13,000 protest Governor's plan to change collective bargaining for public employees

[AndrewG]

Getting racial and then calling others ignorant. That's rich! When doesn't the race card get played nowadays? No one really wants to get beyond race when they think it works to their advantage.

You got caught spewing it, just drop it and stay on target. It doesn't contribute to the discussion.

 

[30ashopper]

The opposition to the Unions contains the same stench as that of the totally partisan Republican/Tea Party members of the Supreme Court, the same ones that are allowing corporations to be even more empowered, controlling our elections. Equalize the state cuts across the board, and hey, just carve some monetary fat off the top 1% income producers, unless you can somehow voluntarily get them to "trickle it down" en mass!

All power to the people! Arise!

:roll: In the last election, unions contributed more than corporations. Hard earned union wages, collected by force of law out of union worker's paychecks, that got blown up the flew stack of the corporate media.

 

[beachFool]

I think it could be easily argued that the greatest exploitation of any crisis by a president in our history was FDR's "New Deal" during the great depression. Bush's exploits pale in comparison.

Just because one "easily" argues a point doesn't mean their arguement has any credence.

I do argee Bush pales in comparison to FDR.

 

[GoodWitch58]

Plutocracy Now: What Wisconsin Is Really About | Mother Jones

American politicians don't care much about voters with moderate incomes. Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels studied the voting behavior of US senators in the early '90s and discovered that they respond far more to the desires of high-income groups than to anyone else. By itself, that's not a surprise. He also found that Republicans don't respond at all to the desires of voters with modest incomes. Maybe that's not a surprise, either. But this should be: Bartels found that Democratic senators don't respond to the desires of these voters, either. At all.

Interesting take on how we got to Wisconsin....Democrats take note..

 

[beachFool]

. I do not believe they are only interested in cutting the pensions of those who have faithfull served our country in any way as a public servant. If I believed such, I wouldn't consider myself a tea partier and I do. The impression some have of the tea party and its participants is completely foundless.

My state retirement was not obtained by "collective bargaining". We had no public union for public employees in Oklahoma. We did have an organization called Oklahoma Public Employee Association. It had no bargaining power but did lobby our legislators heavily. I belong to it but had it been a union I would not have. We were listened to and our requests taken into consideration every year. No, we didn't always get what we wanted but we didn't bankrupt the state, either. The change in finances now is not due to the mismanagement of funds. It is due to our economic collapse..

According to your team, you were bankrupting the state. Here's what the Speaker-designee said about y'all.

?For decades, solving this problem has not been a priority and passed on to future generations. The time has come for creative solutions to address one of the state?s most significant financial challenges.?

?The poor funding status of our state pension retirement plans requires attention,? he continued. ?When decade after decade the unfunded liability increases exponentially, the fact is reform is necessary and important to the future of Oklahoma. For example, ten years ago, the state?s unfunded pension liability was just over $6 billion. Today, it is nearly $15 billion ? more than twice the size of the entire state budget.?

Speaker-Designate Steele promises focus on major pension reforms

 

[30ashopper]

Indiana Democrats trigger Statehouse showdown over anti-union legislation | The Indianapolis Star | indystar.com

Representative democracy in Indiana? "Meh, it's over rated." say Indiana democrats.

 

[beachFool]

The "tea party" participants expect no more nor no less than that which is received of any other American. They want less government, ..., and fiscal responsibility. .

Medicare, a big government program, saves the average Tea Party booster a minimum of ten grand a year.

We pay 8 grand for insurance and I just coughed up another thousand bucks for my colonoscopy.

How much did your most recent colonscopy cost you, Andy?

How much do you pay for insurance?

 

[Andy A]

According to your team, you were bankrupting the state. Here's what the Speaker-designee said about y'all.

?For decades, solving this problem has not been a priority and passed on to future generations. The time has come for creative solutions to address one of the state?s most significant financial challenges.?

?The poor funding status of our state pension retirement plans requires attention,? he continued. ?When decade after decade the unfunded liability increases exponentially, the fact is reform is necessary and important to the future of Oklahoma. For example, ten years ago, the state?s unfunded pension liability was just over $6 billion. Today, it is nearly $15 billion ? more than twice the size of the entire state budget.?

Speaker-Designate Steele promises focus on major pension reforms

Well, Buz, I no longer live there, but I can guarantee it wasn't lack of "collective bargaining" that brought about the shortfall, it was a combination of many financial factors and you, being the financial expert, damn well know it and if you don't you're in the wrong business. When I retired from Oklahoma in 1989, our pension plan was funded at better than 80% much better than most pension plans at the time. So what brought about today's debacle? It certainly wasn't decade after decade of unfunded liablility. It wasn't undue or excessive pension increases. Every increase has been voted on and awarded by the legislature. Do you think it might have something, anything, to do with our handling of the economy? Just a thought from one who has saved, planned and worked hard to put his family on a sound footing during retirement, only it sometimes appears, to have the efforts ruined by those interested in making sure those who have floated through life are guaranteed a comfortable existence in their old age. Bitter at what I see happening? You bet and rightly so!

 

[scooterbug44]

You don't get to get mad because the system you/your generation set up to give you lifelong benefits is unsustainable and we want to balance the budgets.

Not sure how fixing Social Security and adjusting state pension/benefit plans so they are fiscally sustainable equates to taking away your hard earned benefits and giving them to lazy people.

My generation is the one who will not get the benefits, yet will continue to pay for yours to continue as they have.

All of these changes are to FUTURE benefits - noone's current benefits are changing.

 

[Beauty hunter]

Only with the methods this idiot wants to use to exploit similar protests. Please don't throw your ignorance into this.

Do some research in the guy we were talking about - my guess is a 2 second Google search will mention his racist letter to the NAACP that got him thrown out of the Tea Party Express. He's slime.

The REAL protest in Wisconsin doesn't have anything to do with race or this arsehat.

:funn:
funny word