Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has made it clear he wants to balance his state’s budget. And I commend him for that. But his “budget plan” is unfair to many people. Let me explain.
I am a firm believer in unions. Unions give each worker a voice against powerful corporations. Corporations need to be held in check because too often they are greedy.  Prior to unions, a criticism of corporations was many of them treated their workers like second class citizens. They often had to work much harder beyond reason. 
Workers should not have to give up so much so quickly in order to “balance the budget.” The governor should’ve at least been fairer and not tried to appease his Republican base. The Republicans want deep spending cuts, but cutting many things too soon can cause more damage, especially in this fragile economy.
Workers should keep collective-bargaining rights as part of being a union. I am for the workers who are protesting to keep their rights.
This is a basic right. Walker and other Republicans nationwide need to stop bashing unions. It seems politically expedient that just within the past few weeks they were excited the Egyptian people took to the streets to protest. But why can’t union workers do it? Oh yes. That’s because union workers, for the most part, are Democrats.
Many police officers, nurses, firefighters and teachers are a part of unions. It sounds like a double standard to me, especially since the union workers are peacefully protesting, unlike some of the rioting Egyptian protestors.
They need to be bashing the richest people getting massive tax cuts when the middle class workers are the ones who struggle to make ends meet as the corporations are getting richer. Taking the unions away would have absolutely nothing to do with the state’s budget crisis. The corporations already have too much power since they have tons of revenue and profit.
If the bill Walker is pushing for passes, then it will likely lead to similar measures being taken in other Republican-led states. Don’t think for one second this is an issue only in Wisconsin. Many other states are just waiting on the outcome from this predominantly Republican state legislature. I agree with the Democrats in Wisconsin’s state legislature who decided not to even show up to vote.
Without those Democrats, the Republicans can’t vote on the bill because they don’t have a quorum. The Democrats have said they would come back once they felt like the Republican governor listened to them.
Not one single job will be created by the proposed legislation. The middle class will get worse. If you think the middle class is worse-off now, then it will only get worse with this anti-union bill.
So in other words, there won’t be anybody to fight for middle class workers. Somebody has to fight to keep workers’ health benefits and pensions.
Walker has threatened to seek the National Guard on the public-sector unions. Who is he kidding?
I could cut Walker some slack if he hadn’t signed bills into place that cut taxes, which increased the deficit by millions of dollars. And they call most Republicans fiscal conservatives? I think Wisconsin could’ve done without those tax cuts for the richest people in its state.
Every state is facing a political budgeting dilemma. There are questions of what to cut and how much. Focusing so much attention on the unions isn’t fair. There are many things the governor could cut that would get a near consensus.
But of course those easy things to cut don’t get much attention from Walker. His attention seems to be focused on cutting several things the Democrats want, many of which are helpful to society as a whole.
Christopher Webb is a junior majoring in  business administration. He can be contacted at [email protected].