USA Politics

I'd think it more important to pay down the debt than cut taxes; debt repayment decreases spending on debt maintainance. If American taxes were high, sure, but they just aren't. Obama's tax cuts plus the continuing Bush tax cuts are the prime reason for the deficit, combined with the recession.

Tax code simplification would be wonderful. I really wonder how much money it would bring in to kill tax cuts for comanies that don't need them, and the same for people. It's an issue I hope Obama tackles, but he likely wouldn't go for it until a second term.
 
That is one way of looking at it, on the other hand if spending were reduced enough, taxes could be lowered further, and there would be money left over to pay down the debt.  There are a fair amount of good ideas to eliminate un-needed items in all areas of the budget ... ideally Congress (and states) will take at least some advantage of cost cutting mood of the country and get rid of some of these programs once and for all.
 
That is bad news for the Dems, not only does it put that seat up for grabs but it further widens the field they have to defend and may mean they need to cut a seat or two lose an/or not pour as much money into some seats as they would have wanted.
 
This whole Wisconsin thing is interesting and probably the first in a fairly long line of budget balancing issues that hit the national stage. 

A brief summary, the new GOP governor proposed to have State workers lose collective bargaining rights (police and fire excluded), pay part of their own pension and more of their health care in exchange for no layoffs/mandatory days off.  The state Senate was about to pass this, when all Dem Senate members fled to Illinois, leaving the Senate 1 member short of a quorum.  Unions protest, Tea party is planning  a counter portest, etc.

One of the key issues in this, IMO, that is being under reported is that under this law, the unions would have to recertify every year with a majority of members (not just a majority of those who vote) and the state would stop collecting untion dues from pay checks, the unions would have to do this themselved.  The GOP argument is teachers pay 900 to 1100 a year in union dues, eliminating those dues from memebers would offset the additional costs from health care and pensions.  The Union argument is that this will destroy the public unions (which IMO is a good thing).

Obama is sending in political support for the unions, the governor essentially said when the feds balance their budget, they can complain about how we are balancing ours. 

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. 
 
As always, I think the proper path lies somewhere between the two. Powerful unions that can hold states/provinces by the testes at their whim are not necessarily good things. Unions that do a job ensuring that employee rights are upheld and work for fair contracts - good things.

Not all unions are bad. Not all unions are good. The problem is that once a union reaches a certain size or has been established for awhile it tends to act exactly like the company it was supposed to fight.
 
I think I said before in this threead that I am not a fan of Public Employee unions. I think they should pay alot more for their retirement and healthcare benefits. As for their right to collective bargaining, I agree that they should have the right, but I also believe that we should be careful as to what local and state governments agree to. Especially legacy costs. Those are the real danger to state budgets.
 
What's interesting in the Wisconsin case is that the employees agreed to increase their benefits payments. I don't recall the health care numbers but the pension payments shot up from 1.5% to 6%, which is a huge concession.
 
The issue is political power at this point.  The main things the unions hate is that the government would stop collecting dues for them and members can vote to recertify every year, re-certification requires 50% of all members.  This will cost the unions (and Dem candidates) millions.  On the bright side, the job market for leg breaking union due collecting thugs might be looking up.
 
I bet even if the recertification thing was let go on, they'd be able to come to an agreement. The reason I understood why the state collected pension dues was because they plopped them into a bank account for a month and got interest off of it.
 
I do not think so, at some point these Senators will come back (or not be Seanators any more).  I do not see Walker caving on this, nor should he as what he is doing is a brilliant idea IMO.  This is a centerpiece of what he wants to do and the GOP seems determined to follow through.
 
Unfortunately for him, the polls are very much against him on this issue. It's interesting to note that state government walkouts have been used in the past, notably by one Abraham Lincoln.
 
The polls are pretty mixed .. and beyond the polls, this is what they were elected to do.

Issues polls have been known to be fairly weak,if it gets the results he expects, by the time he is up for re-election that is what will matter. 

Backing down at this point is probably the worse thing he could do from a political perspective.  he'll still catch the flack for the effort and not get the gain he expects.

From a policy perspective, I think he is dead on right, and sometimes if you think you are right on an important issue, you need to go for it.  The chance to change the structure of how government operates comes across very rarely, you need to take advantage of it, expecially when you just won election and your party was swept in.  Being indecisive is the worst thing you can be (see Health Care debate)

If the Dem Senators do not want to come back, start passing non-budget items without them and push recalls.
 
I'll dig them up, there were other polls that showed it closer.  As for what he campaigned on, perhaps it was not specifically this, but how the government operated with public unions, the generic reform mantle , and balancing the budget are all blankets this can fall in.  If it is such a hated reform, the people of WI will have an opportunity to vote him and the Senate out.  The only reason this is not law now is the Dem Senators fled the state (a precedent that might come back to bite them in the future should they win the Senate .. same with Indiana). It is a good debate for the country to be having, public unions IMO have been a menace to the public for way to long.  Limiting their power is a worthy goal.
 
Akaka is retiring, if Lingle runs this seat could be competitive to a toss up depending on the Dem nominee, at a minimum, it expands the field even more for the Dems to defend in 2012.  Obama as a native son will certainly help the Dem candidate
 
I don't think Gov. Walker cares much about the polls or his popularity in this issue. He's dug in his heels. He's not going to cave.
 
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