Showdown in Madison

Today POLITICO Arena asks:

Should Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker be commended or criticized for his proposal to change certain collective bargaining agreements for public sector employees, adding that Republicans won’t be “bullied” by protesters?

My response:

In November the government-union cabal that has driven Wisconsin, like other states, to the brink of bankruptcy was thrown out of office in a landslide election. So what are the union thugs now occupying the capitol and the state's Democratic senators who've fled the state complaining about? The lack of democracy. That so many are "teachers," waving signs likening Gov. Walker to Hitler and Stalin, gives rise only to sympathy for the children of Wisconsin.

In fact, if ever there were an argument for separating school and state, it's unfolding today in Madison. Private schools in the state are functioning quite normally through this Athens-like spectacle, because they operate under normal market conditions, where parents, administrators, and teachers decide personnel matters through voluntary agreements. By contrast, as the Cato Institute's Chris Edwards has shown through numerous studies, because public-sector unions occupy, effectively, both sides of the bargaining table, their pay and benefits over the years have far outstripped those of private-sector workers who pay those benefits.

Well the taxpayers spoke in November. The unions' beef is with them. Deal with it.