Falling Bridges – Rising Pensions

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if the main issue in the next political campaign were this simply described?

Do you want your taxes to repair and rebuild the crumbling bridges and road beds in America, or

Do you want your taxes to pay salaries, benefits and pensions to public employees at levels two and three times higher than that which you, the average taxpayer, is paid?

No, you can’t have both – you have to pick one or the other.

Then the campaign would start.  Enter David Axelrod and his APKD propagandists.  Enter the public employee union “leaders” to tell us everything will collapse without the public servants.  You see, there is no effective propagandist to get the word out that there is only so much tax revenue available and if it is used for all those wages, benefits and pensions, there is not enough left over to pay for bridges and roads.

Now most of those political candidates who seek support from the public employees and their very highly paid union “leaders” will also tell you – raise the taxes – most certainly raise them on the rich – the well to do – make them all pay their fair share.

Have you heard this idea; this concept; this statement before?   Who have you heard it from? 

Well – let’s keep our answer simple and focused.  We hear it from Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden – we hear it from the 55 democrat senators in the senate and the 201 democrats in the house.  We hear it from democrat governors in 20 states and from the democrat controlled legislatures in 17 states. But there is one source – a fairly new source in terms of the life of the American republic – from whence we hear it 24/7 – 12 months a year – a constant never ending demand for more tax money to pay already the highest salaries, benefits and pensions in every one of our townships – our cities – our counties – our states and our federal government.

Who is the source of this constant wailing for more, more and even more?

NAGE, AFSCME, NEA, NRLCA, AFGE, NALC, AFT, NTEU, AATU, IBPO, NAON, APWU, SEIU and NFFE.  They got the bridge money and the road money – the park money and the school money.  They still want more.

There is no way any of us have enough money – not even if you tax 90% of every cent earned by the well to do –not even if you tax 50% of every cent earned by the middle class – not even if you just tax 5% of every cent earned by the lower earners – there is no way America can afford to pay the 22+ million government public employees at the rate we are paying them and providing them benefits and pensions that 80% of  Americans will ever dream possible much less attain.

So, if you want to repair and rebuild bridges and roads – all you need do is get rid of some of the public employees and their union masters who are taking the money collected to repair bridges and roads and actually use it to employ contractors who, in open bidding, offer their competitive services and their background and their accomplishments to get the job done.  If you take this simple step, in a matter of 9 or 10 years you will have rebuilt much of America’s crumbling infrastructure – roads and bridges as well as schools, water systems, sewage plants and parks.  If you so choose, we can also build high capacity broadband distribution systems to prepare America for a very competitive 21^st century.  In other words, we will actually be doing what other countries are doing right this minute – while we spend our resources on overstaffed – overpaid – over benefited – over pensioned public employees who don’t know a bridge from a bandwidth – don’t know a water main from a Wi-Fi signal; they are building their country.

Oh, one more thing.  Spending our tax revenues on these activities for which they are collected will do the following:

·       Create private sector jobs building things – not bureaucracies

·       These added private sector jobs will create more private sector jobs as the tax funds spent for the intended purposes rebound throughout the economy, and

·       This process – rebuilding and repair work plus the multiplier effect – both of which create private sector jobs – will then create even more private sector jobs as the economy picks up and business people, also in the private sector, add factories and distribution centers and buy more trucks and supplies and hire even more private sector employees to supply the products and services to meet the growing demand

·       Now all this will occur in the private sector. The unions listed above will not benefit.  The people will benefit.  The country will benefit.

·       So choose – bureaucracies or bridges – it’s just not all that complicated.