Governor Kasich & Ohio Lawmakers-Hooray!

THE DOCTOR IS IN _______________

LAS VEGAS- Hello America, and how is the world treating you?

Hooray! Hats off to the state of Ohio, its lawmakers and Governor Kasich's move to get a handle on the over-the-top salary and benefits that the public employee unions are ripping off of the Ohio taxpayer. It's about time.

The law should apply to each and every public employee in the state. No one should be exempt. The cutbacks, salary decreases, loss of benefits and loss of obscene pensions should affect police, firemen, teachers, and every public employee on the states payroll.

It appears the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police are squealing and saying the bill is" fundamentally flawed," Wow! What do you think they're going to say. They don't want to lose any benefits.

These Ohio public employees, like their counterparts in other states have been living large for years enjoying "guaranteed" step increases in their wages, annual cost-of living increases, merit pay, bonus pay, free or near free health care for themselves and their families as well as many other benefits that someone working in the private work force will never ever see.. They don't want to give all of that up but thanks to politicians in Ohio, who have backbone, it looks like these public employees are finally going to live like the rest of the states citizens.

The average worker in Ohio and other states that do not work in the public sector goes to a job knowing what the salary will be for the year, with no expectations of a raise or a guaranteed cost-of-living increase. The private sector workers have no expectation of having a job when they show up for work each day. The private sector worker is not guaranteed free or near free health care. If they do have health care at all they have to pay for all of their and their families care out of the wages they are making on their job. Bottom line-the Mr. , Ms, or Mrs. working day to day (not as a public employee) does not have "GUARANTEES." They can be laid off or even fired. They may not see any vacation after working for years - - -so, where do these greedy public employees get the idea that they can write up contracts with lawmakers and demand all of the freebies and benefits they currently enjoy.

Governor Kasich and all politicians in Ohio - -eliminate all public employee annual cost-of-living increases, take away and eliminate all the current pension structure for public employees and start from scratch and mandate that they, like private sector workers have to depend on a 401(k) retirement plan. Eliminate all free health care for public employees. Make them pay for their own health care like everyone in the private sector does. If they are making a decent salary they can afford to pay for their own health care like the rest of Ohio citizens. Eliminate all merit pay, bonuses and automatic step increases. There is NO ONE in the private sector that is guaranteed that they will receive automatic increases in their salary.

If these public employees are so unhappy and threaten to walk off the job, let them do it. Fire them. Better yet, the state can file for bankruptcy to void any current public employee contracts. Then they can hire new people. If that were the case, I predict that when Ohio ran ads for new employees "without" all of the current freebies there would be thousands of people standing in line for those jobs.

Keep up the good work Governor Kasich and Ohio lawmakers. Don't back down. -And, that's my opinion. Make your own judgment and decisions. You decide.

Bradley W. Kuhns, Ph.D., O.M.D.
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Dr. Kuhns can be reached by e-mail at:
bradleykuhns@gmail.com