(CNN) – Sixteen Wisconsin state senators - 14 of them Democrats - did not appear at the capitol Thursday for a scheduled vote on a bill that would strip teachers and other public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights and increase their contributions for benefits, lawmakers told CNN.
The bill cleared the Joint Finance Committee Wednesday night on a 12-4 vote and was intended move onto the state Senate Thursday for a vote, but the absence of so many senators left that vote schedule in question.
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Wow, those government employees should have it good and are angry to have to pay more towards the goodies they are pretty much getting for free and don't work very hard for either. I say fire them all and hire all those people who have been standing at the unemployment line for months hoping for a break.
Running away is not the answer-stand and make your case.
Running=wimps, cowards, I could go on and on.
@inmyopinion: yes, let them stand and be screwed by the private sector, just like the rest of us. If you were one of them, you would be screaming to man the barricades, too. Could we fire you from your job for blogging on company time?
Where oh where is the story about how Walker and the Republican majority in the state legislature manufactured this entire "crisis" by spending $140M in NEW SPENDING during January 2011 and then came out claiming that this union-busting nonsense was necessary because of a $137M deficit?
End unions now! They (plus the Dem party) are bankruping our country.
Thanks to 14 democrats for boycotting
Now many republicans governors try destroy unions ( they listen to Glen Beck)
Run you bunch of chickens. If they can't get a vote on it just start layoffs. The government needs to cut back and if they can't come to table do what we do in corporate America and get rid of the non-performers. Life is rough – get used to it. Their pay is more that 1.5X the private sector for the same job and if it was a private company fine but its taxpayer funded.
Stand your ground Dems.
The rest of us from Wisconsin that support this bill are busy working to pay our benefits and add to our 401K! No one needs Unions anymore...go back to work and quit taking unpaid days off and maybe it won't be such a dramatic cut!
Hey The Real Tom Paine: Give me a break, everyone knows government employees have it made and don't work anywhere as hard as we do in the private sector and some barely work at all. They are the ones doing the screwing on the rest of us. I'm sure more than one government employee spends long working hours on our dime blogging, text messaging, talking, on the internet while getting that nice paycheck with all those goodies.
Hire corporate CEOs to run your State and this is what you get: job slashing, benefits reduction, you don't deserve what you're getting paid, you greedy suckers, BS. What's next GOPers? Or rather, who's next?
Let the tempers flare.
This is what happens when Wisconsins lose their way and elect this fool for a governor, oust RussFeingold; then realize they are working-middle-class with hard won benefits over many years at many negotiating tables. Whoops: these Republicans now want to lower your living standards. Is anyone really surprised? Cairo came to Madison, and has found fertile ground. I am proud of my union brothers and sisters for drawing this line in the sand. Anyone in this country who makes less than $ 100k a year and votes Republican....well: you got what you aked for, didn't you. And no sympathy to be found in too many quarters,eh?
When the going gets tough the demcorats RUN.
Riots are now here in the US. Prepare for them to spread because the revolution has arrived.
Cut their Salaries and reduced the deficit.
No work, no pay.
Well easy way to help cut spending is for law makers to cut their pays. Also reduce what is considered compensated travel.
Running out of town not to vote is a cowardly act.
This is exactly what left has been waiting for and it is coming and coming big revolution in the United State of America.
The only thing that would keep us from falling into hands of the left is that right to bear Arms.
The community organizers are getting closer the ultimate goal of " Fundementaly transformign the United State of America".
OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE I personally have been saying this for 2.5 years.
gutless..... stick your head in the sand... close your ears ... close your eyes....your still broke .... gutless
Fascist Idiots = Republicans, will just keep on creating their ignorant new world order.
"quit taking unpaid days off and maybe it won't be such a dramatic cut!"
Those days are called "furlough" and they do it because of the already existing budget problems, not because it's fun to miss a day of work and the pay that goes with it. Moron.
"Riots are now here in the US. Prepare for them to spread because the revolution has arrived."
Please explain to the class how thousands of people PEACEFULLY ASSEMBLING and doing no violence or property damage whatsoever is suddenly a "riot."
"Riots are now here in the US. Prepare for them to spread because the revolution has arrived."
Please explain to the class how thousands of people PEACEFULLY ASSEMBLING and doing no violence or property damage whatsoever is suddenly a "riot." You called it the essence of patriotism when the Teatards showed up to peacefully assemble and spread their bigotted viewpoints with Obama-as-witchdoctor signs and other completely insane, irrational and misspelled nonsense. Show us where any of these people have a sign even close to the kind of vitriolic crap the Teatards displayed.
"When the going gets tough the demcorats RUN. "
Yep, sure looks like those thoudsands and thousands of Dems who are milling about the WI capital just up and ran.
@Nini – "...saying this for 2.5 years". What were you saying when Bush & Co. was selling this Country down the
economic river for 8 years? And your answer is to "bear arms"? Damn the Tea Party, damn the far right wing, damn
the faux Christians, and damn Fox News. Dangerous is too mild a word.
I'm so proud of my working-class brethren but embarassed that rest of the state got duped by Scotty Walker's artifice and arrogance a la George W. Bush. Walker: The Mubarek of the Midwest.