When given a choice...

[swampy]

Government workers in Wisconson are leaving the union. Over 34,000 workers have opted to quit paying union dues over the past year.

http://mediatrackers.org/2012/05/31/unio...wisconsin/

I say, good for them!

[cbelt3]

Chicken or Egg. When the law was enacted the Union no longer provided any benefit. The "social benefits" that unions used to provide their members are no longer worth the money.

Ed: I mean independent of bargaining .

[Acer]

Are the public employees of Wisconsin better off today than they were before Scott Walker?

[john dough]

Yet another completely dishonest post. This is from a BLOG (read opinion) that has no facts to back it up.

People who you stump for would for are anti-woman and anti-middle class, both are groups which you belong: how does that make you feel?

[swampy]

I'd say so, Acer. Unemployment is down, the state has a balanced budget without raising taxes, Wisconson now has a fully funded pension program and Walker holds a lead in the current polls.

[DaveS]

Wisconsin’s Peter Pan progressivism
George Will

... WAUWATOSA, Wis.

This state, the first to let government employees unionize, was an incubator of progressivism and gave birth to its emblematic institution, the government employees union (in 1932 in Madison, the precursor of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) — government organized as a special interest to lobby itself to expand itself. But Wisconsin progressivism is in a dark Peter Pan phase; it is childish without being winsome.

...In 2010, government employees unions campaigned against Walker’s “5 and 12” plan. It requires government employees to contribute 5.8 percent of their pay to their pension plans. (Most were paying less than 1 percent. Most private-sector workers have no pensions; those who do pay, on average, much more than 5.8 percent.) Walker’s reform requires government employees to pay 12.6 percent of their health-care premiums (up from 6 percent but still less than the 21 percent private-sector average). Defeated in 2010, the unions now are demanding, as frustrated children do after losing a game, “Let’s start over!”

... Because it satisfies the sandbox socialists’ childish pleasure in naughtiness, as does their playground name-calling (Walker is a “Midwest Mussolini”) and infantile point-scoring: When the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel endorsed Walker, Wisconsin’s Democratic Party chair fulminated that six decades ago the Sentinel (which merged with the Journal in 1995) supported McCarthy.

Also, many backward-looking baby boomers want to recapture their youthful fun of waving clenched fists in the face of privilege. Now, embarrassingly, they are privileged.



more @:http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-wisconsins-peter-pan-progressivism/2012/06/01/gJQAByuq7U_story.html

[$tevie]

Partial Truth: “We wiped out a $3.6 billion deficit.” — Walker in a campaign ad.

What’s Left Out: That’s true if you use the cash accounting method. However, using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) accrual accounting methods, there is a $3 billion deficit in Wisconsin’s budget in each of the next two years. While it’s perfectly legitimate for Walker to cite the cash accounting figure, that may confuse some folks who may remember that Walker used the GAAP figures to argue for cuts in state health programs.

http://factcheck.org/2012/04/the-whole-t...-air-wars/

The Wisconsin Constitution requires that the state pass a balanced budget, where estimated revenues are equal to or greater than estimated spending. By this definition, the state budget is in balance.

Even with a balanced budget, Wisconsin has a structural deficit. A structural deficit occurs when ongoing revenues are less than ongoing spending. The structural deficit represents the gap between the amount of revenue raised and the amount of money needed to continue existing programs.

http://www.wisconsinbudgetproject.org/pr...udget.html

A report from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau indicated that Wisconsin is projected to have a $53 million deficit at the end of fiscal 2012, which concludes June 30, and a $208 million deficit at the end of fiscal 2013, due largely to lower-than-expected tax revenue.

Even if the state’s general fund — which covers most state expenses — was statutorily balanced, the state’s Generally Accepted Accounting Principles deficit, or GAAP, measuring beyond the general fund, is running between $2.5 billion and $3 billion, said Dale Knapp, research director of WISTAX, a private government research nonprofit.

http://www.wisconsinreporter.com/balance...ncial-woes

Walker’s ad says there are 33,200 more jobs in Wisconsin since he took office.

To reach the number, he combined two data sets -- one that involves unofficial (but generally more accurate) numbers that could change in the weeks after the election; the other is volatile, but still official monthly numbers. From an accounting standpoint this would be flagged as a mistake. From a political standpoint, he is mixing and matching to present the best possible view.

Walker presents it all as final and official, offering no cautionary notes or caveats -- even though there are many.

And Walker credits his policies for the improvement, which overstates the impact a governor can make on broad economic trends in a short period of time.

There is clearly some truth to the numbers. But in mixing everything together and not making it clear these numbers are preliminary, Walker ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.

That is our definition for Mostly False.

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/stat...-jobs-he-/

[Acer]

But he busted the union, so it's all good.

[swampy]

So, what progress has Obama made in 3.5 years to reduce the jobless rate, balance the national budget and begin to control spending? Walker has had less time and made more progress towards these ends than Obama has. So Walker busted some union chops in doing. Is that your biggest concern? He didn't say it was going to be easy. And what's wrong with state workers paying a little more for their share of health care and retirement? They still pay far less than the private sector workers and for some it is a wash by paying more for these and no longer paying union dues.

[Grateful11]

Let's not forget the those things called facts are now dead. Swampy believes what she wants to believe and that's that factual or not. If sounds good and fits her agenda that's just fine with her.