The Truth about Madison

I am a coal miner's son. I know the value of unions from personal experience. But a distinction must be made between private and public sector unions and how they serve or harm the best interests of We the People.

When I was growing up in the 1950-60s there was a common understanding about government work. If you were a government employee you could not expect an equivalent salary to those in the private sector––after all, you were a "public servant."

But there was a trade-off. For less money in salary you got good benefits, better job security and a more secure retirement than workers in the private sector.

This was the common understanding, and with that understanding the people slept. And as they slept the unions entered, stage left.

Once the unions were well established in the public sector they, in the dark of night, changed the reality we were all so familiar with in the 1950 and 60s.

When we awoke in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century public sector jobs paid as well or better than private sector jobs for the same work. But the real story came in the retirement benefits, healthcare and unheard of job protections the unions had engineered. What's more, unions had gained such control they could strong arm states and local communities to the point that had to continue paying salaries and full retirement to those who would otherwise have been put in prison for child molestation. And firing union teachers and other employees was harder than getting a bill through congress--all this and more came to "We the Tax Payers" compliments of the quid pro quo corrupt unions negotiated with corrupt politicians in smoke filled back rooms in the dark of night.

This is the fact that We the Tax Payers are now facing and the consequence is the immanent fiscal collapse of our state and municipal governments.

Don't be deceived. This is not about the Governor of Wisconsin fighting the Democrats or the unions or the teachers. This is about the Governor of Wisconsin doing what politicians before him failed to do when faced with the unsustainable debt caused by ridiculous union demands: take the side of We the Tax Payers instead of sell us out for union support next election cycle.

Many will try to cast the matter in all sorts of different lights, present all sorts of half truths and an array of other scenarios and considerations to muddy the waters in Wisconsin--but what has been stated above is the cruel and barefaced reality, and to deny it is to send Wisconsin and other states in analogous condition hurtling towards bankruptcy with no means of reversal.