OPINION:
Congratulations to the residents of Wisconsin. They have shown that a governor can have principles, lead and fulfill promises without being run out of office (“Wisconsin wake-up call,” Commentary, Friday).
While Gov. Scott Walker won the recall election by nearly 7 percentage points, reason, logic and common sense all indicate that he should have had a landslide victory. With the country teetering on recession, Wisconsin went from a $3.6 billion deficit to a budget surplus, has seen unemployment go 1.5 percentage points below the national average and has sustained reforms without the loss of public jobs.
So why, one might ask, was Mr. Walker put in position to lose his job? The simple answer is that his policies challenged the Democrats’ tax-and-spend mentality, their reliance on entitlement programs over austerity and their practice of essentially buying votes by supporting the outrageous demands of public unions.
In Wisconsin, as in other states, public unions demand more. It is not enough that their members earn 20 percent more than private workers and enjoy 50 percent better health care benefits and four to five times more enriched pension benefits. No, their policy is, “To heck with taxpayers, we want more.”
For the past 50 years, we have witnessed the corrupt cycle of union dollars supporting Democrats, Democrats supporting union demands and more union dollars supporting Democrats. The results: nearly bankrupt city and state governments, increased city and state taxes and a broken education system.
Kudos to Mr. Walker for his willingness to push back against unreasonable union demands. Those of us who wish for the restoration of America can only hope this is a spark that will kindle a firestorm against Democratic and union policies throughout the United States.
MIKE FERREER
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.