[MD] US democracy at work?

[Ian Glendinning]

John,
Sounds like your first mistake is a taxpayer electing people who don't care ?
Try better next time.
Ian

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 10:03 PM, John Carl <ridgecoyote at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ian,
>
>>
>>
>> A contract is a contract, whether your employer is public or private.
>> If public it is important that the "civil service" is separate from
>> partisan government, so that arrangements don't flip-flop with the
>> ballot box.
>
>
>
> What if the party contracting services, (govt.) sits down at the bargaining
> table with the party that got them elected (deep-pockets unions)?  Where are
> the checks and balances in such an equation?  No wonder pensions and
> benefits for public service employees have done nothing but go higher and
> higher.  Here in California, we saw this pattern displayed in full with the
> collusion of the prison guards and the teachers getting Gray Davis elected,
> just in time to renegotiate the sweetest deals imaginable.  However, once
> locked in, subsequent Republican administration (the governator) can do
> nothing to make those contracts void.  And really, what government official
> really cares?  It's the taxpayer who is screwed.