Who, exactly, supports public unions?

[Jim in CT]

So in Ohio,m the governor passed legislation curbing the devastating economic impact of collective bargaining for public unions. The public overwhelmingly voted to overturn that legislation.

Ohio, like CT (and many other states), is faced with crippling debt, largely driven by insane promises made to public union employees for healthcare and retirement benefits.

Here's how it works. When contracts are negotiated, union reps ask for insane perks. The politicians sitting across the table, who are SUPPOSED to represent the public, decide how much $$ to give the unions. Here's where it breaks down...the same politicians who decide how much to give the union, only got elected because his campaign was funded by union campaign donations, so that politician is beholden to the union. The politician wants to get re-elected, and cannot do so without union support. So the unions get what they want.

Almost every municipality in the country - towns, cities, states - are looking at unfunded liabilities that can never be paid for. Yet whenever someone like me says "geez, we can't afford this", I get accused of hating teachers (and of wanting kids to be ignorant), and hating police officers (and of therefore being in favor of crime).

I simply don't get it. The healthcare and retirement benefits are irrefutably insane, are are irrefutably bankrupting our cities and states. So, unless you (or yuour spouse) are in a public union, how could any rational person claim that the system is working?

To me, this could not be more clear. I cannot fathom where the other side is coming from.

And the left turns this into a crusade about the "middle class". Most of the middle class don't work in unions, and we can't afford for our property taxes to go up 10% a year forever.