Union benefit bills due

The state of Wisconsin needs to scale back public employee benefits because as Gov. Walker says, “We are broke.” They simply cannot afford to pay the benefits. This is much like the problems we face on the national level. Promises we made can’t be kept; we are not as rich as we expected to be.

Public employee wages are beginning to rise above private wages, and the taxpayers are wising up. How did it get this way? Well, public worker unions collect dues, the dues are used to help finance election campaigns to elect officials who negotiate wages and benefits with the public unions, and things just get out of control.

Don’t believe it? Here is a quote from Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees: “They know how much we spent in the last campaign; they’re going to try to shoot us down.”

This same discussion has to be opened up on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It won’t be pretty, and in the context of Obamacare and the massive expansion planned for Medicaid it won’t work without either massive new taxes and/or rationing of health care, no matter what the president says.

John A. Peterson

Spokane