Union Yes? Maybe Not.

[MCWAY]

Union Yes? Maybe Not.
Big Labor's moment of triumph fails to materialize

By JAMES TARANTO




Remember the Big Labor resurgence? Neither do we, but we ventured back 29 days into our archives, and there was the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne declaring on NPR that Gov. Scott Walker's success in passing legislation curtailing the power of unions was a victory for those labor monopolies: "What [Walker and the GOP] have done is they have mobilized Democrats and the labor movement--Democrats in a way President Obama wasn't able to in 2010, and the labor movement, as it's never been mobilized before."

"Voters have sided with . . . the unions," Dionne had written five days earlier. Last week this assertion was put to a test at the ballot box, and it proved true. Voters did side with the unions. Not a majority of voters, mind you, but a big enough minority to almost oust a sitting justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in favor of Big Labor's candidate. OK, they lost, but it isn't as if voting out a sitting Supreme Court justice is easy in Wisconsin. Had it happened, it would have been for the first time in almost 1,100 days.

A Politico report suggests that Big Labor's woes go far beyond their losses in Wisconsin and other Midwestern states with new Republican governors: "Top labor leaders excoriated President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a closed session of the AFL-CIO's executive board meeting in Washington Wednesday, three labor sources said."

Politico's sources say the labor bosses are upset about budget cuts, the free-trade agreement with Colombia, and "what some view as their abandonment, even by their typically reliable allies among Senate Democrats."

Supporters of labor monopolies have attempted to elide the distinction between government and private-sector employees, in the hope of inspiring the latter's "solidarity" with the former. But the decades-long decline of private-sector unions means that only a tiny minority of nongovernment workers are part of Big Labor. The labor monopolies may feel they "must still try to maintain a relationship with the Democratic Party," but the Democratic Party also has to maintain a relationship with those of us who pay the bills.....

Reader Gordon Calkins writes in with his perspective on President Obama's ghastly budget speech:


I am the primary care-giver to my autistic and developmentally delayed son. I must admit that we accept from our state Division of Services for People with Disabilities some monetary support. The state gives us a small grant with federal matching money that allows us to hire extra support workers and care givers which gives us a few hours a month to run errands and have a little time out of the house.......

The program has been a benefit to us. But to put this into perspective, in order to be eligible for the support, we work with a state-contracted support coordinator, a state-approved fiscal agent that handles the payroll, and we have to keep logs of what we are doing to meet the state-approved training goals.........

Although, as I said, I believe that this support is a net positive for us, the benefit we receive is much less than I pay in federal taxes each year. I would be even better off if the federal government would cancel programs like this and just let me keep more of my money, and there wouldn't be nearly so many people making money off the support we get.

So, the purpose of government is to take my money, filter it through a bunch of agencies and contractors, each taking their cut, and then give a small fraction of it back to me to spend on "approved" services. Gives new meaning to the phrase "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." I wish they would stop helping.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704628404576264974199553468.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

[Soul Crusher]

Ej dionne is a joke.

[MCWAY]

Now, that the unions have apparently failed to get David Prosser thrown off the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the liberal goofies are acting a fool, yet again.

[Deicide]

Autism is quite interesting.