Massachusetts House votes to restrict unions

You don't usually hear of smart government coming out of the State of Massachusetts, but the House there is trying to do the right thing for ALL the people instead of giving the unions the moon.

Of course, the senate probably won't pass it.

It's pretty telling by the comments from the union goon that they care only for themselves instead of the welfare of the entire State. We have allowed the unions in this Country to get out of control. I'm sure there are many union members who are able to see the big picture. That's not true of their leadership. They have become so blinded by greed that they would see the entire State dragged down to bankruptcy, and even then they would ask for more.

I have a little new found respect for some of the democrats in Massachusetts, very little, but it's a start...

By Michael Levenson - The Boston Globe

House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.

The 111-to-42 vote followed tougher measures to broadly eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in Ohio, Wisconsin, and other states. But unlike those efforts, the push in Massachusetts was led by Democrats who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers’ rights.

Unions fought hard to stop the bill, launching a radio ad that assailed the plan and warning legislators that if they voted for the measure, they could lose their union backing in the next election. After the vote, labor leaders accused House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and other Democrats of turning their backs on public employees.

“It’s pretty stunning,’’ said Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. “These are the same Democrats that all these labor unions elected. The same Democrats who we contributed to in their campaigns. The same Democrats who tell us over and over again that they’re with us, that they believe in collective bargaining, that they believe in unions. . . . It’s a done deal for our relationship with the people inside that chamber.’’

“We are going to fight this thing to the bitter end,’’ he added. “Massachusetts is not the place that takes collective bargaining away from public employees.’’

The battle now turns to the Senate, where President Therese Murray has indicated that she is reluctant to strip workers of their right to bargain over their health care plans.

DeLeo said the House measure would save $100 million for cities and towns in the upcoming budget year, helping them avoid layoffs and reductions in services. He called his plan one of the most significant reforms the state can adopt to help control escalating health care costs.

“By spending less on the health care costs of municipal employees, our cities and towns will be able to retain jobs and allot more funding to necessary services like education and public safety,’’ he said in a statement.

Read the rest at the link above...

The ObamaCare Bailouts

Every week or two we find out some new, nasty little easter egg in obamacare. obama and the thugs writing this legislation were very thorough in making sure every single supporter got their fair share of our tax dollars. I didn't think anything about obamacare could piss me off more than what I already was. I was wrong. With each new revelation about how we are being screwed I get even more mad.

It's no wonder they rushed this through in the middle of the night. Had the public been given an opportunity to fully understand to what extent our own government was willing to put it to us, there might have been some tar and feathers involved. For as nasty as I know the obama administration is, some of these things shock me. I didn't know that was possible.

I just can't get over how insulting it all is. They absolutely take us all for fools...

by John Hayward - Human Events


Hidden treasures for public unions and well-connected corporations.

Back when ObamaCare was being shoved down America’s throat, Nancy Pelosi assured us we needed to pass it to “find out what’s in it.” The House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Republican Fred Upton of Michigan, just found something else that was hidden in it: “a $5 billion bailout fund for state governments, Fortune 500 companies, and Hollywood unions that is rapidly going bankrupt after doling out half a billion dollars much more quickly than anticipated.”

That five billion in funding, by the way, is roughly the same as the amount allocated to the high-risk pool for people with pre-existing conditions – ostensibly the major reason we detonated ObamaCare and destroyed the American health insurance system. It’s going to end up costing taxpayers a lot more than $5 billion, because “so far, fewer than 5 percent of the organizations ‘approved’ to participate in the program have received funds.”

The bailout fund is formally known as the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. It’s a federal subsidy to “employers and unions that provide health coverage to early retirees.” According to the committee’s analysis, “The ERRP reimburses the employer 80 percent of the actual cost of an early retiree’s health expenses between $15,000 and $90,000,” based on “qualified claims beginning on or after June 1, 2010.”

The Energy and Commerce report notes that “Like many provisions and accounting gimmicks in the health care law, it has largely escaped public scrutiny because of the sheer volume of programs and spending crammed into the law without scrutiny or Congressional oversight.” In other words, nobody has really paid much attention to where the money went.

Naturally, a lot of that crazy unsupervised money ended up in the hands of public unions. Over one third of the $535 million spent in 2010 went to five public union benefit and pension plans, in California, New Jersey, Georgia, Kentucky, and Texas. 56% of all funds distributed in 2010 went to government organizations. Over five thousand entities have been approved for EERP bailouts, and 47% of them are government organizations.

Read the rest at the link above...

Barack Obama: Losing $84 billion big success

If you have spent anytime here at all you know that I am a rabid Chevy fan. I own 7 or 8 Chevy cars and trucks, but I doubt if I will ever buy another new GM product.

This entire bailout was bad, it's still bad. It was poorly designed, even more poorly executed and just shady from the very beginning. It was a horrible deal for everyone...except the unions.

$84 BILLION dollars, that means that GM owes each and every man, woman and child in this Country like $273 bucks. If you just figured tax payers, it would be about $560 bucks each. I would settle for a 2011 Camaro SS...

By Kerry Picket - The Washington Times

Barack Obama has some 'splaining to do about taxpayers' profitable "investment" in General Motors. It turns out the president is imagining things.

Though Democrats tout the auto bailout as a success, recent reports illustrate the taxpayer cost of the GM auto bailout was substantially larger than the Obama administration and a Congressional Oversight report has owned up to.

"American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM,” President Obama said, according to a piece in USA Today last November. Steven Rattner, former head of the Treasury's auto task force agreed, telling CNN in November: “Recent progress at GM gives reason for optimism that it may be possible for taxpayers to get every penny back.”

In fact, Investor's Business Daily reported that even the White House’s Director of the National Economic Council remarked that the Treasury Department Department had a good chance in "recovering most, if not all, of its investment in" GM.

However, a March 16 Congressional Oversight report, tells a different story. It estimates taxpayers will be out of $25 billion. Additionally, the report points out that “full repayment will not be possible unless the government is able to sell its remaining shares at a far higher price.”

That's only the beginning. Both the White House and the Congressional Oversight report omit the fact that during its bankruptcy, GM got a $45 billion tax break, courtesy of the American people.

GM is driving “away from its U.S.-government-financed restructuring with a final gift in its trunk: a tax break that could be worth as much as $45 billion,” reported The Wall Street Journal last November.

Read the rest at the link above...

Wisconsin Judge Orders 'No Further Implementation' of Budget Law

The judge ordered "no further implementation", just about the same thing the judge ruled about obamacare. Hmmm, the obama administration decided to ignore the judge and continue forcing obamacare on us anyway. At least in the Wisconsin case, the law in question will actually be of benefit to the State and the non-public union citizens. And actually, the public union members still won't have to contribute as much to their health care and retirement as their non-union counterparts, so they still come out pretty good too.

Unfortunantly for our entire Country, the further implementation of obamacare will affect all of us in a negative way...

By Mike Tobin - FoxNews

A Wisconsin judge on Tuesday ordered "no further implementation" of the Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill that limits collective bargaining rights.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said that her earlier restraining order saying the law shouldn't be enacted had either been ignored or misinterpreted.

Sumi stopped short of saying the law was not already in effect. She said she will take more testimony on that issue.

The Legislative Reference Bureau posted the law on a legislative website Friday, leading Walker's administration to declare the law was in effect.

Sumi revised her original March temporary restraining order blocking the secretary of state from publishing the law, which is typically the last step before it becomes effective.

Sumi's ruling delivers a setback to Walker and his administration while Democrats rejoiced.

Earlier Tuesday, debate raged from Wisconsin state Supreme Court justices to law professors, on whether Walker is law and is in effect.

It states the obvious to say Wisconsin is now a big convoluted, partisan mess, but it is. Here is the skinny on what is happening: Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who is a Democrat, and Assembly Minority Leader Pete Barca, also a Democrat, filed a court challenge to the budget relief bill. The challenge argues that Wisconsin Republicans violated the open meetings laws but since that has not entered into the argument, set that aside for the moment.

As the open meetings suit was pending, Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order that prevented Secretary of State Ken LaFollete from publishing the law, now known as Act 10. Publication of the law is the last step to putting a bill into effect, and Democrats argue that the law is not in effect until LaFollete issues the publication.

However, another outlet can publish the law: the Legislative Review Board. That is exactly what it did last Friday, leaving Wisconsin Republicans to argue that the law is in effect. The Department of Administration has even begun implementing the part of the law where deductions for health care and pensions are made from the paychecks of state employees.

Sumi ordered a hearing Tuesday morning to decide if LaFollete should be enjoined from publication until the open meetings case is decided. But if the law is already in effect, the injunction is moot. So the focus of the hearing was changed to answer the question of whether the law is in effect.

Read the rest at the link above...

Teachers Unions 101: "A" is for "Agitation"

I think there are a lot of very good teachers in this Country. There are also a lot of bad ones. I don't think that all teachers completely buy in to the whole union thing either. There plenty that do, and they are squeaky wheels. They whine and cry about how mistreated they are all the while the quality of education continues to plummet.

Believe me, I'm the first one to say that teachers need to fairly compensated for putting up with all those little snot nosed curtain climbers, but damn, there has to be a balance. If a teacher is worthless they should be encouraged to find a new profession by making them unemployed. The unions prevent that.

Maybe if all teachers that belong to unions knew exactly how much the union big shots make and how much they spend on democrat candidates they would think differently about the dues they pay. Maybe not. There have to a lot of teachers out there who don't agree with the unions polititics, but continue to pay dues because it is mandatory. How is that fair?

Thanks to Scott Walker in Wisconsin, we may be seeing the beginnings of a revamped system...

by Michelle Malkin - Human Events

If public school teachers spent more time teaching in classrooms and less time community-organizing in political war rooms, maybe taxpayers wouldn't feel as ripped off as they do. Before the Big Labor bosses start complaining about "teacher-bashing," let's be clear: An increasing number of rank-and-file teachers feel exactly the same way.

Retired New York teacher Vinne Cusimano, who was required to pay forced union dues in order to work, wrote me this week after receiving the March 2011 edition of his union's monthly publication. The cover of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) magazine reads: "Defend What Matters! Educate. Collaborate. AGITATE." Inside the pamphlet, NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi rails against "malicious politicians" in Wisconsin and elsewhere proposing "extreme anti-union" budget cuts. He urges his members to join "advocacy" efforts to "maintain critical resources" and lectures about the need to "value education over ideology and greed."

Cusimano, who taught for four decades in the Empire State, fired back at Ianuzzi in an open letter:

"As a member for over 40 years, I have never been so disappointed at the stand you are taking to call members to 'AGITATE!' We are trying to tamp down the rhetoric and you are outward(ly) inciting agitation. How dare you! You are supposed to be for the students/teachers. ... How can you support 'EDUCATE,' 'COLLABORATE,' and then encourage agitation?"

More to the point, what business does Iannuzzi -- a fat-cat union official who rakes in nearly $300,000 a year (plus a $100,000 pension) while his organization's net assets are more than $117 million in the red -- have lecturing anyone else about "ideology and greed"? Instead of imposing fiscal discipline on NYSUT, Iannuzzi and his cronies have gone on a spending spree -- dumping nearly $10.5 million into left-wing Democratic politics this past year alone. The NYSUT boasts a lobbying staff of 500, a 200,000-square-foot palace in Albany and a $213 million operating budget -- paid for through compulsory union dues of about $300 a year from some 600,000 members.

"Agitation," of course, is a full-time job for teachers union officials in New York and across the country. As the New York Post reported exclusively this week, the city Department of Education compensates some 1,500 teachers for their union activities and also subsidizes other teachers who take their places in the classroom: "It's a sweetheart deal that costs taxpayers an extra $9 million a year to pay fill-ins for instructors who are sprung -- at full pay -- to carry out responsibilities for the United Federation of Teachers."

The UFT soldiers "collect top pay and fringe benefits, but work just one class period a day." Nice non-work if you can get it.

NYSUT, by the way, is the parent of the double-dipping UFT, which itself rakes in $126 million in member dues -- but only reimburses the city less than $1 million out of the $9 million it costs to take teachers out of the classroom to serve at the altar of Big Labor. UFT is also a chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which spent nearly $2 million on the election of President Barack Obama in 2008. (In return, you may recall, the Obama administration granted the UFT one of its coveted health care Waivers for Favors last year -- exempting the behemoth union in a sweetheart deal from the federal mandate's costly rules on phasing out annual health coverage limits.)

The forced-dues racket is big business for teachers unions crying poor. In Ohio, the state's education association siphoned nearly $23 million from rank-and-file school workers to fatten up its union staff. The Ohio Education Association donated more than $1.6 million to Democratic campaigns last year and tossed off five-figure checks each to union and progressive allies in Oregon, Colorado and Policy Matters Ohio, a left-wing think tank funded by radical billionaire George Soros.

At the federal level, the National Education Association squandered $13 million in teachers' dues on every pet liberal cause and crony from the AFL-CIO ($150,000) and AFSCME ($90,000), to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate ($200,000), Media Matters for America ($100,000) and the White House brigade at Health Care for America Now! ($450,000).

The goals of the teachers union machine are not academic excellence, professional development and fairness. As former NEA official John Lloyd explained it: "You cannot possibly understand NEA without understanding Saul Alinsky. If you want to understand NEA, go to the library and get 'Rules for Radicals.'"

The goals are student indoctrination, social upheaval and perpetual agitation in pursuit of bigger government and spending without restraint. No wonder the signature "solidarity" color of the teachers union protests this month is red.

Wisconsin Senate GOP Votes to Strip State Workers of Collective Bargaining Rights

Down in Texas we have a saying, there is more than one way to skin a cat. The Wisconsin Republicans finally figured that out. It's too bad for the people of the State that half of their elected senators chose to abandon the State in it's hour of need. They have shown their true colors, and it wouldn't surprise me if the did it "to their political peril".

From FoxNews

Bypassing Democrats hiding out in Illinois, Wisconsin Senate Republicans voted Wednesday night to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights.

Republicans voted 18-1 to pass the stripped-down budget bill in a hastily arranged meeting. None of the Senate Democrats were present.

The state Assembly votes on the bill Thursday.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget repair bill" -- a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall..

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved that bill a short time later.

The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Tony Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a violation of the state's open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate then convened within minutes and passed it without discussion or debate.

Spectators in the gallery screamed "You are cowards."

Before the sudden votes, Democratic Sens. Bob Jauch said if Republicans "chose to ram this bill through in this fashion, it will be to their political peril. They're changing the rules. They will inflame a very frustrated public."

Walker praised the legislative action.

"The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused," he said in a statement.

"In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform the government," he said. "The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs."

State Senate Democratic Minority Leader Mark Miller issued a statement saying, "Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government."

Wisconsin Governor Proposes Union Compromise in E-Mails

I hope this is just a ploy to get the democrats back in the State where Gov. Walker can lock them up. He has stood his ground this long, it would be a shame for him to cave now.

The democrats have refused to do their job. The people of the State of Wisconsin elected the Republican majority and Governor to clean up a broken budget. To show weakness now will doom him to compromise for the rest of his term...

From FoxNews

Appearing to blink first in a nearly three-week standoff with absent Senate Democrats, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker offered to keep certain collective bargaining rights in place for state workers in a proposed compromise, according to e-mails released Tuesday by his office.

But the e-mails weren't enough to end a stalemate that has drawn national attention and ignited a storm of protest from union workers and their supporters.

Sen. Bob Jauch, one of the 14 Democrats on the run in Illinois to block a vote on Walker's original proposal, said he hoped the compromise would serve as a blueprint for future negotiations. But he and Sen. Tim Cullen, who were both working with Walker's administration, said the latest offer was inadequate.

The e-mails, some dated as recently as Sunday, show a softened stance in Walker's talks with the 14 Democrats who object to his original proposal that would strip nearly all collective bargaining rights for public workers and force concessions amounting to an average 8 percent pay cut. Republicans, who control the Senate, can't vote on the budget measure unless at least one Democrat is present.

Under the compromise floated by Walker and detailed in the e-mails, workers would be able to continue bargaining over their salaries with no limit, a change from his original plan that banned negotiated salary increases beyond inflation. He also proposed compromises allowing collective bargaining to stay in place on mandatory overtime, performance bonuses, hazardous duty pay and classroom size for teachers.

The increased contributions for health insurance and pension, which would save the state $330 million by mid-2013, would remain. The unions and Democrats have agreed to those concessions to help balance a projected $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

Layoffs coming in Wisconsin...

Governor Walker notified the unions in Wisconsin that layoffs are coming. With the refusal of the scumbag democrats to do their job, he has no choice but take a different approach.

I tink his approach is wrong though. I wouldn't lay off anyone, I would outright fire their asses and replace them with people who want a job. I would have fired the teachers on the morning of the third day they missed class. There are lots of unemployed teachers who would love to have the jobs that the teachers in Wisconsin seem to care so little for.

As far as the awol democrats, I would assist the people of the State in beginning recall proceedings. In my opinion, these people have abandoned their jobs and should be treated as such. These democrats are denying the people of their State representation...

CBO: Jobs Created and Saved By Stimulus Cost At Minimum An Average of $228,055 Each

Other than the part-time, temporary census workers, were there actually any people put to work? obama and his thugs kept talking about all the "saved" jobs, which is a bunch of bullshit. If you were paying attention back when this was in the news everyday, there were lots of tales of how the saved jobs numbers didn't quite add up. There were also lots of stories about fictional jobs, even fictional towns and counties.

We will never know where all that money went. I would imagine that many of obama's friends and supporters are financially much better off than before the stimulus stimulated them. There were tons of unions and government entitites that received huge amounts of money.

Even if there were a few jobs created with the stimulus money, do you think any of them actually pay $228,005? I kind of doubt it, unless they were people added to the government payroll...

By Matt Cover - CNSNews

The jobs created and saved by the economic stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed on Feb. 17, 2009 cost at a minimum an average of $228,055 each, according to data released yesterday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

In a report released Wednesday—“Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from October Through December 2010”—the CBO said it now estimates the stimulus law cost a total of $821 billion, up from CBO’s original estimate that the stimulus would cost $787 billion.

In the same report, the CBO estimated that in the fourth quarter of 2010 there were somewhere between 1.3 million and 3.5 million people who were then employed who would not have been had the stimulus not been enacted. “CBO estimates,” says the report, “that ARRA’s policies had the following effects in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2010: … Increased the number of people employed by between 1.3 million and 3.5 million.”

This estimate seeks to state the net impact the stimulus had on the number of people employed in the United States as a result of the stimulus, taking into account not only the new jobs believed to be created and the existing jobs believed to be killed by the stimulus, but also the existing jobs that were saved that otherwise would have been lost.

The CBO’s estimate that there were 1.3 million to 3.5 million people employed in the fourth quarter of 2010 who would not have been were it not for the stimulus represents a decline from the 1.4 million to 3.6 million people CBO estimated were employed as a result the stimulus during the third quarter of 2010. (See Table 1 in the report.) In fact, CBO now estimates that the apogee of the stimulus’s net job-creating-and-saving power occurred in the third quarter of 2010 when it believes somewhere between 1.4 million and 3.6 million people had jobs they would not have had except for the stimulus.

Thus, the $821 billion cost of the stimulus divided by the maximum of 3.6 million jobs the CBO believes the stimulus may have saved or created equals an average of $228,055 per job.

At the lower end of the CBO’s top job-creating-and-saving estimate for the stimulus—1.4 million jobs—the jobs would cost an average of $586,428 a piece.

In February 2009, when President Obama signed the stimulus law the national unemployment rate was 8.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In January 2011, the national unemployment rate was 9.0 percent.

1,500 Teachers Paid to Do Union Business While Missing Class

Does this seem right to anyone? I mean, anyone who isn't in a union. Even to union people this should be wrong. Why does a teacher make their entire salary to do only a small portion of their duties? And another teacher has to be paid their full salary to do those duties? Holy crap, what a mess. And it can all be laid at the feet of unions and democrats.

The State of New York is in dire straits financially. The State could be facing $50 billion in budget deficits in 2012. The $9 million that paying teachers not teach is only a drop in that bucket, but damn, you have to start somewhere. If the government of New York took all of these $9 and $10 million dollar wastes of tax dollars and added them up, they would probably be surprised what the total is.

It's the same on a National level. Our Country wastes more money on stupid bullshit every year than they can even count. Matter of fact, I doubt they do count it. There is no accountability at all, none, zip, nada. Of course, when you jump past the BILLIONS and into the TRILLIONS, it's a little more difficult to close that gap, but still, you have to start somewhere...

New York Post

In New York City's funny math, you get only one teacher for the price of two.

The Department of Education pays about 1,500 teachers for time they spend on union activities -- and pays other teachers to replace them in the classroom.

It's a sweetheart deal that costs taxpayers an extra $9 million a year to pay fill-ins for instructors who are sprung -- at full pay -- to carry out responsibilities for the United Federation of Teachers.

With Mayor Bloomberg calling for thousands of teacher layoffs to balance the 2012 budget, critics say it's time to halt the extravagant benefit.

"In these tight fiscal times, it defies common sense to pay two different people to do one job," said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a government watchdog. "It's a waste of money."

That $9 million would cover the salaries of 198 new teachers at the current annual $45,530 starting pay.

The DOE lets 40 experienced teachers collect top pay and fringe benefits, but work just one class period a day.

Under a contract agreement since 2003, the DOE excuses these veterans to work for the UFT -- currently 38 as district representatives and two as union vice presidents. The UFT pays them another salary, plus expenses.

English teacher Tom Dromgoole, for instance, collects top teacher pay, $100,049 a year, from the DOE for his slot at Leadership and Public Service HS in downtown Manhattan. But he is relieved for most of the day to serve as a UFT high school rep. The UFT supplements his salary by $50,461, records show.

Dems Galvanized By Union Issue at DNC Meeting

Let's look at this piece by piece...

by Trish Turner - FoxNews

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis fired up Democrats at the party's national winter meeting in Washington on Saturday, as the feisty former California congresswoman chastised Republican governors in Wisconsin, Ohio, and across the country for not sitting down with union workers to negotiate a compromise on state budget crises.

Unions are always willing to negotiate themselves better benefits and wages, if you can call it a negotiation. Usually it is give in or we will go on strike. It's almost impossible to get unions to negotiate a DECREASE in their salary or benefits, even it means driving their employer out of business.

"We know many states are facing tough budget decisions. We know there is room for shared sacrifice. Shared," Solis stressed, adding, "We've seen our brothers and sisters in public employee unions willing, willing to give up their fair share...The governors in Wisconsin and Ohio aren't just asking workers to tighten their belts, they're demanding they give up their uniquely American rights as workers."

Once again, unions aren't usually, hardly ever in fact, willing to share a sacrifice. Any claims otherwise is a lie. In this case, the unions saw that Governor Walker had the votes to pass laws that will help him in his quest to fix the budget of his State, forcing a sacrifice. "Uniquely American rights as workers", they left out a word, UNION. Most of us in the real world don't have the backing of a bunch of union thugs who will hold our employer prisoner unless we get raises and benefits that make our companies unprofitable or worse.

It was the issue that moved attendees most at their annual gathering, with many sporting bright red "Stand Up for Worker's Rights" badges and toting supportive signs. As members cheered and shouted their support, it was clear this issue could be one that galvanizes the party base in the future should the state budget wars continue deeper into the 2012 election season.

It will only help the Republicans further if the democrats decide to make a bigger issue out of this. The vast majority of Americans are non-union and from the polls lately, most people don't have much sympathy for union workers in general and government union workers specifically. It's hard to sympathize with people who make almost twice as much as you for less work and at your expense.

One senior Democratic official told Fox, "Regardless of how Wisconsin plays out, what's clear from the display today is that (Wisconsin Governor) Scott Walker has handed us a gift. He took a deflated, fractured party coming out of 2010 and as evidenced by what we saw in this room, given us a unified, energized and motivated base."

"The fight is on!" Solis cheered, as the formal speeches wrapped and the low-key gathering devolved into something more closely resembling a pep rally, and the microphones were opened up to audience members. First up, Gerald McEntee, head of the American Federation of State, Country, and Municipal Employees union, the third largest union in the country.

"This battle in Wisconsin is not just for public sector workers," McEntee cried, "It's really a battle for human rights!" The longtime union president chided Wisconsin's governor, as he invited a willing audience's "boo's" and asked for support picketing the Republican during an appearance he is scheduled to make on a Sunday morning political talk show.

This is just stupid. It is a battle about unions and the fact that they are driving States into bankruptcy. It's not the fault of the unions though. democrats are so dependant on the union vote that they are willing to sacrifice the very budgets of their States to keep that vote. The unions have taken full advantage of the relationship. It has nothing to do with human rights...

"This is where we go when we elect Republicans to these powerful offices," McEntee warned a rapt crowd, as a parade of union officials, as well as, current and retired union workers from Michigan to Florida to New Mexico followed him at the mics, all with one focus: protect the right to collectively bargain. Some even compared the current union fight to the democratic struggles in the Middle East. The crowd cheered for each, as they approved a resolution of solidarity with union workers in Wisconsin and beyond.

This IS what you get when Republicans are in charge, a reality check. State budgets are based on real dollars, revenue that the State takes in. When you exceed that income, there is a problem. Some States are spending their entire budgets on union salaries, union pensions and entitlement programs. When you are a democrat in charge that is easy to get around, you just run a deficit and wait for the next Republican to come in and clean up your mess.

For these pompous, spoiled democrats and union thugs to compare what they are doing to what is going on in the middle east is just crazy. It's playing politics with the lives of real people. There are citizens of Libya laying dead in the street. They have been murdered by mercenaries and thugs. These democrats and union people have absolutely NO CLUE what the people of the Middle East are facing. When these smug assholes are experiencing a hardship other than sleeping on the hard floor in the Wisconsin Capitol building maybe they can talk, when they face being mowed down by machine gun fire they can compare themselves to unarmed civilians in Cairo or Tripoli. Until that time comes, it is an insult for them to compare themselves to people who face life and death every day.

Walker and a number of other GOP governors across the U.S. are moving to end this long-time union mainstay, as these officials contend that the practice shoots up the cost of doing business in their cash-strapped states. Walker, who was elected in 2010 in the GOP wave that swept the country, has refused to negotiate, saying the state is broke and that the voters chose him and other governors like him to get their states' fiscal houses back in order.

Back at the winter meeting, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, himself a former governor, praised the union workers, but it was Solis, the first Latina Cabinet secretary in U.S. history who hails from "a union household," who really marshaled the rank and file.

"These are our neighbors, our friends and family. They teach our kids...risk their lives to protect our friends and families, and all they're asking for is to be treated with dignity. All they're really asking for is an opportunity to sit down at the table. And that's what collective bargaining is all about." Through a standing ovation, Solis shouted again, "The fight is on!"

In the State of Wisconsin, the Department of Education says that two thirds of children read at a below average level. Hmmm, maybe "They teach or kids..." is a stretch...

Obama Sitting Out State Fights With Unions

The Wall Street Journal has a story out today saying that obama is staying out of the fight between States and unions.

Umm, well, that's a load of bullshit. After his initial butting in and putting the dnc and his political action committee on the case, he may appear to be standing down, but behind the scenes, you can bet he is still very much involved.

obama and his gang of thugs would like us to believe that he was never involved at all, but it is another bunch of bullshit. We saw him, we heard him, there is no denying his involvement.

This administration feels that we are so stupid that we will believe whatever they tell us. About 30% of the population may be that gullible, they are called democrats, the rest of us can read this guy like a book. We know that when his mouth is moving he is lying, and when his mouth isn't moving he is thinking about his next lie.

He can't put the shit back in this horse. At some point, you would think some advisor would tell him to just keep his mouth shut. I'm willing to bet that lot's of people have told him that, but being the arrogant prick that he is, he knows better, until he steps on his dick...

Wisconsin battle gets ugly...

It's funny really, it's always liberals trying to paint conservatives as violent and hateful, but it always turns out to be the opposite.

In Wisconsin, the protestors against the Governor Scott Walker are comparing him to adolph hitler and the recently deposed dictator of Egypt, hosni mubarack.

I haven't seen Scott Walker order millions of government employees into a gas chamber for execution. I'm 100% positive that we never will. So the comparison to hitler is, well, stupid. Obviously these protestors either have no knowledge of history or they are going for some kind of shock factor. Since many of these people are teachers, I hope they have some idea of the history of hitler and World War II. So that leaves only their attempt at shock. It is deplorable and shameful to try to compare the murder of millions of people with the current events in Wisconsin. These protestor should be ashamed of themselves.

As for the comparison to mubarack, again, a situation where innocent people lost their lives. These protestors have no idea what it is like to have true violence aimed at them. In Egypt the military fired on unarmed civilians and the civilians held their ground. I have a hard time believing that the Wisconsin protestors are made of the same stuff as the people of Egypt. They are lucky enough to live in a Country where they never have to find out. This comparison is also stupid.

There have also been calls for the assassination of Governor Walker. Who is it again that are the violent ones?

michael moore decided to put his two cents worth in, and you can guess which side of the issue this idiot is on.

It seems that the liberal/democrat/union whackos are the violent ones. Maybe I'm wrong, but the evidence seem to support me on this...

Recall the AWOL Wisconsin Senators

I went to the Recall the AWOL web site this morning and signed their petition.  I also included a little personal note to those rat bastards:

"In the military, we would call what you are doing 'dereliction of duty.'  You are greedy, scum-sucking bottom-feeders who are refusing to do your jobs because you know you are in the wrong. Get back to work like us REAL Americans and stop being such whiny crybabies.  Maybe, if you're lucky, you won't be arrested for your criminal actions, and all that will happen to you is the voters see your cowardice for what it really is.

"By the way, how much are the unions paying you to commit your criminal acts?  How much are they paying to rent the mob in the capital?  Notice the only people who can afford to come to the capital to protest for very long are the liberals who suck off the government and union (read 'taxpayer') teat."

There.  That felt good. 

JoeTexan

Wisconsin's 'Phony' Budget Crisis

Give this a read, and when you hear some dumbass liberals talking about the debate in Wisconsin being a political stunt by the Governor, you can call them on it. The budget problems in Wisconsin are very real, they are not made up. What is made up is the liberal/union talking points.

Unless the public sector unions are willing to or are forced to make these concessions they are headed for massive layoffs. Up to this point, government workers have been spared what those of us in the real world have been facing. While there have been furloughs in some parts of the Country for government workers, I haven't heard of many, if any, government workers being laid off.

What the Governor is asking is for the union employees to pay a portion of their retirement and healthcare. What he is asking on the retirement is about the national average for private sector workers and the healthcare contribution is below what private sector workers contribute. How is this unfair? These union employees will still retain the right to negotiate their salaries. How many of us not working for the government have an opportunity to do that? I'm sure we can all ask, but what are your chances, really? I know what mine are, slim and none. And you know what? That's fine with me. I'm damn proud to have a decent job, many people aren't so lucky these days.

With each passing day, my lack of concern for these spoiled government workers turns to anger. They have no idea how those of us that pay their salary, benefits and retirement live. They don't have a clue how good they have it. They bitch and complain because they are being asked to pay a small portion of what it costs to keep them living large.

Each and every one of them are lucky I'm not the Governor of their State. I would have fired their asses on Friday.

And the "doctors" that are passing out the fake sick notes... oh damn, you can't even imagine the trouble they would be facing if I were in charge. I promise you, most of them would do a little prison time over this stunt. They have broken all kinds of laws and probably violated the oath they took to become a doctor in the first place.

By Elizabeth MacDonald - FoxBusiness

Opponents of Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker say that the governor is ginning up a phony deficit crisis. Opponents say Wisconsin is in surplus, not in deficit. They also say corporate tax cuts caused the deficit. Wrong on all counts.

The state's deficit is very real. Fox Business has Wisconsin's nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau report. There is a section that, read in isolation, does show a $121.4 million general fund gross balance as of June 30, 2011, and a net balance of $56.4 million. These are the figures used by the governor's opponents to say the state is in surplus.

But the fine print of the rest of the memo spells out at least $315.7 million in unpaid bills or expected shortfalls in programs such as Medicaid services for the needy ($153.2 million alone), the public defender’s office and for corrections. (EMac note: The figure rises to $437 million if you factor in all of the costs submarined in the footnotes).

The state owes Minnesota $58.7 million under a discontinued state income tax reciprocity deal. The deal covered individuals who live in Wisconsin and earn income in Minnesota. More individuals live in Wisconsin and earn income in Minnesota than live in Minnesota and earn income in Wisconsin.

Also, like most states Wisconsin has succumbed to budget gimmickry, which happened under the prior Democratic governor. The $121.4 million figure doesn't include $200 million Wisconsin raided out of its state’s “Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund,” representing a debt that the Wisconsin state supreme court declared resulted from an illegal raid on the fund under former Democrat governor Jim Doyle, which was done to balance the budget. Finally, the $121.4 million figure doesn’t include the $25.2 owed to the public defender’s office ($3.5 million) and the state’s department of corrections ($21.7 million).

And Governor Walker’s opponents’ claim that his corporate tax-cut bills approved in January is responsible for the deficit is wrong, too, because the cuts have not taken effect yet, so they cannot be part of the current problem.

These cuts do not take effect until the next two-year budget, from July 2011 to June 2013.

Set aside for now that many economists argue that corporate tax cuts actually keep businesses and jobs in the state, and create revenue. Look at companies fleeing Illinois and California due to tax hikes. Witness Indiana’s Republican Governor Mitch Daniels giving a shout out to Illinois businesses to pull stakes and relocate to Indiana, given Illinois dramatic tax hikes to cut its deficit.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s report shows that corporate income and franchise taxes “are estimated to increase from $834.5 million in 2009-10 to $935.0 million in 2010-11.” That’s right, increase.

The report notes: “The estimates also have been adjusted to reflect the impact of corporate income/franchise tax law changes enacted during the 2009-11 biennium.”

The report also says: “Collections are forecast to decrease to $900.0 million in 2011-12, and then increase to $925 million in 2012-13.”

However, the bureau’s “analysis indicates that for the three-year period, aggregate, general fund tax collections will be $202.8 million lower than those reflected in the November/December reports.”

Why? Not just because of corporate tax cuts, analysis which seems to rely on the static modeling technique, rather than dynamic scoring.

The bureau’s report says: “More than half of the lower estimate ($117.2 million) is due to the impact of Special Session Senate Bill 2 (health savings accounts), Assembly Bill 3 (tax deductions/credits for relocated businesses), and Assembly Bill 7 (tax exclusion for new employees).”

So individual cuts and business incentives to create jobs are behind the estimated shortfall here.

Like other states, Wisconsin has relied on federal aid. Wisconsin’s state pension has projected rosy stock market returns, which led it to in turn set aside less money in those funds, because heck the market will take care of it. Many states did likewise, betting on average 8% to 10% annual returns. That budget hole, among others, has led to the states to act like the tin can on the just married car always clamoring after federal money. When will the U.S. do what the International Monetary Fund does when it gives aid money out to reckless governments? The IMF ties federal aid to specific covenants like pension reform.

Taxpayers increasingly pay for rising government union compensation. Just as in Wisconsin, taxpayer funded government worker paychecks are dunned 1% to pay for union dues, which unions then use to lobby for tax and spend increases. Tax Foundation has data that shows that last year, 25 states saw unions lobbying for tax and spending hikes. Tax Foundation says 29 states raised taxes by $24 billion last year, the largest sum since 1979.

The real fight in Wisconsin is the governor’s push to end not just collective bargaining for benefits, but also for automatic payroll deduction of union dues.

State battles like the one in Wisconsin will get worse as the Administration’s stimulus money runs out this June.

obama's biggest mistake yet...

I just want to go on record as saying that obama siding with unions over a Governor attempting to get his State's budget on track will be the straw that broke the camels back.

There is very little, if any, support for government employees in this Country right now. And as the details are released about exactly what the argument with the unions is all about, lack of support will turn to anger.

Most people in this Country who still have a job, finance their own retirement plan. Some companies may do a partial match of an employees contribution, but the days of a fully employer funded retirement plan in the private sector are long gone.

Most people in the private sector pay a much larger percentage of their health insurance than union government employees do. And usually government employees have better plans.

For a Governor to ask government employees to pick up a little more of the costs associated with their retirement and health care is not the end of the world...

The Criminalization of Politics

obama has formed the biggest gang in the world. It is chock full of union thugs, chicago politician thugs and just thugs in general. We have put up with this activity for two years now. The city of chicago and the state of illinois put up with it for longer than that.

obama has used our TAX DOLLARS to pay off old debts to union thugs and garner present and future support.

It was no surprise to me to see him come out in support of his union buddies in the State of Wisconsin. It is a little surprising that he has declared war on a duly elected Governor. I don't know why I was surprised, especially after his war against Jan Brewer and the Law Enforcement community in Arizona.

The fight to save this State from union thugs hasn't come to Missouri yet, but when it does, I will be there. unions have killed the budgets of about every State in this Country. I refuse to stand silently by while union thugs demand more while the rest of have to get by with less...

Great job on this T.L., as usual...

From T.L. Davis at TL in Exile

The union thugs in Wisconsin are not there just on their own, they are the extension of the Obama Administration. This is the open declaration of hostility by the President of the United States against a duly elected government of a state. The President is already disobeying the courts on the drilling ban and the implementation of Obamacare. He is engaged in a legal war with Arizona, with Florida, with Louisiana and now Wisconsin. Before long he will have a chance to go to war with Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.

How long will the American people tolerate this criminal behavior from the president? When does it go too far, even for Democrats? Are there no nation-loving Democrats left with the ethical obligation to call it for what it is, treason?

Look, terms like treason and war are not easy to speak in this nation, but are we all blind? Is it not obvious that after this president has taken the support of unions in his election as well as the opposition to the Tea Parties, who stood in the way of Obamacare, that he then funneled billions of taxpayer dollars into their accounts, paid off teacher's unions with stimulus dollars and then sided with the unions against the State of Wisconsin and against all of the citizens of that state who voted to install Republicans? If this isn't gang behavior, what is? This makes Nixon look like a doofus.

This is more important than just Wisconsin, this is the criminalization of politics. Is that what we want? Why not just get a bigger gang and overthrow the city, or state government? Tell me how this is different? Is this the sanctioned approach to politics now? Gangs? Thugs? We don't like a law we threaten to kill the governor? We pretend that there is a connection to Hitler and just do what? What are they proposing? Is the president complicit in these threats by backing those groups making the threats? Should we break some legs to get our political will done?

It is the responsibility of every able-bodied citizen to protest this in the greatest possible way. When the teachers unions stand in solidarity in your state, where will you be? I will be right across the line from those thugs. I will be prepared. I will be capable of self-defense and I will be there. I will not succumb to threats of violence, of the criminalization of my state. Will you?

obama continues to show his true colors...

obama will never be anything more than a community organizer. The definition of community organizer should be "professional shit starter.

obama has decided to take the side of the unions in Wisconsin and Ohio. This is a fight he should have at least stayed neutral on if he couldn't get behind the Republican efforts to get State budgets under control. But that would go completely against his nature. He has shown that on a National level he has no concern for curbing spending so why would he care that unions are helping drive many States to bankruptcy.

Ohio alone is 8 BILLION dollars in the hole. Governor Kasich isn't even asking union members to pay as much of their health care costs as private sector employees have to pay.

In Wisconsin, Governor Walker is asking public sector (government employees) union members to pay 12% of their healthcare premiums, up from 6%. He is also asking them to pay 5.6% of their pension costs. They don't currently pay anything, that bill is picked up by the taxpayers.

I think the part of this that bothers me the most is there are times that  I come in contact with government employees and they are either rude or incompetent. Not always, but enough to make me remember it clearly. If anything they should be extremely nice to their customers since those really are the people paying their salary, and their insurance and their pension. The least they could do is say "Thank You".

Wis. lawmakers flee state to block anti-union bill

democrats run away to avoid a vote they are going to lose. Wow, why am I not surprised. The people of Wisconsin elected these Republicans to do the difficult work that the democrats have refused to do. democrats are famous for giving away the farm to anyone who will vote for them. This is what they have done with the unions. It is unsustainable, the unwillingness of the unions to do the right thing and reduce their benefits or at least freeze them has put the State in a budget crisis. The non-union tax payers of the State shouldn't have to continue to support people who refuse to do their share...

By Scott Bauer, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. – Faced with a near-certain Republican victory that would end a half-century of collective bargaining for public workers, Wisconsin Democrats retaliated with the only weapon they had left: They fled.

Fourteen Democratic lawmakers disappeared from the Capitol on Thursday, just as the Senate was about to begin debating the measure aimed at easing the state's budget crunch.

By refusing to show up for a vote, the group brought the debate to a swift halt and hoped to pressure Republicans to the negotiating table.

"The plan is to try and slow this down because it's an extreme piece of legislation that's tearing this state apart," Sen. Jon Erpenbach said.

The move drew cheers from tens of thousands of protesters — teachers, prison guards and others targeted by the proposal — who filled the Statehouse during the past three days.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who took office just last month, has made the bill a top priority. He urged the group to return and called the boycott a "stunt."

"It's more about theatrics than anything else," Walker said, predicting that the group would come back in a day or two, after realizing "they're elected to do a job."

Walker said Democrats could still offer amendments to change the bill, but he vowed not to concede on his plan to end most collective bargaining rights.

With 19 seats, Republicans hold a majority in the 33-member Senate, but they are one vote short of the number necessary to conduct business. So the GOP needs at least one Democrat to be present before any voting can take place. Once the measure is brought to the floor, it needs 17 votes to pass.

Other lawmakers who fled sent messages over Twitter and issued written statements but did not disclose their location until hours later.

Erpenbach said the group had been in Rockford, Ill., but they dispersed by late afternoon.

In response to a question of where she was, Sen. Lena Taylor sent a tweet saying she was "doing the people's business. Power to the PEOPLE."

Sen. Tim Cullen of Janesville said he was back in Wisconsin by Thursday night, but he did not expect Democrats to return to take up the bill until Saturday.

As Republicans tried to begin Senate business around midday, observers in the gallery screamed "Freedom! Democracy! Unions!" Opponents cheered when a legislative leader announced there were not enough senators present to proceed.

The sergeant-at-arms immediately began looking for the missing lawmakers. If authorized, he can seek help from police.

Senate rules and the state constitution say absent members can be compelled to appear, but it does not say how.

"Today they checked out, and I'm not sure where they're at," Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said. "This is the ultimate shutdown, what we're seeing today."

The Senate planned to try again Friday to convene. It was unclear when the state Assembly would conduct any business.

Elsewhere, some Democrats applauded the developments in Wisconsin as a long-awaited sign that their party was fighting back against the Republican wave created by November's midterm election.

"I am glad to see some Democrats, for a change, with a backbone. I'm really proud to hear that they did that," said Democratic state Sen. Judy Eason-McIntyre of Oklahoma, another state where Republicans won the governorship in November and also control both legislative chambers.

Across the Wisconsin Statehouse, Democrats showed up in the Assembly chamber wearing orange T-shirts that proclaimed their support for working families.

After a routine roll call, they exchanged high-fives with protesters, who cried "thank you" as the Democrats walked by. Protesters unleashed venomous boos and screams at Republicans.

Thursday's events were reminiscent of a 2003 dispute in Texas, where Democrats twice fled the state to prevent adoption of a redistricting bill designed to give Republicans more seats in Congress. The bill passed a few months later.

The drama in Wisconsin unfolded in a jam-packed Capitol. Madison police and the State Department of Administration estimated the crowd at 25,000 protesters, the largest number yet.

Demonstrators stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the building's hallways, sat cross-legged across the floor and made it difficult to move from room to room. The scene vacillated from being festive to angry or sometimes just plain weird: One protester rode across the marble floors of the Capitol on a Segway. Another pitched a tent for an overnight stay.

Protesters clogged the hallway outside the Senate chamber, beating on drums, holding signs deriding Walker and pleading for lawmakers to kill the bill. Some others even demonstrated outside lawmakers' homes.

Hundreds of teachers joined the protest by calling in sick, forcing a number of school districts to cancel classes. Madison schools, the state's second-largest district, with 24,000 students, closed for a second day.

Thousands more people, many of them students from the nearby University of Wisconsin, slept in the rotunda for a second night, with more planning to stay Thursday as well.

"We are all willing to come to the table. We've all been willing from day one," said Madison teacher Rita Miller. "But you can't take A, B, C, D and everything we've worked for in one fell swoop."

About 12 law enforcement agencies were helping guard the Capitol, which was scheduled to remain open around the clock for an indefinite period.

Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney said authorities were ordered to show "extreme measures of tolerance."

"What we're seeing here is perhaps the most dramatic exercise of the democratic process," Mahoney said. "We're not only protecting the rights of organized labor, but also the rights of people supporting the bill."

Nine people were given citations for minor acts of civil disobedience, he said.

The proposal marks a dramatic shift for Wisconsin, which passed a comprehensive collective bargaining law in 1959 and was the birthplace of the national union representing all non-federal public employees.

In addition to eliminating collective-bargaining rights, the legislation also would make public workers pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage — increases Walker calls "modest" compared with those in the private sector.

Republican leaders said they expected Wisconsin residents would be pleased with the savings the bill would achieve — $30 million by July 1 and $300 million over the next two years to address a $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

Unions still could represent workers, but could not seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum. Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.

In exchange for bearing more costs and losing bargaining leverage, public employees were promised no furloughs or layoffs. Walker has threatened to order layoffs of up to 6,000 state workers if the measure does not pass.

Collective bargaining protesters, supporters clash at Statehouse

Agreements with government employee unions is killing state and local budgets all acroos this Country. Unions will never vote themselves a pay decrease or a reduction in benefits no matter how dire the budget situation is. It leaves law makers with few choices, cutting services or raising taxes to meet the budget.

The stranglehold that unions have on governments is going to have to be broken. The budgets of many states are at the breaking point, something has got to give...

By Jim Siegel - The Columbus Dispatch

More than 3,000 enthusiastic supporters and opponents of the Senates proposed collective-bargaining overhaul enveloped the Statehouse this morning with cheers of kill the bill and yes on 5, prior to the latest hearing on Senate Bill 5.

The spacious Statehouse atrium was packed mostly with public union workers outraged at efforts to end collective bargaining for state workers and significantly weaken the ability for local workers to bargain for their pay, benefits and working conditions.

Unions made a strong showing for the bill's first two hearings, and they were joined today by more than 200 red-shirt clad tea party activists pushing for the bill's passage. The mix verbally clashed in the Statehouse rotunda, where each side did its best to drown out the other.

Meanwhile, the atrium had the feel of a rock concert or an Ohio State football game, as union supporters cheered loudly when Senate sergeants-at-arms led their leaders across the balcony and into the hearing room.

More than 50 witnesses are scheduled to testify today. The first dozen or so will be supporters, and then opponents, including police, firefighters and Ohio Highway Patrol troopers' union leaders.

"This is a true test of democracy," said Sen. Kevin Bacon, chairman of the committee hearing the bill, during his opening comments.

The bill is not an attack on the middle class, public workers or jobs, Mike Wilson, head of the Cincinnati Tea Party, told a crowd gathered outside the Statehouse. "This bill is about math. Government has grown bigger than our taxpayers' ability to support it."

Rick Barry, a tea party member from Akron, said of public unions: "Their benefits are so much better than mine and their pay is so much better than mine, but they are still crying."

Wearing stickers that read "Taxpayer defender" and holding signs including those that read, "We're broke. Support SB 5," tea party activists said they wanted to show lawmakers that while they cannot compete with union numbers, there is support for changing collective-bargaining laws.

The group is transitioning from holding politicians accountable to showing support for their actions, said Tom Zawistowski, executive director of he Portage County Tea Party. "We want them to know that if they do it, we will work to keep them in office."

He added: "We don't have any more money. We have to make some hard decisions."

The Highway Patrol did not report any incidents during the morning, though some women standing in the atrium were heard saying they were moving out because things were getting heated.

Union leaders have characterized Senate Bill 5 as an attack on middle-class workers who need the ability to bargain in order to maintain a fair livelihood and uphold standards for safety and education. They also argue that Ohio's economic downturn, combined with tax cuts phased in over the past six years, are to blame for the state's troubling budget situation, not them.

Mark Sanders, president of the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters, said a review of the law may be justified, and he does not object to attempts to make bargaining more transparent.

"It is our fear that his legislation will destroy 27 years of public safety labor peace," he said. "Collective bargaining has been the only means for firefighters to gain safety standards."

Jay McDonald, president of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, stressed that police departments, including his own in Marion, have made concessions in recent days and years to help deal with declining budgets.

"Collective bargaining and our rights to binding arbitration are fundamental," he said. "We strongly believe the state made a covenant to police in 1983 when the right to strike was eliminated."

McDonald spoke of the work he and his family members have done as police officers, saying they earned their wages. He also questioned how a merit-based system could apply to police officers, who, in part, are "paid to run toward gunfire."

McDonald also couldn't pass up the chance to bring up the controversy over Gov. John Kasich's recent criticism of a Columbus police officer. "Occasionally we enforce a traffic law, and somebody might call a police officer an idiot."

Neither McDonald nor Sanders faced much tough questioning from the committee.

The committee also heard from Kristen Treadway, director of human resources for the city of Gahanna, who was critical of recent binding arbitration the city went through with one of its safety forces unions. She said "we have extreme concerns with the collective bargaining process."

Treadway talked of the struggle to get pay freezes and changes to health insurance as city tax revenue declined 13 percent from 2007 to 2009.

"The cost of bargaining and the cost of continual wage and benefit increases when the city is not growing are not sustainable," she said.

Jeff Berding, a Cincinnati councilman since 2005, urged lawmakers to "make this insanity stop."

He said Cincinnati's personnel costs are growing 18 percent annually. The city's contract with police gives officers an average of $87 an hour for working holidays and can let workers retire with six-figure sums for unused leave, totaling $93 million.

Over the years, Berding said, the collective bargaining law has tilted in favor of the unions. He said once more generous benefits or work conditions go into a contract, "they never come out."

"People are hurting and they are outraged to see these kinds of abuses of their hard-earned tax dollars," Berding said. He added, "I must share with you my disappointment to realize that the union leaders and their members prioritize pay and benefits above averting layoffs."

Sen. Tom Sawyer, D-Akron, told Berding that collective bargaining was implemented to avoid the numerous public worker strikes that were occurring, and it has worked. While things need refining, "clearly this is not a system that is as broken as the system that preceded it."

Addressing a prior witness who also referred to Cincinnati's union contracts, Sen. Eric Kearney, D-Cincinnati, noted that "you make it sound like it just happens miraculously. These things are bargained for. No one was forced to make these agreements."