BEHOLD: Mickey Kaus, running against Barbara Boxer in the Democratic primary in CA, and looking like he could possibly be related to Alan Grayson.
Mickey’s a Democrat, which is why I found his editorial on unions to be so completely fascinating. It’s always exciting for me to read about Democrats who don’t automatically fall in line with the pro-union garbage so faithfully churned out by the party.
In his column, Mickey contends that you don’t HAVE to love labor unions to be a “good Democrat,” and even suggests that “It’s time for Democrats, even liberal Democrats, to start looking at unions and unionism with deep skepticism.”
Well, Halleluljah!
Mickey takes a couple of paragraphs to talk about how great unions were back in the day. And you know what? I don’t argue that. I’ve long said that they served a purpose, a useful purpose in fact, but I think they’ve long overstayed their welcome. Just like affirmative action programs.
But the problem is that union growth has placed an undue burden on our economy. Could there BE a better example of that than UAW? Mickey says, rightly so, that we taxpayers had to bail out UAW, and those members didn’t take a DIME of a cut in pay, and they didn’t reduce a single overly-generous benefit. Meanwhile, private industry suffers. Private industry employees (or in many cases ex-employees) suffer. All so union members can continue to suck the system dry.
Mickey writes, “As the private economy has faltered, we increasingly have a two-tier economy: If you’re an insider, a unionized government employee, you’re in good shape. Even if you don’t do a very good job, you won’t be fired. Even in hard times, Washington will spend billions in stimulus funds so that you don’t get laid off. You won’t even have to take much of a pay cut. And you can retire like an aristocrat at taxpayer expense. But if you’re an outsider, trying to survive in a world of $10-an-hour jobs, competing with immigrant labor, paying for your own healthcare, forced to send your children to lousy public schools run by unfireable teachers and $100,000-a-year bureaucrats — well, good luck to you. But be sure to vote Democratic.”
Ain’t that the truth?
But, like Mickey says, you’re not going to hear many Democrats admitting it, because they’re totally latched onto the teat of labor union support/funding. Hopefully he’s right about the eventual outcome, when he writes, “We need nonretired Democrats who tell the unions no. Or else, perhaps after more bankruptcies and bailouts, Republicans will do it for them.”
See ya at the polls in November!
