Protect Their Own

In my home state of Tennessee, the week began with our Democrat Governor Phil Bredesen delivering a grim State of the State address. There is nothing unique in Tennessee's struggle with the entire nation buoyed by our Obama prosperity (for once, really the worst economy since the Great Depression). Tennessee is however beset with one glaring expense most other US states do not suffer under. Tennessee has to pay for our own effort at socialized medicine called TennCare- an insurer of last resort to the poor and the medically uninsurable (patients with pre-existing conditions such as cancer). Tennessee now faces the dilemma of cutting some of the reimbursement that is literally breaking the state, which sounds like a grand idea but would engender the loss of huge amounts of Federal matching funds, or do nothing, face insurmountable mounting expense and have the state first violate state Constitutional mandate to not run at a deficit and eventually go under (yes, a state could go bankrupt- cities notably Cleveland, Ohio and New York City have faced the prospect). To save Tennessee from this fate, Governor Bredesen is proposing cutting over 1200  state positions, including more than 700 that are actually filled. This means real state jobs lost although the 1200 number is effectively a fiction, and it is certain many of those  jobs actually lost will be workers whose pension and benefits are already fully vested and relatively new hires who stand to lose little if forced to leave the state employment for life system with an early exit (presuming they are able to find other gainful employment). And that is where the rub is- why are government workers exempt from the real pain the rest of us are feeling? Why are civil servants not subject to the same vicissitudes at the hands of government as workers in the private sector? Those who worked in government used to say their benefits, which tended to be more generous than those offered by private sector companies, made up for their salaries, which often were somewhat lower. Now those working for government at every level, municipal, state, and Federal, have compensation packages that are higher in salary than comparable non-government jobs and something virtually unheard of today- real job security. They are entrenched in their positions regardless of the need for them or their competence or lack thereof. So while the rest of us suffer, the non-defense payroll of the Federal government swells under Obama to 2.15 million workers, the largest it has ever been and these are good jobs, jobs for life with perks and security. Do you not have a warm feeling knowing that the only sector of the economy that is growing, indeed thriving, is unionized government workers including bureaucrats with the power to further ruin your lives- and you have the privilege of paying for them.