Kudos to Governor Walker of Wisconsin. Republicans rarely have the intelligence or the fortitude to win battles that reduce the burden of government, but it appears that he is on the verge of prevailing in his effort to limit special privileges for government workers. Fugitive Democrats from the State Senate apparently are giving up on their plan to block the Governor’s reforms by hiding in Illinois.
I won’t fully believe it until they’re back in their chairs and casting votes, but at the very least Governor Walker is showing why it is important to stand up to greedy special interests. Let’s hope Republicans in Washington can display the same courage in their fight to trim a tiny amount of spending from this year’s spending – even if it means a government shutdown.
Here’s a report on the Wisconsin fight from today’s Wall Street Journal.
Playing a game of political chicken, Democratic senators who fled Wisconsin to stymie restrictions on public-employee unions said Sunday they planned to come back from exile soon, betting that even though their return will allow the bill to pass, the curbs are so unpopular they’ll taint the state’s Republican governor and legislators.
…The Wisconsin standoff, which drew thousands of demonstrators to occupy the capitol in Madison for days at a time, has come to highlight efforts in other states to address budget problems in part by limiting the powers and benefits accorded public-sector unions.
Sen. Mark Miller said he and his fellow Democrats intend to let the full Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget-repair” bill, which includes the proposed limits on public unions’ collective-bargaining rights. The bill, which had been blocked because the missing Democrats were needed for the Senate to have enough members present to vote on it, is expected to pass the Republican-controlled chamber.
He said he thinks recent polls showing voter discontent with Mr. Walker over limits on bargaining rights have been “disastrous” for the governor and Republicans and give Democrats more leverage to seek changes in a broader two-year budget bill Mr. Walker proposed Tuesday.
…Mr. Walker’s bill would prohibit bargaining over health care and pensions for about 170,000 public employees in the state and would allow public employees to opt out of paying dues or belonging to a union.
The bill also would end the automatic collection of dues by the state, and require that every public-employee union get recertified to represent workers through an annual election.
…Mark Jefferson, head of the Wisconsin GOP, said…even after Mr. Walker’s plan is passed, the state’s public workers will still have more collective-bargaining rights than most federal workers, who can bargain over working conditions but not pay and benefits.
