Senate Bill 5 threatens the stranglehold government unions hold on too many state offices, school districts, and local governments. To public employees who accept without blinking the rhetoric their union dues fund – and have no idea where else their money goes – SB 5 is fascism, doom, and an attack on the middle class:
Anita Barton, a high-school guidance counselor from St. Mary’s, said Kasich is making public employees scapegoats for the state’s financial crisis.
“Why is he so afraid of collective bargaining?” Barton asked. “Why is he so afraid that we have representation? If you don’t have representation as a whole, as an individual you don’t have a voice.”
What you might not realize is that SB 5 revokes all Facebook, Twitter, and email privileges from public employees. If the bill passes, teachers and guidance counselors will no longer be permitted to speak with their principals or superintendents. All school board proceedings will henceforth be sealed from the public, and any government employee seen colluding with a local newspaper or television station will be summarily executed.
One quote from an Ohio dentist gets to the heart of the matter:
“We need a strong middle class,” Gregory said. “Workers have to make a decent wage so they can pay their dentist.”
Public employees are nowhere near representative of the middle class. I know I’m repeating myself here, but it’s hardly my fault the opponents of Senate Bill 5 keep making the same awful arguments. Every dollar given to a government employee has to be taken from Ohio taxpayers. Dollars do not become more valuable simply because the government has moved them around. The unions, Democrats, and socialist fellow-travelers want taxes increased… despite Ohio’s unemployed outnumbering public employees, and taxpayer migration looking like this:
No matter how many times Governor Kasich says “I’m not anti-union,” the unions will scream that the GOP is attacking union employees and by extension all workers. Unless you’re in the Communist Party wing of the SB 5 opposition, you can’t openly call for higher taxes – but that’s exactly what SB 5 opponents are demanding. Will government ever be big enough for these people?
Cross-posted at that hero.
