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Wisconsin's newly elected governor, Scott Walker, is calling his proposal to eliminate collective bargaining for state employees a "modest request" in Republican efforts to cope with the state's fiscal crisis.
But to the tens of thousands of teachers and other public workers who marched to the State Capitol in Madison yesterday to protest the draconian cuts, that "modest request" is closer to a full-on "assault." As President Obama put it yesterday, it amounts to an assault on their wages, their families, and their way of life. If you also recall one of Obama's earlier metaphors, about taking a scalpel rather than an ax to the state budget, to address the shortfall, Governor Walker is choosing the ax. Needlessly, it turns out.
First, some useful facts, courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics via Rex Nutting on MarketWatch today. "Government employment [across the country] isn't rising. Government employment ramped up in the 1950s and 1960s to educate the baby boomers, but the share of the labor force that works for government has been fairly steady at around 14.5% for the past 30 years, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There has been no surge in hiring by governments. Bureaucrats aren't taking over the economy."
In short, concerning the propaganda we hear all the time about "big government," public-sector jobs haven't grown faster than the population.
Republicans are also busy trying to convince us that public workers are a) overpaid; b) unnecessary; c) overwhelming a beleaguered economy. But look again at the facts. "If you compare workers with similar training and experience," Nutting continues, "it turns out that state and local government workers make about 4% less than comparable workers in the private sector, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute."
Nor, he adds, are public-sector jobs and supposedly "overly generous government pensions . . . responsible for the state and local budget crisis; the recession is." There's a simple explanation for the shortfalls, Nutting reminds us: Revenues have plunged, while demand for services has increased because of high unemployment.
"On average, contributions to pensions account for less than 4% of government operating budgets. The pensions are considered severely underfunded now because of the recession, which led to big losses in the stock market and to lower yields on assets. But even fully funding those pensions would only require contributions of 5% of operating budgets, according to Iris Lav of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. The pension shortfall can be solved over time by making relatively minor changes in contributions and benefits."
So what accounts for the hostility to teachers and other public-sector employees, who are expected to shoulder the brunt of the budget crisis? To answer that question, how about we remember who caused the recession in the first place—the deregulated banks and greedy bankers on Wall Street who led the country over a cliff before giving themselves massive bonuses for doing so? How about we also focus on the budget-busting $750 billion tax break for millionaires that the GOP recently rammed through Congress, all-but blackmailing Obama and the Democrats over canceling assistance to the unemployed unless the wealthiest Americans got yet another tax break they don't need?
Why, we might ask, are America's neediest workers being punished for the naked self-interest of Wall Street's wealthiest bankers and the Republican Party that supports them? (It's not a U.S. bank, so consider this a parallel: At a time when Britain is roiling from its government's zeal for punitive cuts, providing the cuts affect only the poorest in society, Barclays Bank has just been forced to admit that it paid only £113m in corporate taxes in 2009, despite making £11.6bn in profits that year. That amounts to "a 1% tax," according to the Guardian newspaper.)
"It's part of the right-wing theory that everything wrong with America is the government's fault," Nutting observes, "and that everything wrong with government is the fault of public servants, all of whom are [conveniently characterized as] incompetent, corrupt, lazy, surly and greedy. This is what House Speaker John Boehner meant when he said he didn't care how many federal jobs would be destroyed due to the immediate cuts in spending being rammed through in the House. Job losses? 'So be it,' he said."
I think a better term for what happened would be "bait and switch." And though that's been going on for decades, the massive transfer of wealth upwards has only accelerated in recent years, including since the 2008 crash. The millionaires walk away with yet more tax breaks they don't need. Then they complain about the massive, inevitable surge to the country's deficit by asking America's poorest to stop asking for a minimum wage. Truly, how do they have the nerve?
In light of such outrageous and inequitable policies, Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Wisc) is right to ask: "When are the Republicans going to sit down seriously with the other side on this issue and try to work something out?" When indeed? Perhaps when they realize that Americans can't be fooled on this issue—not when they see what Wall Street has gotten away with.
One way to find out just how much it has gotten away with? Watch the acclaimed documentary Inside Job, which releases on dvd next month (you can catch the trailer here). Considering what's going on in Wisconsin and other Republican-controlled states, see if the film doesn't make your blood boil.
christopherlane.org Follow me on Twitter @christophlane
