President Obama and his political rivals in Washington have jumped into the epic battle in Wisconsin between organized labor and the state’s newly elected Republican governor over the rights and benefits of state workers.
Efforts by Scott Walker, the state’s Republican governor, to slash collective-bargaining rights of public employees prompted days of protests at the state capitol by thousands of union workers, fueled and organized in part by Mr. Obama’s own political apparatus in Washington.
Even as Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin fled their own state in an attempt to stall a vote in the Republican-controlled state senate, Mr. Obama decried the tactics of Mr. Walker as “an assault on unions.”
That prompted House Speaker John Boehner to rip into Mr. Obama, accusing him of having “unleashed the Democratic National Committee to spread disinformation and confusion in Wisconsin.”
Mr. Boehner, in a statement, praised Mr. Walker and other Republican governors for making the tough decisions to cut spending. And he chided the president for siding with the wrong side in the contentious Wisconsin debate.
“Rather than shouting down those in office who speak honestly about the challenges we face, the president and his advisers should lead. Until they do, they are not focusing on jobs, and they are not listening to the American people who put them in power.”
The sharp-edged retorts from Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner reflect the broader debate in the nation’s capital as Democrats and Republicans dig in to rigid positions about spending, investment, the deficit and changes to entitlement programs.
In the next two weeks, Democrats and Republicans in Washington are set to play a game of chicken with the federal budget. The government’s authority to spend money runs out on March 4 and could force a shutdown in federal services unless the parties can agree on a new spending plan.
But despite recent calls for bipartisanship and promises to work together in Washington, the standoff in Wisconsin is a preview of how easily discussions could disintegrate into chaos.
For Mr. Boehner, the Wisconsin debate is another opportunity to preach a message of fiscal restraint in the face of demanding unions and government employees. Republican governors in several states, including Wisconsin, have said they must make drastic cuts to deal with huge budget problems.
By jumping quickly to condemn Mr. Obama’s comments, Mr. Boehner explicitly questioned the president’s leadership, suggesting he is unwilling to make the deep sacrifices necessary to put the country on the right fiscal path.
Other Republicans, too, see opportunity in the imagery coming out of Wisconsin. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, who is trying to head off a primary challenge from the Tea Party in his state, praised Mr. Walker and other Republican governors for making “tough choices” in their budgets.
“It is too bad that Washington Democrats are attacking them rather than following their lead,” Mr. Hatch said on Thursday. “President Obama’s comments today were, frankly, way off base. The only assault is from a bunch of self-interested government union employees who are putting their interests ahead of the interests of the Wisconsin taxpayers who have been funding their runaway spending.”
He added: “This is not the way public servants should behave.”
Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman of the budget committee in the House, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison these days.”
For Mr. Obama and the Democrats, the Wisconsin debate provides an opportunity to stand by their supporters in organized labor in a part of the country that is likely to be an important battleground during the 2012 presidential election campaign.
It also allows Democrats to once again raise questions about Mr. Boehner’s willingness to see government jobs lost.
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9 Responses
Obama sent his union rent a mob thugs in there. I saw his website!!! It was right there in the open. I wish someone had the guts to investigate this because this is very dirty!
Who does this guy think he is to get involved in a state matter!? Oh, he is was and will always be a community organizer street thug.
This is NONE of his business!
This is life or death for the Democrats. States that are pro-union all have collasping economies, and those that are anti-union are relatively prosperous. Passage of more state right to work laws leads to the possibility of a federal right to work law, and since union dues are the leading source of campaign contributions for Democrats anything that destroys compulsory union memebership could be a disaster for Obama.
The states would be better off following the federal union model – no compulstory membership, and unions can only bargain on non-economic issues.
The Democratic lawmakers of Wisconsin are saying, in effect, to H-ll with Democracy. To avoid a vote they would lose, they ran away to another state. Why should they be called Democrats? Seems to me they are more like Communists or Middle East dictatorship “lawmakers.”
obama is a disgraceful president.He has teamed up with thugs, acorn, unions, bill ayers, sds, van jones He does not want a smaller government rather a big one. He is being run by the self hating Jew george soros who wants a new world currency and a one world order. It can’t and it won’t work. Instead of states getting back on track obama wants the whole country to go bankrupt so we have caios and then get a new government in charge. Look at this low lifes friends from college still the same marxist thugs today. Jews don’t be stupid this bum has to go
Call the President’s Comment line and remind him, he is not even a citizen of Wisconsin,much less the governor, and there is no reason, in these times, to have unions for public employees. (Investigate the salaries of the union officials themselves.) Also, the plan is not to “slash” benefits but to limit union bargaining to wage issues, not the gravy issues.
No. 3 writes in part: “since union dues are the leading source of campaign contributions for Democrats anything that destroys compulsory union memebership could be a disaster for Obama.”
Check your facts, No. 3. In 2008, the key to the Obama campaign’s financial success was its ability to raise money in small contributions over the Internet. President Obama will do fine in the future as a fundraiser, even if unions are weakened.
If I dont show up to work I wont get paid, so those democratic state senators should not get paid.
The fight in Wisconsin is over 2 issues: (a) cutting government spending, and (b) cutting the collective bargaining and unionization rights of state employees. According to this article, President Obama commented only on the latter issue. Wisconsin’s Governor Walker is trying to cover his and the Republicans’ hostility to unions by tying his attack on union rights to Wisconsin’s budget deficit. It’s a clever political ploy, but it will not solve the Wisconsin budget problem, and neither will House Speaker John Boehner’s attack on President Obama’s support of union rights. Where is that $100 billion in federal budget cuts that Mr. Boehner has promised? No where, because he wants the issue, not a solution to the deficit problem.