Union protests come to New Hampshire

  Barack Obama called Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s attempt to ask state employees to pay a little more into the system they benefit from an “assault on unions.” This one remark has now spurred protests–which have the potential to turn violent, and already have in a few cases–all across the nation, and now New Hampshire has jumped into the fray. Although someone must have forgotten to tell the bused in protesters (New York and Massachusetts buses were seen at this protest) that Concord was the capital of New Hampshire–not Portsmouth–because for some reason they decided to protest away from the capital.

  Some of these people were here to show solidarity with the unions in Wisconsin, while others showed up to protest bills which are being proposed in the New Hampshire State House.

  The New Hampshire House of Representatives recently passed a “Right to Work” bill by a margin of 221-131, and are in the process of debating pension reform because as of right now the state pension fund is a $5 billion unfunded liability. New Hampshire–like virtually every other state in the country–is facing a budget crunch and sacrifices must be made in order to get our out of control spending back in control.

  How many times have we heard the president tell the American people that we must sacrifice during this tough economy if we are to have any hope of turning it around? Yet is has become obvious that when Barack Obama speaks of sacrifice he is excluding people who for the most part vote for Democrats–among those that he feels should be exempted from the sacrifice of which he speaks is union employees. Hence the remark that Scott Walker is assaulting the unions by asking them to sacrifice.

  As I mentioned above; New Hampshire is in the process of debating two bills which will most likely receive the scorn of the president if he once again decides to interfere in a state issue. The first is “Right to Work” legislation, which would give the people of the state the right to choose whether or not they want to join a union. And it makes it illegal for a company to make union membership a prerequisite for employment. Having the right to choose sounds like a very American ideal to me, yet this is seen as an attack on unions. Barack Obama and those who oppose “right to work” legislation somehow feel that taking away a person’s choice is somehow an American ideal.

  As it stands right now, the “Right to Work” legislation is headed to the state Senate where it is very likely to pass. Once this happens it will head to the governor’s desk and he has vowed to veto the legislation. The  221-131 margin by which this bill passed the House is shy of the majority needed to over-ride the veto, but it is close and the governor will be sweating it out as the Republicans look to turn over the votes needed to over-ride the veto.

  As for the pension reform legislation and the draconian cuts that the state employees are being asked to take?

Newly hired workers would pay higher contribution rates under the bill. Police and firefighters would pay 11.3 percent instead of the 9.3 percent current workers pay. Other government workers would pay 7 percent instead of 5 percent.

  They would have to pay TWO PERCENT more towards their benefits than the do right now! And that is only newly hired employees–employees currently on the government teat would see no increase in the cost of their benefits. The bill would also stop state employees from using sick and vacation time to increase the level of their benefits, in other words they would actually have to work for their benefits.

  A union spokesman said it “wasn’t fair” to ask employees to help pay for the unfunded pension plans, but that the burden should fall on the taxpayers instead:

David Lang, president of the New Hampshire Professional Firefighters Association, said local taxpayers may not like it, but it is their bill.

“I know it’s painful,” he said.

  To hell with ’em, that is his attitude. Again we are called upon to sacrifice while those that benefit from our labor don’t feel as if they owe us a damned thing–even during this fiscal crisis and horrible economy.

  Barack Obama told the American people that there was an assault taking place in Wisconsin, and lest we forget that Barack Obama was one of those who called for a new era of civility in the wake of the Arizona shooting, but this violent, soaring, vitriolic rhetoric is nothing new coming from the president. He has been calling for confrontation for quite some time now.

  We now have people protesting in the streets against the very sacrifices that Barack Obama called for in the first place and one has to wonder if this is what he wanted all along. I think somewhere in the White House Barack Obama is sitting down and smiling at how easily he was able to manipulate the American people.