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The Rude Pundit on Mitch Daniels

Here's a little recent history lesson for the day: Back in 2005, the newly-elected governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, on his second day in office, canceled all union contracts by executive order, ending collective bargaining rights for two-thirds of state workers, many of whom earned less than $30,000 a year. Some of those contracts were supposed to be in effect until 2007. At the time, Daniels said that union contracts were not acceptable at a time when the state faced a $1.5 billion deficit.

One would think that, like in a village where a noble knight defeated a terrible dragon, all would be well in Indiana once this workers' right was eliminated, for, indeed, Daniels said it would make the state whole. Yet here we are, in 2011, and, oh, wait, Indiana has a $1.6 billion deficit. And now Daniels wants to limit collective bargaining rights for teachers. He had wanted to turn Indiana into a "right-to-work" state, effectively killing unionization, to close the budget gap, but when Democrats in the legislature went to Illinois to stop the vote, Daniels backed down.