Pensions

Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - New York - New York City - Police - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

NYPD Police Union: Another Example of Why Public Employee Unions Need to be Outlawed

November 11, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week 16 dirty New York cops went on trial for all sorts of criminal behavior. From dealing drugs, to assault and grand larceny, and “unrelated corruption,” these cops are proving to be some very crooked characters. But fellow officers don’t care about that. They have ginned themselves up to act like the punks and scumbags they are supposed to be putting behind bars all due to their police union and its agitation over the trials.

Even The New York Times seemed shocked by the venomous treatment these union thugs cops were delivering to the District Attorneys handling the case. Certainly these crooked cops are innocent until the prosecution proves its case, but these union toughs don’t care to let the law take its course. They want to storm the gates like the barbarians they are.

These so-called police officers even began to accost the media as the defendants left the courtroom. Says the Times, “The assembled police officers blocked cameras from filming their colleagues, in one instance grabbing lenses and shoving television camera operators backward.”
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NYPD Police Union: Another Example of Why Public Employee Unions Need to be Outlawed”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - Liberals - Ohio - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Defeat of OH Issue 2 Means $1,468 More Per Taxpayer By 2015

November 8, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Matt Mayer of the Buckeye Institute has done the math on what a defeat of Issue 2 will cost Ohio’s taxpayers. Turns out it will cost taxpayers $1,468 more a year by 2015.

Mayer made a simple calculation by taking the $8 billion tax hike that a defeat of Issue 2 will usher in by 2015 and dividing that by the 5,448, 500 state tax returns filed in Ohio. He also took the initial $1.4 billion tax hike that will result if the unions win on Tuesday and found that each taxpayer will be stuck with an immediate $257 more in taxes next year.

The annual savings we calculated from SB5 once all contracts are negotiated would be nearly $1.4 billion per year (for details, see www.buckeyeinstitute.org/getthefacts).

In 2007, Ohio had 5,448,500 [tax] returns filed, so that would equate to a “tax” of $257 per return… That is [merely] the savings from SB5 enactment.

An additional wrinkle is that Big Labor/Democrats have essentially gone all in on higher taxes; meaning, if SB5 is repealed, that removes one option to reducing local government costs, which leaves two options–program/staff cuts and/or raising taxes… For example, Ohio’s 613 school districts currently project a collective deficit by 2015 of [approximately $8 billion]…

[Thus, without] SB5, taxes will have to go up … [at least] $8 billion just for [Ohio’s] 613 school districts by 2015, which is $1,468 per return.

So, Ohio, you have a choice. Vote Issue 2 down and stick yourself with needlessly higher taxes and give unions the ability to stick it to you further, or give your legislature — not union bosses — the power to control your state’s budget like they should.
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Defeat of OH Issue 2 Means $1,468 More Per Taxpayer By 2015″

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - Ohio - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union’s Battle Against Ohio Heats Up

October 25, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On November 8, Ohioans will go to the polls to vote on a series of ballot initiatives, among them Issue 2.

A yes vote will support Governor Kasich’s collective bargaining reform (SB 5) to become law. A no vote would return power to the bloated, thieving unions to do hat they have always done: steal from the taxpayers. (I wonder if you can tell which side I am on, here? Ha, ha)

Unions have rolled into Ohio with millions of dollars for anti-issue 2 advertising, donations to politicians, and the usual corrupt bargaining behind the scenes that unions generally employ. Sadly, it looks like their big money has persuaded too many Ohioans to back the unions as polling shows Issue 2 is losing with voters.
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Union’s Battle Against Ohio Heats Up”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Organizers Work 1 Day As Teachers, Get $100K+ in State Pensions

October 24, 2011 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two union organizers that represent the Illinois Federation of Teachers were able to secure millions in state pensions by working one day as a teacher here in Illinois. This outrageous abuse of the state pension system is exactly why government unions should not be allowed to exist.

The Chicago Tribune has the story of Steven Preckwinkle and David Piccioli who took advantage of a loophole to enrich themselves off the backs of the taxpayers written into law just for them by pliant Democrat politicians.

The crony legislation enabled the unionistas to quickly get state teaching certificates, work one day as a substitute teacher, then count their years as union operatives to qualify them for pension benefits from the state.
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Union Organizers Work 1 Day As Teachers, Get $100K+ in State Pensions”

Adam Andrzejewski - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - For The Good Of Illinois - Franklin Deleno Roosevelt - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Abuse: Union Leaders Pull Down Millions in Public Pensions in Illinois

October 9, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Andrew Thomason of the Illinois Statehouse News agency has a pair of stores on the criminal syndicate that is unions in the Land of Lincoln this week that have to be seen to be believed. In fact, these stories and the ones like them we’ve seen for the past several months in Illinois are proof positive that unions should be illegal for government employees.

In one story, Thomason reports the tale of Michael Johnson, a corrupt teacher out to milk the taxpayers dry by collecting $209,379.43 in pension benefits while at the same time also collected $324,785 from a separate Illinois pension fund. And so far this crook has already collected $1.1 million of our tax dollars on top of the $198,105 a year he makes for “part-time work” for the school district.

This is called double dipping. Johnson was able to do this because he worked at one job in Illinois education, “retired” from it, then took a second job in the same field. This means he gets two pensions to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, likely totaling up to millions by the time he dies. All paid for by the taxpayers of Illinois.
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Abuse: Union Leaders Pull Down Millions in Public Pensions in Illinois”

Business - Campaign Finance - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Detroit - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - UAW - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The UAW’s Waning Days?

September 25, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Reuters has a very interesting article detailing the fall of the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the modern era. It is a long article, but if you are interested in the way the UAW intends to keep itself relevant to the auto industry on into the future, it is worth the read.

It is also a good article if you want a glimpse of the possible end to the UAW. Its deep financial troubles, its steady loss of members and plants to represent, and its powerlessness to spread its cancer to other auto makers in the south is an ominous warning that the UAW might be headed for the dust bin of history.

Let’s not start popping champagne corks yet, though. We should not count the UAW out, of course, as it is still very powerful. But things are not looking good for the once supremely powerful union.
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The UAW’s Waning Days?”

Budget - Chicago - Cook County - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago: Union Members Collect Millions in Tax $$ With Sweetheart Pension Deal

September 22, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now this is the sort of corruption we are used to seeing in Illinois, eh? This week the Chicago Tribune and WGN TV has found up to 23 retired union operatives that are collecting millions in taxpayer dollars because they had pals in government tweak the state’s pensions laws to favor them.

These former government workers that were government union members got pliant politicians to alter the pensions laws to say that their pension remuneration would be calculated not on the lower pay they received when they retired from government, but from the much higher salary they received when they worked as union operatives. These folks worked as union bosses at the same time as working on the clock for government.

The “luck” of former union boss and Dept. of Streets and Sanitation worker Thomas Villanova is a typical example. Villanova last worked full-time for the city in 1989 and made $40,000-a-year. But he was also a union big wig making $198,000 annually upon his retirement in 2008 at age 56. His city pension, it appears, was calculated on the union salary of $198,000 instead of his real salary of $40,000 — itself obviously a no-show job in the first place.

Villanova stands to make millions off the taxpayers.
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Chicago: Union Members Collect Millions in Tax $$ With Sweetheart Pension Deal”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Ohio - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Display Hatred in Union Derangement Syndrome

June 30, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

My Friend Maggie Thurber has a great piece chronicling the hate that unions in Ohio display for those voters that stand against the absurd riches that government employees have wrung out of the taxpayers in the Buckeye State.

Pointing out that union supporters are “dripping with ‘hate’ and derision toward people who see a problem and are trying to fix it,” Thurber does a great job of identifying the flawed logic in this union member’s argument on why the focus on the “opulent” benefits and pay scales of government workers is wrong on their opinion.

One point that Thurber makes is spot on. While it is true that many people are sick and tire of these union thugs ripping off the taxpayers, the unions are not the only entities at fault here.
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Unions Display Hatred in Union Derangement Syndrome”

Anti-Americanism - CWA - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - New Jersey - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Contracts More Important Than Patients For Union Drivers

May 29, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Priorities. Union guys have priorities, you know? For instance, in New Jersey earlier this year a bunch of union drivers for the Communications Workers of America (CWA) decided that it was more important to have a “sick-out” and strand sick elderly people, preventing them getting to their life-saving medical treatment than do their jobs.

State Sen. Joe Kyrillos, (R-13), of Middletown wasn’t too happy with these uncaring union louts, either.
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Union Contracts More Important Than Patients For Union Drivers”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C.

Democrats FINALLY Talking of Cutting Back Govt Employee Pensions

May 17, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Washington Post had a recent piece saying that it looks like Washington is finally coming to the stark realization that the benefits and pensions of federal workers are wildly over promised and even Democrats are finally contemplating cuts in federal pensions.

The GOP has already targeted these pensions by proposing that federal workers contribute more toward their own pension benefits. As the Post slantedly puts it, this policy plan would “effectively impose an immediate 5 percent pay cut on more than 2 million federal employees”

Of course, it would not be cutting their pay at all, sadly. It would merely be deferring until retirement when they get the cash. Sure their pay should be cut — heck thousands need to be simply fired outright — but there is no pay cut being proposed.
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Democrats FINALLY Talking of Cutting Back Govt Employee Pensions”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - New York - New York City - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Employee Levels Fall But New York’s Fringe Benefits and Pensions Costs Soar

May 13, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Pensions are the single biggest problem that every state, county and city in the Union face and New York City is no different. It is so bad that even as New York City has seen the numbers of its government employees fall, its costs in fringe benefits and pensions have still continued to soar. (Download the 2012 Budget Summary)

The latest budget info released by the Big Apple is a horror story of budget woes with pension costs leading the pack.

Marc Cenedella has done the heavy reading and his report is discouraging, to say the least.
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Employee Levels Fall But New York’s Fringe Benefits and Pensions Costs Soar”

Budget - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Pension Reform in Illinois: A Hard Job That Springfield Wants to Ignore

May 9, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Americans for Prosperity – Illinois has launched an effort to goad our lawmakers in Springfield to tackle the single most vexing problem the state faces: pension obligations.

AFP has launched a website called “Fix Illinois Pensions Now” to help inform and empower voters so that they might encourage their representatives to do the right thing and fix this mess now!

A second website to find important information can be seen at: www.illinoisisbroke.org.

AFP has partnered with The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and they have jointly produced an informative video on the effort.
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Pension Reform in Illinois: A Hard Job That Springfield Wants to Ignore”

Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Right To Work - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Member Fired By Union For… Organizing a Union?

May 7, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is always the most amusing sort of union story, but a union boss is mad at one of his members for organizing a union and allegedly fired him over it. Confused? I can understand why. After all, aren’t union members supposed to organize workers? So, how could a union member get fired for doing just that? Read on, McDuff.

As the story goes, one Mr. David Highnote seems to have gone out on a low note from the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU). Highnote recently filed an unfair labor practice charge against his union alleging that the ATU threatened him and then fired him for organizing other union members.

He wasn’t just organizing workers of businesses, however. Highnote was organizing the staff that works for the union itself.
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Union Member Fired By Union For… Organizing a Union?”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Calif Union Chief Says You Taxpayers are Selfish and Full of ‘Envy’

April 29, 2011 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

You taxpayers should be ashamed of yourselves, says Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation. You big, selfish jerks should be happy to pay the taxes that gives government employees all healthcare practically for free and allows them to retire at 50 with their comfortable 40-year-long retirement pensions that pay government union members twice what you’ll ever see in your golden years.

I mean, who do you taxpayers think you are, anyway?

Interestingly enough, even the soft-headed, left-leaning voters of California seem to be getting sick and tired of the freebies give government union members at this point.

A recent L.A.Times poll found that Californians are about done with the ritzy government employees sweet deals and are becoming tired of being the union’s sugar daddy. They are in increasing numbers desirous of caps on the spiraling unearned government union pensions.
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Calif Union Chief Says You Taxpayers are Selfish and Full of ‘Envy’”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Democrat Caused Pension Bomb About to Destroy Our States

April 28, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few weeks ago I wrote that unions have driven every state budget into a hole from which it isn’t likely the states can easily dig themselves out. I did not at that time reference the Pew report on the pensions mess and I want to revisit it here.

On April 5, I said, “The worst mess that states are in is because government unions have been handed luxurious and unsustainable pensions and healthcare plans by those very Democrat politicians that unions have paid off to do so. Again all at the expense of the suffering taxpayers.” The Pew report shores this up thoroughly.

In fact, the Pew report from early April 2010 even understates the problem, not because of any bias but because the stats that they used were taken from stats assembled in 2008 because that was the last year where full records had been compiled. Further, we must remember that these stats also came before the market crash ushered in during the age of Obama.
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The Democrat Caused Pension Bomb About to Destroy Our States”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Secretary of Labor - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C.

Your Taxes Paying Government Union Members NOT to Work

April 21, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Must be nice to be a government worker in a government union. Heck, some of these government union guys are even paid not to work and paid by the taxpayers to do so, yet!

Vincent Vernuccio, labor policy guy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, tells us that the Obama administration is even ignoring its responsibility to report on the matter. Obama is over a year late in releasing its Time Usage in the Federal Government Report, a report that tracks all the time that government union members spend working for the union bosses on the dime of the people.

The sad fact is that many government union contracts have a provision in them that stipulates that union members that have duties with the union itself (administrative, recruitment, what have you) can perform these duties while they are on the job and being paid by the taxpayers supposedly to do government business.
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Your Taxes Paying Government Union Members NOT to Work”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Detroit - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - Michigan - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Absurdity: Detroit’s Mayor has 48 City Unions to Deal With

April 19, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Want to know one of the reasons that Detroit (and every other major US city) is in such trouble? Democrat Mayor Dave Bing is struggling with a black hole of a budget deficit that he is stuck dealing with and one of his biggest stumbling blocks to fiscal sanity is the government unions. Oh, it isn’t just a few city government unions, either. He has 48 of them to deal with. 48 government unions all sucking up the tax payer’s dollars!

Granted Mayor Bing has decided not to take steps that might alleviate the budget long-term (like abolishing certain programs and city departments), but as the Detroit Free Press notes the unions are a major problem causing the city to spend $1.08 in employee benefits for every dollar the city spends on payroll.

As things stand the city has 8,000 active employees but is stuck with a legacy cost of 22,000 retired workers. Because of this, fully 30% of Detroit’s budget is going to retirees’ pension benefits.
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Absurdity: Detroit’s Mayor has 48 City Unions to Deal With”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Gov’t Union Chief Says Working for Gov’t is Like ‘Slavery’

April 8, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In yet another incident that goes to show why government unions should be made illegal as they once were, we find a government union chief so enraged that he and his members might have to tighten their budget belts — like every other American has had to — that he exploded into a charge that taking a momentary halt in pay means he is working like a “slave” to government.

John Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), recently said at the National Press Club that if there is a government shut down and his member’s luxurious paychecks don’t get paid out on time, he’d sue using the 13th Amendment as his legal basis.

The 13th Amendment essentially ended slavery and indentured servitude in 1865 at the close of the Civil War. Gage says that having to work during a government shut down and if their paychecks are not issued in a timely manner, then these poor, poor government union members are somehow just like the slaves.
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Gov’t Union Chief Says Working for Gov’t is Like ‘Slavery’”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Labor Law - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Top Worst State Budgets: Unions Have Put EVERY State’s Budget In The Hole

April 5, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

When you or I overspend our family budget and end up not being able to pay our bills a few things happen, all of them bad. At best we do without luxury items, at worst a bank comes and takes our cars away, our homes away, or, worse yet, we go hungry. When government unions spend government budgets into a black hole of trouble what happens? Apparently the citizens are expected to lose more of their own money for the comfort of government union members and to assist big spending Democrat politicians to keep indulging a wild bacchanalia of spending.

The worst mess that states are in is because government unions have been handed luxurious and unsustainable pensions and healthcare plans by those very Democrat politicians that unions have paid off to do so. Again all at the expense of the suffering taxpayers.

Maddeningly, these city, county, and state workers end up making far more than the poor citizens forced to pay for those government union member’s high living and comfortable retirement benefits while the citizens do without.
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Top Worst State Budgets: Unions Have Put EVERY State’s Budget In The Hole”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pat Quinn - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

While Illinois Citizens Lose Jobs, More Government Workers Get Union Protection

March 30, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If this isn’t just the way the most corrupt state in the country works, there’s nothing that will show it. As the state of Illinois loses businesses and her citizens lose their jobs by the thousands, government workers in Illinois get richer and government unions are even adding members. Now there’s more government union members in Illinois than ever leaching off a dwindling base of taxpayers.

As the state sinks in red ink, government unions have grown to the point where nearly 97% of the state’s government workers have become unionized with better pay, more lucrative pensions, and richer healthcare than every other average citizen who is forced to pay the government union member’s exorbitant pay.

According to the AP, more than 10,000 state employees have joined unions. This is a four-fold increase over the previous eight years.
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While Illinois Citizens Lose Jobs, More Government Workers Get Union Protection”

Budget - Business - California - Cities - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Financial Reform - Government - Liberals - Los Angeles - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Corruption and Political Intrigue in Government Employee Pensions

March 17, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Los Angeles Times has a disheartening report about the graft, corruption, and nest-feathering infesting the administration of California’s government employees pension fund, CalPers (California Public Employees’ Retirement System). It reports that subordinates were pressured into investing in to firms run by political buddies and that one of the former CalPERS administrators was “lucky” enough to have been handed a high paying new job in one of those politically connected firms after he left the government agency.

Some of these officials now under investigation are also accused of falsifying documents to further their schemes of self-enrichment at the expense of the people, accepting large gifts that went unreported, and earning millions in “placement agent fees.”
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Corruption and Political Intrigue in Government Employee Pensions”

Budget - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C.

Union Thug Attacks a Young Woman Outside Freedomworks HQ, Wash. D.C.

February 24, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Another union thug reveals the hate and violence in his heart…

This incident occurred outside of the Washington D.C. headquarters of the conservative activist group Freedomworks (spokesman former Representative Dick Armey) on February 23, 2011. This particular thug was wearing the (fittingly) red T-Shirt shirt of the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The young woman being assaulted is the 20 something Tabitha Hale, Freedomworks new media maven.
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Union Thug Attacks a Young Woman Outside Freedomworks HQ, Wash. D.C.”

Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Defunding Obama’s Union Led Regulatory Army

February 23, 2011 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

You might recall that with great fanfare and the slobberingly positive coverage by the Old Media, President Obama made Reagan-like and claimed that he thought it was time to get rid of the regulations strangling American business. Since that time he’s met with businesses and pretended to suddenly be a pro-business, pro-economic growth president. His actions, however, give the lie to his sudden turn around from anti-business to pro-business man. Thankfully the GOP is making to help the president become what he’s selling himself as, despite his best intentions.

One of those ways that the GOP is assisting Obama to become business friendly — no matter how much Obama hates the idea — was announced last week by John Kline and the Republicans of the Education and the Workforce Committee of the House of Representatives.

Subcommittee Chairman Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN) announced the closer scrutiny that the GOP intends to level upon the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal entity that is supposed to act as a mediator for disputes between labor. That closer scrutiny is a result of Obama’s appointees moving the NLRB from mediator between business and labor to outright advocate in favor of Big Labor.
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Defunding Obama’s Union Led Regulatory Army”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C.

Union Boss Says Advocates for Spending Cuts are ‘Mentally Retarded’

February 10, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a perfect example of why unions are the biggest problem for government budget reform, John Gage, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), has just pronounced anyone that wants to cut the overly generous pay, benefits, and pensions of government employees are “mentally retarded.” This is the to-the-hilt fight that the unions will go to, not only to keep their cushy remuneration, but to enlarge it still more all on the backs of the working poor taxpayers that don’t have luxurious government jobs.

Gage made the statement during a Feb. 8 march on Washington, DC.

When people say well we just have to pay less in wages whether it’s private sector or public sector, I think they’re mentally retarded to say something like that.

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Union Boss Says Advocates for Spending Cuts are ‘Mentally Retarded’”

AFL-CIO - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Realizing They Have Bad Reputation, Launch PR Campaign

January 27, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, what is the first thing that you do when you find out that everyone hates you? What do you do when you finally come to terms with the fact that you have the worst reputation possible? Do you sit yourself down and reassess your actions to try and pinpoint why everyone thinks you are a jerk? Well, that might be what a serious person or group might do. So, what has the AFL-CIO, the SEIU and other big unions done upon this realization? Why, hired a public relations firm, of course.

After all, the unions can’t possibly be at fault can they? Why, it can’t be the union’s fault that everyone hates them, could it? It simply must be that people out there are too stupid to understand that unions are wonderful, right?
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Unions Realizing They Have Bad Reputation, Launch PR Campaign”

Budget - Business - Campaign Finance - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - Senate - Socialism - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

In 2011 Public Employees Unions Must Be Targeted for Elimination

January 5, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the biggest recurring themes in union reporting these days is music to the ears of any fiscally responsible American. It seems almost weekly that we are seeing stories that recount the ire being directed at public employee unions. Let us hope that this reporting is the first ripples of an anti-union tidal wave that will sweep public employee unions from our governments drowning in union-created red ink.

One of the latest is an editorial out of Wisconsin by the Lakeland Times’ Gregg Walker. Walker kicked off his piece with exactly the sort of sentiment that we should hope will lead to an end to public employee unions.
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In 2011 Public Employees Unions Must Be Targeted for Elimination”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

90-Year-Old Post Office Workers Still Getting Workers Comp?

December 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Years after most Americans retire, in fact years after the federal retirement age of 68, more than 100 U.S. Postal Workers in their 90s are still getting 75 percent of their salaries (tax free, yet) of federal workers compensation payments instead of having been graduated to the cheaper retirement payments at 60 percent of their salaries.

This is classic government waste.

Jim McElhatton of the Washington Times gives us this tale of government foolishness and waste as Senator Susan Collins (R, Maine) scolds the Post Office for its failed administration of the issue.
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90-Year-Old Post Office Workers Still Getting Workers Comp?”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Tim Pawlenty: Government Unions vs. Taxpayers

December 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty penned a great op ed in the Wall Street Journal that takes public employee unions to task for their greed and their destructive nature. I’ve said many times that public employee unions are antithetical to good government and should be outlawed. Pawlenty agrees that they make good governing impossible.

Public employees have not always had the luxury of unions. The idea that government employees should be allowed to enter into collective bargaining didn’t exist prior to 1958. The fact is, we will never be able to fix our public pension problems until we go back to a pre-1958 stance on public employee unions. They should be eliminated completely.

Now I don’t usually post whole articles. But this one is too good to just excerpt. I hope WSJ can excuse me…
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Tim Pawlenty: Government Unions vs. Taxpayers”

Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Pensions Troubles Getting Some Attention

December 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michael Corkery of the Wall Street Journal reports that congressional Republicans are finally paying a bit of attention to the coming pension bomb that is about to explode in nearly every state in the union, causing further damage to our economy and our state budgets. House Republicans are making moves to prevent bailouts of state pension funds.

Currently the federal government does not have too much influence over state pension funds. But with moves by some Democrats to change that so that the federal government can bailout their union supporters in the states, Republicans are looking to head off further federal involvement in the state’s floundering pension funds. (For more on Democrats trying to bailout state pensions see my earlier reports, here and here, among others.)

One of these moves is an attempt to force states to report more honestly on their pension problems before they are allowed to sell tax-free bonds.
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Pensions Troubles Getting Some Attention”