Frequent readers of this space have heard this before ...so forgive me for  beating a dead horse...but when I came this Boehner quote, I got steamed..

Governors are trying to find ways to balance their budgets, which they’re required to do. In some of these states you’ve got collective bargaining laws that are so weighted in favor of the public employees that there’s almost no bargaining. We’ve given them a machine gun and put it right at the heads of the local officials and they really have their hands tied. "

--John Boehner ( addressing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's "Budget Repair Bill" that essentially eliminated all collective bargaining rights except for those related to wages)

Yeah, well that's just like your opinion man."

                                                                  --The Dude

 Facts* :   Three of the 13 non-collective bargaining states are among the 11 states facing budget shortfalls at or above 20% (Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina). Another, South Carolina, comes in at a sizable 17.4%. Nevada, where state employees have no collective bargaining rights (but local employees do) has the largest percentage shortfall in the country, at 45.2%. All in all, eight non-collective-bargaining states face larger budget shortfalls than Wisconsin.

   The goals of most attacks on collective bargaining are obvious and  NY Times coverage over the last year   confirms what they are : silence public sector unions where possible, win popular support with an uninformed public, raise money for campaign coffers from private business and strip employees of the ability to counter these efforts politically in the statehouse or at the polls. 

 For background information about those seeking to end collective bargaining rights, check out watchdog group Center for Public Integrity (CPI) and Mother Jones magazine. These provide details about the influence of the Koch Brothers, major anti-union players in the Wisconsin fight and elsewhere round the country. They are also busy in funding a lot of political action committees for upcoming elections.

*  From the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.