Sarah Palin Wades Into Wisconsin Public Union Fight

As the nation continued to focus on Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin taking on unionized government workers, possible presidential candidates are weighing in on the matter. Walker has called for eliminating collective bargaining for everything but wages for state workers outside the public safety fields -- prompting Democratic legislators to head out of the state.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin weighed in on the matter over the weekend.

The union-led school closures and demonstrations in Madison have left most ordinary Americans shaking their heads in disbelief, noted Palin. Months ago, I penned a message to my fellow union brothers and sisters when I found myself on the receiving end of union boss Richard Trumkas wrath. Yesterdays demonstrations reminded me of the full-page ads taken out against me when I put my foot down in dealing with union demands while I served as governor. My message then and now to good union brothers and sisters is that you have another option. You dont have to kowtow to the union bosses who are not looking out for you, but instead are using you. You can join millions of other union members in a common-sense movement to help fight for the right causes in our great country for budgets that share the burden in a truly fair way and for common-sense reforms that take power away from vested interests like union bosses and big business lobby groups, and put it back where it belongs with We the People.

Here we are, still struggling to get out of a deep recession and coping with high unemployment, record deficits, rapidly rising food prices, and a host of other economic problems, and Wisconsin union bosses want union members out in the streets demanding that taxpayers foot the bill for unsustainable benefits packages, added Palin. I am a friend to hard-working union members and to teachers. I come from a family of teachers; my grandparents, parents, brother, sister, aunt, and other relatives worked, or still work, in education. My own children attend public schools. I greatly admire good teachers and will always speak up in defense of the teaching profession. But Wisconsin teacher unions do themselves no favor by closing down classrooms and abandoning childrens needs in protest against the sort of belt-tightening that people everywhere are going through. Union brothers and sisters: This is the wrong fight at the wrong time. Solidarity doesnt mean making Wisconsin taxpayers pay for benefits that are not sustainable and affordable at a time when many of these taxpayers struggle to hold on to their own jobs and homes. Real solidarity means everyone being willing to sacrifice and carry our share of the burden. It does no one any favors to dismiss the sacrifices others have already had to make -- in wage cuts, unpaid vacations, and even job losses -- to weather our economic storm.

Hard-working, patriotic, and selfless union brothers and sisters: Please dont be taken in by the union bosses, pleaded Palin. At the end of the day, theyre not fighting for your pension or health-care plan or even for the sustainability of Wisconsins education budget. Theyre fighting to protect their own powerful privileges and their own political clout. The agenda for too many union bosses is a big government agenda that only serves the union bosses themselves not union members, not union families, and certainly not the larger community. Everybody else is just there to foot the bill; and if that bill eventually takes the form of thousands of teachers and other public-sector workers losing their jobs because the state of Wisconsin can no longer afford to keep them on the payroll, thats a risk the union bosses are willing to take as long as their positions are secure. Union brothers and sisters: You are better than this and you deserve better. Dont be led astray.

Palin pointed some of the blame to the Obama administration and the federal stimulus.

Back in 2009, I warned about what would happen if states accepted short-term, unsustainable, debt-ridden stimulus package funds, noted Palin in closing. Accepting those funds allowed states to grow government, increase already unsustainable levels of spending, kick the can down the road on reforming entitlements, and create public expectations that they would continue financing these new mandates once the federal funds ran out. States were not in a position to grow government and take on new financial commitments then, and now the chickens have come home to roost. As goes Wisconsin today, so goes the country tomorrow.