Democrats Bargaining Against The Taxpayer

More than half of all union members are now in the public sector. And when they sit across from Democrats for labor negotiations, the taxpayer's interested are not represented. 

About 36 percent of government workers, or 7.6 million people, are members of unions, compared with about 7 percent of private-sector workers, or 7.1 million people, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 


And with that evolution comes different tactics and politics. 

"These people are bargaining against the American taxpayer," said Ned Ryun, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush and the president of American Majority, a grass-roots political training organization that also has helped coordinate anti-tax rallies. "I'm not sure they can win the PR battle. People are saying, 'You're kidding me. They're making that much and I'm paying for it?' " ...

...When a union makes demands of a private firm, the workers and the owners can easily see that there is a natural limit on how high compensation can go. If compensation for workers is too high it will force the firm to close - or, more often these days, result in jobs shifting overseas.

Government workers, meanwhile, can demand wages based on how much tax money is available. With many government services standing essentially as monopolies, it is more difficult for customers to shift.

If even the Washington Post can grasp this concept, it must be getting mighty lonely for the public sector unions out there. Only the New York Times and Eleanor Clift are still in your camp...