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发帖数: 29846 | 1 By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published in the New York Post on January 12, 2011
Facing huge budget difficulties, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been
showing other states how to survive -- namely, by taking on the government-
employee unions.
Christie's battles with the teachers unions over the past year have produced
countless YouTube hits. And last month, he got a law passed to limit wage
hikes from labor arbitrations between the state and public-employee unions
to an average 2 percent annual increase.
As New Jersey, New York, California and Illinois -- the four with the
highest insurance premiums on their bonds -- face life without a compliant
Congress to approve their pleas for more cash, they'll increasingly have to
follow Christie's example and rein in their unions.
As Margaret Thatcher famously said, the problem with socialism is that
sooner or later "you run out of other people's money." When the states come
calling, the House must say, "No." More, it's time to amend the federal
bankruptcy laws to create a procedure for state bankruptcies -- allowing
states to abrogate their municipal-union contracts from the school-board
level on up. States, in bankruptcy court, should be able to reorganize their
finances so as to put themselves back on a stable footing.
Initially, municipal-bond buyers will protest the lack of federal assistance
and may even deny states and localities access to the bond market at any
interest rate. But once the states reorganize, they should be able to
proceed normally -- just as New York City did after its financial meltdown
in the '70s.
Such reorganizations needn't require any ongoing federal involvement. The
procedure would let the states help themselves, giving governors and
legislatures a third way out of their financial mess. Raise taxes, cut
spending or . . . alter union contracts. Each state would face the choice of
whether to wallow in overspending or take steps to correct it.
Initially, Democrats will oppose the idea of state bankruptcies. But when
House Republicans make clear that no more aid will be forthcoming and that
the stimulus spigot is turned off, at least some Democrats will realize this
is their best option.
Then, fiscal necessity will have achieved what so many of us want -- a
return of true local government. No more will schools be run for the
teachers and by the teachers -- nor will such unions as the Service
Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees dominate state legislatures.
School choice, charter schools and even voucher programs will have a chance
to flourish. Some fear the US Constitution prevents federal law from
extending Chapter 9 to permit state bankruptcies, because it would violate
state sovereignty.
Yet Chapter 9 is voluntary, so states would remain sovereign -- with merely
the option of subjecting themselves to Chapter 9 constraints. Giving
insolvent states the power to break their union contracts would alter
dramatically the balance of political power all across the nation.
No longer would municipal unions have the financial ability to underwrite
the Democratic Party. Gone from our politics would be $200 million that the
American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, SEIU
and AFSCME together spent on political action in the last election cycle.
Government would be returned to the people. ________________________________
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