Obama’s Community Organizing Roots Return in Wisconsin Uprising
President Barrack Obama has thrown his support behind the union protesters and others who have shut down schools and other services; rallying against Gov. Scott Walker's budget cuts that he says are needed to prevent a state government shutdown.
Obama told a Milwaukee reporter he believes it sounds like Walker is mounting anti-union assaults on the workers. Obama's White House group, Organizing for America, orchestrated the assembling of thousands of union workers for protests, and similar activities are planned for other states where cutbacks are planned. The unions are protesting the idea that workers pay a larger part of the cost of their pensions and insurance premiums, much like those in the private sector, or non union jobs, do. Democratic senators staged a delay protest of their own in the legislature to stall a vote on some of the cuts. Several states have said their debts are unsustainable, and some of the worst states have a collective debt of over 175 billion dollars.