Despite the fact that the teacher's unions have spent millions to buy TV ads attacking his budget cuts, the latest public opinion poll shows Chris Christie's strong medicine has won over a majority of New Jersey residents.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely New Jersey Voters shows that 51% approve of how the new Republican governor is doing his job, while 45% disapprove. This includes 33% who Strongly Approve and 31% who Strongly Disapprove.

These findings mark little, if any, change from mid-April.

Forty-six percent (46%) of Garden State voters give Christie good or excellent marks for his handling of the budget crisis. Thirty-six percent (36%) rate his performance in this area as poor.

Christie has been battling the Democratic-controlled legislature and the state’s powerful public employee unions over his proposed $29.3 billion budget, which includes substantial spending cuts in several areas. ...

Again, this is AFTER the unions have spent millions on ads fighting his cuts, which probably means a few things: 1) his "we're out of money" message is getting through and 2) people are just fed up with greedy unions.  read more »

In case you missed the news earlier this year, government workers...(aka: taxpyayer's employees) now comprise the majority of union membership in America.

And then there's the fact that, despite the recession and cutbacks in the private sector, government employment...(aka: the majority of union members) is the only sector of the economy that has grown lately.  Of course, given that most of the "stimulus" was an excuse to bailout unionized bureaucrats working for state governments that are going broke, this comes as no surprse.

I think another fact that needs to be pointed out about the stimulus that I haven't seen elsewhere is that, by bailing out these state governments and keeping them from making the necessary cuts to balance their books, the federal government prevented the states from doing what the private sector does in such circumstances in every business cycle: get more efficient. 

In other words, they identfy waste, mismanagement, rudundancies and anything else they can live without after taking a hard look at things.  They get leaner...but usually maintain or even increase productivity.  Meaning they do more with less.  And when the business cycle improves, they're even more productive and competitive.

But not government.  Or unions.  They have a vested interest in growing and consuming more of available resources.  Which is why they go so well together.  read more »

This is a HUGE problem. Michael Barone has written an excellent in-depth article on this increasingly important issue and you can read it on Townhall.com, Mon Feb 8, 2010. I don’t wish to duplicate his work but I don’t think it can be stated strongly enough. These unions have to be brought under control before it is too late – and it is very late indeed. Public service is an exercise in searching for oxymorons. They serve not the public but themselves, and are in place only to perpetuate their own power and existence. They flourish at the expense of the private sector. Mr. Barone said very succinctly that the public sector unions are a PARASITE sucking the life out of the private sector.

Let me reprise: GOVERNMENT PRODUCES NOTHING! Fully seventy percent of all new jobs in this country come from small business. By and large, small businesses do not use private sector unions, though are not necessarily anti-union. Unions in this day and age accomplish little and obstruct much. Unions have destroyed productivity in this country. With their intransigent attitudes towards management they have forced development and manufacturing off-shore to more business friendly environments, leaving the unions to complain bitterly at the dearth of jobs. It’s akin to circling the wagons and firing inwards. They have forced prices higher, made the very companies that were feeding them unprofitable and forced many out of business.

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