As droves of union groups show up to protest retirement and salary reductions, I at first had empathy since my husband and I both work for Clark County School District. Then when I heard that teachers turned in doctor notes even though they were not sick, but protesting. One woman said that them all taking the day off to protest shows the kids how democracy works, but it also shows that they have to lie, so kinda hypocritical. Then I looked at their salaries:

Average teacher $89,000 where they only work 189 days a year, get weekends and holidays off which includes 2 weeks at Christmas and a week for Spring break. I don’t make $89,000 a year, but I make a good wage. I would be willing to pay out of pocket into my own retirement if that means people stay employed.  With each state on verge of bankruptcy, educator salaries and retirements is a huge part of budget. Reality is cuts have to happen or many people will be out of work. Here are a couple of sites Wake UP:

After three years of private-sector firings, plus 9 percent unemployment, salary cuts, home-mortgage crises and 401(k) shrinkage – the 91 percent of the American work force employed in that private sector (53 percent in small businesses with even lower benefits) is entitled to feel little sympathy for Wisconsin schoolteachers receiving an average of $89,000 in salary and benefits and contributing zero to their pension plan and only 5 percent to their medical insurance while the average private-sector employee contributes 29.

Then the way they are protesting is disgusting. Show students how to make your voice heard without hateful rhetoric. As educators, being role models, and putting our students first, there is no room in for such hate-filled slogans, words, or posters.

That the protesters speak in a different voice can be seen in the signs they carry. Many compare Mr. Walker to Hitler, Mussolini or Hosni Mubarak. One placard had the slogan “Repeal Walker” with the governor’s head in sniperscope cross hairs. This is the symbolism that Democrats recently denounced as “hate-filled rhetoric,” and it is far from the voice of the public. It is rather the voice of an entitled class that seeks by any means to stop its free ride from coming to an end.

I am willing to work to get our state’s budget down. What I would like to see is that I will be able to pay my student loans off before I die. Right now 95% of  my monthly payment goes to interest. These loans are worse then the IRS. If I were to pay off my loans then I would have extra spending money to stimulate the economy. Who knows where my interest payment goes every month?

May we work together for a better America and keep our eyes on what is happening overseas:

Bahrain holds particular importance to Washington as the host of the U.S. Navy‘s 5th Fleet, which is the main U.S. military counterweight to Iranian efforts to expand its military influence into the Gulf.

Yemen president refuses to step down. Why important? U.S.-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for three decades, offered to begin a dialogue with the protesters.

America should still has clearly in mind the riots in Athens, London and Paris and the deficit crisis in Greece, Ireland, Spain, Britain, France, Portugal and more of the European Union. For the first time, it is clear to all the world that modern, successful, stable Western democracies can actually run out of money and have their borrowing requests virtually rejected by the international bond market.

UK Inflation hikes

Chaos in Libya

Washington Times budget article on budget continued

Every country knows what path we are headed on, except those in control. Hope they listen to Americans and take a different path:

Some  budget quotes:
Our “Nominal debt will peak in 2013 at 106 percent of the economy before dropping to 105.2 percent in 2015 and 2016, though only if the economy booms.” Mr. Obama‘s budget projectsthat 2011 will see the biggest one-year debt jump in history, or nearly $2 trillion, to reach $15.476 trillion by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. That would be 102.6 percentof GDP — the first time since World War II that dubious figure
has been reached.

Washington Times article on the danger of America’s budget.

“Now that the worst of the recession is over, we have to confront the fact that our government spends more than it takes in. That is not sustainable.  Every day, families sacrifice to live within their means.  They deserve a government that does the same.” (Remarks by the President in State of Union Address, WhiteHouse.gov, 1/25/11)

God Bless America, DDF