02/17/2011 - ICYMI: President Obama stands up for public servants, and so do Hoosier Democrats!

Our public servants are under attack.

In Wisconsin, the Republican Governor is trying to eliminate all collective bargaining rights for state employees, and here in Indiana, Republicans are pushing an agenda laced with anti-teacher rhetoric that also includes right-to-work legislation, which even Gov. Mitch Daniels has said he’d like to avoid this session.

President Obama, during an interview with a Milwaukee television station yesterday, made it clear that while we all need to be aware of “fiscal realities” in these difficult economic times, there’s no excuse for vilifying those who devote their lives to public service.

“I think it’s very important for us to understand that public employees, they’re our neighbors, they’re our friends,” Obama said. “These are folks who are teachers, and they’re firefighters, and they’re social workers, and they’re police officers. They make a lot of sacrifices and make a big contribution. And I think it’s important not to vilify them or to suggest that somehow all these budget problems are due to public employees.”

Republicans act as though people who choose to work for government aren’t real people and dedicated workers.

Fact: There are tens of thousands of state and federal workers in Indiana, and that doesn’t include those who work in our public schools and local governments.

These hard-working Hoosiers pay taxes, buy goods and services, send their kids to school and contribute to our economy just like those in the private sector. Moreover, they are the infrastructure of human capital that the rest of us depend on to live our lives.

We, Hoosier Democrats, need to follow President Obama’s lead and support our public servants as they deserve to be supported.

We must make sure government is efficient and accountable, but it’s never appropriate to use people as scapegoats when the system itself is what requires attention.

Tell the GOP to stop using hard-working Hoosiers as their pawns in a political chess game. Demeaning our public servants – especially when elected public servants are the ones throwing stones – is no way to build a stronger Indiana.