What a great week this has been for U.S. taxpayers. As my hero Ronald Reagan would say, “It’s morning in America again.” The dominance of public employee unions was broken in a big way for the first time in history. Not just in any state, but in the two most liberal pro-union states possible. Common sense, conservative, Tea Party political leaders will now be emboldened across this country to cut outrageous public employee pensions and benefits. Huge victories in liberal Wisconsin and The Peoples Republic of California are the canary in the coal mine. The days of dominance for public employee unions just peaked. They will never see a stronger day than last Monday, ever again. It’s a long downhill slide from here.
In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker won easily and big in a state filled with not only union members, but union history. Wisconsin was the first state to ever grant public employees the right to collective bargaining. That was the single biggest mistake in U.S. economic history. Wisconsin is filled with cheese-eating bleeding-heart white liberals (in Madison), far too many government employees and their many relatives, a big percentage of black voters (in Milwaukee), and all the other usual Democratic suspects. It has been a true blue Democrat state for decades. And yet, even in liberal unwinnable Wisconsin, conservative fiscal policy made the breakthrough the nation has been waiting for. Score one for sanity. Governor Walker– in that environment (and you know with rampant voter fraud perpetrated by the unions) won easily. EASILY. Just as I had boldly predicted in media appearances across the country.
But California may be an even bigger sign. California is the land of sun fried brains, tofu-eating liberals, illegal immigrants in every pot, and the most powerful government employee unions in the nation. Yet even in deep blue California, public employee unions lost in a landslide on Tuesday. In San Jose the nation’s 10th largest city, voters gave a 66-34 landslide to public employee pension reform. It wasn’t even close. In San Diego- the nation’s 8th largest city- it was an even bigger sweep. The voters handed a monstrous 70-30 victory to public employee pension reform. Californians have finally made the connection- big union pensions equals less tofu…less money for fake breasts…less money for fake spray-on tans…less money for medical marijuana.
But the big question of the day is…Where was Barack Obama? Why was he a union no-show in Wisconsin? Why did he abandon his union buddies? My best guess is that internal Democrat polls seen by only Obama and his guru David Axelrod showed that Wisconsin was lost. That no effort or appearances by Obama would change a double digit landslide loss. So why smear Obama with a big loss? The decision was made to keep Obama away from this train wreck. Nothing like friends who abandon you when the going gets tough. What do they say about rats deserting a sinking ship?
The tide has turned against public employee unions (particularly teachers unions). And it’s going to turn into a tsunami. The middle class voters have had enough of a privileged class of government employees getting a long list of unheard of benefits not available in the private sector:
- Ironclad job security (jobs for life unless you are a convicted axe murderer or child rapist- and then you still many keep your pension).
- Bloated salaries far above the average private sector worker in a comparable job.
- Obscene pensions that threaten to bankrupt the country just like Greece, Italy or Spain.
- Overly generous benefits like free or greatly discounted healthcare for life.
- The ability to retire at age 45 to 50.
- And in many states, if you claim you were injured on the job (no matter how minor) you receive a majority of your pension TAX FREE for life.
There are no jobs offering anything like that anywhere in the entire private sector. It is wrong. It is unfair. It is insanity squared. It is bankrupting America and all 50 of our states. Just as this same system of too many people working for government, being paid too much, able to retire too soon, and then paid obscene pensions for life (for not working for 30 to 40 years) has brought the entire EU financial system to its knees. Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland are all the perfect model for how not to run a country and an economy if you want to survive.
I publicly predicted Governor Scott Walker would win easily and big in media appearances across the country. How did I know? As one of the most successful oddsmakers and prognosticators in Las Vegas history, I’ve made many uncanny political and economic predictions over the past decade. All based on gut instincts and common sense. All based on speaking to American mainstream voters and using their comments and opinions as a barometer for the nation.
At one point in time I was alone in the wilderness screaming about the dangers of public employees, their pensions, their unions, their outrageous, selfish demands and how all of it would bankrupt the country. But I’m alone no more. In the past few weeks virtually everyone I spoke to in the private sector could be best described as steaming mad at public employees. The honeymoon is over for unions and collective bargaining. The American taxpayer has awakened from their long slumber and they realize they’ve been ripped off. They realize their children and grandchildren will live a much lower quality of life to pay for the pensions of government employees who haven’t worked in 20, 30 or 40 years. Everyone is stuck with this bill for generations to come. Taxpayers from coast to coast are outraged. The result? Wisconsin will be only the opening salvo in a long and successful campaign to take back America from the unions and return sanity to the pension system.
For Obama and his toxic gang of unions, lawyers, the public employee mobs, environmentalist radical wackos, the gravy train is coming to an end. It’s a new day in America.
Perhaps…just maybe…we can still save this country from a fate worse than death…becoming Europe.