Day: August 10, 2010

It’s Those Damn Unions!

From the vomitorium

(BTW the title is sarcasm in case you missed it)

You have heard it all before……especially from conservs……the American auto industry is NOT competitive because of those damn unions or unions are destroying our economy or …… well you get the idea.

Today is the day that the House is in session to vote on a bill that will save jobs in education as well as police and fire and help states with their deficits….but as usual the GOP is hot on this accusing the Dems of paying off unions for past support…..

The legislation provides $10 billion to school districts to rehire laid-off teachers or ensure that more teachers won’t be let go before the new school year begins. The money could keep more than 160,000 teachers, including 16,000 in California and 14,000 in Texas, on the job, advocates say.

The other half of the bill has $16 billion for six more months of increased Medicaid payments to the states. That would free up money for states to meet other budget priorities, including keeping more than 150,000 police officers and other public workers on the payroll. Some three-fifths of states have already factored in the federal money in drawing up their budgets for the current fiscal year.

But House Republican leader John Boehner contended, “The American people don’t want more Washington ‘stimulus’ spending — especially in the form of a payoff to union bosses and liberal special interests.”

(Thanx to the AP for above excerpts)

So according to these dipsticks it is all unions fault that the public sector jobs pay better than the private sector……is it the union’s fault that a raisin sizer at the USDA makes $100,000 or that congress people make $400,000+?  No it is NOT!  And let us talk about the unions and the auto industry….now that the unions have given back so much to the auto makers then the price of cars should come down, right?  So far we are still waiting…..the reason that the public sector pays better is that it does not have the greed factor built in……

The truth of the matter is that unions are a toothless beast in the US…okay they throw money at candidates but what has it gotten them?  Not much return on their investment then why are unions the political demon for the conservs?

So will Repubs vote against keeping teachers working as well as firemen and policemen?  If they do….who side are they really on….this vote could be telling no matter how they try to spin it……

Rats Leaving A Sinking Ship?

First it was the Director of National Intelligence and then it was the head of the Office of Budget, Orzag and now it is Obama’s economics adviser, Romer….what is going on in Washington?

Are these rats leaving a sinking ship?  Or is it just the usual turn over in any administration?

A case could be made that these people are trying to distance themselves from the Prez…..I mean look at the economy…..jobs suck……housing sucks…..credit sucks….all the stuff that makes the Middle class vibrant….and the Repubs will be milking the woes of our nation to their advantage…..and these people could be trying to put as much distance between them and the WH as to NOT tarnish their reps…..The Dems will be trying to distance themselves from any of the bad stuff and will try to accentuate the good….whatever that might be…..the oil spill or the rise of the auto makers or FinReg, which was NOTHING like what was intended……

All in all….the upcoming election will be a sprint away from the downside of their ideology and tagging out to the stuff that gives them the most positive bang for their buck.

The economy is NOT doing well and the economic advisers are trying to get as far away from the election as possible…..conservs, if they are smart, will hit the prez on the economy as much and as often as possible and stay the hell away from the social crap that will NOT get them elected.  Maybe it the economy gets better then they can return to the social issues that have helped them in the past…but NOW is NOT the time!

Who is the next rat to leave?