Wisconsin

I don't think I've ever set foot in Wisconsin, but if you've been following the news, an important legal battle has been shaping up in that state. Wisconsin is having the same type of troubles that other states are having; budget problems, a bloated bureaucracy, a huge union presence and the reverberations of our national fiscal problems. So, the governor decides to try and balance the budget and he introduces legislation to limit the bargaining power of the public-service unions. During the legislative debate, a number of progressive leges decamp the state, denying the government a quorum. Eventually, the legislation moves forward and the battle moves to the Courts, where at the same time we have an election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Prosser is the conservative and Kloppenburg the liberal. Everyone thinks that it will be a close election and the unions go all-in supporting Kloppenburg. Initially, Kloppenburg thinks she's winning and even goes so far as to declare victory. When the votes are finally counted, Prosser wins by over 7,000 votes.

Kloppenburg calls foul and demands a recount, so the people of Wisconsin suffer (and pay for) a recount. When that is completed, Prosser wins again by over 7000 votes.

In the meantime, the budget bill that originally started this whole hoorah has made its way to the Courts and the people of Wisconsin are going to see the benefits of reining in the public-sector unions. There is one other tactic that Kloppenburg could try and that's a lawsuit. It probably wouldn't prevail ultimately, but it would tie up things long enough that Prosser wouldn't be seated on the Supreme Court in time to hear the budget case.

Wisconsin is a microcosm of the woes that affect budgets all over the country. From individual cities and town to the states and the national budget itself, we're fighting money troubles in the public sector. The entitlement budget is threatening to overwhelm us all, and there are serious questions that must be asked and answered. One recent example is the guy who draws social security disability because he wants to be treated like a baby.

There are those in this country who deserve our assistance. I work daily with kids who are profoundly disabled and require our assistance. I also work daily with others who have made being disabled a crutch to prevent future productivity. Yet, the system has become so skewed that almost any deviation from the norm is considered a disability.

Serious adults should be asking questions, most especially who we can support and who we can't. Public sector unions have waxed and waned, their moon is in eclipse. We simply can't afford them. Likewise, the entitlement budget has grown to such proportions over the years that they threaten to overwhelm our budgets. Serious adults are asking questions about entitlements. There are some people we simply cannot afford to support and those people should be cast aside.

Sometimes it's not enough to wake up and smell the coffee. Someone actually has to get up and make the coffee.