R i g h t a r d i a

Friday, July 15, 2011

Attack On Public Unions Is Part Of A Nationally Coordinated Corporate Effort To Privatize Public Services- 07/15/11

7/14/2011

By Doug Cunningham

An investigative article by Beau Hodai at In These Times fills in some details on the coordinated national effort to not only attack public sector unions, but also cannibalize public services for private profiteers. The article provides evidence that the right-wing billionaire Koch brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are working hand in glove to introduce legislation in many states aimed at attacking public unions and delivering public services to corporations. ALEC essentially wrote model legislation that was then disseminated to right-wing Republican politicians in 25 states. The coordinated legislative agenda is designed to gut public unions and their political power to resist privatization of public services. ALEC is corporate supported and connected to billionaire Koch brothers. For more information on the In These Times article go to: In These Times.com

By Doug Cunningham

An investigative article by Beau Hodai at In These Times fills in some details on the coordinated national effort to not only attack public sector unions, but also cannibalize public services for private profiteers.

The article provides evidence that the right-wing billionaire Koch brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are working hand in glove to introduce legislation in many states aimed at attacking public unions and delivering public services to corporations.

ALEC essentially wrote model legislation that was then disseminated to right-wing Republican politicians in 25 states. The coordinated legislative agenda is designed to gut public unions and their political power to resist privatization of public services.

ALEC is corporate supported and connected to billionaire Koch brothers. For more information on the In These Times article go to: In These Times.com.

Of interest, there are about 11 million federal state and municipal workers in the US. the are 14 million government contracters. So the government is already heavily privatized.

Does privatization save taxpayer dollars? Sometimes, but not always.

Privatization is not as efficient as government for extremely large programs like Medicare. Bush started the private option--Medicare Advantage--but Medicare overhead is 4% compared to 12% for the private Medicare Advantage insurers.

According to Yahoo Answers:

Medicare does not have profits to account for and multimillion dollar compensation packages for executives.

Government union workers are well-trained and have continuity that is often lacking in private enterprise. Many companies have the 50/50 rule.Once you reach 50 or make $50,000 a year, you will be laid off.