If you'll just pay

Tigerhawk has a chart which summarizes the deficit problem at a glance.  One the left hand side is where the government gets its money. On the right is how much it spends and how it spends it. The two things to notice are the relatives sizes of income and expenditure. Expenditure dwarfs income. The second is the distribution of where the money is spent. It is entitlements.  Unless something changes, government will have become a mechanism whereby money is transferred from one set of people to the other.

The key issue in Wisconsin is whether the very people who work in government have the “right” to insist that taxpayers deal with them and only them. Maybe the word isn’t “collective bargaining” but manos arriba.

The CSM reports that Walker is not backing down and neither are the unions.

Two weeks into the political fight of his life, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) shows no signs of backing down. Neither do the protesters camped out at the state Capitol in Madison….

Walker says he’s trying to close a $3.6 billion budget gap for the next two years. That includes cutting $1 billion in payments to local governments as well as cutting the state contribution to workers’ health care benefits and pensions.

Union officials have agreed to that, but Walker doubts their sincerity.

“Over the past two weeks, even after they’ve made those promises, we’ve seen local union after local union rush to their school boards, their city councils … and rush through contracts that had no contribution to the pensions and no contribution to health care,” he said on Meet the Press. “In one case, in Janesville, they were actually pushing through a pay increase.”

That’s why this fight is so interesting. For a long time the liberals have acted as if losing were not an option. And for the same amount of time conservatives have acted as if it were always an option. That was the asymmetry. The marvel is not that the unions are working all the angles, but that they are actually being resisted in manner suggesting something fundamental was at stake.

Well maybe something is.

Pay though your heart is breaking, pay though your wallet's aching

Let me tell you how it will be;
There’s one for you, nineteen for me.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don’t take it all.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

(if you drive a car, car;) – I’ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) – I’ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) – I’ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) – I’ll tax your feet.

Now my advice for those who die, (taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes. (taxman)
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

And you’re working for no one but me.

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