Democratic Mayor Chris Doherty's decision to cut Scranton public employees' salaries down the minimum wage will become the "new template" for how American cities treat their workers, The Ed Show's Ed Schultz said on Tuesday.
Doherty's policy, which came into effect last Friday, reduces the salaries of 398 employees to $7.25 an hour. The move was intended to put a dent in Scranton's $16.8 million budget deficit; however, even after dispersing the first round of reduced paychecks, the city still had only $5,000 in its coffers.
John Judge, head of the fire fighters' union local in Scranton, told Ed that the wage reduction "amounts to an 80% pay cut."
His union members are "trying to figure out how they're going to make bill payments," he said.
Doherty has promised that the measure is temporary, but Judge said that he had given no indication how long it would last. "Could this go on for two weeks? Could it go on for a month? Could it go on for two months? So we don't know even how to actually plan for it."
The pay cuts were implemented in violation of a court injunction. In response, the fire fighters and other public employee unions sued Doherty on Tuesday for contempt of court.
"What we're seeing here is the crumbling of America's infrastructure," said Ed. "We don't have the money now to pay for the essentials. And the question is how many fire fighters are going to become disenchanted, get out of the business, get out of this line of work, and leave communities vulnerable. And all of a sudden, we have a new template on how we're going to have public employees service our communities in America."
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"Because it's cops, firefighters and teachers that are killing the economy in this country... not greedy businessmen and corrupt politicians, right? What's next? They going to lower or eliminate minimum wage? Oh, what... the Tea Party Republicans are already working on that!
This is the first step to privatizing law enforcement and fire stations in this country, farming everything out to private corporate contractors who will be more interested in protecting and serving their profit margin than the general public. Fascism: coming soon to a small town near you!"
the state and county where I live raised taxes. sales and property to meet service demands. education, roads/maintanence, sheriffs/cops and on and on. not once but twice on sales taxes. people said A-OK....let's get er done.
poll was taken recently if they liked their county/city(local) govs. hey a resounding A-OK.
what the poll showed in my state is a resounding (((disatisfaction))) with state and federal govs. hey hey hey....guess what party controls the state gov in my state? guess what party controls the federal gov?
how about that. the real people are willing to pitch in and get er done and the top keeeeeeeps complaining..............
The last time I checked, there was a Democrat sitting in the White House and the Democrats controlled the Senate. Sounds like the people in your state are upset with the Democrats.
How high do you raise the taxes?
just saying...
yep....they are upset alright....again let it in....the repubs control the state gov here where I'm at and people ain't happy....especially independents.
now go back to DC and see who's rating is lower than a snake can crawl.....
ya see, stormin....the working class....of the lower end can and do pull together to get things done.
again....the top does nothin but cry.............stormin......
Thanx gwb/cheNay for putting America into Such a HOLE - BassTurds !!!!! I Say that these governors and senators Need to Drop their wages down to Minimum Wage and Give-Up ALL of Their Benefits and Bonuses -- IF They Are Really concerned about reducing the deficits in ALL of OUR States !!!!!
hey MD/MI! how's the gnats???????
hey I was upgraded by the trolls to be titled a "ignorant liberal turd"!
hmmmm.....what next....opened minded liberal turd?
funny is that I'm independent registered.....oh my ribs....I'm a Rhino!
Hey hes - Screw those Turds/gnats - Their Opinion Matters NOT - but If they are making Personal attacks toward you -- Report Them !!!! After-All Your Political Affiliation Is NONE of Their Business !!!! They Are TOOOO Ignorant to be Open-Minded !!!!
OMG. Laurel #1. I thought I was crazy to think things were heading that way. How horrible are the people behind all this?
hes, I would consider that a compliment.
This is beautiful
Unions are bankrupting so many cities with their lavish retirement plans that even Democrat mayors are forced to take drastic measures
If it wasn't for the unions, you wouldn't be making what you are making an hour. When union workers went to work for better conditions, paid holidays, over-time, sick leave, etc, those benefits went to everyone working union or non-union.
How would you like your pay cut by 80%? This is not the 19th century.
So because once upon a time unions was useful and they did some good for workers they have the right to bankrupt cities
Here we go again with blame the union bull@!$%#, broken record of the GOP since 1979. If you are going to blame anyone for your job loss then blame the fat cat CEO who decided it was cheaper to move to China then it was to stay in the US. Funny how since 1980 with Reagans attacks on unions and deregulation's that encouraged outsourcing after 34 years of supply side economics that took the US off the industrial based economy and put the US on a service economy none of which had anything to do with the unions, what do nit wits do, blame the union. Get real your are the reason your factory job left, you voted against your own interests and now you are whining and pointing fingers everywhere but at yourself. Oh and your NAFTA whines are laughable, a GOP bill passed by a GOP controlled congress and signed by Clinton, but it wasn't Clinton who enacted NAFTA that would be the guy you voted for in 2000 GWB who on his first day in office enacted NAFTA without the protections Clinton had signed into the bill. But then you only want to play the blame game and not look at how things got the way they are.
Are you a real person or are you one of those tea bagged republicans lost in the paranoid delusional land of Ronnie I don't know who I am Reagan.
Oh Blame it on the unions. The less people make, they less they pay in taxes! Contemplate that! How much did they cut !% and corporate taxes? Hum!
Come on Ed. Ya know your mom was not grading papers at 3 AM only to get back up at 5:30 AM to be ready for another class at 7 AM. Let's save the BS for the Republican Party, OK. Do not bring us down to their level with their exaggerations and lies.
Firemen and policeman are putting their lives on the line for that minimum wage. They may as well go to work as a bus boy. They'd make more money.
Ha what a joke! Trashing the mayor for what he has to do? Newsflash people cities can't print money, borrow and defecit spend like Congress. They have a finite amount of resources and that is it, they have nothing more than that, there is no real assistance. What they have is what they have so that means if they don't make cuts there are ZERO firefighters and police, etc. Zero. They choice but to make cuts otherwise they can not pay for vital service entirely.
So if you want to do down that train if they don't make cuts to emergency and every other service that service will cease to exist. So if someone has a plan on what the mayor should have done I'm all ears and guess what not making cuts is not an option. Anybody got a better plan?
How 'bout instead of attacking the Mayor for doing what little he can to fix things how 'bout you talk about the people who resist giving the cities the tax revenue they need to support their vital services.
This is the type of lunacy I expect to see from the republicans. Denying the facts of what simply must be done. You saw it on the debt ceiling and apparently people have decided to imitate the tea party with this attack.
Stop acting like the tea party!
And as I recall the mayor also took the very same paycut did he not? If that is not shared sacrifice I don't know what is. So once again anyone with a better idea for the mayor and I repeat not making cuts is not one of those options. That is the way politicians in his position should act.
If shared sacrifice is wrong than you've got tea party shared stupidity.
good post put i have one question would you have said the same thing if it was a republican mayor who did this ?
Well naturally I'd defend anyone who did this in the same circumstance however personally I must admit I doubt a republican mayor would cut his own salary which is really the part I respect most
So what Mittens is still a turd and you know it because you were running around saying Anyone but Mittens please.
I'm sorry but you can't say a thing about Hollywood when Reagan was one of those Hollywood types you whine about. But then we all know that when it comes to the tea baggged republican everything IOKIYAR, so enjoy you @!$%# sandwich because no matter what you try to cover up the smell Mittens is still a turd.
OK Henry-6224410 (i.e. paid commenter) Generally I don't fall into the Rs vs Ds issues; however, what you just said is RIDICULOUS. I'm against any and all fatcats using government subsidies (direct or tax reducing) to further screw us little guys, but the question about "how many jobs have Hollywodd fatcats created?" which implies they do not create jobs is incredibly uninformed. Hollywood creates thousands, tens of thousands of jobs EVERY DAY! Check out the size of Disneys, NBC, CBS, Sony, payrolls and then try to tell me they do not craete jobs with a straight face. Your comment is spewing talking points and NOTHING ELSE!
fail. KHBS in Ft Smith AR is NOT Hollywood. Try again.
Secondly, do you not understand the reason there are jobs with no benefits is due to the economic planning of the moneyed elites starting with their pawn Reagan making it so there are less PRIVATE sector REAL jobs with living wages and benefits. However, State and Federal government jobs have increased by about 250% since Grover Norquist started calling it "Starving the Beast". Guess who was behind most of the increase in government employment from 1979 to 2009(hint, it wasn't Clinton, and it ain't Obama)?
30 years later the plan is to call all the public sector employees nasty union workers so the private sector workers can go around saying, "lookie there, they have more salary, benefits, pension than I do, so we need to take that away from them". And since it is "government jobs" and "government workers" who are supposed to be considered lazy and do nothings after 30 years of propaganda then it justifies in the minds of SOME PEOPLE that firing or reducing the pay/benefits of these workers will solve YOUR problems. This is called "the race to the bottom" which is the race America is currently winning thanks to the policies of our lawmakers (BOTH parties) who are only doing the bidding of corporate America.
Look around, if you make less than $350,000/year and vote Republican, you are voting against your better interests as well as your family and neighbors better interests.
Before the nasty pay your own way comments start, I am not a union worker, nor is any of my immediate family, however, my mother was an educator in a "right to work for less" state for 35 years and I see how much their teachers union went through to ensure that they would have proper pensions.
FZKnew. You are right. We are winning the race to the bottom and now the GOP are, in my state, PA, trying to keep 788.000 people from voting. I think there is going to come a time when their takeover is complete. Now I think it is sooner rather than later and how can they be stopped?
You see what the righties and trolls say and believe. There is no reasoning with the T-Party types. It's all Obama's fault. That's their mantra.
Do you think we can hope Obama gets reelected? He seems to be on the side of the 98% of us.
India LeCarre
FZKnew stands for "Frank Zappa Knew". I was a huge fan of his back in the 70s and 80s. He and his music are much misunderstood. His lyrics from "the Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" are prescient:
Some take the bible
For what it's worth
When it says that the meek
Shall inherit the Earth
Well, I heard that some sheik
Has bought New Jersey last week
'N you suckers ain't gettin' nothin'
Is Hare Rama really wrong
If you wander around
With a napkin on
With a bell on a stick
An' your hair is all gone...
(The meek shall inherit nothin')
You say yer life's a bum deal
'N yer up against the wall...
Well, people, you ain't even got no
Deal at all
'Cause what they do
In Washington
They just takes care
of NUMBER ONE
An' NUMBER ONE ain't YOU
You ain't even NUMBER TWO
Those Jesus Freaks
Well, they're friendly but
The @!$%# they believe
Has got their minds all shut
An' they don't even care
When the church takes a cut
Ain't it bleak when you got so much nothin'
(So whaddya do)
Eat that pork
Eat that ham
Laugh till ya choke
On Billy Graham
Moses, Aaron 'n Abraham...
They're all a waste of time
'N it's yer a** that's on the line
(IT'S YER A** THAT'S ON THE LINE)
Do what you wanna
Do what you will
Just don't mess up
Your neighbor's thrill
'N when you pay the bill
Kindly leave a little tip
And help the next poor sucker
On his one way trip. . .
SOME TAKE THE BIBLE. . .
(Aw gimme a half a dozen for the hotel room!)
Words and music Frank Zappa, From "You are What You Is" 1981;Barking Pumpkin Records
Ah no those who don't practice what they preach are called republicans. Always expect others to do what they won't do themselves. Just like capt america has no trouble collecting 2 government pensions nor did one of you tea bagged republicans call him over it in fact you said he was entitled to those handouts.
OK, Henry, I'll bite on this one: If you include the computer manufacturers as part of the entertainment industry: (most facts came from: www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/ )
Steve Jobs/Steve Wozniak- Millions of dollars worth of computers given/offered/granted to education during the 80s and 90s
Bill Gates Foundation: (not my favorite) BUT tens of millions given to education and AIDS research
Stephen Spielberg: Millions given, mostly anonymously, to Childrens charities and has created 3 foundations, such as the RPF (Righteous Persons Fund) which he started after Schindlers list and gave most of the profits from that movie to RPF.
Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt: Millions given to charity , re: According to tax records, the couple donated more than $8 million to charity in 2006 alone.
Matt Damon/George Clooney: Mr. Damon has backed many protests against the wars in Darfur. Along with Clooney, they have raised more than £4.5 (~5.5 Million USD) million for Darfur
Richard Branson (Virgin ENTERTAINMENT): In 2006 at Bill Clinton's Global Initiative in New York, Branson pledged all proceeds from Virgin Group’s transportation divisions be donated to develop alternative fuel sources and alleviate global warming. His pledge amounts to about $3 billion over ten years.
Soo, ranting without facts is like pooping without toilet paper-messy!
You have no knowledge about facts of American Business. Yes, FoxCon makes the Apple products in China. Apple isn't the ONLY company making products and shipping jobs overseas, in fact, they were one of the last as until the late 1990s ALL their products said manufactured in Cupertino CA. Jobs wanted to keep the plants here, but couldn't compete. Is that the only example you wish to use on my rebuttal to your Hollywood CEOs rant? FAIL
Do you think the percentage of total income that the Romneys gave to charity vs the Obamas is larger? I would like to say you would be incorrect, but we, the American People (yes, THAT we the people) do not know what Rmony is worth, because he is the first presidential candidate since George Wallace NOT to release his tax returns.
My question to you, Henry, is repetitive to this thread, but it bears repeating: Do you make less than $350,000/year ? Do you vote Republican?
IF SO: you are voting against yours, your families, and your neighbors better interests.
BTW, when, in ANY of my posts in this thread have I played the race or gay card? You got it right, I am playing the class card, because, as Warren Buffet famously said: "There's class warfare, all right," Mr. Buffett said, "but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." From: www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html
As a very smart person puts it: "they only call it classwarfare when we fight back!" Quote attributed to: "Ministry of Truth", Jesse LaGreca
I thought thats what the stimulus Obama did in 2009 was suspose to do . Oh no has the well ran dry? Maybe he can do another stimulus to make payroll. Isnt this the very reasom some governors didnt want to take stimilus money? Wait till all the coat of the health care law kicks in. The well will run dry eventualy.
And what do ya' that's what it did. Many felt that like everything else Obama has done he caved too much to in the false hope of compromise and didn't make it quite large enough.
To my knowledge no governor refused any stimulus money. Like Rick Perry who accepted a ton of money to fill the budget holes which he later took credit for all while trashing the stimulus that allowed him to do it.
When the healthcare law kicks in the CBO has told us it will save hundreds of billions in consumer costs.
I dont think the heathcare law is going to save money but thats just my lay opinion. Alot of governors did want to reject the money, but they couldnt. They pedicted that if you just borrowed money to make the payroll that in a few years we would be right back in the same boat except we would owe the money we borrowed. I cant blame Perry for trying to fixed his budget thats actualy very responsible of him. Hoepful the CBO is right and the health care law will save us. Just out of curosity has the CBO every been right?
perry used the stimulus funds that were meant for medicaid for children and education and used it to make himself look good to the morons in this state by filling his huge deficit he created in the first place, then turned around and cut medicaid and 4 billion from education laying of thousands of teachers. what you call 'responsible', i call a self serving pos.
Your right he could have spent it on education and medicade but then the state would be broke for not paying down its budget. Look at all the cities thats goiing under they didnt pay down their budget so I guess its what ever your take on reality is. Bottom line the stimulus was borrowed money it didnt create anything, so when the moneys gone your having to do what you should have done 3 years ago and cut back. Well the gov could borrow a couple of trilion and dish that out to the states but Perry would probaly do the same thing being that thats the economical responsible thing to do.
apparently you cant see the trees for the forrest. look around you. if you see new roads, bridges, basic infrastructur improvments in the last few years in your city chances are it was paid for with stimulus dollars which put ppl to work. in fact 246,000 jobs a month worth. as for rick oops perry? the deficit we had was his own doing, then tries to hide with stimulus funds and to hell with healthcare for children, and who needs education anyway?....careful,your teabgger is showing
The truth of the matter is that police and fireman are overpaid and over compensated thanks to our politicians and public sector unions.
I'll give you an example. A district fire chief retires after 34 years of service at age 57. He can run out his sick leave and vacation time at full salary till retirement date. In his case 1 year. That's pretty close to $80,000 in our city. Then he can do what they call fallback. His retirement can be based on 30 years as opposed to 34 years. His monthly check will be a little less but he will walk away with 4 years salary in one lump sum. ($320,000).
We aren't finished yet. A fire district cannot go with out a chief for the year that he is off with sick and vacation time. The city cannot hire or promote a new chief because old chief is still on payroll. So they have temporary chief for each shift. Well you can't be temp chief with out receiving chief pay, so for a year we as taxpayers are paying two chief salaries.
Pretty sweet deal. Do you know of any private sector blue collar jobs that receive this type of compensation? This is just one example out of many.
Thank your public sector unions and your politicians for negotiating such contracts. The well is starting to run dry!!!
And you are over paid by Koch industries you should only get 1 cent per post because 5 cents a post is to much for what you write. Here is a clue the next time your home or business gets broke into see how much that costs you when there are no police around to help you. Foolish tea bagged republicans always want but never willing to pay, just have their hands out whining life aint fair.
always want never willing to pay. you got that right whom. I know a couple that own a business. my dughter to be exact. trained her well to be a die hard republican when I was in the fold. oh well now I'm a traitor....Rhino!
anyways....we were having a lively discussion about taxes. she said I don't want to pay any taxes. great I says. let me know when to pick you and the hubby up and I'll get some cold patch and we can patch the highway to your business.
Dad! was the answere..........oh well...........some body has to fix it for nothin if no one is payin taxes I says............
Hes that is always the tea bagged republican way whine about taxes yet scream when police or fire department doesn't respond fast enough for them.
funny how that works in California almost every year at summer time. no liberal bashing in the hills then...........
Whomy & Hes. I've paid taxes for more years than you probably have lived. I just feel that public sector workers are overpaid and over compensated compared to the private sector. I know you have a hard time understanding that. I just want to pay my fair share. Isn't that the libtard's motto.
Don't know much do you. Who cares what you think peoples labor is worth, I'm sure you wouldn't want anyone telling you that your work isn't worth what you are being paid for it. I also doubt you put your life on the line every time you go to work. So really how much should a job that carries a high risk of injury or death be worth in your opinion.
We have voluntary fire dept here and if my house burns down i have an insurance policy thet will cover replacing the house.
High rolla paraphrased: "I've got mine, you go get yours"!
In California, public employee pensions account for 3% of the total state budget. The fastest growing part of the California state budget? Tax loopholes for corporations. Two years ago, Schwarzenegger gave out a $2 billion tax loophole, or 2% of the overall state budget. Every year. I pay 8% of my salary into my pension system. The school district matches it but they don't pay the Social Security payroll tax of 6.25% so effectively, I pay 75% of my pension costs and the average pension investment returns of 8% or more do the rest. The average teacher pension is $3,000 with the average retirement age of 61 after working 30 years. 70% of our retired teachers are women and 60% are single women. These pensions are not bankrupting the state. What is? Wall Street's greed and recklessness. They got bailed out. Your 401k went down just like every other investment thanks to the banks and investment firms betting on the derivatives. Where is the bailout for California schoolchildren? Teachers are taking pay cuts to subsidize public education and keep the schools open. We love our jobs because we love our students and want to see them do well. That's just how it is. Not looking for a medal, but I am tired of the politicians and others who thrash public education and then do not adequately fund it because they want to privatize it with charter schools so their corporate buddies can take it over and make billions off of schools. And, then politicians proceed to tell us how to do our jobs as if they know anything at all about learning. When I go under the knife, I am not arrogant enough to tell the surgeon how to perform the procedure.
Ken, Is this lack of tax revenue ( a la Grover Norquist and the T-Party) which the GOP insists upon, a plot to starve all government workers to the point of having to privatize EVERYTHING? I mean, we can't have cities without firemen and Police!
I don't get their thinking! You can't run a country this way! Where I live we have NO police and have to call the state police and wait for them. Only certain days can we have local police. That's pretty crazy.
Ken, the terminator wanted like crazy to grab the CalPers but thank GOD they were smart enough to pass laws that they couldn't grab it!
CalPers is well managed without the terminators...............
Once again the unions are at fault. Can not blame this on the GOP, this is all Democrats doing this. On more thing if they keep power it will happen to the whole country. Please pray for our great nation to survive the Obama Regime. Maybe we can survive I hope so.
If the city has no money, then there checks would bounce....I feel sorry for them, but I lost my job of +20 years in health-care..Soon as the obamacare past the medical center laid off 400 of its workers stating because of the new law we have to cut services.. So don't cry that your wages are down, I went from good money to nothing, so cry me a river....This is just the beginning of what's to come......we have no money and you think you wait long at the doctors office now, you better bring a lot more magazines to read the wait just got longer..
Amen brother. I get tired listening to these government workers and libtards cry. It's about time they joined the real world.
Oh really like you have a clue about the real world, here is a clue you are a tea bagged republican protecting tax cuts for the wealthy and paying for it believing you will be wealthy some day and will need those tax cuts, a lie made up in the mind of an insane delusional person suffering from dementia.
Once again Whomy, you prove yourself not to have a clue about the real world. All you do is call childish names like a 6 year old. That is your age, right.
Other...6 year olds across the country are upset with your comparison...
just saying..
Really except here is your first clue this is not free republic nor is it Fox news. Really that you have such an over inflated ego based on paranoia and delusions fed to you by Glen Beck, OxyRush and all the other morons out there you tea bagged republicans listen to. That you tea bagged republicans get banned then come back under new names as well as making up more then 1 vine account to make people believe there are more of you then there really is, just to repeat the same exact nonsense that you spin 6 ways to sunday, really if anyone on the vine doesn't live in the real world it is you tea bagged republicans and you get treated how you act and buddy 99.9% of you tea bagged republicans act like spoiled 3 year olds who don't get their way. That is your fault, you are treated the want you treat others, so don't blame us for using your head games back at you. For one stupid GOP talking points are just for stupid people who aren't smart enough to think for themselves. Really every tea bagged republican who posts here sounds like a GOP robo call.
Whomy, You are delusional! Yep 6 yr old blabering idiotcy. All you can do name call, blame tea party, blame repubs, blame anybody but yourself. Get a life. Oh by the the way, in one of your rants, you said that fire and police put there life on the line everyday and should be paid for it. I'm a Vietnam combat vet so don't give me any of your crap. I did for $200.00 a month. You probably haven't gotten out of your Mothers basement yet.
Really is that the best whine you can come up with. What you think that gives you a free pass to spread you asinine GOP talking points. Really I get so fed up with tea bagged republican trolls trying to use military services as some kind of get out of responsibility for my asinine misinformation card. What we owe you a pity party or something.
I have a free pass for my GOP talking points just like you do for your libtard talking points. The big difference is I actually fought for the right for both of us to do this. What have you done? Nothing I'll bet. Unless your mommy tells you can.
Except you know very little about me or my life or what I do. Why? Because it isn't anyones business and the only ones who seem to think that military service or business experience gives them a free pass are those who have done neither. The only way you could prove that you did serve is if you gave your name rank and service number, which you will not do. Why would we need yo to provide that, simple, you are a dishonest person that comes in here to educate liberals who are not prone to paranoid delusional emotional GOP propaganda which is all you ever post.
Now Whomy, Why would I post such personal information on a public web site? Sure you don't want my social security number too. I'm sure I have more honesty in my little finger than you have in your whole body. I can tell from your libtard posts that you are quite immature and childish.
unions are like land lines post office newspapers not needed anymore
Tea bagged republicans are like cave men, they should just die off and go extinct because like the cave man they only eat @!$%# and procreate while scavenging of the work of others.
hey I got to tell all them tred flag people at the post office gettin their mail the righties here say those tred flag are out of touch...........
when you have the CEO of duke energy making 44mil in one day and the fire department of scranton will have to take a 80% pay cut, i think something is wrong here and it isnt the unions.. the rich have there own fire department (see colorado wild fires) private security and education.. do you seriously think they give a s*** about you and your family?? money is being dumped into wars and cities here are bankrupt.. and you people still think its the unions fault..you cant sell anything to people with no money.. keep cutting wages and racing to the bottom and there wont be a middle class...quit blaming unions for your stupidity
you got it John. priorities of the middle class. we are our own worst enemy and the top know it..........the herd fighting at the water hole.........while the lions watch........
John Farrand, You are spot on. Why, why, why can't these righties see that? And He's back, that's a good analogy! That is exactly what it feels like.
I just read Bill Press's book, The Obama Hate Machine. It tells how these toxic talkers are lying and propagandizing the right-wing. If they read it, they'd see how they are being duped. But you can't get them to face the facts. The Koch brothers hands reach far and wide; they are running everything. Now they are buying the election for Romney. He's going to do some serious bending over when it comes time to pay these freaks off.
Talking Point....blah blah blah, Union Thugs....blah blah blah....Teachers, Firemen and Policemen are making too much money, wahhhhhhh, blah, blah.........(how much do Corporate CEOs make?) Big Government....blah blah blah..........Socialized Medicine....blah blah (ever notice how they never complain about active/retired military-TRI-CARE; or USG (USAA,) or Native Americans (AIHP) receiving 'socialized' medicine?) Fascists...........Nazi............Communist......blah blah blah
GOT ANY MORE TALKING POINTS Henry?
henry-6224410 (paid commenter):
You just PROVED my point! Priceless!
Give us some more talking points dude, we are now so very amused!
FZ like that somehow military services gives him a free ride and we should be throwing him a pity party.
No where in the report did it say the unions were to blame for the financial crisis. They are on the receiving end and likely have played a role, but leadership certainly had lots to do with the current state of affairs. The unfortunate reality is lots of families will suffer due to the unwillingness of leadership to make the hard choices prior to this point so this could have been avoided. The 398 families are being used as pawns.
Also the complaint isn't about haveing to endure a pay cut it's the way it was carried out. Scranton needs to declare bankruptcy and try to sort this out. Even at the reduced wages the city will fail financially so the question is what is next?
A prime example of beeing top heavy was/is Bell California. was it the regular pay folks or administration goodies that is the problem? let's start at the top and gleen downward for once.
what happens to an outfit when the office has more administration than people doin the work?
He'sback, I remember a term I learned in college, in Anthropology class: Slash and burn.
That is also a good analogy for what the GOP base (which is now the GOP) is doing to America. Slash and burn. I recall that the effects of this were devastating.
you got it India. killing unions is only a cover to kill the minimum wage and kill labor support. like Maddow says, tell me you don't want abortion or whatever, don't tell me you want less gov.
another way of saying it is, don't urinate on my back and say it is raining........
Scranton has had a democratic mayor almost forever. This is the tip of the iceberg,many more cities will be in the same situation.
Here is a clue when those big CEO's pull out of a state to create jobs in China why are you so busy protecting their tax cuts because you are going to suffer the fallout not the wealthy CEO's.
The miserable state of affairs we currently have in this country can be defined by three things:
(1) When the bottom fell out of the economy, somewhere between 2005 & 2008, no one realized just how deep of a hole we had dug ourselves into. The housing bubble bursting, our continued borrowing of money to finance two wars, less money in our federal coffers to pay ordinary bills because of the "Bush Tax Cuts," and the explosion of wall street greed and corruption made for the "Perfect Storm."
(2) We no longer live in an American economy—it's a world economy now, where the "domino effect" has certainly become a reality. What happens to other nations around the world has an effect on the US. We would be wise to carefully watch the efforts and results of other countries around the world who have been embracing strong "austerity measures" in the hope of turning their economies around (such as England—which now has an unemployment rate of 15%!).
(3) Congress must put politics aside and bring to the front what is best for the American people. We currently have a Democratic President and a Republican ruled House of Representatives who, for the last two years, have not been able to work together. In December of 2010, Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, was asked what ideas or goals the Republican party would push for in the near future? Now he could have mentioned many things like, creating jobs, dealing with trade inequities, immigration, our tax code, the Keystone Pipeline, or a myriad of other topics. But he mentioned none of them. He said one thing only... "Our primary goal is to make sure that President Obama is a one-term president." And we wonder why this great nation has, seemingly, run into a brick wall!? Get with the program America—vote Democratic!!!
other than vote Democrat- well said- and pretty well sums up the situation- both parties need to stop what they are doing and sit down and figure this all out- that is at least in theory what they get paid to do-
Another city run into the ground by Democrats and owned by big unions. The problem here is that these pension contracts were set up with out funding. The only state that has a fully funded and solvent public pension fund is Wisconsin. YES, the very state the big unions tried to "protect". Please, leave our state alone, go ruin your own states. As big of a bunch of cry babies the public union employees were over their pensions here in Wisconsin, they are on the most solid ground of any state. The big unions almost succeded in destroying that.
Bless you musician
lol..you ppl are pathetic. think about this at night before you go to bed. if my house was on fire and my family was trapped, would i have peace of mind knowing a fireman that makes minimum wage would risk his life to save my family? think hard now.....
So, what you are saying John is that your public sector union friends at the fire department would be too greedy to do their job and protect your life? What about all volunteer fire departments across the country - I guess you think they are lazy and worthless to?
volunteer fire are not met with day after day fires to fight. its mostly small towns who can't afford to pay firefights so volunteer is their only choice. bad example boy.
At least 90% of all jobs lost are due to one thing. Greed. It's just that simple. A major corporation with a plant here, closed after over 40 years. More than 800 people out of work. There were 3 companies that wanted to buy the plant at above value. The corporation wouldn't sell. It's sat there empty for over 2 years now. The product is now made in Indonisia. I have yet to see ONE item where the company went overseas, and sell their product here, end up less expensive. I've seem cheaper, but not less expensive. Inferior products at a higher cost. Wow, does that tell you anything? Lower wages, material, taxes, etc, but higher priced. Guess where the "extra" profit is going.
The tragedy in Scranton, PA could have largely been alleviated had Congress passed the American Jobs Act in August, 2011 like President Obama asked for. There have also been lots of good bills that would have helped create jobs here in America but have been either filibustered in the Senate or have not come to a vote in the House. The American Jobs Act could have created or saved in the public sector a total of about two million jobs. Our unemployment rate might be at 7% or lower right now had most of these stalled or filibustered bills been passed by the GOP House. The GOP House and Speaker Boehner are also wasting time on trying to repeal the ACA. Instead of "jobs, jobs, and more jobs" all we get from the conservatives is a ballast of bilge.
Rex the problem with the gov borrowing money to make payroll is when the money runs out we will be right back where we stated. Obama did that with the stimulus and it saved alot of public sector jobs, unfortunaly the money is running out. Yes we could borrow another couple of trillion to make the payroll a few more years. Dont worry though as soon as the health care law kicks in fully were going to be saving a fortune and everything will be ok.
So what caused the economic issue for Scranton?
Obama Wants to Bankrupt The Coal Industry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IwuICbZcVk
Scranton, Pa
Scranton is the geographic and cultural center of the Lackawanna River valley, and the largest of the former anthracite coal mining communities in a contiguous quilt-work that also includes Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, and Carbondale. Scranton was incorporated as a borough on February 14, 1856, and as a city on April 23, 1866. Scranton became known as the Electric City when electric lights were introduced at Dickson Locomotive Works in 1880.
Notice the word coal. Now how many plants has Obama shut down in the USA in the last 3 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scranton,_Pennsylvania
There's you answer Sandy. Wonder what is next on the agenda?
Rex your posts are usually well stated and thought out- that said how does it even remotely follow that the Jobs Act would have saved Scranton? There were huge promises of jobs to be created by the original stimulus that did not happen. Not saying we don't need more stimulus- as the fed is out of bullets. I do not know- but likely Scranton has the same problem that my city has- to many promises were made to public sector employees and now there is not enough cash to meet those promises-
No public employees, no taxes, no services! Hum! Problems?
We may have to resort to fending for ourselves. Anybody watch the show on the history chanel called samp people are mountain men. You know it is possible to survive with out Govnment hoding our hands.
Rolla, one thing your post makes me sure of is that spelling and grammar are not well taught in this country!
At least I dont need to know grammer to put food on my table unlike the free loaders who need the gov to pay their bills.
I mean what does grammer have to do with killing gators are bulding a house. No joking dude I hope you have some more skills besides good grammer.
Just another symptom of giving support to Republican policies over the years, vote them out this Nov Vote Dem 2012 !!
Can you imagine if Obama is re-elected the mess he is going to inherit from Obama?