From a public employee,

[elleng]

MD deputy sheriff (may be my future son-in-law)

'I am a public employee. I am not the problem. Teachers, police officers, paramedics, firefighters, road workers etc. are NOT the enemy. If you’re jealous of our benefits, FIGHT FOR YOUR OWN!, not against ours. The rich created this crisis and are pitting middle class families against each other. We live here, pay taxes, work hard & try to support our families too.'

Copy and share, if you'd like.

[Omaha Steve]

1. Me too!

AFSCME member. Ne is trying to kill my union also.

[leftstreet]

2. With all due respect, "FIGHT FOR YOUR OWN" is very antagonistic

There has to be a better way to make the point

[Goblinmonger]

10. As a teacher in Wisconsin

do you know how many times I have been told that I am overpaid and that the benefits I receive are outrageous and that I need to suck it up because the person I'm talking to doesn't have those benefits? THAT gets very antagonistic very fast. I understand where the reaction comes from.

[leftstreet]

16. I just meant it's not a good path to go down

It opens the door to "how many teachers stood with ...insert private... workers?"

It's divisive and a rw tactic

[customerserviceguy]

12. I agree

It implies that other workers could indeed fight for their own. Police, firefighters, and teachers don't have to deal with having their jobs outsourced to the Third World.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. +1

[Drale]

3. Its essayer to drag others down to their level

then pull themselves up to your level.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. There was an annoying article in today's paper

(the Minneapolis Star Tribune) about the money "taxpayers" pay for public employees' pensions and health insurance. Has it ever occurred to anybody that public employees are also taxpayers, and that therefore they are contributing to their own benefits through *their* taxes? The article made it sound like these benefits were some kind of undeserved welfare scheme that was being extorted from "the taxpayers" (evidently not including taxpaying public employees) instead of bargained-for deferred compensation that is usually offered in lieu of higher direct wages. Really pissed me off.

[elleng]

5. It's probably occurred to the instigators, but

not people in the street who just respond to rw propaganda.

Also, of course had the employers (states, cities, etc) over the years done their share in contributing to the funds and investing in sound vehicles, none of this could be an issue.

[City of Mills]

6. I tell people that all the time

I don't get a free ride, I pay quite a bit into the pension system, and I pay a health insurance premium. AND I'm a taxpayer. If anything, I should be exempt from having to pay a portion of my own salary, don't you think? And I would never even make that argument because I'm NOT some moneygrubbing, greedy a-hole.

I'm appreciative of the security my job provides, even though I make substantially less than I would in the private sector. In fact, I do supplement my income by working for myself on the side, and my consultant rate is more than double (nearly triple) what I earn from my 'day' job.

[shanti]

7. oh yeah

they love to spread that meme about the taxpayers. well, i'm a taxpayer too!!

[TahitiNut]

8. I can just hear the billionaires thinking, "Too bad we can't offshore those jobs!"

The 30-year war on working class people has taken a large toll.

[a kennedy]

9. D*mn right fight for your own......

:patriot:

[blondeatlast]

11. Exactly; I'm an ex-public employee hoping to be a future one as a paralegal.

Thanks, elleng!

[elleng]

14. YVW, blonde.

I'm a very fortunate retired former Federal employee, benefitting from 'old' Fed pension program.

[Omaha Steve]

15. 9.75% of my gross goes to my pension

Next year is 10.25 I believe. That is no free ride.