"Union-Busting"?

Which union was busted?

Let's see now, Illinois is in the red, was last year, the year before and the year before that. Can anyone tell me when Illinois was in the black ? Wisconsin was in the red two years ago and is now in the black. Yep, Quinn is doing things right and Walker is doing everything wrong. Who kidding who ????????????

Illinois would be far better off with Scott Walker... Quinn has done nothing to improve our states financial condition. By the way... The title of this article uses the term "union busting" to describe Walker. This isn't accurate as all the unions are still in place.

Nice, non-partisan article on Scott Walker. No... no agenda there.

If you want to save your pension, you are going to need to do something! Status quo doesn't work anymore. The ones who have earned their pension, are in danger, and retired government workers are getting that.

Wow! Quinn has no room to talk. This is a horrible article. Very one sided. What happened to objective reporting?

The unions use to be good, but not anymore. We hired union men to build onto our office building. The vanity in the womens bathroom fell off the wall after 3 months. We hired non-union workers to finish the job and fix the mistakes that the union employees did. They did a great job, less money and didn't leave their garbage from lunch all over the floors. They are only good for taking you money and selling votes!

Rofl. He should drag his Tea and Cheese loving tail right back to Wisconsin where he belongs.

The Patch strikes again with one-sided opinion pretending to be journalism.

Not sure there is any opinion stated in this blurb, so what are you talking about?

If one cares to look closely at what has occurred in Wisconsin the past two years, one might not be so quick to praise this governor's impact. Unless of course, you want a governor who adds to the unemployment line.

Gary- stellar! Hop in your car and drive North! Plenty of it for you!

The governor probably should have increased the teacher's health insurance contribution more than he did. As it was, he makes them now pay $0.12 cents for every premium dollar, up from $0.05, and it caused a circus. These teachers just don't know how good they have it.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm

From the article, which compares national state numbers-

"Over the year, 27 states and the district experienced statistically
significant increases in employment. The largest increase occurred
in Texas (+245,700), followed by California (+181,000) and New York
(+155,300). Wisconsin was the only state to show a statistically
significant decrease (-23,900). " (March 2011 to March 2012)

http://chippewa.com/dunnconnect/news/opinion/editorial/better-business-climate-not-producing-jobs/article_f80e6de0-7dc2-11e1-b781-001a4bcf887a.html

"A recent survey of 50-state job numbers showed Wisconsin dead last in job creation during Walker’s first year in office. During that time, the state lost 8,500 non-farm jobs. All this happened as the state’s corporate lobby gloated about Wisconsin’s improved business climate.
It’s true that Wisconsin’s unemployment rate fell to 6.9 percent, a rate that’s below the national average. However, unemployment is falling everywhere, and unemployment was below the national average during most of Gov. Jim Doyle’s term. The issue isn’t Wisconsin’s raw job numbers, but Wisconsin’s numbers compared to the country as a whole. And the numbers are weak."

Lisa, did you know that if you and Lennie had the exact same job, with the exact same education and the exact number of years of experience, Governor Walker just saw to it that you would nevertheless make less money than your husband? Yep, no equal pay in Wisconsin! Sounds like a great move, doesn't it?

Illinois - Leads the nation in job losses in 2011 (http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/08/31/Illinois-Loses-Jobs-after-Tax-Hike.aspx#page1)
Wisconsin - +12,000 private sector jobs since Walker took office (http://www.jsonline.com/news/128099318.html)

http://thehayride.com/2012/04/theyre-cutting-property-taxes-in-wisconsin/
Today Governor Walker announced that statewide property taxes for the typical homeowner have gone down for the first time in 12 years. The tax bill for the median value home is $39 per homeowner lower than originally estimated by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau when the 2011-2013 budget was passed.
“Our reforms have reversed a decade of property tax increases from previous administrations,” said Governor Walker. “For the first time in over ten years, the average property taxpayer will have more money in his or her pocket than the year before.”
Since 1998, property taxes paid by homeowners have risen 43 percent. This year property taxes paid by the typical homeowner went down 4 percent. Without the Governor’s reforms the average homeowner would have paid an additional $700 over the biennium.

There is also 3 million less people counted for being in the job market nationwide, this makes for a more attractive unemployment percentage. Like when one goes bald, eventually you run out of hair to lose, and the hair you have seems to have show volume.

Data from school district human resource departments reveal that neither the state budget bill nor the state budget repair bill resulted in widespread teacher layoffs. Below is the number of layoffs from the 2010-11 to the 2011-12 school year in six large Wisconsin school districts:

Beloit: 0
Eau Claire: 2
La Crosse: 0
Madison: 0
Racine: 1
Wausau: 1.05 (full time equivalent)

http://www.wpri.org/blog/?p=1791

Sorry, can't resist - "there are also 3 million fewer people..." ( not criticizing you McCloud, just a compulsion). I'm not arguing that unemployment is not a problem. I'm saying that Walker's numbers are not at face value.

Lennie, what keeps you from moving north? You have no ties to a school or to a job. What's stopping you?

More Data showing the Walker changes worked: http://165.189.60.210/Default.aspx?Page=fabf1ad0-3a6a-4d77-ac0e-8793644fd749

Districts that took advantage of ACT 10 saved teacher jobs - http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/125696138.html

Sure, you're not saying unemployment is not a problem, but you neglect to see how unemployment statistics are easily manipulated to show improvement. As for Quinn, how is changing a 3.7 billion dollar budget into a balanced budget Tea Party rhetoric?

Mr Jarratt:

Perhaps you would have more luck running for office in Wisconsin rather than Lake County? Your political leanings are clearly espoused by Mr. Walker, and you have a great grasp of Wisconsin stats. I think they need a 'tugboat' up there (lmao).

Who are the Koch brothers? What is a superstorm? Funds for everyone? Worker's rights are being taken away? I suggest you come into the light, that liberal nonspeak makes you sound quite redundant.

Well Mr. McCloud, if you don't know the answers to these questions, then you are spending far too much time watching Fox. You aren't really interested in the facts, but rather, the fabrications you take as the gospel. Please, continue to do the bidding of the corporate oligarchs who really control this country. They are the job creators after all. Who cares if you have less so they can have more. In your case, I certainly don't.

Talk about a skewed headline! 200 protesters who were paid by their unions to be there vs. 700 people who paid $125.00 each out of their own pockets to hear Governor Walker speak. Why feature astroturf protesters under those circumstances? The protesters showed up at 5:00 pm. and were gone by 6:00 p.m. Guess they were only paid to be there an hour!

I figured an oligarch would be dropped sooner or later. The results are in, after almost 4 years of Obama we are all worse off with an added 5 trillion to our national debt, included corporate payoffs from Obama to bailout corporate oligarchs. Yet we see WI budgets balanced, and they send millions to WI along with union thugs armed with baseball bats. Talk about a superstorm.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2011/may/26/are-auto-companies-paid-up-american-taxpayers/ "Only a fraction of that, $6.7 billion, was in the form of loans. Most of the government's GM investment was converted to an ownership stake in the New GM, the company that emerged from bankruptcy: $2.1 billion in preferred stock; and 60.8 percent of the company's common equity. The jury is still out on how much return the government will get on that investment.

Whitacre could accurately claim that GM has retired its $6.7 billion in loans from the U.S. government. But with the government still owning 60 percent of the company and the prospects slim for getting all its money back, we thought that was highly misleading. And so we rated Whitacre's statement Half True."

http://investmentwatchblog.com/national-debt-increased-by-75-under-bush-and-25-under-obama/#.T5LvFhB5mSM

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2011/07/national_debt_up_35_percent_du.html

Lennie, anyone can manipulate numbers to make them look good or bad. It's a little more complex than you make it out to be.

So Sully, are you claiming CBS News is lying?

You can also go to the ustreasury.gov website and see the actual numbers if you believe they are.

Bush Fiscal Years Debt: $4,548,176,639,018.59
Obama Fiscal Years Debt to date: $4,884,537,336,227.00

I did exclude the the split fiscal year (2009) so there is no debate how to allocate the split of what Bush spent vs Obama (Stimulus & Omnibus)

After Walker wins the recall... I would call it a mandate and go back for more from the unions. I think he got what he wanted in the first 12 months and was going to leave the unions alone. But if he wins, he will have even more support to make additional cuts. Might even be revenge based for all the dirt coming from the unions. Who could blame him...

Jackson... I had a hard time following your logic. I'll attempt to reply...

I don't own a business but I do want more in my bank account (I guess if I manage to save a large amount you will expect me to share it with you...)

I work in a manufacturing plant in WI. Several of my coworkers have spouses that teach, so we have talked about their situations. None of them took a $6,000 hit with the new laws. They are now contributing ~$1,200 / year more to their retirement. They will get this money back in retirement.

I did not take a pay cut. However, my salary has been frozen for the past two years. Not many teachers have experienced that, but the are some.

I don't think anyone should pay higher taxes, poor , middle or rich. If you are suggesting that the rich pay higher taxes and the money is passed through to teachers so they can continue to receive sweet retirement benefits. I don't support it...

No argument on the Clinton/Bush/Regan comments. However, Obama has already increased the debt the same as Bush in half the time.

I certainly don't want Walker to take revenge if he wins. I'd prefer that he doesn't. I'm just making the point that he might be motivated to because of the actions of the unions.

I don't have my head in the sand.

I'm not a dem or rep... I think both parties are out of touch with mainstream America. The rich are getting too rich and the public unions continue to expect more than the typical worker.