Obama: Public Sector Unions "an area where there’s got to be burden sharing as well"

[AlabamaLibrul]

http://www.fox47.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/vid_1961.shtml

I do say, though, to my friends in the public sector unions that it is important that you are on the side of reform where reform is needed. Because the truth of the matter is, is that at a time when everybody is belt-tightening, there is nothing wrong with a union saying to itself, you know what, we know budgets are hard right now. Let’s sit down and say we’re willing to negotiate so that we’re making some sacrifices to maintain the number of teachers in the classroom and keep class sizes at a reasonable level. We’re willing to make some modifications in terms of how our pension systems work so that they’re sustainable for the next generation of teachers as long as it’s a conversation, as opposed to it simply being imposed and collective bargaining rights being stripped away.



So I think it’s important -- remember we talked about shared sacrifice and burden sharing. Well, this is an area where there’s got to be burden sharing as well. If a public sector employee is able to retire at 55 with 80 percent of their wages, and the average public sector employee has got a 401(k) that they’ve just seen decline by about 20 percent and they have no idea how they’re going to retire, and they’re feeling burdened by a lot of taxes and they don’t feel like the public sector employers are making any adjustments whatsoever to reflect the tough economic realities that are facing folks who are not protected, then there’s going to be a natural backlash.

Full transcript and video at the link.

[AlabamaLibrul]

1. Maybe I'm missing it....

But is the "shared burden" the poor and middle class equally fighting for sixty-cent canned dog food at Walmart?

[Scurrilous]

2. Cat food.

Obama is making the poor and middle class eat cat food.

Then he's going to run you over with a bus.


:thumbsup:

[Broderick]

17. But I get peas right?

[BlueCheese]

3. My goodness.

I think someone kidnapped the real Barack Obama and replaced him with a Heritage Foundation pod person.

[Bluebear]

4. !

[indurancevile]

5. when do the banksters get to share in the sacrifice? or did you mean we're

being sacrificed to them?









“Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.” Karl Marx

[Selatius]

6. We should cut a deal. The Unions won't give up jack shit until Wall Street bankers/hedge funders do.

Maybe when they actually start paying taxes up there at the 1%, then union workers may start loosening up their position on no concessions.

[Fumesucker]

7. When were the wealthy asked to share the burden?

I don't recall that request being made.

[JoePhilly]

11. Watch the entire town hall, he does so multiple times.

[Kahuna]

12. Really? You don't hear that? Because I hear the president say

it every time he speaks. :shrug:

[seaglass]

8. Well, he just lost my husband's vote. Obama is NOT a friend of public sector unions.

I can't even type right now I am so angry. Obama is a big fucking disappointment.

[Owlet]

9. Maybe he's been reading this guy

Mike Shedlock / Mish is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction.



"A New York Times article accurately describes a set of fiscal realities in Sunday's editorial A Growing Gloom for States and Cities. The New York Times wildly misses the mark as to who is to blame for this crisis.

NYT: Washington should have been trying to find a way to help states avoid the layoffs and cutbacks that have contributed heavily to the high unemployment rate. Instead, it seems to be doing everything possible to make the situation worse in state capitals around the country.

Mish: That is essentially correct (except the implied tone). I proposed three items that would most assuredly help cities and states. Once again, here they are.

1. Scrap Davis-Bacon and all prevailing wages laws that force up costs of construction and other projects at the city, county, state and federal level.

2.. End Collective Bargaining of public unions. Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin shows the dramatic results that can happen if this is done. School districts that had budget deficits hugely in the read, saw them immediately go into the green, and not even for reasons that one might think. I wrote about it in Union-Busting is a "Godsend"; Elimination of Collective Bargaining is the Single Best Thing one Can do for School Kids

3. Pass national right-to-work laws. Again this will help cash-strapped cities, counties, and states that have to deal with union-mandated pricing instead of competitive pricing. The goal of government should be to provide the most benefit for the least cost. The goal of unions is to provide as little work as possible for the most cost. It's time we end that model."

Link

[TheKentuckian]

10. Ok so we give up homes, pension values, health care negotiated in good faith in exchange for wages,

loan assistance for advanced degrees, Medicaid striped down, reductions in Social Security and Medicaid, lots of wages, jobs, take a bath in our retirement funds or have to burn them to survive, the greatest return on investment that we have-our space program, and take a hatchet to all manner of discretionary spending that helps virtually everyone and he will ask the wealthy to fork over a few pennies from their monstrous hoards by returning to the previous too low a rate and will call that shared sacrifice?

Sounds like a devil's bargain to me where the many are demanded to cut not just a little fat but flesh and even bone while the few with the lion's share are not being asked to sacrifice shit in any meaningful definition of the word, certainly not in context, and give up a tiny sliver of their excess that will not impact their lifestyle an iota.

It really is immoral to even talk this bullshit game. This man doesn't represent us and he ought to be fucking ashamed.

[madfloridian]

13. WHAT!! "If a public sector employee is able to retire at 55 with 80 percent of their wages"

He should provide examples of that.

He is worried about how non-union people will view the rights that unions fought for?

He is that concerned about appearance??

[madfloridian]

14. I want examples of those who retire at 55 with 80% of wages.

[Broderick]

20. No kidding

I want leap on that gravy train and lick the bowl. That would be great.

[Starry Messenger]

15. Unions *always* do this.

There isn't any reform needed. He's just repeating RW smears of unions. When are we going to start calling on the wealthy for reform and sacrifice?

[theaocp]

16. No.

Until the banksters and corporations are putting in their fair share (and I mean FIRST), I don't want to hear anybody lecturing me and my public union. Obama is out of his league and seems to delight in pissing off working people. It reminds me of the Michael Palin being turned right-side up by the Romans in Life of Brian. "What I wouldn't give to be spat at in the face!" Please.

[Dappleganger]

18. Fuck that!

There's no doubt left as to where the president is regarding upholding longstanding democratic principles--he stands on the right.

[Enrique]

19. Obama should acknowledge that unions ARE making concessions all over the place

he knows they do, but he talks as if unions never compromise.

that said, his overall answer to this woman, other than what's in the OP, is very good. Very strong pro-union words. :thumbsup:

[Brickbat]

21. Public employee unions -- municipal, federal and teachers among them -- have been making concessions

for years. YEARS. They've made concessions in good times and now are being asked to shoulder some imaginary burden they have nothing to do with. This man is a disgrace.

[Reader Rabbit]

22. "[M]y friends in the public sector unions"???

Mr. President, you don't have any friends in the public sector unions. If you did, you'd have a clue how obscene and offensive it is, asking the middle class to sacrifice while continuing to coddle the rich.

Jeebus, is the man trying to lose in 2012?

[_ed_]

23. Sounds just like his buddy Ronny Reagan

"Burden sharing" is DC code for "continuing to fuck over the poor and middle class."