Thuggery in Wisconsin

"We will hunt you down. We will slit your throats. We will drink your blood. I will have your decapitated head on a pike in the Madison town square. This is your last warning.”

No, this is not from the Mafia, al-Qaeda, or an excerpt from a vampire tale. It is an email sent to Wisconsin State Senator Dan Kapanke, after he voted for Governor Scott Walker’s budget and budget repair bill, which was devoted to getting the state’s fiscal house in order after the largesse of previous Democrat administrations. Taxpayers got tired of getting the shaft. That is why they threw out the Democrats en masse in Wisconsin last fall and replaced them with Republican majorities in the Governor’s Mansion, the State Senate and State Assembly (i.e. the lower chamber).

Republicans have been receiving threats of death and violence that go beyond political hate mail; they constitute the making of a threat which, by the way, can be a felony. Despite the fact that last January when Jared Lee Loughner went on a killing spree in Arizona with no warning, the mainstream media and the political left have been conspicuously silent as constitutionally elected legislators are threatened, their property is damaged and destroyed, and their phone numbers and addresses have been made public.

I saw your remarks in todays (sic) paper about the people who appose (sic) the Walker Plan – you sorry piece of sh_t – you won’t have your cushy job very much longer – as soon as we get your boss the faggot Fitzgerald [Republican Speaker of the State Assembly] recalled – the sorry fu_king parasite on the taxpayer of Wisconsin – every damn one of you should be exterminated.

The attempted murder of US Representative Gabrielle Giffords stirred curmudgeons of the mainstream media to rise in high dudgeon and lecture the less high-minded among us about the dangers of incivility in political discourse that leads to the violence. Where are the same calls for civility today?

This week is the first anniversary of the atrocious legislation that spawned ObamaCare. When opponents complained that it was an unprecedented display of federal power to seize control of the private healthcare system and dictate the behavior of 300 million in using it, Obama’s response was, “we won.” When Republicans objected to the bribery used to win Democrat votes, the strong-arm tactics used by the Democrat leadership to keep its caucus in line in passing a law no one had read, and the unorthodox procedures used to reconcile the House and Senate bills, Reid and Pelosi simply said, “elections have consequences.”

Yet when Republican majorities were elected in the Wisconsin Senate and House, as well as the governor, which worked to pass a budget bill curtailing the collective bargaining power of state unions and compelling them to pay more of their retirement and healthcare, the 14 Democrats in the Senate fled to Illinois to prevent a quorum – essentially shutting down the democratic process Wisconsin voters had elected their government to enact. No chest thumping Republican cried “we won” or “elections have consequences.” Unable to stop the passage of legislation with constitutional procedures, the “flee-baggers” attempted to negotiate a compromise from the motel in Illinois rather than the Senate chamber, assured (so they thought) that the Republican majority would be forced to negotiate without a quorum to pass any legislation.

"April 4 (is) the day on which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life for the cause of public collective bargaining," Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO said in a speech in Washington. "Join us to make April 4, 2011, a day to stand in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for," appealed the official blog of the labor union.

The call served to import into Madison members of the AFL-CIO, the SEIU and other big public worker unions, Democrat party organizations, and activist groups like MoveOn.org. Obama spoke on behalf of the Wisconsin public unions. Apparently advised to back off by his reelection campaign staff, Obama’s Labor Secretary – whose salary is paid by the US taxpayers – inserted herself into an organized effort to interfere in the government of a sovereign state of this nation. "I am so inspired and proud of all of you, especially those who went down to Wisconsin and also around the country," Labor Secretary Solis proclaimed. Her remarks made it obvious that she will use a government agency (the US Labor Department) against the Governor, State Assembly, and Senate elected by the voters of Wisconsin. She referred to herself as pro-union and anti-Walker. "I say let's keep fighting," Solis said, "let's stand up for all workers, and let's mobilize and do what we do best,” she said.

“Do what we do best …” You mean like violence? Historically unions have done a good job of that. Remember Jimmy Hoffa?

Milwaukee radio host Charlie Sykes reported that Wisconsin businessmen were getting letters recommending that the business owner oppose Governor Walker’s efforts to disconnect the IV line making taxpayers permanent blood donors to the state’s public unions. Read this not-so-subtle invitation:

The undersigned groups would like your company to publicly oppose Governor Walker's efforts to virtually eliminate collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin. While we appreciate that you may need some time to consider this request, we ask for your response by March 17. In the event that you do not respond to this request by that date, we will assume that you stand with Governor Walker and against the teachers, nurses, police officers, fire fighters, and other dedicated public employees who serve our communities.

In the event that you cannot support this effort to save collective bargaining, please be advised that the undersigned will publicly and formally boycott the goods and services provided by your company. However, if you join us, we will do everything in our power to publicly celebrate your partnership in the fight to preserve the right of public employees to be heard at the bargaining table. Wisconsin's public employee unions serve to protect and promote equality and fairness in the workplace. We hope you will stand with us and publicly share that ideal.

In the event you would like to discuss this matter further, please contact the executive Director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, Jim Palmer, at [phone number redacted].

The police? You mean Guido the knee-cracker wears the badge of a police officer sworn to uphold the law? Way to go, Secretary Solis! The goons you confess such pride in are now doing what you say they do best – corrupting the bedrock of a community and threatening people who refuse to help them gain their aims. Way to go!

Oh, but it threatens only an economic boycott. Yeah, sure. That’s why the contact person is the head of the police union, which incidentally, is specifically exempt from Walker’s bill along with firemen and other emergency personnel. I’m sure the Director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association was totally unaware that being a shill for the public workers and teachers unions infers that citizens may not be able to rely on police protection for their safety. Could a business owner receiving one of these letters expect a prompt response if he or she is the victim of a personal or property crime in retaliation for not supporting "the dedicated public employees who serve our communities"?

Radio host Sykes spins it this way: "That's a nice business you got there. Pity if anything was to happen to it if, say, you didn't toe the line and denounce Governor Walker like we're asking nice-like." Sounds like “organized" law enforcement could bear a disturbing resemblance to “organized” crime. Wasn’t Al Capone the one who said, "You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone"?

Plan B of the Wisconsin thuggery campaign is a recall election targeting eight Republican State Senators. A Washington DC labor website called for recruits to go to Wisconsin and serve as “field organizers” for the recall campaigns. Local and national labor unions are pouring money into the state to pay for the manpower needed to collect the signatures. Wisconsin Republicans are trying to respond in kind by mounting the recall of eight of the 14 “flee-baggers” but the head of the state party admits that taxpayer groups and volunteer organization have less money and are more loosely organized than their union counterparts and Democrat machines.

Wisconsin law says that recalls can only apply to incumbents who have served at least a year. That eliminates Governor Walker and newly elected Senators. It also requires that after filing a recall petition, thousands of signatures of registered voters must be collected in each district within 60 days. The number of signatures varies by district but ranges from 15,000 to 22,000.

The organizing strength of the AFL-CIO and its unions, coupled with Democratic allies (even Hollywood actors have joined in) gives the advantage to the Democrats over the Republicans. The union also understands that Wisconsin is a battleground state which cannot afford to lose this contest of political will if it hopes to discourage other states with fiscal problems from following Wisconsin’s lead. The Republicans don’t have the same passion for recalling Democrat senators that the Democrats do in their recall effort, which could be problematic.

Plan C of the Wisconsin thuggery campaign involves Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi, the latest hero in the left’s effort to subvert the people’s government. Last Friday, before leaving on vacation, she issued a temporary restraining order blocking the publication of the so-called Budget Repair Bill in the Wisconsin Statutes and Annotations. Publication of new laws is the job of the Secretary of State, Doug LaFollette, a Democrat, who decided to delay publishing the law after it was enacted until March 25, the latest date allowed by statute.

While lawsuits alleging grounds that justify judicial review are often filed to delay or prevent implementation of a law by those opposed to it, Judge Sumi’s participation in this case is an egregious perversion of justice. Her son, Jake Sinderbrand, is a political operative, formerly an AFL-CIO lead field manager and data manager for the SEIU Wisconsin State Council. The union members affected by the new law are members of the SEIU and the AFL-CIO. Here is what Sinderbrand’s Facebook page says:

RIP middle class – Wisconsin has officially become the Tea Party's laboratory for plutocracy. This is the beginning of the end unless we can get these fu_kers out of office. 299 days to recall; please do what you can to fight this travesty.

Judge Sumi’s husband, Carl Sinderbrand, donated to the campaigns of three of the “Badger 14? – Dave Hansen, Jim Holperin and Robert Wirch – who shirked their senatorial jobs and ran away to Illinois hoping to shut down the legislative process. Additionally Sinderbrand donated to Tom Barrett in his fight against Scott Walker for the governorship.

In 2007 Sumi gave a speech at the Temple Beth El for the Jewish Federation of Madison (WI) entitled “Judicial Decision Making: Activism or Accountability?”

Maryann Sumi is hardly an unbiased judge in this case. Any self-respecting arbiter of the law would have recused herself from hearing the case. Judge Sumi didn’t. That speaks volumes about her liberal activist view of the judiciary’s role in government.

The Associated Press reported that the reason LaFollette delayed publishing the new law was to give local governments as much time as possible to reach agreements locking in generous contract terms. In other words, he used the limits of the publication statute to benefit a favored Democratic constituency that will cost the taxpayers more money – a delay that was legal but hardly public-spirited. And it had the happy consequence of giving Dane County District Attorney Ismael R. Ozanne, also a Democrat, sufficient time to file the lawsuit in Sumi’s court alleging that the way in which the measure was passed violated the state's open meeting law, which normally requires notice of 24 hours before a vote.

Sumi said that the Legislature had the right to reconvene and reenact the Budget Repair Bill – a guarantee for further delay, mass demonstrations, and possible violence. If the Legislature did that, Sumi said, it would give her one less thing to worry about when she returns from spring break. Well, we sure don’t want Sumi’s court calendar interfering with the euphoria of her vacation, do we?

Republicans, who hold the majority in both the State Assembly and State Senate, refute the allegations of the suit before Judge Sumi because the official Rules of the Senate and Assembly waive that notice requirement during special sessions of the legislature, like the one in which the budget repair bill was considered. Either Judge Sumi is aware of these procedures and still issued a TRO because of her ideological sympathies with the unions – making her just another political hack, not a judge – or she is unaware of legislative procedures and therefore unqualified to serve on the bench.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen wasted no time last Friday in announcing the Department of Justice will appeal Sumi’s TRO. Van Hollen said:

The Legislature and the Governor, not a single Dane County Circuit Court Judge, are responsible for the enactment of laws. Decisions of the Supreme Court have made it clear that judges may not enjoin the Secretary of State from publishing an Act.

To add to the opéra bouffe taking place in Wisconsin, there is a state Supreme Court election coming up on April 5. Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg, a liberal, is trying to unseat conservative incumbent David Prosser. If she wins, she could shift the balance of power on the court that might ultimately hear the appeal of Sumi’s order and undo Walker’s bill.

Is there an end to this? For weeks we’ve seen television images of malcontents camped out at the state capitol interfering with the legislative process and sometimes threatening the legislators. Signs and the mob chanted, “This is how democracy works.”

No, that’s not how democracy works.

Government employees are subject to the will of the people. That’s how democracy works. Unions are not a fourth branch of government with the power to veto the will of the people, embodied in their representatives, by forcing those elected representatives to sit down with unions as equals.

This is why federal employees have no collective bargaining rights with Congress. Congress represents the will of the people. It is not compelled, after negotiating among its members, to further negotiate its decisions with a union. If government workers feel they are being exploited, they should take their case to the people. And they should participate in the political process themselves – lawfully. That’s how democracy works.

To demand collective bargaining rights for public employees, as Wisconsin is doing, is to demand powers above democracy – to demand that after the democratic process has produced its outcome, that outcome must be ratified or renegotiated with a union representative. If that be the case, power in state government would reside only in one person – an unelected union official.

That is not how democracy works.

Guv’mint Work

“… meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service …

“Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees. Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.”

It may surprise you to learn that these words were written by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a letter dated August 16, 1937. As he states the case, FDR saw crucial differences between collective bargaining in public organizations, which he eschewed, and private organizations, which he encouraged. He was so “pro-union” in the private sector that his New Deal laid the legal and regulatory foundation which unionized 35% of the nation’s private workforce at its mid-1950s peak.

But Roosevelt’s opposition to unions in government services was the Democrat orthodoxy of the time. Unlike private sector ventures whose workers generate the profits, in Roosevelt’s view, the workers in public sector ventures do not produce profits. In fact, they work in government monopolies whose services can’t be “shopped” by their consumers to get the best value for police and fire protection or public education.

When unions engage in collective bargaining on behalf of employees of a private organization, the party across the table is management who represents shareholders and creditors. On their behalf, management has a vested interest in containing payroll expense and maintaining the firm’s competitiveness. The discipline of the market constrains the demands union negotiators can make in private sector ventures.

None of these incentives are at work in public unions. The titular head of a government agency is not the employer; taxpayers are. Nor does the government manager feel the impact of the expense to operate the agency; taxpayers do. Yet taxpayers are conspicuously absent from the public union collective bargaining table. Their interest in keeping expenses low and getting good value for their money isn’t represented at all. Unlike private sector unions, public unions have no market to discipline their appetites. No matter how outrageous their demands, the expense is passed along to the taxpayer because the government manager has no stake in the taxpayer’s interests.

The presidents, state governors, mayors, commissioners, and other public agency heads who create budgets and spend tax revenues are essentially employees themselves, not much different than the fire fighters, police, teachers, and agency bureaucrats they supervise. But they differ from their private sector counterparts in one important way: private sector employees don’t elect their bosses. Public sector employees do. Government workers, or more specifically the unions that represent them, can funnel millions of dollars into election campaigns. They maintain election phone banks, knock on doors, get out the vote. They are part of the candidate’s election staff and they don’t cost the campaign one penny. But they can un-elect candidates that don’t give them what they want.

As budget crises like those in New Jersey, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana sweep the country, FDR has been proved right. The perverse incentives in public sector leadership and public unions is the cause for the mess we are now in – bloated inefficient state and national governments that cost more every year to operate. These problems were unheard of before the late 1950s when the barriers to public unions began to fall.

New York City Mayor Robert Wagner was the first to issue an order in 1958 that allowed public employee unions and collective bargaining. Then Wisconsin became the first state to enact a public sector collective-bargaining law the following year. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10988, which granted bargaining rights to federal employees.

The genie was out of the bottle. Around the country, state and municipal government began enacting public sector collective bargaining laws, virtually inviting union leaders to rob taxpayers, elect their co-conspirators, and expand government. The growth of public unions put an unelected power in charge of the people’s business next to the people’s elected officials. With that came the loss of control over government budgets, and hence over tax rates.

Need proof? Virginia banned collective bargaining in state and local government in 1993. State debt as a percentage of tax receipts is 2% and unfunded pension liability is 17% of state GDP. Wisconsin, where public union members have been protesting their governor’s attempt to restore sanity to the state budget for 10 days, has debt of 5% of tax receipts and unfunded pension liability of 32% of state GDP. Unfunded state pension liabilities are a ticking time bomb nationwide. They are currently under-funded by over $3 trillion and growing by the day.

Since pubic unions gained respectability, federal, state, and local government employment has grown from 8.2 million in 1959 to 22.5 million in 2009, excluding the military. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the leading attraction to government work is the pay, benefits, and job security relative to private sector work.

According to BLS data for 2010, state and local government employees nationally were paid an average wage of $26.25 per hour, which was 33% higher than the average private sector wage. But an even greater mismatch occurs in benefits, such as health and life insurance, paid vacations, sick leave, and contributions to retirement income. State and local governments provided their workers with benefits valued, on average, at $13.85 per hour, a whopping 69% premium over the average benefits package in the private sector.

State and local government benefits are not only more expensive, but are also given to more workers. Life insurance, for example, is a benefit for 80% of government employees but only 59% of private sector workers. Traditional defined benefit pension plans were available to 84% of government workers – but to only 21% of private employees. The cost of the average state and local government defined benefit retirement plan is $2.94 per hour worked, significantly higher than 44 cents for private industry employers.

With salary and benefit compensation as generous as this, would it surprise you to learn that government employees are only one-third as likely to leave their jobs as workers in the private sector?

Yet state and local governments are cheapskates compared with the pay and benefits available from the federal government. Uncle Sam employs about two million of the 23 million government employees in this country and paid them – are you sitting down? – an average annual salary of $79,197, according to the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. The average private employee earned just $49,935 from which is paid the taxes that pay these extraterrestrial government salaries.

The difference between the federal and private salaries has more than doubled since 2000. Reducing federal pay to the same level as the private sector would save taxpayers approximately $47 billion a year!

Benefits make the difference even more striking. Total federal civilian compensation – pay and benefits combined – average $119,982, which is more than twice the $59,908 compensation package earned by the average private sector employee.

Tax-paying private sector employees may fall on hard times, but the good life just keeps on truckin’ for public employees. Since the "Great Recession" started a couple of years ago, the number of federal workers with salaries of $100,000 and up increased 46%. But hold on to your hat. At the Defense Department, the number of civilian employees making $150,000 or more quintupled from 1,868 to 10,100 in the last two years, and at the Justice Department, the number receiving these princely incomes increased nearly sevenfold.

Between January 2008 and June 2010, as the “Great Recession” slogged on, the private sector lost roughly 8 million jobs. But government – the fastest growing enterprise in America – added 590,000 employees to its workforce.

What could explain the difference between private sector and public sector compensation and employment security? Unions. The so-called labor movement in this country has been declining in the private sector but growing in the public sector. From its zenith in the mid-1950s the labor union participation rate has declined from 35% to less than 7% of the private sector workforce. But in the 50 years that unions have been allowed in the public sector, the participation rate has grown from essentially zero to over 39% of the state and local government workforce and 36% when the federal government workforce is added.

The trend to unionize government and hold taxpayers hostage is not likely to abate.

Public unions are the biggest players in national politics. The largest public sector unions are the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and the Service Employees International Union. These unions have more than seven million members combined, and they are very well financed. The NEA and AFT teacher unions, for example, collect about $2 billion a year in member dues and fees. While they spend generously to elect their candidates, 95% of their money goes to Democrats because they are more likely to raise taxes and boost spending than Republicans.

The Service Union International Union (SEIU) spent $67 million to elect Obama and other Democrats in 2008. In the first nine months following Obama's inauguration, union president Andrew Stern visited the White House 22 times – more than any other visitor. His successor, Richard Trumka, recently boasted that he talks to the White House about three times a day. Money buys access.

Public unions and elected officials make a powerful tag team when wresting more money out of taxpayers. In 2010, for example, Oregon public unions teamed up with the Democrat governor to raise individual and business taxes by $727 million annually rather than cut public services – and the jobs to provide them. The Oregon Education Association pitched in $2 million and the SEIU added $1.8 million to the $7 million spent to promote ballot measures increasing the taxes. Altogether, public unions contributed 75% of the $7 million. Not a bad ROI: spend $7 million to shake $727 million out of the tree that unions apparently believe grows money.

New Jersey's teachers union fought Gov. Chris Christie's efforts to cut education spending as part of his plan to deal with the state’s $11 billion deficit. The union gets dues of about $100 million annually from its 203,000 members. That’s a big war chest for an organization whose primary purpose is lobbying. The union spent $300,000 every week on radio ads urging tax increases on the “rich” instead of budget cuts. Christie and New Jersey taxpayers won. This time.

When it comes to state workers and teachers salaries and benefits no state tops Wisconsin. The average teacher in the Milwaukee public schools, according to the MacIver Institute, earns $100,000 a year – $56,000 in pay, $44,000 in benefits – and enjoys bullet-proof job security. Yet Wisconsin teachers and various imported goons have been camped out at the state capitol protesting Gov. Scott Walker’s request that teachers begin paying 5.8% of their salaries toward their pensions (they pay almost nothing now) and that they pay 12.6% of their healthcare premiums. (Their share would go up from $79 to $200 per month. The average private sector chump pays $330 per month.) Even when Scott explained that these measures would prevent layoffs, furloughs, and other draconian cuts, the Wisconsin teacher’s union prefers unemployment to benefit reductions.

Walker's bill, which passed the state assembly Thursday evening, would also limit collective bargaining for government employees. Collective bargaining protects bad employees whose seniority forces better employees to be laid off when necessary.

The bill also terminates the government’s role in collecting union dues from member paychecks and paying them over to the union. If approved, workers would have to pay their own dues, which might give them pause to consider what they are getting in return. Dropping out of the union would be the equivalent of a $1,000 annual increase in pay for many. Predictably, the unions hate the idea and are fighting it tooth and claw. However, the direct payment of union dues by the government to the union is the root of all political corruption in America.

The results of the incestuous relationship between unions and government are easy to see. Out of control pay and benefits are obscenely more generous than they are in the private sector. Taxes are higher and so are deficits and debt, especially unfunded debt.

Between now and 2013, the states are facing a total budget shortfall of $175 billion. The checks and balances aren’t there to keep unions out of the taxpayer’s pockets. They never have been. The cycle of expropriating higher and higher taxes from taxpayers so union members can be paid more and pay higher dues that go into political campaigns for pro-union politicians is self-reinforcing. But it has a limit and that limit is being reached in most states and the federal government now.

The way we do government in this country has to change, and it has to change in ways that put the interests of those in the private sector – who pay the lion’s share of taxes – ahead of those who are the beneficiaries of those taxes. Citizens must stop looking to government to solve every problem. The size of government must be reduced and its effectiveness must increase so it can do more with less. The days of defined benefit retirements are vanishing in the private sector and must do likewise in the public sector.

A crucial first step in restoring fiscal sanity to government is the elimination of collective bargaining. It is a practice designed to prevent voters from having the final say in public policy. It boggles the mind that anyone should expect elected representatives in a democracy to negotiate spending and policy decisions with an unelected union leader.

It’s hard to make the case that public sector unions have done this country any good. The cost of government is growing faster than the economy, public education lags that of other industrial countries, the economic clout of unions allows them to buy their way into control of the political process, and states languish under the burden of $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

We can do better.