At a Saturday CPAC panel attacking public sector unions, the crowd cheered the news that the new Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, has set out to destroy public sector unions by moving to strip employees of collective bargaining rights.
Steve Malanga, an author affiliated with the right-wing Manhattan Institute, expanded the target list to include union allies — community organizers and social service advocates who he decried as part of the “big government coalition.”
Tom McCabe from the Building Industry Association of Washington warned of the dangerous consequences of taking on unions and complained that unions and their political allies resisted and retaliated when his association began working to elect conservative politicians.
Vincent Vernuccio of the Competitive Enterprise Institute was incensed by the fact that public sector unions – which he urged people to call “government sector unions” – were actively engaged in the last election on behalf of their members. About the unions’ spending, he raged, “It’s the taxpayers’ money and you have no right to spend it to bloat state and federal budgets.”
Donald Devine seemed to spend most of his time recounting his glory days in the union-bashing Reagan administration. He reveled in the firing of the air traffic controllers, and said of unions and their supporters in business and academia, “We know who the enemy is – what we need in so much of public life is courage.” He urged CPAC attendees to give lawmakers courage to take on unions.
In a separate presentation on “Government Gone Wild,” panelists complained about government spending and celebrated New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for “conducting a national seminar on how to beat the unions and the liberals.”
