Betrayal! Mutiny! Treason! Sedition!

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

sasha031 Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 11:57 AM
Original message
Dem's in MA!!! House votes to restrict unions
   
House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.The 111-to-42 vote followed tougher measures to broadly eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in Ohio, Wisconsin, and other states. But unlike those efforts, the push in Massachusetts was led by Democrats who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers’ rights.

bbgrunt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 12:05 PM
Response to Original message
2. Ryan's budget showed reps true colors. Now dems turn to show their true colors.

Thunderstruck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 12:05 PM
Response to Original message
3. This is typical of the shitty country we now live in. "financially strapped cities and towns"
   
...and the culprits who caused these "financially strapped cities and towns" go around scot-free and the workers pay for their crimes.

Outrageous!

He's referring to the dem lawmakers, right?

Would that we could have seen this one for the exchange:

Name removed (0 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 12:27 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. Deleted message
   
Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Brickbat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 12:32 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. Not only that, but PRESIDENT PALIN!!1!!11!!!
   
I'm sick of this shit, I really am.

upi402 Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 01:09 PM
Response to Reply #11
24. DLC disenfranchised us. There's no opposition to corporatism
   
in effect. Many Dems are heroically old school Dem. But the number of Blue Dogs have removed any possible push-back to retake the party.

We listened to the media and allowed this junta. Well... not "us" but too many - even here you see it.

Corporations run municipal employees?

Who knew?

Oak2004 Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 01:17 PM
Response to Reply #8
26. Sadly, I think this is it for me
   
The only answer for American workers in many, perhaps most parts of the country is to break with the Dems. There simply isn't enough time left to redeem most state parties, let alone the national, from within, and in the absence of a credible third party no pressure can be brought from without (Vermont is one of our few counterexamples because VT Democrats have a healthy fear of the VT Progressive Party-- the party Bernie founded and really belongs to, though in order to join a congressional caucus he must, officially, be an independent).

I'd like to have hope otherwise. I really would. That's why I'm here-- change from the inside is always preferable to change from the outside. Please, feel free to argue with me otherwise, as I would like to be persuaded otherwise. Perhaps there's life left in the party in corners of the country I'm not aware of. But right now all I see is Republicans proposing sociopathic insanity, and Democrats saying "me too", but not before first getting elected by turning to the rest of us and saying "see, vote for me, cause the scary guy over there will do that bad thing to you one election cycle sooner than I will". The plutocrats pulling the strings must be laughing at our futility. And all the while, the clock for our economy, our society, our civilization, and our environment is at a minute to midnight, five minutes tops. How does one both reform the Democratic Party and start to rescue our nation in (a metaphorical) thirty seconds flat?

Since I have no more hope for the Democratic Party, and since, as someone who has herself operated and set policies for a major website, I respect the policies of this site, this is it for my web home of ~6 years. More time for my business, I suppose. And there's always FDL if I can't break my netroots addiction so easily.

upi402 Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 01:23 PM
Response to Reply #26
29. I'm still trying but I'm sooo with ya
   
Edited on Wed Apr-27-11 01:24 PM by upi402
I still fight though I agree it's futile. I've fought my own brothers & sisters in this party to save it. But there is no opposition to corporatism.

I still work to save it but will write-in a non-corporatist and refuse to vote for one who is merely 1 notch less crazy.

I wont be disenfranchised.

:fistbump:

Maybe I'll look at FDL. Do they have a forum?

I bet you're a real hoot at family gatherings.

Deep13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 12:34 PM
Response to Original message
12. Attention Democratic traitors:
   
You will pay.

And I know why they did it. After Citizens United, D. polititians think they can't rely on union money to fund their election efforts. So they need to kiss corporate ass. Well throwing their hats in with the enemy makes them the enemy.

ThomCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 12:47 PM
Response to Original message
19. I am not surprised.
   
It is unfortunate, but our own party has historically been willing to screw poor people repeatedly.

Our own party has repeatedly been willing to take any Republican issue that was gaining momentum, adopt it, and push it through in ways that the Republicans couldn't have done themselves.

The Democratic Party did it with "Welfare Reform" and massively increased the permanent structural poverty in this country. Reduced the options that poor people have for getting out of poverty. Decimated the social safety net, and made it effectively impossible for people on public assistance to go stay in school and get degrees while they are on public assistance so that they can become qualified for better jobs and climb out of poverty.

The mandatory work requirements mean you are doing minimum wage drudge work instead of going to school to improve your chances for your future. The two year lifetime cap on getting assistance means that after two years of drudge jobs and meager assistance, your chances of getting help are over, and you still won't have that degree, or any chance of supporting yourself while you struggle to get one. So higher education, real credentials for real jobs are now permanently out of reach for millions of people.

Democrats did this.

NAFTA and the explosive growth of Free Trade deals is another mess that came from the Democratic Party. The Republicans wanted Free Trade deals for decades but couldn't get them pushed through because labor and environmentalist fought back, but Democrats adopted the Free Trade banner and convinced people in labor and the environmental groups that there would be protections. Their voices would be heard. NAFTA went through despite concerns, and the worst fears of everyone on the left become true.

Provisions in these agreements allow for labor and environmental laws in individual countries to be stripped away if they interfere with profits. Corporations can demand that countries comply with the least restrictive provisions of the least restrictive country in the agreement. It became a race to the bottom as jobs disappeared, and living standards plummeted. But corporate profits soared!

Democrats did this.

The vast majority of this nation has been demanding access to health care for everyone. Universal Health care! What we got instead was a mandate to buy insurance policies. Expensive insurance policies. But no guarantee that anyone would be able to afford that insurance. No guarantee that the insurance would cover the care people need. No guarantee that insurance would be available. Insurance companies aren't mandated to sell policies, and the talk about the quality of those policies, and policing those policies has been vague, mostly talking about leaving that to states, where the insurance companies control state regulators.

The effect so far has been an drastic increase in the cost of insurance premiums. Over 25% in many areas in the past 2 years, and still increasing, while insurance policies are Reducing what services and types of care they cover, and how often, or for how long each year. We all pay far more and get far less. Insurance companies are also making much greater use of Co-insurance fees in addition to co-pays, so that even if you have insurance people have to pay a standard percentage of the cost of every service and every fee. Anywhere from 50% on a typical insurance policy down to 10% on "Cadillac" policies.

This means that anyone who needs a treatment, or a surgery that costs thousands of dollars will get stuck with a very large bill even though they have insurance. As health care costs are still increasing at double digit rates, the amount you could get stuck paying increases. Even if you have insurance, you don't dare get sick. You face bankruptcy the first time you use your insurance.

Health Care "Reform" never had as one of its goals the reduction of costs. The stated goal was to "reduce the rate at which costs increased." Please read that again. "Reduce the rate at which costs increase." This means that the goal was simply to have costs remain high, but get higher a bit more slowly than before. So insurance companies have every possible incentive to massively jack up their costs and rates as high as possible, into the stratosphere, before any of the legislative limits begin to take effect that merely slow down how quickly they can increase costs in the future. They will be able to keep all these cost increases, and keep increasing costs more, but a bit more slowly in the future.

Nothing is intended to save you or me any money. As long as you have insurance, that is supposed to be good enough. It apparently doesn't matter if you won't ever be able to afford to use it without becoming bankrupt and losing everything immediately afterward.

Democrats did this.

Though, on this one issue there is now talk about re-addressing this issue and hopefully improving things.

It's election time again, after all. It is time for politicians to make promises.

Given the history we have seen of poor negotiating skills, caving in to lobbyists from the beginning, letting the right frame every issue so that they get what they want by default, and then blaming the left simply for wanting anything, will you believe the promises this time?

KamaAina Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 01:24 PM
Response to Original message
31. "they could lose their union backing in the next election"
   
Might we actually see a Labor Party (along the lines of NY state's Working Families Party) forming around this?

^ I'd pay to help that get started.

mmonk Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 01:26 PM
Response to Original message
32. Lesson? Don't elect those that will cut your throat.

I bet you'll still vote for Obama no matter how much you complained about him.

He's black, you know.

Broderick Donating Member (426 posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 01:26 PM
Response to Original message
33. I have previously said Wisconsin is a mere distraction
   
It is going on everywhere behind the cloaks, yet Wisconsin seems to be the center of attention.

And who drew all that attention with their antics?

Kermitt Gribble (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 01:56 PM
Response to Original message
35. Wow!! Dems in Massachusetts??
   
This is concrete eveidence that our govts, state and federal, have been stolen from We the People. There is absolutely no denying it now.

"Then good gentlemen, 'tis agreed. Automatic salary increases of 7% per year with full medical,
vision and dental and only a 1% employee contribution to the pension fund."

LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 03:57 PM
Response to Original message
39. Ted Kennedy is rolling in his grave right now!

That's a big ****ing grave.

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x970484

[miskie]

Hey Primitive Fartknockers........

....You want to know why this has happened ? Massachusetts Universal Healthcare - AKA Commonwealth Care AKA Romneycare.

And you primitives know what is essentially a national version of Romneycare, right ? -- Of course you do... 

[formerlurker]

Hey Primitive Fartknockers........

....You want to know why this has happened ? Massachusetts Universal Healthcare - AKA Commonwealth Care AKA Romneycare.

And you primitives know what is essentially a national version of Romneycare, right ? -- Of course you do...  

Municipalities can not longer afford high end health insurance premiums, which have increased 60% over the past 10 years.   You have a 2 1/2 cap on your tax levy increase yearly; health insurance premiums shooting up anywhere from 10-18%; contract provisions of 75-90% employer contribution to those premiums; unions aren't negotiating to decrease that without some hefty kickbacks in other areas; Coupe Deval cutting local aid to cities and towns $63 million; municipalities are bleeding out.  

Health care reform in MA may be bankrupting the Commonwealth, however it really is a small player in this aside for the need for the $63 million in cuts.  

Obamacare and all of it's extremely costly mandates have sent private health insurance premiums through the roof this year, but municipalities were heading for the cliff long before that became law.

Stripping collective bargaining rights for health insurance plans is explosive for sure, but Deval is rolling out phase III of his pension reforms which is the equivalent of pouring a bucket of salt on the union's open wounds.

What makes me laugh out loud is the union's threat to Democrats -- you burn the legislative hand that feeds you by targeting these players (and I am talking about the heavy hitters in the state house), then who do you have left to do your bidding?   These hacks are too powerful in their districts to be voted out anytime soon.    



  

[formerlurker]

Deep13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 12:34 PM
Response to Original message
12. Attention Democratic traitors:
   
You will pay.

And I know why they did it. After Citizens United, D. polititians think they can't rely on union money to fund their election efforts. So they need to kiss corporate ass. Well throwing their hats in with the enemy makes them the enemy.

What the hell does corporations have to do with municipal employee unions?   

You know who is BEGGING these legislatures to shop the legs off of unions, you misfits of society?   They would be the extremely liberal select boards, mayors and town managers who are watching their critical core services be cut to the bone because they can no longer afford their bloated union contract provisions.   

Don't forget to target those leftist jackass fools also, because they are dancing in the streets right about now.

[RightCoast]

:fistbump:



 

[I_B_Perky]

ThomCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Wed Apr-27-11 12:47 PM
Response to Original message
19. I am not surprised.
   
It is unfortunate, but our own party has historically been willing to screw poor people repeatedly. bullshit. that is the dems base. The only people they screw are those of us that have a job and take care of ourselves.

Our own party has repeatedly been willing to take any Republican issue that was gaining momentum, adopt it, and push it through in ways that the Republicans couldn't have done themselves. they don't want to get tossed out of office on their ass

The Democratic Party did it with "Welfare Reform" and massively increased the permanent structural poverty in this country. Reduced the options that poor people have for getting out of poverty. option number 1 is get a job moron Decimated the social safety net, and made it effectively impossible for people on public assistance to go stay in school Got to go there first and get degrees Womyns studies don't get it, moron! while they are on public assistance my sister managed to get a degree in nursing in a year and half, why can't you? so that they can become qualified for better jobs and climb out of poverty. how about getting a job, working hard, and expanding your skills so you get promoted?

The mandatory work requirements mean you are doing minimum wage drudge work instead of going to school to improve your chances for your future. work and go to school at the same time like I did! The two year lifetime cap on getting assistance means that after two years of drudge jobs and meager assistance, your chances of getting help are over, and you still won't have that degree, or any chance of supporting yourself while you struggle to get one. So higher education, real credentials for real jobs are now permanently out of reach for millions of people. bullshit. Where there is a will, there is a way. Try getting off your ass and use some initiative and get a job.

Democrats did this. welfare parasite did this to themselves

The vast majority of this nation has been demanding access to health care for everyone. only the welfare parasites Universal Health care! What we got instead was a mandate to buy insurance policies. provide for yourself? Oh the horror!! Expensive insurance policies. WAAAAA!!! I can't have my Iphone if I get insurance!!!! But no guarantee that anyone would be able to afford that insurance. No guarantee that the insurance would cover the care people need. No guarantee that insurance would be available. Insurance companies aren't mandated to sell policies, and the talk about the quality of those policies, and policing those policies has been vague, mostly talking about leaving that to states, where the insurance companies control state regulators.

I could go on and on but I ain't got the time. 

[Ballygrl]

Meltdown Alert, 4 other threads yapping about this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x970484

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x972210

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x971211

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x974024

[Karin]

SSB!  Your picture of the cat!   

I've fought my own brothers & sisters in this party to save it

I believe that upi402 was referring to brothers and sisters in the Communist sense. 

[Ralph Wiggum]

[DumbAss Tanker]

That's a big ****ing grave.

I guess that must be why we're having an earthquake drill at work today.

[formerlurker]

Hey DU misfits -- the good union busting governor of MA is heading to WI.   I guess the misfit WI democratic legislature has no idea how Deval is sticking it to the working class in Commonwealth.

PATRICK IN WISCONSIN: At the invitation of Wisconsin Democrats, Gov. Deval Patrick is scheduled to speak Saturday at the 2011 Founders Day Gala. (Saturday, doors open at 5 p.m., Milwaukee Athletic Club)

http://66.105.150.70/cgi/as_web.exe?REV2011+D+4458464