UDPATE, February 18, 2011: In retrospect, it's clear that Obama, "willing partner" TMJ4, and the union thugs orchestrated this interview to coincide with the planned protests in Madison.
It's disgraceful that Obama and tool TMJ4's Charles Benson worked together to undercut the will of the people and overturn the results of the November 2010 elections.
These tactics won't work.
Bus in more union thugs to protest in Madison. It won't matter.
Scott Walker was elected to address Wisconsin's budget woes without raising taxes. He is keeping his promise to Wisconsinites.
_______________
During TMJ4's 10:00 PM newscast on Wednesday, Charles Benson interviewed Obama.
Benson made the absurd "pants on fire" claim that Governor Scott Walker was thinking about bringing in the National Guard in response to union member protests over the budget repair bill.
Raw Video of the interview
Transcript
CHARLES BENSON: Wisconsin has its own budget crisis right now. Thousands and thousands are marching on Madison even as we speak. Unions and state employees, they're angry right now at Governor Walker. Walker's talking about potentially bringing out the National Guard. They're worried about they're going to lose their right to bargain, and they're going to be asked, forced to pay more in benefits.
Others, on the other hand, are saying Walker's doing the right thing, and suggesting maybe you should do the same thing as well when it comes to benefits, cutting benefits, having workers pay more.
OBAMA: Well, I'd say that I haven't followed exactly what's happening with the Wisconsin budget. I've got some budget problems here in Washington I've had to focus on. Um, I would say as a general proposition that everybody's got to make some adjustments to new fiscal realities. Uh, and I think if, uh, if we want to avoid layoffs, which I want to avoid, I don't want to see layoffs of hardworking federal workers. We had to impose, for example, a freeze on pay increases for federal workers for the next two years as part of my overall budget freeze. Uh, you know, I think those kind of adjustments are the right thing to do.
On the other hand, uh, some of what I've heard coming out of Wisconsin, where, uh, you're just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, uh, seems like more of an assault on unions. And I think it's very important for us to understand that public employees, they're our neighbors. They're our friends. These are folks who are teachers, and they're firefighters, and they're social workers, and they're police officers. You know, they make a lot of sacrifices and make a big contribution. And I think it's important not to vilify them or to suggest that somehow all these budget problems are due to public employees.
So, I think everybody's gotta make some adjustments, but I think it's also important to recognize that public employees make enormous contributions to the well being of our states and our cities.
It was utterly irresponsible for TMJ4 to air Benson's statement about Walker "bringing out the National Guard." The context in which Benson made that remark was related to the protests in Madison. Walker NEVER talked about using the National Guard in response to the protests.
It was inexcusable for TMJ4 to allow that extremely misleading statement to air. It was such sloppy journalism.
Obama's comments, at first, were measured and reasonable; but then he went off on goofy campaign rhetoric. Governor Walker isn't vilifying public employees, though Obama has a terrible habit of shamelessly vilifying the private sector. Governor Walker has praised public employees. He's just trying to make the "adjustments" required to fix the budget.
Obviously, Obama doesn't want to offend the unions. God forbid he piss them off. So he panders.
At least Obama admitted he doesn't know what's happening in Wisconsin and was speaking in general terms. That should negate the relevance of his comments on the situation here.
(Do you believe that Obama isn't monitoring Wisconsin? I find that difficult to swallow.)
The airing of Benson's National Guard comment was really disgraceful, repeating a falsehood.
The Democrat-Union-Media Complex once again rears its very ugly head.
No comments:
Post a Comment