RUSH: Folks, I tell you, this thing in Wisconsin is getting interesting, and it’s seminal. This is a seminal moment for the union movement, the labor union movement. If , by chance, the whole concept of public sector unions are blown up, that is effectively the end of unions. In the private sector they make up 8% of the population, 8% of the workforce is private sector unionized. It’s about, what, 13% total if you add government employees. And what’s happening, Rasmussen has polling data out there, the independents, these precious independents, a sizable majority support the Republican Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin. This morning on the Fox Business Network, Varney & Co. show, Stuart Varney spoke with Scott Rasmussen about the protests in Wisconsin. Varney said, ‘What about the independent voter? That’s a key swing voter in American elections these days. Where do they stand on Governor Walker’s proposal in Wisconsin?’
RASMUSSEN: Fifty-six percent support the governor. Hardly any support the unions at this point in time. What we’re seeing in independent voters all around the country is a desire to rein in government spending. It’s even a little stronger than it is among some other voters. They’d like to see it cut across all sorts of the federal government. One of the big missing stories in all the debate about the budget is that most Americans are serious about cutting spending; they support specific cuts; they’re ready to make changes. The question is, will their politicians follow?
RUSH: Rasmussen and, everybody knows, the independents in terms of political consultants, these people that hire themselves out, the supposed expertise to get candidates elected, independents is where they go to work every day, the so-called undecideds, the moderates, independents, whatever you want to call them, the 20%, basically that are not ideologically tied to either the Republican or the Democrat Party, and here they are, they’ve been siding with Republicans. They’ve been siding against Democrats is a more accurate way to say this. They’ve been siding against Democrats since the middle of last year and going into the November elections of 2010. And, as this unfolds, they have an indefensible position, school teachers out of work, fake doctors notices, legitimately elected Democrat senators leaving the state, running away from the issue, and what people are going to ultimately understand — and I think they are starting to figure it out — is that public sector unions, by definition, negotiate against the American people. The American people are their boss in a sense.
This is not the same thing as a private sector union going up against big, bad executives at General Motors or big, bad meanies at Big Oil. This is going up against John Q. Public who makes, on average, half of what these government union people are making, and yet John Q. Public is paying that money. Even someone as idolized by the left as Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, that the whole concept of unionizing government employees could not and would not work. You want to hear what FDR said? This is the one time that the left will not quote FDR. ‘All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people.’
The employer is the population of the country. The employer is John Q. Public, Joe Six-Pack, Joe the Plumber, El Rushbo the real radio announcer. We are all their employer. They are demonizing us. Obama, one of their big representatives, demonizes us when it comes time to talk turkey. We are the equivalent of big, bad GM management. We are the equivalent of big, bad Big Oil management. When you hear union people lambaste their bosses and talk about how they have no compassion and they’re always trying to squeeze an extra dollar of blood, dollop of blood, they’re talking about us now, not a bunch of fat cat, cigar-smoking boardroom guys on the golf course half the time. They’re talking about us. We are the big, bad, unfair, evil. We are the whole people.
And as FDR said, ‘The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters. Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees.’ Tell that to Trumka. Tell that to Andy Stern. Tell that to SEIU. Tell that to Obama. These unions that we are talking about are by definition militants, by definition they are agitators, community organizers or what have you. These are the people that show up and beat up black guys at town hall meetings in St. Louis, black guys in wheelchairs. These are the people that showed up at town halls all over the country and intimidated. These are public sector union enforcers, and who are they intimidating? Us. We are, in common parlance, their boss.
As more and more people begin to realize that in these people’s eyes we are the equivalent of all those horrible, rotten fat cat management types against whom the salt of the earth workers have gone on strike against year after year after year, you see, this is what Ronaldus Magnus knew. He fired the air traffic controller union workers because they, A, violated the law, they were not allowed to strike. But, B, they were striking against the citizens, the citizens are the whole people. Again, FDR, ‘Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees. Upon employees in the federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of government activities.’ This is not all what’s happening. Now these people in the public unions, particularly their leaders, they have been running a scam, they have been gaming the system. They have inserted themselves, essentially, into this huge pile of tax revenue every year that rolls in and they’re simply making a claim on it via intimidation and militancy. Rather than go to work, get a job and earn it, they have inserted themselves, and they’re not the only ones that do this, by the way.
There’s a reason why Arlington, Virginia, and surrounding counties in DC are the wealthiest in the country and are not experiencing any recessionary effect, ’cause all those people got their hands in the till somewhere, somehow. But they have gamed the system, scammed the system, under the guise of public service. This event is revealing who they really are. They aren’t teachers. They are people who have gamed the system in an attempt to be paid for very little work, and then after doing very little work, retire and get all of their pension and health care paid for by us. It’s being revealed that’s the game, that’s the purpose here. And the leaders, of course, get the union dues, the big salaries, 500 grand a year, what have you, lots of power. Trumka has access to the Oval Office two to three times a week. Obama, by his own admission — we’ve got the sound bite coming up — Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO, meets with Obama more than his cabinet.
Again, FDR, a reminder, ‘Upon employees in the federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.’ FDR, patron saint of the American left. So what we have here, folks, is a giant expose taking place in front of everyone’s eyes. The truth is being revealed about public sector unions.
What got me started on this was the Reverend Jackson saying that Wisconsin is a Martin Luther King moment and a Gandhi moment. And within a limited context, the Reverend Jackson is right. It is a MLK moment for American taxpayers in the sense that it could be said that we have a dream that one day all Americans — independents, taxpayers alike — will rise up and take their country back from greedy public servants. The voters put in office representatives who serve them, not public sector unions. But who is being served? Whose interests are paramount? Whose interests trump those of the country and those of you, the whole people? The public sector unions. And the public sector unions are in the process here of being busted. If that happens, political payoffs to Democrats stop. My friends, that’s why Trumka and Obama and Sweeney cannot allow this to happen. They cannot allow Walker to win this. They cannot. They’ll cave on the 5.8% increase in pension contributions, 12-point whatever it is percent on health care, they’ll cave on that, but the collective bargaining stuff, this could be Egypt. This could be Khadafy.
By the way, speaking of Khadafy. I want to know, how do you spell his last name? There must be 32 different iterations. And until he can figure out how his last name is spelled I don’t want to spend much time talking about him. Do you see he made a big appearance today, he wasn’t in Venezuela, he’s in Tripoli, and he spoke from the unrepaired, bombed-out home where Reagan hit sometime in the eighties after a particular terrorist act. He made it a point to speak from this decrepit, bombed out, unrepaired home of his to show something or other.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Orlando, Florida. This is Patrick. Hello, sir. Wonderful to have you on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Well, thanks for taking my call, Rush. I appreciate it.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: Hey, I just wanted to say how proud I am of these governors standing their ground. They’re quite obviously not worried about getting reelected. They’re just worried about getting the job done that they’re hired to do.
RUSH: Yeah, I totally agree. In fact, I remember talking to a lot of people last week when the situation in Wisconsin started — and maybe you’re like this, too. ‘Gee, we hope he sticks to his guns now that he’s started down this road. We hope he doesn’t cave on any of this,’ and he’s not.
CALLER: I hope he doesn’t. I hope they don’t give up any concessions, either. What they’re asking for is completely fair.
RUSH: Fair, yeah, but it’s also, ‘Hey, the realities of the world are this: We are broke. You know, we don’t have the money to pay you what you’ve been earning, and we cannot continue to keep you employed if you are going to demand this kind of compensation, especially after you’ve retired and are no longer working.’ They’re talking about busting the union. ‘He’s out to bust the union!’ In the old days, busting the union, that was not good. Bust the union? Why, that was wielding power over the unfortunate working guy, the guy who took a shower after work. Today, busting the union is met with, ‘Yeah! You go, dude,’ particularly these public sector unions. Look, FDR… We hearken back to his quotes.
Folks, let me tell you, this is not insignificant. This is the patron saint of liberalism today, FDR. (It’s a toss-up, you know, Marx and FDR, but they shower each with affection.) FDR, what did he know when he said unionizing government workers can’t work? What did he know? No, he knew it would turn people against government, and that was the last thing he could put up with. FDR, people like FDR need people loving, respecting, almost treating government as though it’s the next thing to God. The last thing FDR wants is people hating government.
That’s why government gives away everything. Government Social Security, retirement, welfare, health care, all this. Get people loving government and the people who run it, i.e., Democrats. He knew that once the people of the country start paying government workers more than they are earning themselves. The last thing he wanted was to turn people against government. That would be the end of liberalism, that would be the end of FDR, that would be the end of Democrat Party. That’s what he knew. But the greed of this crop of Democrats ignored the warning.
Their hubris is such that they don’t care if we hate the government because government’s now a big boot. Listen to Obama, listen to Sheila Jackson Lee, whoever it is. ‘We’ll put their boot on their throats! Put our boot on their throat. We’re a boot on the throat of Big Oil’ or whatever. They don’t care. They want us to fear government. FDR knew that if we turned against government, that was akin to turning against him and the Democrat Party. But if you are the party of government and people hate the government, where are you? That’s what he knew.
Here’s Kelly in Southern California. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Good morning, Rush. How are you?
RUSH: Very well. Thanks el mucho.
CALLER: I’ve listened to you for many years and I want to say I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, but I do have a different spin on this, being that, you know, my husband is a police officer here in California. And before we go after the American citizens that are working these positions and living paycheck to paycheck, when are we gonna tackle the illegal immigration that is decimating states like California? Our budget deficit is exactly the amount that we fork out to illegal immigrants in this state.
RUSH: Yeah. Yeah. Well, again, I don’t know who you’re asking the question of but I can tell you who you should be asking the question, and it certainly isn’t me.
CALLER: I understand. (laughing)
RUSH: Democrat Party, ma’am. Democrat Party.
CALLER: Well, it just seems to me we’re more focused on —
RUSH: Democrat Party, and there are some RINO Republicans who are also big on illegal immigration, amnesty and all that. But, you know, the open borders crowd, wherever you find ’em, that’s who you need to ask this question of. In the meantime, Scott Walker, he’s got a pressing matter: His budget right now. He’s gotta deal with that first and foremost and what’s causing it.