8/8/2019 PFUnionsCon

1/2

Con

Ralph Waldo Emerson was once quoted saying "Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so arelies." When we observe labor unions, one can certainly see the beauty. The true question is: Arewe seeing the truth or the lies. Thus we stand for the con on the resolution: On balance,government employee labor unions have a positive impact on the United States. I now offer thefollowing definitions to clarify the round.

A union is defined as an organization of employees formed to bargain with the employer.Positive shall be defined as helpful in the meeting of needs.Impact is to produce an effect or change in.

Before I continue, I will offer the following observation: In order to remain completely topical, wemust assume that "government employee labor unions" refers to public labor forces, those paidby government taxes paid by citizens.

Therefore, let us present our first contention which pertains to the tax increase. Firstand foremost, we must address the impact labor unions have had on taxpayers.

Government salaries and benefits are more times than not paid for by taxes. As theseunions call for more and more dues, taxes will severely increase.

James Sherk state " Represe nting gov er nme nt empl oyees has tur ned union s into determi ned supp orters of tax increases and more gover nme nt spe nding. Higher taxes mea n the gover nme nt can h ire more wo rkers and pa y higher wages . As a result, publi c-se ctor union s have be come a pote nt force lobb ying fo r higher taxes and against spe nding redu ctions across Ameri ca ... [In]Minnes ota . AFSCME Council 5 unsuccess f ully lobbied state legislat ors to override Gover no r Tim Pawlenty s vet o of a $1 billion tax increase in the spri ng of 2009. Two D em ocrats joined all the Republi cans in the state House to up ho ld the vet o. In resp on se AFSCMEendorsed a primar ychalle nger to on e of the Dem ocrats . AFSCMEis now lobbying state legislators to raise taxes by$3.8 billion. 1

To pay these government employees that demand higher wages, the government will not worsenthe deficit, rather, the government is going to increase taxes in states to compensate for the riseof needs. At the point where unions are the cause of a recurring issue with US citizens, it isobviously causing more harm than good.

General Motors or, GM is currently $27 billion in debt. According to Forbes.com $13 billion of thisdebt was caused by the strong employee labor union. If one single companies employee union

can put them this much in debt, imagine what the whole US governments labor union could do toour country.

1 Sherk, James . "Ma jorit y of Un ion M embers Now Wo rk for the Gover nme nt ." The Heritage Foundation . 22 Jan. 2010. W eb . .

8/8/2019 PFUnionsCon

2/2

Con

Furt herm ore, our sub-point B will now present where this tax money goes.

A report by Robert Novy-Marx and Joshua D. Rauh found that government pension funds areunfunded by about $3.2 trillion. That's an extra $27,000 that each American household will needto pony up in the decades ahead.The price tag is so large because more than 80 percent of government workers are still eligiblefor old- fashioned defined-benefit retirement programs. State and local governments are makingmassive spending promises, and taxpayers will have to pick up the tab. By contrast, such pensionfunds are available to just 20 percent of private-sector workers. 2

This puts us into even more f inancial tr ouble and be gs the questi on Just how mu ch have the gover nme ntal empl oyees done in the past f ew years to deser ve all these be ne f its? The private se ctor empl oyees don t even re ceive as mu ch as they do and they ear n mu ch less than the avera ge 40$ per hour gover nme nt empl oyee .

2 Feul ner, Edwin. "Jobs We All Pay For ." The Heritage Foundation . 2 Feb . 2010. W eb .