Deconstructing Wisconsin

During the debates over the past few weeks about the Wisconsin strikes, I have been able to look at what is going on and what the problem seems to be.  I just read two articles about this subject.  The article by USA today seems to lean towards the side of the republicans and the state of Wisconsin in this issue.  Governor Scott Walker says that he wants to balance the budget of the state by cutting the funding from a number of government funded organizations like Medicaid, as well as the salaries of government employees, and removing some of their collective bargaining rights.  Collective bargaining rights are simply the rights that an employee has to request higher pay or better benefits from their employer.  Some of these rights are being taken away from the unions, leaving only the right to request higher wages and strike for them.  In addition, certain regulations are being placed on unions that would cut their income by about 1/3.

Now, some of these measures make sense.  I  think that bills to cut spending are great.  Very necessary, any time.  I think that since only government employees are the ones affected, and since they receive pretty good benefits and pay, it is permissible to cut the ability to bargain for more, but only if they concede to not get rid of too many in the near future.  In addition, I believe that it is ridiculous that employees would not have to pay into their own pension and medical funds.  It seems like the government is just giving away the taxpayer's money and other people get it for free.  That doesn't seem right to me.

However, there are problems with this kind of law.  It seems like the governor and his party have ulterior motives that are not expressed publicly.  Weakening the unions would weaken the democratic party, which would weaken the opposition to the republicans.  This kind of power struggle is what has felled many a good country in the past, and I would hate to see a vicious fight for power between the two parties ensue.  While I see necessary spending cuts on the surface, I think that trying to pass laws that would hurt what makes America unique (democracy and the ability to lobby the government) is not right.

So where is the middle ground?  Can two parties that conflict find a compromise?  We'll soon find out, no matter the case.