quick vote. In other words, he planned to use lies and deception to lure the senators back.
This is perhaps merely a lie in the making, but a lie, just the same. I wonder if the Koch brothers have realized yet that Walker will say anything he thinks they want to hear, and will lie as needed to advance his agenda.
Well, he's theirs now, and they can't give him back.
Scott Walker ~ This Week In Lies #8
During his inaugural State of the State address, Walker said his mission was to serve all the people of Wisconsin. During his conversation with the phony Koch, he stated that Scott Cullen, a democratic state senator, was a pretty good guy, but “not one of us.” Not one of whom? Last I heard, Cullen was still a citizen of Wisconsin. I guess there are “us” and “them,” for Scott Walker and his corporate paymasters, and people who disagree with Walker are “them.”
Paranoia runs deep in this particular man of the people. But Walker says he is doing all of this to protect Wisconsin workers. How is it then that so many of them have united against him? Does he think that they don’t know what’s in their own best interests, or does he know that they do?
And now, as a reward for having read this far, I have a little joke for you:
A unionized public employee, a tea party member and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the tea party member and says, 'Watch out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie.’
No, the Union is the one who wants to help YOU get your cookies back. In gratitude, you want to take theirs.
Anna Molly -
Seems to me that Governor Walker is sitting at the head of the table in your story and has already told the union guy "NO cookies for you. Not now. Not ever. Especially if you want some for your friends too. Even if - at some point in the future - this table is covered in BILLIONS of cookies, you won't even be allowed to ask for one. I'm not saying that you can ask and I'll still say 'no' - I'm saying you aren't even allowed to ask. Get it? No more cookies! Don't even THINK of asking!"
I nominate Anna Molly to replace David Gregory on Meet The Press. I watched that show on Sunday, and I knew in my gut something was "off" in Walker's answers, especially in regards to the insurance issue, but Gregory never seems to be prepared with any real facts in his interviews. To his credit, he did keep asking the governor why he 'wouldn't take yes for an answer ,' however, he allowed Walker to claim this insurance issue as an answer, implying the unions are corrupt. It's really disturbing how far journalism has fallen, that you learn more from the comment section of a blog than from a glitzy Sunday show. I won't even go into how angry Friday night's broadcast news made me.
LoL Amy ~ That's exactly why I did this. What you describe is the general pattern with the Main Stream Media these days, and not just as it relates Scott Walker. It's mostly people who get paid a lot of money to look pretty and not say anything even vaguely controversial. Too much time in the gym, I suppose. In fact, I didn't even watch MTP yesterday, having seen it the week before, where Lindsay Graham just repeated all of Walker's lies while Gregory said nothing and asked no real follow-up questions.
If the MSM wants to know why it's losing so many viewers to the Internet, this is a big reason why.
By the way, the WEA Trust is a very well-run insurance company, which is exactly why Walker and his cronies hate it. It is a shining example of what public sector employees can do when they set out to run a private-sector business. Other insurance companies no doubt want a piece of the WEA Trust pie.
If I were WEA Trust, I would start marketing products more generally to all public employers. I think there would be some sentiment for it right now. Judging by the reaction of the various associations that I mentioned above, Walker is having a hard time selling them on his claim that unions are corrupt and unnecessary.
If ever there was anyone who was corrupt and unnecessary, it's Governor Walker. We were getting along without him before we met him, and we can get along without him now.
I agree Amy. Anna Molly nailed it. I watched the David Gregory interview of GOV. Walker and he soft balled his questions without pushing for a real answer. I bet Chris Matthews or Lawrence O'Donnell would have pinned him down.
Anna Molly great posts!
Me too. AnnaMolly for moderator of Meet the Press.
Tim Russert must be flipping in his grave at the disservice being done to his once venerable show.
Walker is doing what the GOP does best -- serving the needs of its masters -- the rich and corporations. The GOP knows that if it can break the unions the people of this country will lose their ability to protect themselves from their employers. This is actually an assault on the middle class. The poor, the elderly, and the most vulnerable are already downtrodden and oppressed despite what the GOP says about "entitlements." The GOP is working to create a 2-class society -- very rich and poor. The middle class is losing ground and being pushed down. It can't happen over night, admittedly, but it is happening. Soon employees in America will be little better than wage slaves.
What the GOP seeks is a plutocracy -- rule by the wealthy. That's what the "P" really represents in GOP.
This is the wrong time to pull A stunt like Walker is! we are in the middle of A recovery, this move does no one any good!
Why don't they try this trickle up plan, and get the country back on stable ground when the country is out of trouble, then they can go at each other all they want, and let the best man win so to speak!!!
The States, are in trouble, the people who can not find work are too; the economy is not bringing jobs back fast enough to have A solid recovery, and it could get worse, many more small businesses could go under, etc. they have a deficit problem.
One way to tackle this would be to take around 17 to 20 million people who need it, and pay them 500.00 per week, and take 28% tax from the top not to be refunded to these people for any reason, take out their SS tax and pay that to SS, this would leave them with around 350.00 dollars per week to live on, this would solve the job problem temporarily for two years, while the economy rebounded.
During this two year time frame to save money, and to help fund this, stop giving these people food stamps, and unemployment, and other for the two years, possible they could stop the food stamps for another year, this would stabilize the jobs problem.
the 28% tax they would take from the top should be given to the states, not to be payed back, but with oversight, this money would be around 2.4 billion dollars per week, they could stabilize 3 or 4 states per month, and in so doing would eventually stabilize all the states, and this would be one of the best ways to stabilize the nation, and give the states time to start to plan better to operate within their budgets, all this to be done with oversight.
The other problem is the deficit! with the states stabilized, and the lower class receiving a pay check, the federal government would be in A better position to start to cut waste, and to curb spending, and the increase in sales tax, as the economy starts to recover faster would bring them more revenue, also if they pay these people even if they find work, for two years it would only increase the taxes they collect, and the SS tax and the new demand for business in the market, as some of these people if only 6 or 7 million of them were to find work.
By doing this it could hold crime down! saving money;, it could help the real estate markets, and when this is all over, and the economy is growing, these people would not need near as much assistance, saving more money, they would have all ready been helped, as they helped the country as they spent the money to provide for their families.
the other is How to pay for it, not counting the savings on food stamps, lower crime, and all the other benefits, the tax break they, extended to they wealthy, over a ten year period of time would pay for this in full, 17 million people receiving 500 per week would come to 884 billion dollars, it would be less if you figure in the unemployment money, the food stamp money, housing assistance etc., if they ear mark the tax cut for the wealthy for this it would pay for it with money left to implement it with too!
The wealthy would receive much more if the business economy picks up than they would receive on the tax cuts, all the new business would more than make up for those tax cuts! , with the economy going at full throttle, it would be much easier for the government to pay down the deficit, even If they would need to add A vat tax, to get it done, this is one way they could tackle the problems, and help all the country, and the states!!!
Or they could just repeal the extension of the tax breaks for the wealthy, the costs of which far exceed $175 billion, and then just guarantee the states enough money to meet their deficits for some future term, provided that they do not enact any more reckless tax breaks for the wealthy.
But the wealthy will never stand for it, and I doubt there would be any sentiment for any program that handed money to people who need it, even if they were asked to perform public works in exchange. They're all disgraceful free-loaders, doncha know, feeding at the public trough.
While corporate America, on the other hand, is at that larger, fancier, and much nobler public trough down the street, feeding with Congress.
Do public employees have jobs that they can simply be absent from and the states just keep operating? How important are they? Walker is 100% right. The US must dismantle collective bargaining for public employees. The rseults of the past 40 years is proof enough it creates a stacked deck against the taxpayer. Dem politicians elected by massive union money and feet on the street are controlled 100% by the unions and no one represents the taxpayer. Does anyone really think the state employees are worth this much more than private sector workers? Of course not. Everyone with a brain knows that most public employees are drawn to public service jobs by the amount of time off, womb to tomb health benefits, pension and yes wages even not because they are creative and producers. If Walker settles for only the health and pension portions of the bill he will (or some other governor and local government mgrs) sooner than later be faced with the same greedy bastards looking to reinstate the no pay health & pension benefits. It would be inevitable because government employees have a sense of entitlement and unbelievably actually think they deserve these levels of benefits, etc. This crisis is one of the most significant domestic issues in the history of the country. The outcome will either return balance to the country and put the taxpayer once again on an equal footing with unions or we will permanently (until violent revolution occurs) have two levels of citizens. One class the worker bees that produce the honey and the other class the drones who eat the honey.
With all due respect, this is total BS. It merely repeats all the hackneyed old stereotypes and lies that Scott Walker and his corporate masters want you to believe, and completely ignores ALL the facts. Wisconsin public sector employees on average make about 5 percent LESS than their private sector counterparts. You don't even know that much, but you think you know all the answers. Walk in the shoes of a public worker for a while before you make such silly, ignorant comments. And read my joke at the end of Lie #8.
Congratulations. You've bought the BIG lie, hook, line and sinker. Leaving public school teachers aside for a moment, I bet the police, firefighters, public sector nurses, social workers, attorneys, university professors, scientists and researchers, and administrative law judges, just to name a few, would love to have you tell them to their faces that you think they're drones and not producers. I guess cures for cancer and stuff like that count for nothing with you. Just sucking up your precious tax dollars to provide world class health care and new technologies for the private sector to profit from. That's not worth anything, I guess.
As for "greedy bastards," go back and read the joke at the end of Lie #8. The guy left holding one cookie and blaming unions for it? That's apparently YOU.
The unions eat the honey they produce. You have picked your side and now you can't bear to open your mind. Public employees are not feeding at a trough, billionaires are. Public employees provide a service to the public . Is the guy who bothers to get trained to run a snowplow supposed to say, "I am doing this for honor only, no need to pay me what an equipment operator is worth."?
This game played by billionaires is now a practiced science. They get one group of the underclass to attack another group while they slurp up the spoils. It tastes like 1930's Germany
Jay Gould, "I can pay one half of the working class to shoot the other half"
Looks like you are ready to shoot your neighbor.
Exactly, Professor. Thank you for putting it so bluntly. And they've already made sure the working class is armed.
we all should have the benefits these people have you uneducated teabagger
First of all, raising taxes IS NOT A SOLUTION --its a band-aid. We have to Face the Issues, face the problems and solve the problems instead of putting a band-aid over them.
And, does it make sense to anyone, our taxpayer dollars are being used by public employee Unions to campaign for "their" candidates? Doesn't this seem unfair to anyone?
No, not at all.
Paul ~ Listen up, get a clue, and buy a vowel. After public employees are paid their salary, it's THEIR MONEY. It's NOT your money anymore, do you understand that? Any more than it is MY money after I buy widgets from you. I can't tell you what to do with my money after I give it to you. No employer can tell you how to spend your paycheck, unless you're in a "company town." Is that what you're advocating for? I doubt it. Your employer can't even specify that you spend your paycheck legally. When public employees buy things with the "taxpayer money" that they have earned through honest work, like homes, cars, and groceries, you have no right to tell them what to buy or when or where or how. IT'S NOT YOUR MONEY ANYMORE. They've earned the money, and it's their right to spend it any way they like.
So no, it's not unfair. Your whole premise is wrong, and it's time that people like me start calling people like you out on the misinformation that people like you spread.
p.s. I agree that we need to solve the problems -- but misdirecting people about what the problems are won't get them solved. We need to acknowledge the REAL problems first and then unite to form a solution, which may involve raising taxes. Failure to even talk about it will never resolve it. That's why Scott Walker will fail the state the same way he failed Milwaukee County. Which, by the way, he lost in the election. They were so impressed with his service as County Executive that they thought it would be better not to pass him up the ladder.
Anna Molly, glad you rebutted the misinformation about using taxpayers' money to fund unions. One of the "big lies" the right wing has been throwing out lately is that somehow allowing payroll deductions for union dues is some sort of diversion of public funds. That simply ain't so, as you quite eloquently discussed above.
Scott Walker frankly has ginned up this so-called crisis, he's the one misleading the public about the issues, and he's the one accountable now for problems in Wisconsin. He did the same thing as Milwaukee County Executive, and as a result left the county stuck having to pay a big lawsuit award. Walker is a one-note Johnny, and that note is off-pitch.
It has been surprising to see that Gov. Walker and his advisers seem to have never considered any alternatives to the budget proposed. Like a very competent but dull bureaucrat, Gov. Walker does not seem able to think creatively and to have other ideas he could propose, which makes it very difficult for him to back away from the original budget proposal. He should have anticipated the reaction he is getting. Perhaps this is why he is so against collective bargaining -- he does not know how to negotiate.
Keep the fight going its not about the budget the unions already agreed to take concessions,its about doing the dirty work for the wealthy like the Koch heads
Unions are just no longer needed, and the Wikileaks video showing corruption and back room deals is just the latest proof that they don't really stand for the people they represent:
I know, my father-in-law had an on the job issue, and the union just backed off when push came to shove... The employer was totally at fault.
So Scott Walker blatantly accepting a bribe in the form of a paid vacation during a telephone call with a man he thought was David Koch was NOT corruption and a backroom deal?
Without knowing any more, I can't comment on your father-in-law's situation, but he had the choice of pursuing a remedy against the union for unfair representation, and he may even have been able to pursue a grievance without the union. He probably should have consulted his own lawyer. Sorry to hear that.
I am afraid that a whole lot more suffering will have to happen before the shooting half of the working class realizes they have shot the wrong ones. Go and interview a wwII german soldier. They have barely been able to live with how they have been used. I used to think the comparisons of Walker and Hitler were excessive, but they use the same tools. "Tools" is a nonsexual double entendre.
What fun is that? But thanks, Professor. It's always a treat to encounter reality.
Things never change, Republicans are for the have,s and the Dems are for the have nots . So simple.
Re Gov Scott--I saw a piece interviewing the mayor of Milwaukee who says he is dealing with outsourcing by Scott that was declared illegal afterwards. Scott has been revealed as a toad of the wealthy -- after all, he sponsored business tax cuts in WI right after his election of over 100 million dollars. Then this was about the same amount he "needed" from the public sector employees. That wad Brownback of KS, in support of Scott and in pooh-poohing President Obama's finally supporting statements, says the Pres should be concerned more about the taxpayers. Hey-Dude! They and we are all taxpayers. Mine went up and I'll bet yours didn't.
Heads in the sand...It's simple, how can a public official, who is hostage to campaign funds from any large corporation (companies or unions) pretend to represent the public sector when negotiating with these entities. This applies whether negotiating contracts with supply contractors or with employee unions.
If private sector jobs suffer, why should public employees be immune? Or supply contractors, for that matter. A public employee is not due more immunity from the poor economy than others. And pretend otherwise brings the image of sand in their ears...or earwax up their rears...