‘Even the liberal New York Times writes….’ A Dissection of a mixed-up Editorial
In the 1980s, when The New Republic used to be unpredictable and ran hard-hitting articles and editorials that took on the shibboleths of the Left, people used to say when citing them, “even the liberal New Republic pointed out that…” Well, today, some of us are saying, after reading the lead editorial in the Sunday New York Times, “Even the liberal New York Times tells the truth about public sector unions.”
Well, almost. Perhaps because the paper’s editors always support Democrats, and perhaps because Governor Andrew Cuomo is the publisher’s friend and the paper supported him for governor, they have to find a way to oppose Scott Walker in Wisconsin for trying to take on public sector unions, while supporting Cuomo in New York when fiscal reality is forcing him to do the same thing.
Therefore the editors try to tell the truth about the fiscal crisis in New York while arguing at the same time that none exists in any other state. The result is a somewhat hilarious exercise in double-talk meant to please its liberal/left base of readers while pleasing the governor in New York and his administration at the same time.
The editors express shock when they inform their readers at the start that “New York State is paying 10 times more for state employees’ pensions than it did just a decade ago.” Who would have guessed? How could this be? The paper’s answer: “That huge increase is largely because of Albany’s outsized generosity to the state’s powerful employees’ unions in the early years of the last decade, made worse when the recession pushed down pension fund earnings, forcing the state to make up the difference.”
The last time I read anything similar was by my friends Fred Siegel, Sol Stern, or the editors of The Wall Street Journal. Could they have somehow hacked the Times’ computers and surreptitiously managed to type this in unnoticed? Did Paul Krugman write it, after someone spiked his coffee? Well, it gets even better.
The editors continue to point out that the members of public sector unions contribute far less to their pensions than private sector workers, and much less than state workers elsewhere. These costs must “be reined in,” the editorial warns, or New York will not even be able to afford essential services. As has happened elsewhere, that means cutting the number of police, firefighters and garbage collectors. Or maybe even the most horrible of all outcomes — privatization.
But does it mean taking on the unions? The paper assures its readers, in the most self-contradictory statement of the editorial, that stating this is “is not to be anti- union, or anti-worker.” Of course not. As we have seen in Wisconsin, the union is ready from the beginning to make all the necessary concessions that a state has to have to produce a fiscally sound budget. In Wisconsin, that awful Republican governor and his cronies, the editorial tells us, instead of having a serious discussion about the budget shortfall, have used the facts “as a pretext to crush unions.”
That is not what they are proposing. Of course not. Cuomo’s course is “reasonable,” since he “expects public unions to make sacrifices.” Didn’t Scott Walker expect the same in his state? Sure, I bet he did. But somehow, the unions did not want to work on a compromise with him. Instead, they have started a win or die movement, calling in all the troops from out of state, from Michael Moore (who doesn’t allow unions in his own production company) to rock stars and others of the comfortably rich who have to be on the “progressive” side.
As if they did not read their own previous sentence, the editorial next says — I had to read it twice — that negotiations are set to begin, but “so far union leaders have publicly resisted Mr. Cuomo’s proposals.” Oh — wait a minute — I thought that Cuomo had expected them to make sacrifices? Guess his expectations were wrong. So what can he do if the unions do not play ball? The paper’s answer: “He will have to lay off up to 9,800 workers.” Didn’t Scott Walker tell his unions the very same thing? And isn’t this what has led to him being portrayed as a monster?
Warns the Times: “Some compromise must be found.” They then inform the readers what precisely the unions have done that have made things so bad. These measures include getting a 4 percent pay raise amounting to $400 million in the middle of a recession; this comes on on top of three percent raises for each of the previous three years — just as private sector workers had their wages cut!
When Gov. David Paterson, Mr. Cuomo’s predecessor, pleaded with the unions to voluntarily not take the raises, they portrayed him in much the same way as Wisconsin unions are portraying Gov. Walker today. Unlike Walker, the incompetent and cowardly Paterson caved, settling for reducing pension payments for new workers only. So state workers in New York State earn an average salary of$63,382 (more after the latest raises) compared to private sector workers who earn an average of $46,957.00. And you wonder why the public isn’t anxious to rally around the public sector union workers!
And now, unless the unions give, the paper warns its readers that 50,000 workers are due to get “steep increases” that will cost taxpayers in New York $140 million. And state law includes a clause that gives them the new increases to take effect even while the negotiations are in progress and before agreement on a contract is reached! No wonder the public sector employees like their unions. How could such a clause ever have been created? The paper explains that it was meant to give workers who could not strike “leverage” they otherwise would not have had. Somehow, they forget to mention that the union leaders negotiate with the politicians they elected and to whom they gave thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. The politicians pay them back in quick agreement with whatever the unions demand. No wonder Paterson caved.
Notice that the committee Cuomo formed to give counties and local municipalities in New York some relief from state mandates has come up with NOTHING. Cuomo is a statist who will never preside over the lessening of Albany’s power over the rest of the state. At the end of his long charade of reform he will raise taxes rather than loosen the grip of the center. Likewise he won’t challenge the sweetheart relationship between government unions and the Democrats because he’s a Democrat. Duh.
Presumably, when the unions declare the state’s middle-class workers have to make the real sacrifices, they’re speaking of middle-class small business owners like me and so many others.
We’re the folks who pay our taxes – at a higher rate to buy the privilege of self-employment. The folks who fund our own retirement. The folks who purchase our own high-cost, catastrophe-only health insurance. The folks who work nearly 24-7 to stay afloat. The folks who count ourselves lucky if we manage to get 6 days of vacation and holiday leave in one calendar year.
We’re also the folks who fund the public employees’ 40-hour work week, healthcare, retirement, double-dipping post-retirement, salary increases, vacation time, the endless list of holidays, union dues, and more.
You nailed it. At the same time every small business I knew was implementing massive paycuts – up to 30% in many instances – our local pubs were getting 2% and 3% raises.
Yep. They’ve got it pretty rough.
You might want to try a new voting strategy, vote with your feet! You will accomplish two economic goods, improve yours and injure the union’s.
The liberal ideology is rotten to the core and collapsing under the weight of self-contradictions the same as communism did a couple decades ago. The tea party and Republicans should go after public unions full tilt to force the collapse. The progressive era will end up on the ash heap of history soon enough.
http://potterwilliamsreport.com/2011/03/02/marxism-101-lesson-4-wisconsin-union-revolution.aspx
“The comicality” of the radicals. If one is against them but is deemed one of them(Cuomo) then okay. If one is against them and deemed not one of them(Walker) then it’s revolution??
“Even the liberal ‘New York Times’” … has to admit the gravy train has tipped over.
Seems pretty straightforward to predict that the NY unions will make a token compromise, so that the NYT can trumpet how reasonable Cuomo is by comparison with the despicable Scott Walker. That will enable the national unions to continue the all-out war against Walker, in hopes that other states will yield, and that no such nonsense as annual member recertifications nor unions collecting their own dues will enter union contracts. The other unions can then make a payoff to the New York unions, to make up for the ‘compromise’ tactic they’re taking for The Cause.
I think the difference between the two governors and their approach to this is vital to understanding why Democrats would support Cuomo and oppose Walker. If Walker has his way, Union membership for state employees would be voluntary, as would Union dues and their expenditure on political causes. I don’t believe union leadership, in Walker’s state, Cuomo’s, or anywhere else, is stupid. They can read the writing on the wall, and will agree to pay freezes or even cuts. It’s that campaign warchest of several million in attack ads for each state every election cycle that the Democrats are going to fight tooth and nail to keep. After all, the union membership is just a bunch of contributors…but the union money, that gets *Democrats* elected and reelected to office. That’s sacred, and will be touched over their dead bodies. Cuomo (a Democrat, he) is of course not intending to kill the goose that laid the golden campaign contribution, so whatever concessions he extracts from the union are acceptable. Walker’s evil, trying to put things on an even playing field with the Republicans, with their evil corporations and fatcat contributors.
Just who has been receiving the greatest amount from corp fatcats? Can you pronounce Democrats?
Cuomo and the Times’ editorial board are fortunate to have a pressure valve across the Hudson named Chris Christie on which both the Paper of Record and area liberals in general can channel their anger.
Christie’s actually just 12 months ahead of Cuomo in doing the exact same things, but since he’s got an ‘R’ after his name, like Walker in Wisconsin, it stirs the collective like smacking a stick next to a bee hive. And of course, he doesn’t have the proper political pedigree as Andrew does and has no compunction about coming back at the unions, other Democratic pols and the media when challenged (which as Giuliani showed 16 years ago, is the only way to handle it if you’re a northeastern Republican, or you’re going to get rolled).
As long as Christie is around to catch all the heat and Cuomo keeps most of his efforts lower-keyed, the Times can play it’s hyocritical game and in their own minds remain true to their beliefs by giving Chris hell, even while they give Andrew a pass. The fun part will be when the NYS public sector unions catch on to the game and realize they’re not going to get the same sort of sympathetic coverage from the Times (and the other media outlets that follows Pinch’s lead) which their brethren over in the Garden State are receiving.
The Times knows that its ability to ‘frame’ the debate is enough to bulldoze public opinion against those horrible Republicans, for their destruction of the ‘rights’ of the unions. That’s the single-minded hurricane they blow into the MSM, to the exclusion, or at best trivialization, of all other factors of the discussion of public unions. The ‘framing’ has been a big success at shoving opinion polls into opposing Scott Walker, since that’s how the public learns of events through careful media screening.
The coming unfunded pension balloon – the recycling of taxpayer-purchased votes into ‘negotiations’ of politicians plus unions AGAINST taxpayers – the monolithic union support of Democrats, regardless of individual members preferences – the ‘one member, one vote, one time’ union certification – just don’t make it through that careful media screen.
Supporters of Governor Walker had better learn to devise a ‘frame’ that gives the flip side of the unions hurricane – stronger and just as abbreviated as the NYT version.
So – how to express it, in as few words as ‘destruction of the rights of the unions’?
Restoration of taxpayers rights.
If the unions agree to the compromises proposed by the NYT, what will the have to offer their membership—improved working conditions? Two hour lunch breaks? Postmortem tenure?
And what can the membership expect for their dues.
‘…the editors write, “unlike Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Governor Cuomo is not trying to break the unions.”‘
What, Gov. Walker trying to “break the unions”?! Must be a liberal lie! The governor himself said that his bill would leave collective bargaining “fully intact.” Or could it be that the governor is a liar?
Remind me again of how public unions work: the elected politicians (Democrats) increase wages and benefits of union members, who pay union dues, which are in turn donated back to the politicians for their re-election campaign, in addition to the union members voting for that same politician as a reward for increasing wages and benefits. Repeat over and over until taxpayers are raped blind.
No, I don’t care whether Walker lied or not. This idiocy, this incestual relationship between unions and their bosses has to stop.
“No, I don’t care whether Walker lied or not.”
Ah, the right-wing ethos, clearly stated.
Several websites have listed what they claim are “Walker Lies”. Interesting read????
http://filterednews.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/20-lies-and-counting-told-by-gov-walker/
20 lies (and counting) told by Gov. Walker
We’re used to politicians stretching the truth, but the level of deception and dishonesty Wisconsin’s governor has exhibited in the battle over his union-busting budget repair bill (even the name is a falsehood) sinks to astounding new lows. What follows are the 20 lies I’ve identified in a quick review of the record. If you find or recall others, please let me know. We’ll keep updating.
Walker: His bill is about fixing a budget crisis.
The truth: Even Fox News’ Shepherd Smith couldn’t swallow that one, declaring that it’s all about politics and union busting, and “to pretend that this is about a fiscal crisis in the state of Wisconsin is malarkey.”
Walker: says he campaigned on his budget repair plan, including curtailing collective bargaining.
“We introduced a measure last week, a measure I ran on during the campaign, a measure I talked about in November during the transition, a measure I talked about in December when we fought off the employee contracts, an idea I talked about in the inauguration, an idea I talked about in the state of the state. If anyone doesn’t know what’s coming, they’ve been asleep for the past two years.”
The truth: Walker, who offered many specific proposals during the campaign, did not go public with even the sketchiest outline of his far-reaching plans to kill collective bargaining rights. He could not point to any statements where he did. In fact, he was caught on tape boasting to what he thought was his billionaire backer that he had “dropped the bomb.”
Walker: keeps saying that “almost all” of the protesters at the Capitol are from outside the state
The truth: “The vast majority of people protesting are from here — Wisconsin and even more from Dane County,” said Joel DeSpain, public information officer for the Madison Police Department.
Walker: He wants to negotiate.
The truth: He won’t negotiate, but he’ll pretend to so he can trick the 14 Dem senators into allowing a vote on his bill. Walker recently offered to actually sit down and speak with the minority leader – something he should have done anyway and long ago – but only if the rest of the senators came back with him. Why?
“…legally, we believe, once they’ve gone into session, they don’t physically have to be there. If they’re actually in session for that day and they take a recess, the 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they’d have a quorum because they started out that way…But that would be the only, if you heard that I was going to talk to them, that would be the only reason why. We’d only do it if they came back to the capital with all 14 of them. And my sense is, hell, I’ll talk to them. If they want to yell at me for an hour, you know, I’m used to that, I can deal with that. But I’m not negotiating.”
Walker: says his budget-repair bill would leave collective bargaining “fully intact”
The truth: Walker revealed his own lie in the same radio interview when he said it was necessary to use his bill to strip collective bargaining rights, and in his own Feb. 11, 2011 letter to employees about his plan cited “various changes to limit collective bargaining” to the rate of base pay.
Walker: claims that states without collective bargaining having fared better in the current bad economy.
The truth: According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, three of the 13 non-collective bargaining states are among the 11 states facing budget shortfalls at or above 20% (Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina). Another, South Carolina, comes in at a sizable 17.4%. Nevada, where state employees have no collective bargaining rights (but local employees do) has the largest percentage shortfall in the country, at 45.2%. All in all, eight non-collective-bargaining states face larger budget shortfalls than Wisconsin.
Walker: Public employees are more richly compensated than their public sector counterparts.
The truth: According to the Economic Policy Institute, wages and salaries of state and local employees are lower than those for private sector employees with comparable earnings determinants such as education and work experience. State workers typically are under-compensated by 8.2% in Wisconsin.
Walker: said we needed a “repair” bill to address a payment owed to Minnesota of nearly $60 million and money owed to the Patient’s Compensation Fund in the tune of $200-plus million.
…and on and on and on…….
I’m with those who are tired of the ‘rights’ of unions. It’s a similar moronic ideology Illiberals had recently regarding ‘rights’ to health care.
Illiberals are the definition of, ‘The lights on but nobody’s home’.
Common sense, personal responsibility, actions to improve the collective rather than just one’s own – these are traits that are totally alien to the Illiberal mind. The NYT’s (how ANY person can read such fiction for ‘news’ is, well, you know) is the epitome of such fiction..
Thanks for pointing out just one more hypocrisy our media indulge in- If Dems do it it’s good, if Reps do same thing it’s evil- blah blah- quite sick of the “do as I say not as I do” bunch.
I wrote the other day to say on Fox after Obamas cuttting lecture, a DEM interviewed, said Republican suggested cuts were “RECKLESS”, while fawning over Obama’s brilliant idea of same.
It must be acting, since it is impossible that people like Pelosi see no irony in saying protest is so American and it’s your right to do so, but if the tea party or Beck does it- it’s violent anti govt and racist.
Impossible that she and her posse are blind to HITLER images used by these union whiners yet saw Hitler Obama’s and claimed to have heard the n-word when it was not there (the Hitler signs NEAR to the tea party rallies were LaRouche party created and had the name of their party on the bottom but no media reported that)
LIARS and HYPOCRITES
Why even mention this putrid,dying stalinist rag at all?
Because the change in tone evinced in this article suggests they are on the back foot…. This is good news, friend!
Or maybe this is all just an act on Cuomo’s part? A show of getting tough with the unions before he quietly gives them everything they want?
Yes, I almost snorted my morning coffee when I read this article in Sunday’s TImes. What a sea change! And the coverage of the Wisconsin labor battle was interesting too. 235 union people went to Madison on busses. 161 anti-Walker people flew to Madison from the West Coast. (I am making these #s up from memory.) But…161 people? Thank goodness that last guy got on the plane, otherwise it would have only been 161. If they have to count this way, the support for unions has obviously died down. Could it be that Bambi knows that it is a lost cause and is not only walking back his rhetoric but also walking back his behind-the-scenes support?
Oops…..would have been only 160, natch. Sorry, it’s late.
“A dissection of a mixed-up Times lead editorial that attempts to oppose Scott Walker in Wisconsin for trying to take on public sector unions, while supporting Andrew Cuomo in New York for trying to do the same thing.”
Yes, taking on the unions at the bargaining table is the same thing as taking on the bargaining table itself.
Do you write your own intros, Ron? Do you even read them?
There is a huge distinction, one the author cannot grasp, between taking on the unions and trying to make them extinct. If you have a problem with deer overpopulation, the logical thing is to reign in the deer population, not eradicate them from the face of the planet. As a liberal I agree that unions are out of hand, and they should be asked or forced to concede some of their benefits. However, to get rid of unions is to throw the baby out with the bath water. Unions are an important force in giving a voice to the middle and lower classes. Who else can compete in election campaign contributions with massive corporations.
Hey Ron, I hate to go off topic (again), but this was brought up in class today and you more then anyone would know the answer to this.
What was said during chaim Weizmann’s meeting with Truman? I can only find how Truman agreed to do it, but I could never find what was actually said.
It can all be traced back to the sins of Robert Moses, somehow, I just know it! One of his favorite sayings was, “If the ends don’t justify the means, what the hell does?”
What a masterful piece, Mr. Radosh. And yes, I pleasantly remember reading your takedowns on the Rosenberg and Hiss (that was you, wasn’t it? somebody named Ron I remember) cases in TNR in the 1980′s back when, under Peretz’s able editorship, they were neoliberal, neoconservative, liberal, conservative, contrarian, whatever, so many voices printed with oh so many opinions, (where else could you read all of Richard Perle, Burt, Paul Nitze, at such length, in a general readership influential magazine of opinion?), not all by any means falling in with their weekly editorials’ line.
But isn’t what the NYT’s done here a bit like the right loving their “how fat is Al Gore” jokes and the left doing the same with Chris Christie, i.e., something to do with gestalt psychology and human nature?
The first columnist I really enjoyed was Sidney Harris, back in 1967-8 when I was 11-12 yrs. old. Remember those old “I am blah blah”, “You are blah blah”, and “They are blah blah” pieces he used to do to demonstrate it? But he really lost me when he chose “The Greening of America” over “Future Shock”.
And then again “massification” is such an ugly neologism, so maybe the old “Consciousness I,II,III” does have something going after all!
The difference between Cuomo and Walker is the issue of collective bargaining rights. Walker had the opportunity to drop the attempt to end collective bargaining in exchange for unions accepting the increase of pay in for pension and medical care but refused to. That distinction is significant. The two issues at hand are the budgetary implications of current pensions and health benefits and the right to bargain collectively. Separating the two would have strengthend Walker’s hand and given him a big political win and helped the budget. Or if upon making the offer the union reply to him was to stall negotiations and change tac then public opinion would shift more in his favor and he would be able to say that the very process of bargaining over benefits prevents restoration of fiscal health.
You might find this interesting Ron.
New York Times on the ‘Intellectual Curiosity’ and ‘Mischievous Sense of Humor’ of Murderous Che Guevara
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/clay-waters/2011/03/09/new-york-times-intellectual-curiosity-and-mischievous-sense-humor-murde