Just for all the Class Warfare Clowns in Pungentopolis, here's something from a guy that lives, works (and therefore pays taxes), and votes in Wisconsin. Also remember, the Wisconsin overwhelming threw the Union Boughten Democrats out on their collective azzes at the election cycle, whic is very rare for Wisconsin.

From Wisconsin:

"For those not from WI , here are the Cliff notes. There are 300,000 public employees in unions that have bought and paid for Democrats to run the state into a gaping hole. In the last few months of Diamond Jim Doyle's(Democrat) and the state legislature Democrat control, they tried to ram through long term contracts that would further reward the public employee unions. It didn't work as the taxpayers in WI realized that a wholesale change in state government was needed since a combination of union sweetheart deals and the general economy had caused the state to go broke. Governor Walker was overwhelmingly elected, along with a complete reversal of Dem control of the state senate and assembly, on a platform of stop the bleeding and bring fiscal control and responsibility to state government, including asking the public employee unions to share the cost of the largesse that had been accorded them by their bought and paid for Democrats.

Now, less someone think the union members are being asked to suffer their benefits gutted, here's the reality. Currently, the average salary of these employees - mostly teachers - is $56,000/year plus benefits, putting the average salary plus benefits of the failing(but that's another issue) Milwaukee school system, as an example, over $101,000 per year.

What is included in the Governor's Budget Repair bill is a requirement for these teachers to go from paying 0.2% per year towards their pension -( at the average wage of $56,000 per year, a teacher can retire after 30 years at 65% of their annual salary at retirement - $36,000 per year on average) - to a "whopping" 5% per year. They are also being asked to increase their contribution to an absolute "cadillac " health insurance plan from a current 4-5% to 12.5% of the cost. How many taxpayers would absolutely love to have the deal that is in this bill??

In my opinion, the response here by the unions, some of the union members and the Democrats, boarders on criminal. The people that pay the bills in this state, the taxpayers, have spoken. But thousands of these "teachers" and their union cronies are taking off from work, closing down many school districts including the two largest - Milwaukee and Madison, and pretend to speak for the vast majority of Wisconsin residents who spoke last November at the ballot box. As far as I am concerned, the teachers that failed to show up for work so they could demonstrate should be fired. There is no shortage of qualified teachers waiting for these jobs. In my city of 10,000, we had an opening for one high school teacher this year and had over 400 qualified applicants. Enough said!

As far as the current stunt by the Democrats, to leave the state and prevent a vote on the bill, if this wasn't so stupid, it would rank as outrageous! Of course, now the Democrats are screaming that this is union busting - and they are getting support from the Obama administration on this tack - and all the Democrats want is to get the Governor to sit down and "negotiate". This ranks right up there with Saddam Hussein, who when captured in his dirt hidey hole on that farm in Iraq classically stated ' I am Saddam Hussein and I'm ready to negotiate'! The time for negotiation is long past! Further, with all of the Democrat blather and the union demonstrations, they have not offered nor brought forth one, not one single idea, concept, or offer in regard to the state's fiscal crisis. They are pathetic at best!

If, in fact, this results in the unions being marginalized, that may be the best thing for our students as many teachers off the record recognize and acknowledge that in many cases, the union is responsible for the failing systems due to the fact that bad teachers cannot be eliminated, and in fact are rewarded and protected under the current unionized system. Imagine what an "outrageous" concept that would include teachers being paid based on performance, would bring to our schools!"