Suddenly, two of the most important domestic debates of the past generation are front and center in America. In Wisconsin, Republican Gov. Scott Walker has declared that the policies he campaigned on and for which an enormous majority voted are in fact the policies he intends to pursue. The Republican Legislature is poised to agree to the changes that will put the public-employee unions on a new legal footing, one which provides very generous benefits but which also reflects that there are limits to the tax burdens the public can bear.
In an American sequel to the demonstrations that swept Greece in the aftermath of that country’s virtual default and necessary cutbacks on its bloated and unaffordable public sector, thousands of public-employee union members and their supporters swarmed Madison, demanding that their lifestyles, their medical benefits and their retirement payments be supported by taxpayers who are already paying for their own expensive health insurance and 401(k) plans.
The networks love the crowd shots. But the voters love Walker. And not just in Wisconsin, but across the country.
My friend Fritz suggests that the Wisconsin legislature also pass an emergency school voucher program. Any student who loses more than three days of school as a result of what the governor declares to be a labor-related school shutdown should be eligible for permanent voucher-recipient status that qualifies them for an annual education voucher equal to two-thirds the cost of the public education.
Watch the responsible parents flee the manipulation of their children by union organizers.
In Washington, D.C., there are two battles.
The first is for overall sanity on matters fiscal, and the House GOP has stumbled badly, and their credibility is in tatters. They cannot afford to give back any of the paltry cuts they did manage to pass, and they must be prepared to fight as Walker has, with clarity and firmness of purpose, explaining repeatedly and without histrionics that there just isn’t any money left.
And they must get much more serious in the negotiations on the debt limit and the fiscal 2012 budget.
The biggest clash of all, however, comes over Planned Parenthood which has finally and completely been defunded by the House. For decades the American voter has staunchly opposed public funding of abortion, and for decades the abortion absolutists have made an end-run around this prohibition by funding nonabortion services of Planned Parenthood, which funding makes possible the availability of other funds for abortion services.
This charade must end, and Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., has led that fight successfully in the House.
Now Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., must defend this breakthrough, and do so again with precision and boldness. The pro-life movement will not hesitate to support Boehner if the government has to shut down because of a unified GOP stance that includes the defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Clearly, Boehner must also defend the defunding of Obamacare, EPA’s cap-and-tax regulations and, of course, the zeroing out of NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But he must not retreat on the defunding of Planned Parenthood, or the faith-based voters will know the talk of a coalition is simply a ruse.
In both Wisconsin and Washington the key will be over-communication of a few, crucial core messages. The senior leaders of the GOP must, as Walker has, appear in public and make detailed statements and take detailed questions, laying out their positions with transparency and conviction. The speaker and the leader must appear in all the forums they can to rally support for these positions.
And the members of the pro-life movement must, as it never has before, demand of their senators and representatives that those men and women vote for life.
Examiner Columnist Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.
