Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation

The public employee unions are plundering and bankrupting California and the nation..  That’s the bottom line of Steve Greenhut’s new book, Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.  KFI radio’s Bill Handel interviewed Greenhut, former editor of the Orange County Register, earlier this week to discuss the book.  (Bill Handel podcast at 15:00) The book is a necessary primer on why California state government is broken – and how to fix it.  Greenhut proves why the Citizen Power Campaign is necessary to fix California state government by stopping the use of taxpayer dollars for politics by the public employee unions.

Steve Greenhut chronicles how the public employee unions have turned state government upside down. “Government employees are supposed to work for the public- not the other way around”, says reviewer Robert W. Loewen, President of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, “Unfortunately, because of the overwhelming political influence of government unions, public employees have gained an unsustainable level of pay and benefits. … The public servants have indeed become the public’s masters.” Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association warns, “If you take high blood pressure medicine, better take a double dose before reading this book. … The good news is that Greenhut gives valuable advice at the end of the book on what we can do to turn the tide on this seemingly unstoppable socialistic encroachment.”

Greenhut proves why the Citizen Power Campaign is necessary to fix California state government by stopping the use of taxpayer dollars for politics by the public employee unions.  People forget how the public employee unions spent $148.5 million in 2005 to defeat Governor Schwarzenegger’s reforms that might have have prevented our budget mess or softened the blow .  The reforms they defeated included spending limits, a rainy day fund, and “paycheck protection” (requiring unions to get the consent of their members before spending their union dues on politics).  The Citizen Power Campaign is a necessary first step in fixing California.


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