(Warner Todd Huston/The Union Label) – In a perfect example of why unions are the biggest problem for government budget reform, John Gage, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), has just pronounced anyone that wants to cut the overly generous pay, benefits, and pensions of government employees are “mentally retarded.” This is the to-the-hilt fight that the unions will go to, not only to keep their cushy remuneration, but to enlarge it still more all on the backs of the working poor taxpayers that don’t have luxurious government jobs.
Gage made the statement during a Feb. 8 march on Washington, DC: “When people say well we just have to pay less in wages whether it’s private sector or public sector, I think they’re mentally retarded to say something like that.”
Like a good unionista, Gage does not want to do what needs to be done to balance our government budgets. Whether federal or state and local, the exorbitant pay and bennies that government workers get simply cannot be sustained any more. They must be cut. The simple fact is that government workers make far and away more than the average worker in the private sector yet it is the folks in the private sector that are burdened to foot the bill.
Already Americans for Prosperity started an effort to force Gage to resign. “Cutting spending,” AFP says, “is actually very sane! Insulting Americans doesn’t prove a point, it only proves your arrogance and ignorance. You do not represent the great working class of the American people and should step down.”
Check out www.RemoveGage.com and sign the petition.
