• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Senate Republicans threaten missing Democrats with contempt

Oh here we have Miss Lovely. How do you do?

Aren't you the same lovely lady who proposed that Americans should vote based on how much income taxes they pay? How's that coming along? I'm sorry, but you must understand why I can't possibly take you seriously.


The sad thing is that ordinary folks like you, who live on a middle class income or a little above, believe the propogandas against your own neighbors. Enough so that you would turn on the folks that are going through the same hardships like you and bark in favor of the ultra rich who wouldn't give you the time of day. Tsk, tsk.

I'll tsk you. I do like the Ms Lovely reference, though. I am that same person!! How nice of you to remember. I can only assume the mere thought emblazened my name into your consciousness. Don't take it too seriously. I didn't. ;-)

There's nothing ordinary about me, Ill Will. And why on earth would you assume I live on a middle class or slightly above income? You have not a clue. I live a blessed life. Never belonged to a union. Some people need them desperately. Perhaps you are one of those. As long as you're not in the public sector, I have no problem with that. At all. Live long and prosper, Animus.
 
OK, Drama Queen. Slow down.

Union workers are virtually impossible to terminate. These folks are getting packages most people can't imagine, despite the fact they are compensated solely through taxpayer dollars.

Why can't they negotiate for themselves like the other 88 percent of American workers do? Why should they be able to unionize against the taxpayers who pay them?

You know who else has a package you can't possibly imagine? Black men.



I'm kidding! I'm kidding!
If you want to look at large, enormous packages...you'll have to look further than a teacher's salary. The average starting salary for teachers is $30,000 give or take. You're barking up the wrong tree doggy.
 
If you want to look at large, enormous packages...you'll have to look further than a teacher's salary. The average starting salary for teachers is $30,000 give or take.

Ignoring your crude sense of "humor" here's something for you to look at....

“When people say that public sector employees live high off the hog, I’d like to share that for 13 of my 19-year teaching career I have held a part-time job either in the summer or teaching night class at the local technical college,” Lechleiter-Luke told CNN. “In addition to tightening the belt even more and crossing our fingers that nothing breaks, I will need to find part-time work again.”

Lechleiter-Luke makes $54,928 in base salary and $32,213 in “fringe benefits,” which include health insurance, life insurance and retirement pay.

Brad Lutes and his wife, Heather Lutes, told MSNBC’s Ed Schultz that Walker’s budget would hit them twice as hard.

“Having to explain to an 8- and 10-year old that the governor of your state basically wants to take money away from dad and mom? It’s just really, really frustrating,” Brad Lutes told Schultz.

He makes $49,412 in base salary with $27,987 in fringe benefits and his wife makes $50,240 with $9,413 in benefits. That’s $137,052 annually between the two of them.

Link

Teaching salaries in Wisconsin have increased since 2007. For example, the average teacher salary in Wisconsin in 2009 was $48,743, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a 2.91 percent increase from 2008 in which the average teacher salary in Wisconsin was $47,365. The average teacher salary in Wisconsin increased by less than 1% from 2007-2008, but increased nearly 3% from 2008-2009.

Although it did not increase significantly, the Wisconsin teacher salary rankings actually lowered. Wisconsin teacher salaries ranked 18th in 2007, while in both 2008 and 2009, the Wisconsin teacher salaries rankings fell to 24th in the country. Based upon this trend, individuals can assume that salaries will increase slightly, even if national rankings fall.

Wisconsin teacher salaries are summarized in the Wisconsin Teacher Salary Schedule below:

Link

You'll have to click the link above this line to see the small chart they got there.

The Daily Caller started reporting the salaries and benefits of teachers who went public with their complaints on Monday, and this story will contain more of them.

Politico reported that Michael Mulvey, a high school algebra teacher in Wauwatosa, Walker’s hometown, held a sign that read: “Scott, I taught your son algebra. My son just turned 5. Does he deserve a good education?”

Mulvey makes $46,687 in base salary and $25,481 in “fringe benefits,” which include health insurance, life insurance and retirement pay.

Politico also reported that a high school math teacher from Green Bay, Karen Hill, traveled to Madison on a bus full of fellow teachers to protests, and held a sign that read, “negotiate not dictate.”

[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]


Hill makes $59,695 in base salary with an additional $28,398 in benefits.

Martha Vasquez, an art teacher in Madison, told Politico that she was irked more at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin chiming into the debate than she was at Walker.

“I was really surprised when Sarah Palin weighted in,” Vasquez said. “This bill is ripping apart the of what it means to be a Wisconsinite. We value education.”

Vasquez makes $50,018 in base salary and $11,188 in benefits.

Link

As a side note to that last quote...Vasquez says that "we value education"....I call BS

Anyways...What were you saying again there Animus?
 
Because Rosa Parks should have just moved to the back of the bus as was told to because she was making everyone else late.

Because children should have just kept working at low hourly wages 12-14 hours a day because they were affecting production.

Because slaves should have just continued doing their jobs since not doing so would affect the society because white men would actually have to pay them for work.

Because women should have just accepted their position as second rate citizens in society because that's always been what was expected of them instead pursuing equal rights.

So you're touting something that Unions helped fixed how many decades ago now???,

Unions were formed to right inequalities and promote safety in the work place. Those issues have been settled a long time ago. Now about the only issues that Unions deal with is trying to get the most bang for the buck. Name me one public union buisness that makes the same or less than a public non-union buisness. Hell, I can't even remember the last time that a Union hollered about safety concerns. I hear em all the time about wanting pay raises though....
 
I looks like the Wisconsin Republicans have gone over the edge...

Senate Republicans threaten missing Democrats with contempt - JSOnline

Madison — Republicans in the state Senate ordered Democrats on Thursday to return to the chamber by 4 p.m. or be found in contempt of the Senate - a move that means Democrats could be taken into custody.

"We simply cannot have democracy be held hostage because the minority wants to prove a point," said Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau).

Senate Democrats have been out of the state since Feb. 17 to prevent passage of GOP Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill. At least 20 senators must be present to pass the bill, but Republicans hold just 19 seats.

..

Oh sure. Abandoning your duties and leaving the state isn't over the edge but this is certainly over the edge.
 
These type of stall tactics aren't exactly new.

Senate Police Seize Packwood for Quorum Call - Los Angeles Times

Armed with arrest warrants for all 46 Republicans, the Senate's sergeant-at-arms, Henry Giugni, and his men began to search the corridors of the Capitol and the Senate office buildings. After checking several empty offices, they spotted Sen. Steve Symms (R-Ida.) but he fled down a hallway and escaped arrest. Then a cleaning woman tipped them that Packwood was in his office, and Giugni--a burly former Hawaii vice officer--opened the door with a passkey......Packwood tried to shove the door closed, but Giugni and two of his assistants pushed it open. The senator, who hurt his left arm in an accident two weeks ago and has been wearing a cast since then, tried to use his left hand to keep the door shut, bruising his knuckles in the process.

Quorum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quorum-busting

The tactic of quorum-busting—causing a quorum to be prevented from meeting—has been used in legislative bodies by minorities seeking to block the adoption of some measure they oppose. Rules to discourage quorum-busting have been adopted by legislative bodies, such as the call of the house, outlined above.

Quorum-busting has been used for centuries. For instance, during his time in the state legislature, Abraham Lincoln leapt out of a first story window (the doors of the Capital had been locked to prevent legislators from fleeing) in a failed attempt to prevent a quorum from being present.

On October 7, 1893, in the middle of a filibuster in the US Senate, the call went out for the yeas and nays. A large number of senators, however, failed to respond when the clerk called their names. The Senate’s presiding officer noted that the needed majority of members had not voted, even though there were more than a sufficient number of senators seated in the chamber to make a quorum.

When the chair once again ordered the clerk to call the roll to determine if a quorum was present, a majority of members answered to their names. However, when the roll call on the pending measure occurred, the filibustering cohort refused to vote. In one 40-hour session, this tactic produced a succession of 39 quorum calls but only four recorded votes.

In 1897, seeking to overcome the quorum busting tactics, the Senate changed its rules to effectively end the practice. This reform, however, triggered a return to an earlier tactic by recalcitrant senators of merely staying away when votes were scheduled.[citation needed]

A recent prominent example of quorum-busting occurred during the 2003 Texas redistricting, in which the majority Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives sought to carry out a controversial mid-decade congressional redistricting bill which would have favored Republicans by displacing five Democratic U.S. Representatives from Texas (the Texas Five) from their districts. The House Democrats, certain of defeat if a quorum were present, took a plane to the neighboring state of Oklahoma to prevent a quorum from being present (and thus the passage of the bill). The group gained the nickname "the Killer Ds."

Similarly, the minority Democrats in the Texas Legislature's upper chamber, the Texas Senate, fled to New Mexico to prevent a quorum of the Senate to prevent a redistricting bill from being considered during a special session. The Texas Eleven stayed in New Mexico for 46 days before John Whitmire returned to Texas, creating a quorum. Because there was now no point in staying in New Mexico, the remaining ten members of the Texas Eleven returned to Texas to vote in opposition to the bill.

During the 2011 Wisconsin protests, fourteen Democratic members of the Wisconsin Senate went to Illinois in order to bust the necessary 20-member quorum. Democrats in the Indiana House of Representatives did the same in order to block another union-related bill, causing the legislative clock on the bill to expire. Traveling out of their state placed these legislators beyond the jurisdiction of state troopers who could compel them to return to the chamber.

I don't see any problem with the tactic considering the Majority are reportedly unwilling to negotiate with the Minority. The only option the Minority has to stop this bill is to avoid that quorum call, this is surely a decision their constituents would approve of as a last measure. The issue is definitely worth the fight, the US senate minority attempted to flee the quorum(over campaign finance of all things)back in 1988 if I have the history right.

 
Back
Top Bottom