If you want to know why Michael Barone has earned a place in my pantheon of praiseworthy pundits, just check out his piece today taking apart E.J. Dionne’s latest lament on the parlous plight of public employee unions:
The liberal columnist E. J. Dionne is crying in his column today about the plight of the public sector unions. He accuses Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker of seeking “a shift in the long-term balance of political power that undercutting collective bargaining.”
. . . .
[Dionne’s argument] is a variant on the argument that Democrats need the money they receive from public sector unions in order to balance the money Republicans receive from greedy corporations. But of course there are some factual problems with that argument. The Republicans, as my Examiner colleague Timothy Carney points out with a wealth of example, don’t monopolize contributions from business interests and in the past several campaign cycles have in fact received less business money than Democrats.
. . . .
It’s interesting to see Democrats bewail the unfairness—unfairness, unfairness!—of Republicans being able to raise in the 2010 cycle almost as much money as they did.
Read the whole thing!
I have mixed feelings about this; I mean that:
… as regards *public* employees, would be a Good Thing for all Americans; whether they are taxpayers, or merely (say) have kids in public schools.
I think it’s right to assume that Walker’s primary goal is simply to repair WI’s budget. But, in bankrupt State after bankrupt State, the issue of budget repair cannot be separated from the issue of curtailing entrenched, abusive public employee unions – as Walker has found.
(continued) So I think that the right answer to EJ Dionne type of complaints is: “We are trying to save States from bankruptcy here… and if we must check the power of Democrat-supporting, abusive and entrenched public employee unions as a means to that end… Well, yeah. Blame them.”
Not sure if you’ve seen the part of this bill that would allow the state to sell publicly owned utility plants to private companies at extremely low prices without public auction. That sure doesn’t sound like something you would do if you cared about balancing the budget.
The link isn’t working so I can’t comment on what is said or not said in the article. I don’t think it’s a good argument to suggest that unions should be protected because they contribute money to Democratic campaigns, but I also can’t say whether or not that is even Dionne’s argument (I have absolutely no faith in Michael Barone or anyone here to accurately characterize any kind of liberal argument.)
However, it is very clear that a large part of national Republican politic strategy is to target and neutralize the most reliable Democratic constituencies. You saw it with the defunding of ACORN (assisted by far too many cowardly, dumbass Democrats), you saw it with the vote to defund Planned Parenthood a week or two ago, and you’re seeing it in Wisconsin with these efforts to destroy collective bargaining, which effectively destroys unions. Do Republicans give two squirts about righting the wrongs of Wall Street and punishing the millionaires and billionaires who are immeasurably more responsible for our current economic situation than kindergarten teachers? Of course not – those are their campaign financiers. We’re not doing anything about those terribly expensive wars that the Republicans said would be such a great investment for the exact same reason. They get more tax cuts more open-ended commitments while the rest of us are told we need to endure lay-offs and foreclosures and cuts in benefits. When does the trickling down begin?
If you’re pitching a platform that is as narrow-minded and unappealing as modern conservatism, this is the stuff that you have to do to win elections. It’s basic arithmetic; if there is a constituency that is breaking heavily for your opponent every election cycle, then you’re only improving your election odds if you can make things worse and worse for that constituency. Thus, Republicans are targeting ACORN (blacks), Planned Parenthood (women), and collective bargaining (unions, which by the way, are disproportionately made up of women and blacks.) Ain’t that some coincidence that all those groups are part of the Democratic base? I wonder why conservatives don’t target the money that the government spends on faith-based initiatives when they’re trying to fix budget?
They even earn points with their idiotic base who believe that this is real belt-tightening and penny-pinching, while the people affected by these cuts get sicker and poorer and less likely to vote. It’s a win-win for them, why wouldn’t they do it?
Ah yes, Levi, who’s on the record for his Trutherism, racism, inability to understand the Constitution, the judicial system and countless examples of his stupidity over and over and over again, accuses Mr. Barrone of being unable to “accurately characterize any kind of liberal argument.”
If Levi’s an example of a ‘liberal’ Then yes, I don’t think Mr. Barrone could characterize that level of stupidity without brain damage.
No, to Levi the answer is simple (of course it’s simple, this is Levi we’re talking about) punish anyone he thinks is evil.
At least Levi’s right about one thing (stopped clocks and all of that) The Democrat left base is made up of criminals (ACORN) and those who aid and abet child rape (Planned Parenthood). Since Levi’s already said that child rapists are ‘the cool kids’ we shouldn’t take much anything he says with much credibility.
The power plant thing is just the latest talking point being fed to dumb liberals. In truth, the state is spending millions of dollars a year to operate the plants. Switching them to private enterprise could save millions every year.
Who but an idiotic die-hard socialist thinks that running power plants is a necessary function of the state anyway?
BTW: A GAO Report about to come out will reveal billions of dollars wasted bu inefficiency and duplication in Federal programs. To you and me, that represents the Federal Government uselessly squandering billions of dollars. To Levi, it represents a jobs program.
Sure you would sell them – and maybe fast. The plants cost money to run. The State loses money by running them. It’s called “accounting”, Levi. Do look into it.
No amount of your posturing, empty insinuations about ‘extremely’ low or whatever talking point you’re pushing today, Levi, will repeal the laws of accounting.
As a reference point, check out the Top All-Time Political Donors, 1989-2010. (The evil Koch Industries comes in at #83.)
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php
E.J. Dionne is such a pansy-sucking douche bag; he’s the Left’s little puppet. Whatever the Left wants, Dionne will echo it like a good little brown-noser from the lower depths of the echo-chamber Hell. In other words, Michael Barone has his facts & through them like blades to cut Dionne’s Leftist spin into so much garbage.
Do Republicans give two squirts about righting the wrongs of Wall Street and punishing the millionaires and billionaires who are immeasurably more responsible for our current economic situation than kindergarten teachers? Of course not – those are their campaign financiers.
Who gave more to Obama than they did to Republicans; in fact, Huffington Post bragged, quote, “Wall Street prefers Democrats”.
Not that we expect you to research, Levi; you’re an idiot, and you simply repeat what is put in front of you. But we keep hoping at some point you might actually grow beyond that, educate yourself and start doing some basic fact-checking instead of just vomiting back whatever Obama tells you to say like some imbecilic parrot.
Who contribute to the slaughter of “undesirable” blacks.
Look at all those unions. Where do they get their money if all the employees they represent are the poor and pissed on?
If the Democrat party couldn’t launder billions in tax dollars through the unions back into their campaign program, if they didn’t have 90% of the national media working for them as full-time PR and propaganda pushers, if they didn’t own the inner city vote-fraud mills, if they didn’t have the support of convicted felons and illegal immigrants… how small a minority would they actually be?
The statement is insightful – in the exact opposite of how Levi means.
There are 2 kinds of “Illionaires”:
1) Those who create wealth, e.g., by starting or at least financing important new companies.
2) Those who are in bed with government. (The government regulates their competitors out of existence, prints money for them, orders them to step up their mortgage business and start lending to unreliable people, etc.)
Type (1) Illionaires are indeed “immeasurably more reponsible for [THE *GOOD* PARTS OF] our current economic situation than kindergarten teachers.
And, as NDT pointed out, type (2) Illionaires usually (or on average) tend to become Democrats.
Levi is, of course, too clueless to realize either point.
It might be helpful if these “millionaires and billionaires” who cause the current crisis could be identified by name. We on the right have no trouble naming names (Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Franklin Raines) and their exact roles in the crisis (obstructing the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, threatening bankers who wouldn’t give loans to financially irresponsible people with legal retribution). But the left just spouts class warfare rhetoric about mysterious “millionaires and billionaires) who committed the sin of making money.
The point is that they the state could sell the plant for any amount of money – including $1 – and no one would be able to do anything about it. Why would you be asking for language in a bill to allow that sort of thing unless you were planning on basically giving away power plants?
When conservatives tried to turn Iraq into a free market wonderland, selling off state assets to private, foreign companies at absurd discounts was one of the first things they did. That kind off thing clearly isn’t about fixing the budget, it’s about taking care of your cronies.
Of course what is Levi’s solution to ‘both parties being bought and paid for’? More Government!
But in his world this wonderful larger government would be staffed by the right people, who never would be influenced by any outside forces.
How can one person cram so much fail into one post?
Verizon boy has plenty of FAIL to spare.
How very fortunate that I have never done so.
No, Levi. The only one playing stupid here, is you.
You know, I can’t think of a time when I’ve seen an honest argument from you. Whereas I can think of lots of times when I’ve had to call you on burning your own straw men (as here), or to call you on not knowing things (or believing things eagerly that just weren’t so), or when I’ve had to call you on your moral turpitude.
ILC,
He’s ‘playing’ stupid? I thought it was his default setting. I mean as far as racist truthers go, he’s no Charlie Sheen, that’s for certain.
Seriously – What part of this statement of mine:
Can reasonably be mistaken for, or warped into, this accusation of Levi’s:
How? Was my careful packing of “usually”, “on average”, “tend”, and “become” into one short phrase not obvious enough?
I’ve said it many times before and will again: With Republicans, Big Government is the solution 80% of the time. With Democrats, Big Government is the solution 100% of the time. That’s reality.
Levi, you don’t know anything about the utility companies proposed for sale here in Wisconsin. They don’t make money and there is really no need for the state to own them. Please leave your feigned outrage for the topics you seem to know about like your raw anger for anyone who does not agree with you. By the way, your constant posting is getting really old. Move along. Please?
It’s kinda hard to portray the Democrat party not bought and paid for by union interests. Unions are a special interest. 93% of working Americans do not belong to unions, and some of the 7% who do, wish they weren’t forced to. Case closed.
Never mind that Halliburton had been a government contractor for 50 years and the alternatives were foreign owned companies like the French Schlumberger.
Whose former owner, if you’re gonna go that route, was Billy Boy. And let’s not forget that Enron was BFF with the Global Warmism crowd and Gray out Davis.
Wasn’t it Bush’s Justice Department that put Ken Lay in prison? Kind of hard to make that influence-buying charge stick.
In contrast, Obama fired an IG that was getting too curious about the dealings of one of his cronies.