{"id":698,"date":"2011-08-29T08:01:17","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T14:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hushbeck.com\/blog\/?p=698"},"modified":"2011-08-29T08:01:17","modified_gmt":"2011-08-29T14:01:17","slug":"contrasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hushbeck.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/contrasts\/","title":{"rendered":"Contrasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two stories over at HotAir<\/a> really provide a\u00a0nice contrast on the issue of public employee unions in Wisconsin. The first<\/a> concerns the protest outside a school visited by Governor Scott Walker.\u00a0 With all the problems with education, you would think that Messmer Preparatory Catholic School would be celebrated for its success, as 85% of its students continue on to college.\u00a0 Sadly no.<\/p>\n

While the teachers’ unions like to claim that they are out there fighting for better education for our children, in reality they don\u2019t really care one wit about children. It is only about what they can get for their members. Messmer\u2019s clear educational success is irrelevant at best, and more likely a threat.\u00a0 That they have improved the neighborhood is likewise irrelevant.<\/p>\n

What matters is that they provide an alternative to the union dominated schools.\u00a0 In the video below, one protestor can be seen haranguing a Messmer staffer saying that he was \u201cashamed\u201d to have them in his neighborhood (@1:46). Very strangely, he goes on to sarcastically\u00a0 ask her, \u201cyou must be really proud of what you have accomplished here\u201d (@2:35)\u00a0 I would have liked to ask this protestor: A school successfully teaching children\u00a0 to succeed in life;\u00a0 what is not to be proud of?\u00a0 I think his answer would have been very enlightening.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tHnbtkbgkfM<\/p>\n

When you compare the actions of the protestors outside the school with the students inside, the contrast is really pretty stark, particularly when you consider that vandals filled a number of the school’s\u00a0locks with glue.\u00a0 Schools like Messmer threaten the unions’ place at the government trough.<\/p>\n

This position at the trough is highlighted by another story<\/a> contrasting two Wisconsin cities, Oshkosh and Madison.\u00a0 While Oshkosh waited till after the new public employee union law had taken effect to conclude contracts,\u00a0 Madison rushed ahead so as not to be affected by the law.\u00a0 As a result, Oshkosh is looking to save millions of dollars, Madison is looking at cutting 38 police officers, 27 firefighters, reducing or ending a number of city services, and this is with a proposed 3% increase in property taxes.<\/p>\n

Madison\u2019s plight demonstrates that the public employee unions do not even care all that much about their members.\u00a0 They have a lifeboat mentality.\u00a0 Those thrown overboard (i.e., laid off) are irrelevant. What matters are those who are left.\u00a0\u00a0 They certainly do not care one wit about the taxpayers who must yet again do with less, so that they can have even more.<\/p>\n

Why the stark contrast between Madison and Oshkosh?\u00a0 Not only were the public employee unions bargaining for wages, they were requiring that health insurance be purchased from them. Under Walker’s new law government agencies are free to shop around for health insurance.\u00a0\u00a0 The result is that in a time of rising health care costs, government agencies in Wisconsin are suddenly seeing millions of dollars in savings on health care.\u00a0 In short, the unions had a monopoly on health care, and were using their monopoly to overcharge local governments.\u00a0 Governor Walker\u2019s bill broke the union\u2019s monopoly and as a result cities like Oshkosh are saving huge amounts of money. Those, like Madison, that rushed to have contracts signed before the bill went to effect are not.<\/p>\n

With the new school year kicking off, it is now clear why the unions opposed Walker’s bill.\u00a0 Rather than balancing the budget on the backs of public employees \u2013 who by the way have higher pay and better benefits than do their the non-government counterparts who pay their salaries \u2013 in reality what Walker\u2019s bill did was end the direct siphon of government money into union coffers.<\/p>\n

While the unions frequently complain about greedy businesses that exploit their workers, Walker’s bill has turned a spotlight on the situation. It turns out that it is the public employee unions that have been the ones caught with their hands in the cookie jar.\u00a0 Thus, at places like Messmer Preparatory Catholic School, they are screaming about the injustice of it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two stories over at HotAir really provide a\u00a0nice contrast on the issue of public employee unions in Wisconsin. The first concerns the protest outside a school visited by Governor Scott Walker.\u00a0 With all the problems with education, you would think that Messmer Preparatory Catholic School would be celebrated for its success, as 85% of its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,14,28],"tags":[261,624,643,798,813,855,963,1052,1055,1156,1222,2015,1245,1335,1344,1382],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domestic-policy","category-education","category-politics","tag-choice-school","tag-health-insurance","tag-hotair","tag-lifeboat-mentality","tag-madison","tag-messmer-preparatory-catholic-school","tag-oshkosh","tag-protesters","tag-public-employees","tag-scott-walker","tag-students","tag-taxes","tag-taxpayers","tag-unions","tag-vandals","tag-wisconsin"],"yoast_head":"\nContrasts - Politics and Religion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hushbeck.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/contrasts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Contrasts - Politics and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two stories over at HotAir really provide a\u00a0nice contrast on the issue of public employee unions in Wisconsin. 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