$35 MILLION SPENT AND IT WAS ALL FOR NAUGHT...I LOVE IT!

With Republicans having now triumphed in the Wisconsin recall elections on Tuesday, it has been described as nothing short of “astonishing,” that after spending literally millions of dollars in their effort to battle Gov. Scott Walker and his labor reforms, Democrats and unions, in the end, came away bloody and beaten with them with having very little to show for all of the money they spent. Mr. John Fund, senior editor of American Spectator, says unions never talked about the core issue of labor law reforms in their anti-Republican ads because they were afraid of opening up a “whole can of worms” about the privileges of public employee unions. So all that was essentially accomplished was the throwing of a substantial amount of money down a hole. Mr. Fund also asserts that the election results are a very clear vote of confidence for Gov. Walker, and he predicts that unions will now bring their “road show” to Ohio where a similar union battle looms. And hopefully the same outcome will result there in Ohio, with these punks further depleting their vaults and ending up with same result that they got in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Republicans retained control of the state Senate with victories in four out of six recall elections on Tuesday. The results represent a victory for Walker, who used his legislative majorities to place collective-bargaining curbs on most public employee unions in February and March, sparking weeks of protests that I'm sure everyone remembers.

In what was an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Mr. Fund stated his view of the election results. “It was astonishing to see labor unions spend $35 million of their members’ dues money to beat back Scott Walker’s labor reforms. But the astonishing thing is that for all the money they spent, mostly unsuccessfully, their ads against the Republican incumbents they were trying to recall never talked about the labor law reforms,” he says. “They talked about ending Medicare, which is a federal issue, not a state issue. They talked about Paul Ryan. They talked about cutting budgets for education. They talked about everything except the issue of whether or not labor unions should have the right to withhold dues from their members if they didn’t want them to go to politics. That was the core of the issue that brought 75,000 people to the Madison state capital in February and March. And that was the one issue the labor unions didn’t want to bring up because I suspect that would have opened up a whole can of worms about union privileges and how much better public employee unions were paid, and how much better their benefits were than people in the private sector.” It should be painfully obvious that when these unions refuse to even bring up anything regarding the basis for their rationale for essentially forcing these elections, it shows the complete baselessness of their agrument. When they can't even be upfront out of fear of weakening their cause, what does it say about their cause?


Two more recall elections, these involving Democratic incumbents, will be held next week, with one of those races considered as being very competitive, Fund notes, adding: “So it is possible when all the dust settles Democrats will have spent $35 million to gain one senate seat in one state.” Not a very good return on there investment, but then, it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of folks. Mr. Fund added that, “Republicans retained control of the state Senate. His reforms are working. You’re seeing school districts all over the state being able to avoid layoffs. In fact they’re adding teachers and reducing class size. They’re saving lots of money because the health insurance monopoly that used to be controlled by the teachers’ union has been broken." He went on, "All over the state, you’re seeing the reforms starting to work. I think when parents send their kids back to school in September they’re going to see the schools are still there and in some cases are probably performing better because of the flexibility now that schools boards have in negotiating labor contracts.” It would be nice to think that people are finally starting to wake up and realize that all of the patently idiotic claims made by Democrats and their union thug allies are nothing but propaganda that has no basis in fact and designed to do nothing more than to fool them.


The election results are a very good sign for Republicans as well as for other GOP governors who might now be considering seeking some manner of reform measures regarding public employee unions in their own states. Fund says, “The next round in this battle will be in Ohio because Ohio allows voters to put on the ballot a referendum challenging any act of the legislature. Gov. [John] Kasich has legislation similar to what Gov. Walker did, and that will be decided in a September referendum. “So the unions will now move their road show on to Ohio. But I think they should be a little chastened because in the end these reforms often do bring more popular support when people understand them and they kick in. “And I think with the expenditure of all that money to very little effect, the unions are going to have to wonder, should we save our money for a more pressing fight in 2012, like Barack Obama’s re-election, or should we spend it on these state level contests that may or may not pan out?” It nice to see these sleazy characters with such a dilemma on their hands. And after what Barry has successfully inflicted on this country, they have to be wondering, as well, if they're going to be able to have any impact in trying to convince people that Barry truly is on their side. Let's face it, Barry has nearly single-handedly wiped out over 2 million private sector jobs since coming into office.


Tuesday election results are the latest in a string of victories for Gov. Walker, Mr. Fund says. “In addition to winning last November and carrying the state legislature to Republican control with him, he passed all those changes in the labor law. Then in April they had a titanic battle over the state’s Supreme Court, which has a narrow 4-to-3 conservative majority. The left spent millions and millions of dollars to try to oust an incumbent justice and they failed." He went on, “So now with Democrats having failed to take over the state senate, it seems there’s a narrow, consistent majority that is willing to back Scott Walker’s agenda and not back that of the unions.” And as for the state controlled media’s attempts to portray Walker as a sort of “rogue governor,” Fund observes: “Walker did make some missteps in how he presented his labor reform law, and allowed himself to be caricatured. But it’s not Governor Walker that’s the issue. It’s the fact that the states are broke, and they’re broke because they’ve given away far too much in pensions and healthcare benefits." Adding that, “In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie, who has pushed through dramatic pension reform with the help of Democratic legislators, told me teachers are getting a much better deal than anyone else in the state. If we’re going to have shared sacrifice, you need to have shared sacrifice with everyone." Here, here!


People in the private sector are continuing to lose their jobs. So the burden of paying the bills for a unionized public sector is placed on a shrinking number of folks who remain employed. For example, we can have better, more efficient education if we take away layers of bureaucracy, if we have fewer administrators and more teachers in the classroom. But none of these changes are possible because of the archaic and hidebound union rule books. But education is but one area where these idiotic unions rules hamstring how we are able to maintain some semblance of a reasonable level of spending in this country. Outrageous public sector union contracts are literally bankrupting states, cities and towns all across the country. And we've now managed to go way beyond simply being able to put the brakes on. The time has now come for some very substantial rollbacks. That is now the only viable option left to prevent a complete financial meltdown of epic proportions. So I suppose the question that remains to be answered is, do the American people have the stomach for what is really needed? I suppose that that is yet one more question that we will not know the answer to until the victor of the 2012 election has been identified.