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As our state economy continues to circle the drain, the need for state employee cuts has become increasingly obvious.
The lip service the governor has paid to the unions makes as much sense as Ridgefield Barbie fretting over cutting $6 billion out of a $15 trillion deficit on the same day our deficit increased $76 billion... or none at all.
I have been calling for the only thing left: massive and immediate cuts in state employee pay, benefits and numbers.
None of that has happened, of course, because the democrats control the legislature and the unions own the democrats like the 13th Amendment never happened.
Yesterday, we got the news: depending on which paper you read, the revenue forecast is down another $698 million to $780 million or so... putting us well over $5 billion in deficit, according to one source, making us the 2nd worst state in the country per capita for state government debt.
And this, of course, doesn't even begin to address the issue of $24.1 BILLION in unfunded state liabilities identified by DEMOCRAT State Auditor Brian Sonntag last December, including employee retirement extortion of $10.7 billion more.
So, here's the choices:
Cut pay and benefits, or cut programs.
We must do the former before we look at the latter.
Democrat control of our state government has brought us to this, much like democrat control of the federal government has turned us into a train wreck nationally.
The public employee unions at every level seems to be operating in a vacuum. They blithely go on their way as if we are not in a horrific recession with massive unemployment. The demands of public employee unions run the gauntlet from the absurd or the La Center government through Steve "The Liar" Stuart's protection of the utterly bizarre county employee habit of paying nothing for their health care premiums to the merely ridiculous of the state employees who, in their spirit of service to the people, sued the governor after her weak-kneed response to this fiscal catastrophe.
Clearly, as usual, the union's only concern is themselves... and their power. If they have any concern about the people at all, it has shrunk so far as to dwarf the head of a pin.
Government has certain duties.
They must protect us, they must provide for infrastructure, they must provide for our schooling. They must protect those who cannot protect themselves, ensure the care of those who cannot care for themselves.
Programs that further those aims should be the last to be cut... except for the employees who run them.
In the current economy, the people... or in this case, the employers, must come first... and first means before the unions.
If that means breaking the unions... so be it. But it clearly means that cuts, cuts and more cuts are the order of the day. Cuts in numbers, cuts in pay and cuts in benefits.
We are, for better or worse, in an employer's market. Cutting the numbers, pay and benefits of state employees when we can't afford them makes sound fiscal sense... and, since they never cease telling us their ONLY concern is us, or the children, or some such nonsense, those employees who do not operate in a vacuum won't mind... or if they do mind, they can quit while hundreds line up to take each position... at far less money... while they're ecstatic to get it.
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