Public Employee Unions Bankrupting States, Collapsing America

By Douglas V. Gibbs

As I turned the corner I saw that the sidewalk along the grounds of Riverside Community Hospital was adorned with SEIU Nurses on strike. People were waving signs demanding more money and more benefits. These people pumped their arms in the universal body language of "hey, big rig, honk your horn," as I drove by. Rather than pull the cord that would sound my horn, I shook my head in disagreement to their efforts.

The fact is, there isn't enough money to give more to the union leaches. In fact, our nation's founding principles run contrary to the conflict of interest that government unions exist under.

The wisdom of the ages that went into the forging of this nation was not decided upon lightly. The revolution began long before the first shots were fired at Lexington Green, and the fight for independence from the centralized tyranny of the British Empire continued to success despite the fact that the American Revolutionaries had suffered defeat after defeat. Some had given up hope, and freedom during those dark hours looked to be an unreachable goal. But liberty, in the end, threw off the shackles of tyranny, and defeated the chains of authoritarianism.

Understanding that a government that is big enough to give everything to the people is one big enough to take everything away, the Founding Fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution with limitations on the federal government. Individuality, personal responsibility, self-reliance, and local control over issues that were best handled locally, went into every word of the U.S. Constitution.

The United States of America began as little more than an alliance of 13 small colonies on a barren continent, thousands of miles from their ancestral homeland, surrounded by hostile powers. Self-government through a representative system that limited the federal powers to only those that protect, promote, and preserve the union, was an expected failure. Collectivism, and centralized government, was the order of the day. The political elite believed that it was they, and they alone, that understood what was best for the people.

The Americans rejected that notion.

Unions, while during their early days they brought a benefit by fighting for the rights of employees, have become a political machine that cares neither about whether or not companies, or the government, can afford its demands, nor whether or not what they demand is constitutional or even beneficial to the nation as a whole. Continuing to pay the demands of the unions is unsustainable. But the unions don't care. They use unsavory tactics to get what they want, despite what is right, or affordable.

Our nation fought a bloody war to win independence from the British Empire, and the system of government put into place has resulted in America being the freest, wealthiest, most powerful nation on Earth. We have survived a devastating Civil War that threatened our union, we have triumphed in two world wars fought on foreign soil, and we emerged victorious after a decades-long struggle against worldwide communism that, 20 years ago, led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet, our very survival is at risk because of the nonsensical demands of a politically driven group of unions who have placed their Marxist-style ideology above the General Welfare of the Republic.

Our U.S. Constitution does not grant to the federal government the authorities to provide funding to these unions, to maintain unsustainable pension programs, or to even provide federal funding to all of these governmental functions that in reality belong to local jurisdictions, and the States. The demands of these functions are dropping the U.S. Government to its financial knees, yet the parasitic public employee unions demand more and more. . . funneling the money they gain into politicians most willing to go against the American People and the U.S. Constitution to steal from the taxpayers so as to provide more money and power to the unions.

Freedom is not gained by coercion by public employee unions. Instead, what is being achieved is the systematic destruction of the U.S. financial system, and the freedoms of all Americans.

Our nation’s principles demand that the federal government cut off all funding to the public employee unions, eliminate unsustainable government pension programs, and for the academic elites, political leaders and the popular media to recognize that the current road of big government we are on is a road to economic collapse. We must not remain on this course of government spending.

If we allow these unions to continue to politically demand that Washington leaps for them when they say so, we will lose our voice, and lose the principles that fuels the cause of liberty and limited constitutional government. And if the unions are not stopped soon, along with all of the other liberal madness, America’s decline is inevitable.

We say as Conservatives that we wish to take America back. That goal must include restoring the liberating principles of the American Founding as the defining public philosophy of our nation, which includes a federal government that is limited in its authorities to only those powers necessary for protecting and preserving the union.

As Americans, we have been blessed with the immeasurable gift of having inherited a great country. It is up to us to keep it, not only for ourselves, but for our posterity. We must maintain the enduring principles of liberty with which all men are endowed by their Creator. To do anything less would be un-American.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Community Hospital RNs begin walkout today - Riverside Press Enterprise

Campaign's Big Spender: Public-Employees Union Now Leads All Groups in Independent Election Outlays - Wall Street Journal

…And, So It Begins: The Public-Sector Ponzi Scheme is Collapsing - Red State

Union Members: Where Do Your Dues Go? - Competitive Enterprise Institute

Texas Attorney General: Forcing states to bargain with unions unconstitutional - Examiner

AGAINST PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS (unconstitutional) - Daily Dose of Optimism

Public Employee Unions Guarantee National Bankruptcy - BATR

Philadelphia, other cities struggle with unfunded pension liabilities - Insurance and Financial Advisor

Mo Debt, Mo Debt, Mo Debt – Unfunded Pension Liabilities - Behind Blue Lines