Bongo drum parties in Kloppenburg's office around the clock won't change the fact that private sector workers are either broke or unemployed

.
Protesters can bring Greek riots to Wisconsin if they want. It won't change the ultimate outcome. Many public sector workers will be laid off because private sector middle class Americans are either unemployed or broke.

3/31/11, "Unions deploy money and muscle in Battle of Wisconsin," WashingtonExaminer.com, Byron York

"So far, Democrats seem to have the edge. In the recall campaigns, the unions appear to have gathered more signatures on petitions to recall the Republicans who passed the budget bill than the Tea Party has collected to recall Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in an attempt to bring the legislature to a halt.

"They are far more organized, and they understand that the stakes are incredibly high," says Vukmir of the union campaign. "What happens in Wisconsin will have a dramatic effect on what happens in other states and the country." (Vukmir herself is not facing recall because she was just elected last November and the law doesn't allow recalls of newly elected lawmakers.)

There's another fight going on, this one in court, where a county circuit judge has ordered the state not to implement the new budget law while she considers a challenge filed by a local district attorney. On Thursday Walker announced he will abide by the judge's ruling, even though top Republican lawmakers believe the judge does not have the authority to set aside the law. At some point it's all going to end up with the state supreme court.

Which brings up the most intense battle going on at the moment. On Tuesday, voters will go to the polls to elect a supreme court justice. The choice in the "nonpartisan" contest is between incumbent David Prosser, a conservative who has served on the court for 13 years, and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, a liberal who has made clear that if elected she will vote to strike down the new budget law. If Kloppenburg wins, the pro-union faction will have a 4-to-3 majority on the court. In other words, the outcome of this single judicial election could well determine the fate of the budget law.

So it's no surprise that unions and other outside groups are spending big money to defeat Prosser. And just as in the recall fights, Republicans have been slow to get going. But now, just days before the voting, they've realized that everything is on the line. "If we lose this race," says Vukmir, "every piece of legislation that the legislature [passes] and the governor signs into law will be challenged

• and turned over in the courts."

Now, add in the new union intimidation campaign directed against businesses in the state. The Republican victory in the legislature didn't settle anything. It just opened up some ugly new fronts in the Battle of Wisconsin."

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Reference: 4/1/11, "We've Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers," "More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined." Wall St. Journal, Stephen Moore

"If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost

• exact reversal of the situation in 1960,
  

when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so

• many states and cities cannot pay their bills?

Every state in America today except for two—Indiana and Wisconsin—has more government workers on the payroll than people manufacturing industrial goods. Consider California, which has the highest budget deficit in the history of the states. The not-so Golden State now has an incredible 2.4 million government employees—twice as many as people at work in manufacturing.

• New Jersey has just under two-and-a-half as many government employees as manufacturers.
  

• Florida's ratio is more than 3 to 1. So is New York's."...

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