County Board rejects pay cut, move to part time – JSOnline

County Board rejects pay cut, move to part time – JSOnline.

No surprises here. The self-absorbed members of the Milwaukee County Board categorically rejected the common sense proposal to right-size their legislative body. This proposal has been around for quite some time, in fact it was one of the things I ran my campaign on back in ’08. The liberals of this board will never vote to cut their own pay because they have become addicted to the public trough. Do-nothings like “Little Boy” Weishan realize that they have no marketable skills and they have grown too dependent on their lavish taxpayer funded lifestyles to do the right thing.

Finally, Some Movement in Madison

Finally, after weeks of stall tactics by the union shills, er, Democrat Senators, on Wednesday we saw positive movement on the budget repair bill. The Senate moved the bill through with changes into a conference committee, which is required when the two parts of the legislature pass different versions of the same bill. They approved changes in the committee that strip out all fiscal parts of the budget repair bill, removing the requirement for a 3/5ths majority in order to have a quorum. This allowed them to vote on the Senate floor on the bill with the members who were present. This sets up the bill for final passage tomorrow morning in the State Assembly.

A lot of shouting was done by libs and unionist radicals that these procedural moves were “unlawful”. If you think that what happened in the State Senate today was “illegal” then you need to read up a bit more on the rules. The meetings and votes taken today were not unlawful or against the legislative rules. See http://www.wpri.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/Marchant.pdf for the specific citation.

The unlawful “cheap dirty trick, just to get their way” was when the Dems fled the state to subvert the democratic process as it was unfolding in Madison. They hijacked our state government for nearly a month.

Unlike what the crazed protestors are shouting the passing of this will actually not directly lead to anyone losing their jobs. The failure to pass the fiscal parts of the bill will do that however. It is the Democrats who have doomed about 1,500 state workers to receive pink slips. Hopefully they will now return and will allow the necessary fiscal portions to be passed so that those jobs can be saved.

In the end there will however be jobs lost in the public sector, as well there should be. Our government is bloated and too costly. Walker was elected because he promised to fix that, and to do so without raising taxes. There’s no way for him to fulfill both promises without cuts. The beauty of his plan is that it allows more people to keep their jobs despite the cuts. Without the changes to collective bargaining thousands more would have to be laid off in order to meet the cuts that must be made at both the state and local levels.

The threats that education will suffer prove that teachers care more about their own pay than about teaching our children. I’ve looked up the compensation of my childrens’ teachers, they all make over $100k working for MPS. Two of them make almost $120k! That’s at least three times the state average income for a job that has lavish perks in addition to the monetary compensation. Surely these people can afford to chip in a minimal amount for their health care and retirement, just like the rest of us have to.

These changes will indeed spread. They’ll spread across the nation and they’ll spread to all corners of the public sector. As well they should! As a firefighter myself I see the high level of compensation and minimal employee contribution to benefits that more senior members of the department are afforded and it bewilders me. I would gladly welcome the chance to contribute more to my own retirement and health care costs because I know how much good that would do for all of the rest of the taxpayers in this city and in this state. I would also welcome the freedom to decide for myself if union membership is the best thing for me, currently I am not given a choice. I’m forced into the union and the union’s dues are forcibly removed from my pay before I even see a dime of it.

What so many who are opposing these changes need to understand is that private unions and public unions are very different beasts. As has been shown over the past three weeks, the public unions have the Democrats in their back pocket. AFSCME says “run away” and the Dems say “for how long?” When the union comes to the bargaining table and on the other side is a public official who owes their election to that same union do you really think that there is anyone there looking out for the people paying the bills? The answer is NO! When a private union goes to the bargaining table they sit across from a business owner or a member of management, they are bargaining with the people who pay the bills. Public unions “bargain” with their own handpicked buddies and they collude to stick it to the taxpayers. This has been going on since WI first began allowing public unions about 50 years ago and it has led us to this point, where so many public employees have lavish and exorbitant compensation packages that are simply not sustainable.

What I find funny is that such a big deal has been made of this budget repair bill when it is really a very minor, moderate piece of legislation. The real changes are in the next biannual budget. That’s where the $3.6B hole is, that’s where there will be enormous cuts. We’ve seen outrageous, rude, disgraceful and even violent and illegal protest to this bill. What more are the Dems going to do when the big shoe drops?

Egypt and Wisconsin

It’s been suggested that there are parallels between what has been going on in Egypt recently and what is currently going on in Wisconsin. We must not forget that these are vastly different situations. In WI we aren’t discussing rights, rather the issue is over a very modest request for individuals to pull a small part of their own weight and also to give those workers the freedom to work as independent employees rather than continuing to be forced into union membership with dues forcefully withheld from their pay. At the moment we have no discussion at all mostly because the Dems have fled like cowards, halting any debate in the state senate at all.

In Egypt they were ruled by a dictator. They’ve managed to get him out only to replace him with a military dictator and unfortunately it looks like they’re headed for a caliphate. Lets hope that they instead move toward democracy but thats just not too likely, is it?

We have a true representative republic here, where democratic elections have consequences. Stimulus and Obamacare were rammed through on the federal level two years ago in spite of the massive public outcry against them. Only a few years ago Doyle and the Democrat controlled state legislature forced through a budget repair bill in under 24 hours that raised taxes by a billion dollars! It is the movement that rose up as a result of those events which has turned the tides completely. Now that the other side is playing the same game the libs and unionists are crying foul and stomping their feet. We weren’t listened to two years ago, why should we listen to you now?

The people of this state yearn to be set free. Set free from oppressive taxation. Set free from forced unionization. Set free from the thuggery that has shut down our schools this past week. The voters have spoken and I believe their will is going to be enacted whether the unionists agree to it or not.

MPS Teachers Who Abandoned Their Students Should Be Fired

So MPS had to close today, shut down completely and have all the students stay home. Must have been a blizzard? Nope. So many radical unionist teachers called in “sick” and then drove straight to Madison that the district was too short staffed to operate.

This is outrageous! Just who do these teachers think they are? While they are trying to label their actions as justified they are actually tantamount to an illegal labor strike! The names of each teacher who called in sick today should be published for the public to see and they should all be fired!

Word is coming from Madison that their schools may not be back in session until Tuesday. If MPS teachers try to pull this stunt again they’ll have a full parent led revolt on their hands. It’s one thing to have kids stay home for the weather, none of us can control that, but when the teachers launch an assault on our Children’s education we won’t stand for it.

I can’t wait for Gov. Walker to get the ball rolling towards permanently breaking up MPS. When that happens each and every employee of the district should be required to reapply for their jobs if they want to continue to work in this city and this type of behavior should be explicitly forbidden. If you call in sick you’d better be at home or you should face termination! Try pulling this kind of stunt anywhere else and you won’t get far, it’s time teachers are held to the same standard.

WI Senate Dems & the Budget Repair Bill

The state senate democrats have left the building! These are politicians who see the writing on the wall and, realizing that they can’t change the inevitable, have run away and hid themselves instead of standing by their duty to represent their constituents on the floor of the state senate. They should be ashamed of themselves.

This bill is not the assault on the working class that unionists have drummed it up to be. It puts reasonable policies in place to help deal with the $3.6B deficit that Doyle left us with (and that even after he raised taxes by $2B). What’s more the bill only affects state and municipal unions, not teachers unions or even unions such as 215 which represent public safety workers.

Democrats in Wisconsin now know what conservatives nationwide have been feeling for the first half of the Obama administration. Here’s the thing though, elections have consequences. We lost big in ’08 but we won big in ’10. The state of Wisconsin had been run by a corrupt and inept administration for 8 years under Doyle. He punted this problem repeatedly, stealing from the transportation fund, plugging with stimulus and continuously raising taxes. None of it actually taking on the structural deficit.

Walker ran a transparent campaign and anyone paying attention knew this was coming. Maybe some outstate libs didn’t really know he meant what he said but here in Milwaukee we’ve gotten to know very well that when Scott Walker makes a promise he follows through with it. He will balance the state budget and he will not raise taxes. This is only the beginning and let’s be real here, it’s not even that big of a deal. 12.6% of your health insurance premiums? On balance that’s a great deal! Half of your pension contribution? Most Americans have no pension at all and are fully funding their own retirements!

The union leaders are scared out of their minds not because of what this means for the individual workers but because of what it does to the union as an entity and therefore what it does to their own personal cash cow. When workers have the choice to join the union or not and when the union dues are no longer forcefully removed from their paychecks union membership will drop precipitously and the union fat cats will be forced to find gainful employment instead of leeching off of the labor of others.

The power has finally been taken back by the people of Wisconsin, the ones who have to pay the bill. Who after working to pay 100% of their own health care costs and 100% of their own retirement costs have had to work even more to do the same for all of the public employees in this state. Scott Walker is standing up for them, he’s standing up for us. Thank God for Scott Walker!

Congratulations to Jeff Stone! Now on to the general!

Just a quick post to congratulate Jeff Stone on his win in the primary for the Milwaukee County Executive’s race. Let’s keep the momentum going for the general election in April!

Vote Today!

Don’t forget to go out and vote! Today is a very important day for two big elections, one on the state level and one in Milwaukee County. There’s also a county circuit court seat on the ballot in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser is running for reelection and he needs your vote today! The liberals want to take control of the court so that they can prevent Gov. Scott Walker from fixing the state and they’ve put up two ultra-liberal candidates in an attempt to bump Prosser out in the primary. Please make sure you vote for Justice Prosser! Interestingly, even the Journal/Sentinel endorses him: http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/115991439.html

Of course there’s also the primary for Milwaukee County Exec. There’s only one candidate interested in carrying on the mantle of Scott Walker and that’s Jeff Stone. He needs your vote today!

There is also a seat on the Milwaukee Circuit Court that is on the ballot. Pedro Colon is the incumbent, having been appointed by Jim Doyle a while back. He has two challengers, Roy Korte and Chris Lipscomb. (Profiles from jsonline.com http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/115447954.html) Either of the challengers will make a better judge than Colon. Lipscomb has experience in the Glendale municipal court and Korte has an impressive list of endorsements from law enforcement and judicial organizations and individuals. I’ll be voting for Korte but as long as you vote against Colon I’ll be happy!

Wisconsin AG Declares Obamacare ‘Dead’ – By Brian Bolduc – The Corner – National Review Online

Wisconsin AG Declares Obamacare ‘Dead’ – By Brian Bolduc – The Corner – National Review Online.

 

It’s nice to see Van Hollen standing up for us. This is a big win for freedom.

Milwaukee County exec candidates vow to tackle fiscal woes – JSOnline

Milwaukee County exec candidates vow to tackle fiscal woes – JSOnline.

As the race for Milwaukee County Exec heats up it’s important to note who’s side each candidate is on.

Lee Holloway’s positions are clearly known as he’s been leading the pro-tax County Board ever since he survived the pension scandal. I do applaud him for trying to think outside the box with his suggestions of selling county services to the smaller suburban municipalities. If he didn’t have so much baggage ideas like that may have given him an edge but alas, he is Lee Holloway.

Jim Sullivan seems to be channeling the seething Walker hatred of John Weishan. Does he honestly think that bashing the beloved ex-Exec and current Governor will win him this race? There’s no doubt that he’s got more loyalty to the public unions than to the taxpayers. Oh, and then there’s the fact that he’s a proven loser. He was trounced in his reelection bid for the state senate by Republican Leah Vukmir.

Chris Abele is trying to come into this race as the “great unknown”, but he’s got ties to liberal interests all over the place. To make matters worse he’s trying to distance himself from the one interesting thing he had going for himself, that little “blow up county government” thing. While it may have been poor wording the idea of handing off county services to eliminate duplication is a wonderful idea, too bad he’s ditching it as he tries to win favor with liberal special interest groups. Even with all this though he’d probably make a better exec than either of the previous two.

Ieshuh Griffin is a joke. Enough said.

Jeff Stone is the only candidate in the race trying to carry on the mantle of Scott Walker. He’s promising to hold the line on taxes, just as Walker did for the past 8 years. If he holds up that promise that alone would be enough to make him the best candidate for the job. He does have to prove himself however and I’ll be looking hard for some concrete ideas to cut spending and trim the fat that still exists in the county. We all know that if he wins he won’t have it easy, just as Scott Walker had to fight tooth and nail with the county board, so would Stone if he wins.

Getting back

It’s been quite some time since I posted here. As we start off this new year I find myself looking back and seeing that there are many stories and events that would have been perfect material but I had to let them slip by as more personal matters required my attention.

Looking forward we’ve certainly entered a new time here in Wisconsin and the future of Milwaukee County is in the lurch as we will soon be deciding who our next County Exec will be. I’m hoping and praying that the best candidate wins. I’m here to give my input on who that should be and of course to comment on other topics and issues as well.

Let’s get to it!