George,

To comment on Mr. Tenney's post on labor unions: he is absolutely right, the priority of the right is to cripple and destroy the rights of workers in this country. It is of no coincidence that the states that this legislation is moving through are major swing states in the upcoming election cycle. It has been orchestrated by Karl Rove and his partners on Wall Street and future political challengers within the Republican party (Scott Walker). If they can take out labor's voice and "keep them down on the farm" they will have an open road to the White House and Congress.

The reality is when they speak it is not about budgets or concessions; in Wisconsin the unions are on record about being willing to make those concessions. The real issue is that Republican controlled legislatures across the country in good times decided to divert the funds that go to the pension programs and benefits for their own political gain and then when times get tough they decide the best way to balance the budget is on the back of the American working middle class. The upside for labor is that it has energized what had been a sleeping electorate of union members. The telling tale in Wisconsin will come on April 6th with the election of a state supreme court judge which could change the makeup of the court in that state and challenge Governor Walker's plans.

Do not think that next year's General Assembly session will be any different if the November elections do not change the makeup of the House and the Senate goes Republican. Some of the reasons that the Virginia Retirement System is in the state it's in is because the GA members have under funded the plan over the last eight years to the tune of twenty-two percent, but yet it's the working men and women of the middle class fault and obligation to pay for at the tune of five percent for state workers.?

Robert L. Bragg III (Electronic mail, March 27, 2011)