The public employees in Scranton, Pennsylvania are caught in the middle of a dispute between the mayor and the City Council which has left the city strapped for cash. In response, the mayor has cut all employees’ pay (including his own) to minimum wage.  None of the undoubtedly well-paid Fox hosts discussing the situation on Hannity two nights ago expressed much interest in the plight of workers whose pay had suddenly been drastically reduced through no fault of their own. Instead, the pundits were busy cheering on the defeat for public sector unions and  looking ahead to what they see as the rosy picture of things to come.

Dana Perino offered the most sympathy, though she didn’t go so far as to point out that there could be people having trouble paying mortgages, putting food on the table and paying medical bills as a result. She called the measure  “Tough medicine for everybody to swallow” and, referencing lawsuits filed to enforce the city’s contractual obligations to its workers, added, “I don’t blame (the unions) for fighting.”

But she added, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker will be “the change” - as in “hope and change” - to “make things more sustainable in the long run.”

Gutfeld called it, “Last call” for the unions. He sounded remorseless as he said, “It’s 2 AM and the bartenders are Scott Walker, Chris Christie, this guy (Scranton’s mayor)… These are the guys that are putting the chairs up on the bar saying, ‘I’m sorry, you guys can drink but not here.’ It’s over and it’s sad because these are people that are getting hurt but this is what happens.”

And yet these are the same people who squawk like stuck chickenhawks when confronted with the possibility of a mild tax hike. Better the cops and firefighters should make do with less than these “patriots” pay a little more in taxes.