The KGB Oracle Forums General Public Discussion (PUBLIC) The Pub WSJ - op-ed Rand Paul on Spending Proposal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703956604576110431794539522.html

Excellent read.

Hell yea !! Cut it all ...

Park half of our aircraft carriers, and get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and dont get rid of the federal department of education.

Cutting federal education support and standards? Now thats a plan for the future of our country LOL.

It said nothing in there about that who you getting your info from ??

Education is something much better handled at the state and local level. Federal "standards" simply encourage school systems to meet whatever metrics are given without any care for educating human beings.

Unfunded mandates, idiotic bureaucracy and wasted money are the hallmarks of the Federal Govt involvement in education. Democrats often preach further govt involvement in education not because they care, or their ideas work, but because teachers unions are an immensely powerful force within the party. Ergo, party members like Jet who do not look too closely just accept the party line as truth.

A big lesson this country needs to learn, is that no union should ever be permitted to form among public sector workers.

If you wish to argue that point, first you must imagine what would happen if the military unionized. Once your brain stops spasiming from contemplating that nightmare, simply contemplate the same principles applied to other public service entities.

Basic fact: unions in the public sector inherently, by their nature countermand public interest. Unions serve to enhance the power of employees at the expense of their employers. However, for public sector jobs, the employer is actually us, the taxpayers and voters.

If you want to improve education, the solution is simple. Eliminate teachers' unions. This would free up schools to act in an intelligent manner, and innovate. No Fed overlord required.

/agree on that!

I totally agree ... Professional Unions are garbage. When the hell did unions, chartered to protect the rights of laborers, morph into a protectionist organization of Baccalaureate, or better, professionals?

Im not against all unions, as I got saved by one once. But the Teachers Unions "Associations" are especially corrupt. They regularly recruit their students to the cause. Its like a cult.

I saw kids being interviewed in Wisconsin this week who when asked "why are you protesting here at the capitol today?" answer "we don't know, our teacher just told us to come." Talk about useful idiots...

Yeah it is pretty unpleasant.

I can't stand unions. Having worked with longshoreman, I could tell you stories, but I'll spare the details. I think I hated unions before those days. And I think public employee unions are the worst. Something to thank JFK for, as he was the president who allowed it to be legal for public employee unions to form.

My favorite Walmart story is when a store successfully unionized its employees. Walmart said, 'Oh yeah? We'll just close down the store.'

Ohio has started their debates to make public unions weaker as well. I hope Wisconsin and Ohio both succeed in their endeavor to break the unions.

The state of unions in this country is pathetic. Same with education.

You know what though? They exist for good reason. They are the only things preventing corporations from making this a reality in America again:



They need to be fixed, propped up, supported and appreciated for what they are capable of. Not scrapped to fix 10% of a budget deficit. Like Jet said, park the fucking air craft carriers first.

I think you're both right. Unions did serve a purpose once upon a time. Now though, they've just become another way for people to get power and money and not have to work for it (union bosses). I don't think they are necessary any longer. There may be a need for them in the future, but right now the drain they put on society far outweighs any boon they provide.

rhaikh, in a way you make a good point with that pic. unions were created to help mostly uneducated people doing hard, and often dangerous labor.

I think they have served that purpose well.

However, I fail to see how that relates at all to a bunch of salaried college graduates squeezing taxpayers for job perks, super retirement bonuses and being able to use a seniority system to separate individuals from any type of performance accountability.