One of the things I dislike most about right-wingers is their penchant for labeling their policies by the opposite of what they do. For example, the “Keep Tuition Affordable” legislation before the Pennsylvania legislature does anything but. The “Right to Work” proposals are really the “Right to Work for Less.”
Americans for Prosperity, the Koch Brothers’ political committee, is attacking the foundation of American prosperity. The proposal they are pushing in Pennsylvania, the “Paycheck Protection Act,” will result in diminished paychecks for millions of workers as unions are busted.
According to the speaker at last night’s 9/12 meeting, taxpayer money is used to divert union dues and voluntary political contributions to unions through payroll deductions. Everyone has payroll deductions--income tax, pension plans, United Way contributions, and so on. We are talking about a few taps on a keyboard--that is the taxpayer dollars being spent on public employee unions. Those deductions are also the result of negotiated contracts agreed to by both workers and management.
This is not about tax funds. It is completely and totally about breaking public unions, which is precisely what is happening in Wisconsin, where Scott Walker pushed similar legislation. The Koch Brothers, of course, won’t say they are trying to bust unions--they are public-spirited billionaires who are trying to help us out.
When I mentioned the Koch Brothers to one of the speakers, she denied that the Brothers ran Americans for Prosperity. How stupid do they think we are?
Incidentally, in the 2012 election, the ten biggest unions spent a combined total of $153,473,251. The Koch Brothers alone spent $412,670,666.
Should this ever get passed it should also eliminate deductions for everything and I mean everything. That way they would save tons of money as they claim it would.
ReplyDeleteImagine if one had to pay all these items themselves. What a mess.
I certainly think United Way should be worried.
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