There have been some very emotional political issues lately in the news. They all deal with government, and the people that work for it. In California, two big cities had a vote to eliminate or reduce pensions, and the voters passed the issues. In Wisconsin, an effort to recall the governor was made after he managed to strip the unions of government workers from collective bargaining rights. These issues all came about because state and local governments are seeing less tax income due to unemployment, and unlike the feds, they can't endlessly borrow money.
Why do so many people get so bent out of shape about this? Naturally, because government employees in this case are teachers, police and firefighters, arguably some of the most noble professions in our culture. These aren't people that you want to slight.
That said, voters appear to be fatigued by the cost of local and state government. Some states and cities are clearly better than others. The disconnect with the people who oppose these cuts is that you simply can't avoid them unless you want to pay more taxes. No one wants that.
It's unfortunate that it gets framed as a "think of the [teachers/cops/firefighters]" argument. No one wants to hurt people in these professions, but public sector jobs have a very real connection to the health of private sector jobs and the economy overall.
There are workable solutions. I've always been impressed that my city, for example, doesn't play games with budgets, it flat out says, "If you want this fire station coverage, we need this much, and we'll dedicate this new tax just for this one thing. If you don't vote for it, we can't pay for it." Can you imagine the feds working like that? Ha!
I know a lot of people are apathetic or completely skeptical of everything government does, but I'm glad to see people getting involved about things that aren't ridiculous moral issues. I pat myself on the back for being optimistic.
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