Bernie Sanders Knows His Class Warfare

I saw this on a friend's facebook page today.  It infuriated me because I know this friend to be a conservative, yet even he was buying into this demonization of the rich.  This statement is a big load of garbage!!  The deficit was caused by the government spending spending spending money it does not have...not by tax breaks for the wealthy.  The wealthy are the job creators in this country and their businesses are what grow the economy.  If people keep buying into this "evil rich" villainization, they're going to painfully find out just how bad the economy and unemployment can be.  The lefties love to start class warfare at every corner.  It allows them to rally the poor and lazy welfare collectors and government subsidy leeches who will aggressively vote for whoever promises them a free ride!!!

A Brief History of the Public Sector Unions That Are Bleeding America Dry With the Full Support of the Democrat Party

This is an amazing article which explains unions in such a simple manner, even a liberal can understand it:

Throughout American history -- and as recently as the 1950s -- there were no unions for government workers. Public-sector employees were expected to earn a bit less than their private-sector equivalents. The reasons they did so included an interest in public service, job security and reasonable benefits.

But that changed in the late fifties with New York City Mayor Robert Wagner's cynical appeal to the votes of city workers. He signed an executive order authorizing them to unionize, and soon other local and state Democrat legislators around the country followed his lead.

These efforts culminated in 1962, when President John F. Kennedy granted federal employees the right to collectively bargain. Since then, public sector union membership has skyrocketed while, in the private sector, unions have fallen out of favor.

In 2009, private sector union members were outnumbered for the first time by their public sector counterparts.

The historical basis of unions revolved around workers receiving a reasonable share of a company's profits. But that tenet is nonsensical when applied to public service. Governments don't make profits; they simply assess taxes.

The aims of public sector unions conflict directly with the interests of taxpayers.

And because it has been exceedingly hard to fight public sector unions, the salaries and benefits of public employees have skyrocketed in recent years. Since the election of Barack Obama, the number of federal employees making over $150,000 a year has more than doubled to over 10,000.

In 2009 government salaries jumped 2.4%, approximately twice the increase earned by private sector employees. In fact, the average salary of a federal worker is now $71,000, about $22,000 more than the average private sector employee.

Worst of all, public sector unions have negotiated pension plans that are proving financially untenable. Many allow workers to retire at age 55 at around their full salary in their final years of employment. These pensions often include inflation adjustments as well as lifetime free health care.

These plans are so outrageous that state retirement systems, for example, are currently underfunded by about a trillion dollars.

So how have public sector unions achieved these amazing results? The answer is hundreds of millions of dollars, the approximate amount that unions have contributed to federal campaigns since 1990. Almost every dollar went to Democrats or Democrat causes. In the 2008 election alone, some estimates put public sector union contributions to Democrats at $60 million.

These unions are also astroturfing for Democrats, providing slush funds to help liberal causes. An example is ThePartyIsOver.org, a faux populist website designed to discredit TEA Party activists.

The Democrats' health care bill, the 'Employee Free Choice Act' and the $800+ billion stimulus bill all contained payoffs to public sector unions. In fact, while the private sector has shed 7,000,000 jobs since the recession began, the number of public sector jobs has risen every month.

Public sector unions are killing our economic system and the American taxpayer. The debt unleashed by their outrageous benefits plans simply cannot be paid. The union bosses have lied to their members about lifetime benefits and they have betrayed the American people. Public sector unions must be disbanded and outlawed before our country resembles Greece, Spain and other European countries that are teetering on the brink of destruction, thanks to unions just like ours.

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/02/illustrated-history-of-public-sector.html

Based upon: Amy H. Laff, StateBrief.

A Sample (My response to the mortgage company bailout)

I don't have a degree in economics, but I understand a few things. The rules of free market capitalism would dictate that there are more than enough investors with the pocketbooks to support the formation of new mortgage/loan organizations. The "new" mortgage companies would buy up the "good" mortgages that are being paid. Individuals with loans which are currently in default would get a little "tough love" lesson in finance and responsibility for actions by being removed from their home, as anyone should be that isn't making their payments.

I would stop making my mortgage payments today if I knew the government would pay my mortgage for me. It's really bad business to take money from Americans who are being responsible with it, and transfer it to Americans who aren't. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that is a bad investment; however, that is exactly what the government has done by bailing deadbeats out with our tax money.