Over 10,000 public safety workers are rallying at this moment at the Trenton Statehouse in yet another unprecedented effort to get their message out to New Jersey’s Governor.
In a report by Fox 29′s Katy Zachry, thousands of current and retired police and firefighters are trying to get the message out that New Jersey “is a much less safe place to live and work.”
12,000 Police, Firefighters Rally In NJ: MyFoxPHILLY.com
It’s yet another in the unexpected push back from those who have been the latest targets of elected officials looking for an answer to the econmic issues affecting us all.
Governor Christie, possibly considering a run for the leader of the Free World, has put forth a plan that would layoff even more workers and require those remaining to pay upwards of 30% toward their health insurance.
This coming just one day after the governor said he loves collective bargaining and he is ready to start negotiation with the state worker unions, the contracts for which are up in June.
Throughout America in previous years, major mismanagement of funds and raiding of pension coffers were the political answers needed to solve short-term financial headaches while at the same time getting re-elected to legislative positions at all levels.
As these actions are becoming more transparent, the local and state taxpayers are finally able to see the legislative shenanigans that have put them into the predicament now facing them.
National polling has surprised more than a few who thought the effort to end collective bargaining and further trash public pensions would be a cakewalk.
According to a Gallup Poll released last week, Americans strongly oppose laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions. The poll found 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to such a proposal in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law.
Unsurprisingly, Fox News originally “mis-represented” <cough> the statistics by reversing the polling data in their fair and balanced reporting, feeding their viewers data that 61% favored gutting collective bargaining. And so it goes at Fox…
Other key results from that Gallup Poll:
— 71% oppose increasing sales, income or other taxes while 27% are in favor that approach.
— 53% oppose reducing pay or benefits for government workers while 44% are in favor.
— 48% opposed reducing or eliminating government programs while 47% were in favor of cuts.
Other polls are showing the same data. In a CBS News poll, Fully 61 percent of those polled — including just over half of Republicans — said they thought the salaries and benefits of most public employees were either “about right” or “too low” for the work they do.
Credit CBS News
I’m imagining the reaction to this data by my vocal minority Tea Party Patriot friends and the closed-minded few who are instructed to see only one answer to the fiscal crisis- kill collective bargaining and gut the pensions.
The first thing that came to mind was the great hitchhiker scene from “There’s Something About Mary.” At about the 1:00 mark in the video below, Harland Williams gives what I think to be that Tea Party reaction.
Its about time we’re hearing the other patriots standing up for what they think is right. To the governors in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, and all across the nation, the sleeping giant has been roused.
Your cakewalk is over.
Stay stoked!
-J
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