It’s all about the constitution…until it’s inconvenient
Republican State Representative Bill Rogers is pissed. He’s pissed because Ingham County judge ruled last week that a new law that he introduced is unconstitutional. The new law would have required members of a state employee pension fund to contribute 4 percent of their pay toward the fund, effectively reducing their wages.
Rogers is quoted in the Livingston County Press & Argus as saying, “What the courts are basically saying is, ‘Tough luck. Go bankrupt…How are we going to fix anything if that’s the way they’re going to treat it?”
Actually, Mr. Rogers, what the courts are “basically saying” is that you have to follow the law and the constitution and your anti-union law does neither. I realize that cramps your style and the style of the rest of your Republican friends in the state legislature that are working so very hard to crush our public employee unions. But, to borrow a phrase, tough rocks.
Rogers has widespread support in Livingston County from the tea party types there that claim to hold the constitution in such high esteem. It appears, however, that’s only true as long as they can get away with imposing their anti-union will on the rest of the state. If the constitution gets in the way of that, suddenly the judges and the entire system is worthy of their derision and scorn.
Maybe, Mr. Rogers, if you and your colleagues hadn’t siphoned off over a billion dollars from our budget to give your business friends a tasty tax cut, there’d be money around for things like education, public safety and, yes, paying for the commitments that have been made to our public employees.
It’s GOPocrisy at its finest.
