By Michael Kaufman

From Michael Sweeton, Warwick Town supervisor, to Mario Cuomo, our new state governor, to Barack Obama himself, elected officials across the country are taking aim at government workers and public school teachers as if they, their unions, and their pension plans are responsible for the current economic crisis. In a New Years eve reflection published in the weekly Warwick Advertiser, Sweeton noted that 2010 had been the most “challenging year” in recent memory. “A shrinking economy, stressed pension plans, and an uncertain future combined to affect us all,” said Sweeton.

Cuomo, upon taking office, immediately announced he would set an example by cutting his own salary by 5 percent….and freezing the salaries of state workers. As I read an editorial in the Times Herald-Record lauding the governor’s actions, I thought of the words of Anatole France: “The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” Cuomo’s symbolic salary cut will have no impact on his lavish lifestyle. The salary freeze on state workers will hurt a lot of people.  As even the editorial writer admitted, these actions will have no impact on the state’s huge budget deficit.  Nevertheless, they said, they “set the right tone.”

President Obama has made similar noises about salary freezes and has thus far refused to speak out forthrightly against cuts in Social Security and other vital social programs, even as economic conditions force more Americans into joblessness and poverty. 

And fresh from their electoral victory in November, the Republicans who now control the House of Representatives are preparing to “return government back to the people”—in the words of new speaker John Boehner—by repealing health care reform, making permanent the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and loosening the recently enacted financial regulations aimed at protecting citizens from avaricious practices of financial institutions.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in 10 states intend to introduce bills that would make union dues optional for members, reports Steven Greenhill of The New York Times. Wisconsin’s governor wants to bar state workers from forming unions altogether. Ohio’s governor is launching the biggest assault on unions, says Greenhill, seeking to outlaw strikes by school teachers, prevent child care and home care workers from unionizing, and end a rule that non-union construction workers on public contracts be paid union-scale wages.

Just how much public support exists for the draconian measures advocated by corporate media outlets and local, state, and national politicians is debatable. According to a just-released 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, most Americans think the United States should raise taxes for the rich to balance the budget.  While Congressional Republicans are demanding spending cuts to curb the $1.3 trillion deficit, 61 percent of Americans polled would rather see taxes for the wealthy increased as a first step to tackling the deficit, the poll showed. The next most popular way—chosen by 20 percent—was to cut defense spending.

Only four percent would cut the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly, and just three percent would cut the Social Security retirement program, the poll showed.  Asked which part of the world they would fix first, the largest proportion of respondents—36 percent –chose Washington, compared with 23 percent who picked the Middle East and 14 percent who chose Haiti.

The poll included a random sample of 1,067 adults across the U.S. from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2 and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus three percentage points, 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair said.

And in a fine column Jan. 5 in the Times Herald-Record, Meghan Murphy debunks the myth that public employees and their unions are to blame for the rising cost of government. She cites a study by the Center for Economic Policy and Research that found that government workers make four percent less than comparable private-sector workers. As for “those cushy benefits packages,” the report found “only a slight advantage for government workers, which balanced out the lower pay.”

And Murphy does not stop there.  After acknowledging that private-sector employees suffered losses during the recession, including wage freezes, furloughs, and closing of pension plans, she writes, “Does that mean we should scrape away the benefits that public workers retained through union contracts?

“Not if you think about a recent study by the Center for Labor Market Studies. The report says corporations used the recession to squeeze private-sector workers, laying people off and cutting pay as profits increased.”

She also gives the lie to the hype that labor unions wield undue influence in Albany. “This election cycle, 8.5 percent of campaign donations came from unions, according to an analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group. About 27 percent of donations came from businesses, and about 25 percent came from just 169 individuals. Among those top check-writers—two hedge fund managers, two real estate investors, and a for-profit chatter school leader.”

Think about those numbers next time you hear a local, state, or national politician (Democrat or Republican) or one of the millionaire blowhards on talk radio or Fox News, railing against “stressed pension plans” of government employees and school teachers.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

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