Cairo Coming To America

February 21, 2011
by Bob Livingston

For a time last week, Madison, Wis., resembled Cairo, Egypt as thousands of protesters descended on the Wisconsin capital to protest Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to strip some government workers of some of their rights to collectively bargain. Teachers called in sick and their students marched in protest. Union members bused in protesters for the occasion, and the media said there were as many as 25,000 protestors on hand.

Walker’s battle against the unions is his first step at getting a handle on his State’s budget. The State is short $137 million this year and looking at a $3.6 billion deficit over the next two years.

If Wisconsin were the United States, it would just fire up the printing presses to cover the deficit. But States can’t do that. They must balance their budgets or default.

A scene like the one in Wisconsin may very well come to a State capital near you very soon as States across the country grapple with budget shortfalls. Some State lawmakers are talking about raising taxes, but most of the elected elites on the State and local level recognize that they have pillaged their citizens as much as possible. The folks are bled out, as the saying goes.

So State lawmakers are beginning to make hard choices on cutting services, payrolls and state worker benefits — like the one Walker’s making — that won’t endear them to their constituency… especially the hand-out expecting “gimme, gimmeâ€