Forbes on Fox discussed Vice President Biden saying “we owe” public union workers for the work they do. Host David Asman set the tone for the discussion by saying, “We don’t owe them, they owe us.”
Steve Forbes said, “Everyone appreciates what firefighters do, what police officers do, what teachers should do, but that’s what they get paid for. But the abuses are enormous, David, in terms of benefits, abuse of overtime, and pay is determined not by what the market will pay, but purely political muscle, so… costs spin out of control.”
John Tamny said his fellow panelists were being “entirely too soft on Vice President Biden. What this reminds us of is something very basic. Governments do not create jobs, instead they tax or borrow from the productive private sector to create jobs that pay more, that offer more benefits, offer more vacation. This thing about how we owe them, no, no, they should be thanking us and they should be very grateful to us taxpayers for giving off this tax revenues that allow them to live very nice lives at our expense and very often for doing very little.”
David Asman’s face lit up with excitement. “Steve Forbes, I don’t think you’ve often been too soft on criticizing Vice President Joe Biden, but maybe John’s right! I don’t know.”
Forbes said, “When you allow… abuse of overtime, abuse of benefits, double dipping, triple dipping as you have here in the State of New York, thing spins out of control.”
Rick Ungar said, “John, I hope you never have a fire at your house. I really mean that. Because you can’t vilify these guys who are doing an important job. We can have a very reasonable discussion, and it’s a discussion that needs to be had about how we pay these people and some of the things that are going on, but let’s not vilify people doing dangerous work for our benefit.”
Tamny insisted he wasn’t vilifying them but saying “ “Wait a second, …they get pensions that we don’t get in the private sector. They get far more vacation than what we get in the private sector, they clearly get paid more, and I don’t think the effort they expend matches what they get paid and what their benefits are.”
Ungar said, Tell that to the family of a fallen police officer.”
Speculation is all we have left, and unless we privatize the pension fund, police, fire etc. we’ll be running out of stuff to generate Our Wealth. Help keep Peak Capitalism humming, give us all your life supports!
“Ask the CEO or under person what happens if they have a bad dayâ¦the answer is someone gets in trouble or yelled at.” Or gets demoted or loses their job though that’s more likely to some underling rather than the CEO or top folks. (And let’s not forget that poor CEO whose company just posted its 10th consecutive quarterly 8-figure loss and he’s fired for that continued poor performance. Then, he’s got to figure out how he’s going to afford living on a measly $250 million “severance package”—not counting his stock options and lifetime company-paid-for health coverage and the various other perks he made sure would be due to him for his “service” to the company during the whole 3 years he worked for it.)
A great argument that can be thrown right back at these people is this: Ask the CEO or under person what happens if they have a bad day…the answer is someone gets in trouble or yelled at. Ask the Firefighter/Police/Paramedic what happens if they have a bad day…the answer is people die.
VP Biden is right we should be thanking those that go into public service. We don’t do it for the money, we do it because we want to help. There is no greater feeling in the world than making a difference.
It’s the one percent who don’t want to pay their fair share, and the assholes like Tamny who defend them.
Watch this Steve…http://youtu.be/JlhcJBj4cno
I’ll up him one further- I dare them to go into a precinct or a house (their choice) and spout this crap. Especially one that just lost officers.
Good luck finding your teeth if you take me up on that -and word of advice? Assuming the officer that knocked them out does get suspended for it, it’s more than a fair trade-off in his mind. And everyone who saw it will make sure you hear just how little they blame them.
Typical right-wing attitude that’s successfully corrupted the majority of Americans’ thinking.
I wish someone had asked Tamny WHY this “we” of whom he chooses to be part of doesn’t get those pensions and vacation time. Could it be because unions (which used to FIGHT for those things for ALL workers in ALL workplaces) have become so vilified by the very people who don’t want the workers to have pensions and ample vacation time? (That question was entirely rhetorical, by the way. Only a CONservative would answer “no.”)
(Just off the record, I would actually love to get a look at Tamny’s contract and see whether he’s really part of “we” or not. For some reason, I think he probably gets more vacation time than the typical worker for whom he’s “championing” and I think he probably gets enough in his paycheck so that he can afford to create his own pension.)
