Writing Off Real Americans
by digby
It looks like the Republicans have decided they don't need the votes of any people who work for the government or any of their families:
If House Republicans succeed in cutting tens of billions of dollars in discretionary spending over the next six months, some of the most immediate victims will be federal employees, many of whose jobs will be slashed as their agencies pare back.
At a press conference in the lobby of RNC headquarters Tuesday morning, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) shrugged this off as collateral damage.
"In the last two years, under President Obama, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs," Boehner said. "If some of those jobs are lost so be it. We're broke."
Hell, they can just go out and get a new job anyway, right? Oh wait ...
If the democrats played their cards right they would make a huge deal out of this and start protecting government workers, many of whom are, after all, Real Americans. I'd evoke the Oklahoma City victims and talk about people who work for homeland security, firefighters and nurses.
This right wing war on public employees should accrue to Democrats benefit. After all, there are about 3 million federal employees (not including clandestine workers) and probably just as many in the states. But that requires that they speak up in support of them and call attention to things like Boehner's comments like Russ Feingold did when Wisconsin Governor Walker declared that he was going to bust the public employee unions and replace them with their neighbors in the National Guard.
And the Green Bay Packers said it better today than any Democrat I've seen:
Present and former Green Bay Packers are among those urging the Legislature to reject Governor Scott Walker’s proposed union cutbacks.
Current linebacker Brady Poppinga and offensive lineman Jason Spitz joined 1990’s Super Bowl kicker Chris Jacke and ex-Packers Bob Long, Charles Jordan, Curtis Fuller, and Steve Okoniewski in signing a letter.
The players said they know teamwork on and off the field is what makes the Packers and Wisconsin great – and it’s the same dedication of public workers which makes the state run.
They called the right to negotiate wages and benefits, most of which Walker would take away, a, “fundamental underpinning of our middle class.” And they said the current setup has worked for Wisconsin since the 1930’s.
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