10:40AM
Time's Battleland: NATIONAL SECURITY - What the Wisconsin Recall Says About the Future of the U.S. Military
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 10:40AM
Governor Scott Walker survives his nasty recall vote earlier this month, a dynamic triggered by his brutal reshaping of Wisconsin’s public sector unions. Pundits are interpreting all this in terms of November and what it means for President Obama’s chances in that crucial swing state, but I see a bellwether for the future of U.S. national security.
Read the entire post at Time's Battleland blog.
tagged China, India, US, US Military, elections | in Time's Battleland | Email Article | Permalink | Print Article
China, India, US, US Military, elections | in Time's Battleland | Email Article | Permalink | Print Article 
Reader Comments (3)
Bear in mind, though, that a) the military itself doesn't take sides in political contests and b) veterans organizations tend to swing right. Attacking them makes as much political sense for the Republicans as attacking churches for not paying taxes.
I am the recipient of one of those extravagant police pensions. My wife receives an equally extravagant teacher's pension. A total of 55 years working in Chicago's ghettos now allows us to live in luxury. People drool with envy over our little 2 bedroom house and our 2 old Honda's.
The knaves and fools that we elect regularly to public office exhibit one particular trait that combined with a common human trait leaves us all facing this mess.
The human trait is "I don't want to pay for anything that isn't fun." The politicians trait is cowardice.
The pols are afraid to raise taxes. They raise taxes and the grumpy voters will take their revenge on election day. So, municipal and state governments all over the country are trying to operate with budgets from the 1980's.
My wife and I paid into our pensions. I paid more into my pension than civilians pay into Social Security. Neither my wife or I receive Social Security. In Chicago the cowards running the city stopped making the city's obligatory contributions when our pension fund's investments began doing well. Our fund was paying for itself until the financial meltdown.
Everything costs more. The taxpayers don't want to hear about it. They expect the city and the state to run on air. The pols can't fire policemen and firemen. Everyone needs policemen and firemen. But no one "needs" retired policemen...or retired teachers. So we are targeted by the cowards who want to get re-elected every four years.
Remember Nazi Germany? First they came for the Communists, then they came for the Gypsies, then they came for the Jews.
Now in our country they are after the Unions. Then the retirees and their pitiful pensions. Who will be next? I don't want to see politics in Tom's blog. I see enough of that everywhere else. But I have to say this. There is a man running for the Presidency who just bought a 12 million dollar house about 25 minutes from my little place. It is going to have an elevator in the garage. It is a "second" home for the candidate. The gap is widening. A friend just lost his job, we know college graduates that kind even find one to lose. I am going to quit now before I start using bad language. Sorry Tom...it just gets to me.
People typically don't mind it when someone gets ahead in the world. What ticks most people off though, is when someone gets ahead of them. I know of very few people who are in a position to retire at age 55, unless of course they worked in the public sector.