The Wisconsin Question: Do We Really Mean It?

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(Today's Feature)The Wisconsin Question: Do We Really Mean It?

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s victory in avoiding a recall is the most encouraging political event to happen in this country since the 2010 Congressional elections. Back then, remember, it wasn’t just conservatives or Republicans who showed Democrats – and a few Republicans – the door for their fiscal irresponsibility and support of Obama’s policies.

There was widespread repudiation, and it gave control of the House to Republicans.Since then, and looking ahead to 2012, many of us have asked: “Did the people really mean what they said in 2010, and will they hold our elected officials accountable in 2012?

” And, more explicitly to 2012 and beyond: “Are the American people finally willing to do something about the fiscal disaster awaiting us, even if it means sacrifice all the way around?”Some will say that Wisconsin, still considered a “Blue State,” gives us reason to believe that the answer is, “yes”. The voters there looked the No. 1 threat to their fiscal solvency in the eye and dealt with it.

The Real Importance Of WisconsinIt has become clear in state after state that the alliance between public-sector unions and entrenched politicians has served to bring governments to the brink of insolvency.

The union bosses deliver the votes and campaign cash to the politician and the politician delivers unaffordable taxpayer-funded pension and other benefits to the union. The process is corrupt at its core, but is a win-win for everybody except inattentive taxpayers.Now the inevitable chickens are coming home to roost and the taxpayers have evidently had enough.

They are finally asking why public employees have a better, and virtually guaranteed, financial package than the average private-sector worker. Now we’re seeing the results at the ballot box in Wisconsin and in municipalities such as San Jose, California, where pension reform has been voted in.But whether it’s in Wisconsin or overseas in Greece, state workers react angrily when facing inevitable change, not realizing that the longer change is avoided, the more draconian the change will have to be.

The importance of Wisconsin isn’t necessarily the policy prescriptions involved so much as it is the political implications: Other governors and political leaders know that if they just tell the truth and stick to their guns they can survive when they make the decisions necessary to lead us away from financial disaster.

Starting In November, Let’s Turn Around The Broader Fiscal ProblemThe fiscal problems facing Wisconsin, along with the political turmoil, is a microcosm of the challenges facing our nation.

While public-sector unions are not as much of a source of the problem on the national level as it is on the state level (though there is plenty of bloat to the federal government), the broader problem is the same: unsustainable retirement and healthcare benefits.

Recently a Congressional Budget Office report stated that by 2025 Medicare, Social Security and interest on the debt will consume all of the government’s revenue – all of it.

We’d have to borrow our entire defense budget. Heck, we’d have to borrow for everything.

So while we celebrate the results in Wisconsin, let’s remember it’s going to take more than one or two elections to turn this country around, including the big one in November.

And we’re going to have to do a lot of things right for a sustained period of time.

After all, it’s one thing to trim the government-paid benefits of the public-sector employee down the street. It’s another thing to trim our own.

So the question remains,” do we really mean it?”-

Fred Thompson