The Truth About Public Sector Unions!

In the uproar over the attempt by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to wrest control of his state’s budget away from state employee unions, I think that an important point has to be made. There’s a difference between the government and the private sector. Companies in the private sector have to show a profit to survive. There’s no such need in government.

In the private sector, both corporate and union negotiators are obligated to get the best deal that they can for their side, but both sides have to be mindful of the fiscal health of the company because if the company fails, everyone’s out of a job.

In the public sector however, what you have is a ponzi scheme in which union leaders and politicians feed money to each other with the taxpayers footing the bill. Union bosses bribe politicians with campaign contributions to support union causes. The money comes from members’ dues and the better the benefit derived from the municipality, the more dues money collected with which to continue the bribery. There is obviously a conflict of interest here. Those 18 Wisconsin democrats, who fled the state to avoid voting on Governor Walker’s legislation weren’t doing so for their constituents, they were protecting the people they really owe their allegiance to; union bosses.

I am a retired Police Officer from New York. I belonged to a public employee union and enjoyed good benefits and salary. I also paid over $6,000 a year in property taxes for a small house on a small lot. Sales tax in my community was over eight percent. It cost me $75 to register my car. The list goes on. I liked the benefits but not the costs. I see now that the system is designed to benefit the power brokers at the expense of the taxpayers.

At one time General Motors was the greatest automobile manufacturer in the world. After decades of corporate mismanagement and unreasonable concessions to the United Auto Workers it finally suffered financial collapse. In violation of our Constitution, GM was bailed out by a President who received millions of campaign dollars from unions. Who reaped the benefits in that deal? You guessed it, the United Auto Workers. Who lost out? Right again, GM Bond holders and the American taxpayer.

It’s time to face the reality that there is no free lunch. We The People sent a message last November that it’s time for partisan politics to end and for the needs of the Republic to be put ahead of mega-unions and the politicians who feed them.

What is Natural Law?

Politicians on the left and certain segments of the News Media claim that “Quality” health care is a Natural Right and that as citizens we have an obligation to provide quality health care to all Americans whether they can afford it or not. We’re also being told that the only way to guarantee the “Natural Right” of quality healthcare to all members of this great society will be through government intervention: Through our government’s taking money from some Americans and using the money to pay for others’ health insurance.

I’m afraid that this flies in the face of our Constitution.

According to our Founding Fathers, “Natural Law” is universal and includes rights endowed by our Creator: These are rights given by God that no government has the right to circumvent. Natural rights include the right to live as free people and to pursue our dreams; the right to reap the rewards of our efforts; the right to keep our legitimately earned property and the right to do with it what we wish.

Man-made law or “Positive Law” is designed to maintain an orderly society. Statutory law has its place as a means of maintaining societal law and order, but our founders had a natural distrust of government power, fearing that men in power might be inclined to circumvent Natural Law through Positive law. This is why they so carefully worded our Constitution, using the phrase “rule of law and not of men” when they enumerated our basic freedoms of “Life’ Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

Nowhere in the Constitution is the government given the right to give someone something by forcibly taking something away from someone else. Doing so would grant rights to some by taking rights from others. There is no right to force free people to buy something they don’t want or to pay for something that someone else wants. There is no right to subsidize one person by taking the legitimately earned property of another against his will no matter how well-intentioned the reason.

The correct way to provide the “Right” of quality health care to all Americans is to get out of the way of the free market and let the costs of health care be determined by market forces rather than government imposition. The free market works in all segments of society not interfered with through government force and it will certainly work better than government sponsored health care.