Meet the Press demonstrated clearly why Republicans and the media want to inject President Obama into Wisconsin.
First, Gregory and others hit on every RW talking point: "no collective bargaining at the federal level," "political contributions by unions," "not a winning issue for Democrats" and trying to inject the President into the protests.
Video:
<...>
MS. STRASSEL: Well, as the governor says, he needs to have a pair of shoes on picketing around Washington, D.C., because federal workers are not allowed any of these collectively bargaining rights that he's talking about there. Look, one of the problems here is that I think the problem for Democrats and unions in this is that it's not necessarily a winning issue here. What's going on in the states is a microcosm of the federal debate, and that is about fiscal responsibility right now. What these governors are saying -- and it's Chris Christie in New Jersey, it's Scott Walker in Wisconsin, it's John Kasich in Ohio...
<...>
MR. TRUMKA: But this isn't about President Obama.
This is why they want to inject President Obama into the debate: to shift it from a state issue to a federal issue so they can ignore the protestors and hold the President responsible for them. Listen to Gregory try to hold Trumka responsible for "Hitler" signs.
Video
Emanuel Cleaver:
<...>
REP. CLEAVER: Let's sue him for breach of promise and move on. I mean, let's -- you know, the reality is that the, the, the president needs to be in Washington dealing with a plethora of issues around the world, not the least of which is Libya. But I want to go back to something that, that you said actually twice, Governor, and, and that is you said, you know, this is -- would be a one-year agreement. The governor was just elected. He'll still be governor in a year. And, you know, the, the, the agreements that we have were not made by Gadhafi. They were made by people who sat down in a room and worked out a, worked out an agreement. And I think labor unions are saying, and, and public sector employees are saying, "OK, you know, maybe things have gotten out of balance. We'll, we'll, we'll reduce some things." The governor is saying, "I don't care." You know, "I want to crush the union."
<...>
More Trumka on Meet the Press: "
Well, first of all, this isn't about the budget crisis"
<...>
MR. RICHARD TRUMKA: . Let's look at how this -- his arguments migrated. First he said it was -- the budget crisis was caused because workers were paid too much in Wisconsin. We now have studies that show they're not overpaid, they're underpaid. In fact, people with a degree in Wisconsin get 25 percent less than their private sector things. Then he said it was about the pension. Now we find out that his pension plan, unlike a lot in the country, is almost fully funded. The assets match the liabilities. And then the employees said, or the members out there said, his workers said, "We'll accept your cuts." And he said, "No. We won't accept your accepting our cuts." And the most outrageous thing that he did, and he talked about this, was he's now saying to them, "You either have to accept a loss of your rights or I'm going to lay you off." Now, no person should have to face the right of their loss of their job or the loss of their rights. I know Governor Barbour would never say to his employees, his people down there, "You either have to give up your rights or you have to give up your job."
<...>
MR. TRUMKA: Well, public employees do take responsibility for it. And those governors that are willing to sit down and work with their employees can actually work out problems. They -- we can solve them. But that's not what Governor Walker is doing. He's saying, "I won't talk to you. I'll talk to all my, my big contributors." He talked to the Koch brothers, he thought. "But I won't talk to employees." Look, the five countries -- or the five states in this country that prohibit collective bargaining by state employees have a collective debt right now of $220 billion. This isn't about employees. This is about the economy.
<...>
Edited to add full roundtable discussion:
Part 1 and
Part 2
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
