You do know that Democrat governors are taking on public sector unions too, don’t you?

http://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-killing-public-sector-unions-2011-2

“US states aren’t allowed to borrow, so their crises are often much more intractable than any other government’s”

I don’t think this can be right. From what I can find Wisconsin owes $44G.

You may find this of interest:

http://www.thebigquestions.com/2011/03/01/wisconsins-smoking-gun/

@2 you have heard of Google?

“What has to be balanced? State balanced budget requirements in practice refer to operating budgets and not to capital budgets. Operating budgets include annual expenditures–such items as salaries and wages, aid to local governments, health and welfare benefits, and other expenditures that are repeated from year to year. State capital expenditure, mainly for land, highways, and buildings, is largely financed by debt. Court decisions and referendums on borrowing have led to the exclusion of expenditures funded by long-term debt from calculations whether a budget is balanced.”

http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=12660

@3 The guy at that link is a rather confused helmet isn’t he. Given that the unions agreed to a pay cut and are striking about something else entirely.

“(US states aren’t allowed to borrow, so their crises are often much more intractable than any other government’s)”

Nonsense. States can borrow and do all the time. You’re confused because the market is called the “muni” market, but it doesn’t apply just to municipalities but to counties and states as well.

What States are not allowed to do is run a budget deficit.

Great speech by Michael Moore addressing the huge rally at Madison on Saturday:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/michael-moore-rallies-thousands-in-madison-america-is-not-broke.php?ref=fpb

He draws many parallels with Egypt.

Since day 4 of Wisconsin protests I’ve been trying to advise protesters here it would be important.

Only the last week have people really been taking notice, and retweeting Wisconsin news.

Wisconsin is working because its workers & citizens affected ny cuts taking the fight directly tu local government and telling them they won’t let cuts happen on the scale on the table. They aglsi won’t allow it whilst at the same time workers rights are being removed.

Jump back over the pond and we’re yet tu have a similar protest take place until 26th March. Almost 6 months since the CSR and over a month since many councils rubber stamped budgets.

We’ve missed our Wisconsin moment, having been too occupied with tax avoidance which even if laws changed won’t plug our deficit/tax gap. At most it would cover 30%.

‘In a situation that has faint echoes even in Europe,’

More than faint echoes Owen:it is looking likely that the Conservative right and big business will push for the rolling back of many labour rights, etc here and Cameron I suspect after his speech on Sunday will be very sympathetic. There were indications of this on Newsnight with a Tory minister saying he will make it easier for businesses to sack people while the ex Lib Dem adviser now of the IEA was calling for even more radical reforms, its not just cuts they have on their agenda.

The question is why are the TUC and the Unions so supine in the face of such dangers?

http://vimeo.com/20715539

You pose a very valid argument; however, your argument is based on the wild assumptions that Union workers have had a “rough” life. In fact, Union workers are being overpaid and have been overpaid for a long time. Americans are fed up with the Union who produce substandard products and have ruined industry. Their selfish ways can be seen in the American Auto industry which today is almost inexistent. Your wild assumptions do not help you in your argument.

@Kelsi:

If you’re not a comment bot, you’ve got bad reading comprehension. If you are a comment bot, someone’s spending big money trying to distort this story.

The right to enter into collective negotiation is a pretty bloody liberal right. I thought one of the key points of libertarianism was that you should be free to enter into any contract you like, including contracting other people to make representations on your behalf, which – broadly – is what a union does. It’s almost as though Walker isn’t a libertarian, merely a shill for corporatism.

@ Adam

Dear Adam,
According to the National Labor Relations Act, which allows workers to engage in collective bargaining, does state that it “governs labor relations for businesses involved in interstate commerce only.” And seeing as the union protesting in Wisconsin are not involved in any interstate commerce there is no valid explanation for the Union’s protests. There is no “attack on the fundamental human right to bargain collectively” for state employees are not included in the NLRA. State employees are getting better benefits and higher pay then comparable higher private sector jobs. This has created an unsustainable burden on the tax payers of Wisconsin. It is time that the Wisconsin state government workers do their part…and if they don’t want to do that, they should find another job.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/collective+bargaining