Obama and the Government Employees

By Ed Lasky,American Thinker

  Obama knows how to do things the Chicago way

Barack Obama may not have learned much at Harvard regarding the Constitution,but he did learn in Chicago how politics works:the Chicago way. Reward supporters,and keep the bribery as opaque as possible. Chicago mores have been brought to Washington.

There has recently been a flurry of critical columns examining the devastation done to our nation’s fiscal health by government workers. Our cities,states,and federal government are in critical condition. Cities have begun declaring bankruptcy,and states such as California and Illinois are tottering. The federal government,which supplied a big chunk of stimulus dollars merely to keep states on life support,is running massive deficits and accumulating debts as far as the eye can see. What caused the problems?

There are two sides of the ledger responsible. Declining state tax receipts (considered "earnings"by government) played a role (the receipts side). But the real scourge has been on the expense side of the ledger:salaries and pension benefits given —and I do mean given —to government workers.

Public-sector unions have amassed great power to extract taxpayer dollars from politicians. Politicians reward government workers with our dollars,and they in turn are rewarded at election time by donations,free labor (phone banks,people who pass out flyers),and votes.

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