Comics break (II)

The Oklahoman didn't run any new letters today, but they did run a rather expected agenda-pushing political cartoon that should be addressed. The cartoon is by Gary Varvel* of the Indianapolis Star, whom the Oklahoman frequently features on its far-right opinion page:

 The reference, of course, is to Detriot's recent efforts to declare bankruptcy, and the message is entirely typical: It is all the fault of crooked politicians and-- most importantly-- the UNIONS! 

But is this true? Fortunately, David Sirota sets things straight. Regarding unions and pensions, he rightly summarizes:

It’s a straightforward conservative formula: the right blames state and municipal budget problems exclusively on public employees’ retirement benefits, often underfunding those public pensions for years. The money raided by those pension funds is then used to enact expensive tax cuts and corporate welfare programs. After years of robbing those pension funds to pay for such giveaways, a crisis inevitably hits, and workers’ pension benefits are blamed — and then slashed. Meanwhile, the massive tax cuts and corporate subsidies are preserved, because we are led to believe they had nothing to do with the crisis. Ultimately, the extra monies taken from retirees are then often plowed into even more tax cuts and more corporate subsidies.

Here's a nice example:

At a time when Michigan's public sector employees' retirement plans are underfunded by tens of billions of dollars, the state is tapping those funds to pay the bills of a Michigan movie studio that defaulted on its own bills. 

Michigan Motion Pictures Studios, which is being celebrated in the local media for having made the movie, "Oz: The Great and Powerful," in Pontiac, has missed its last three payments on $18 million in bond obligations... 

Under a deal made in 2010 by then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the State of Michigan Retirement Systems is on the hook for those missing payments.

So, yeah, this happens all the time, and yet it's the fault of the unions-- and people working under the expectation that their employer would pay part of their retirement-- for all of these problems.

Read the Salon article and see for yourself.

Of course, the Oklahoman is free to run whatever editorial cartoons it likes, and obviously for a paper hellbent on pushing the worst sort of plutocratic agenda, cartoons like Mr Varvel's are part for the course: blame organizations that cut into the bottom line of the billionaires, even if cut is exactly what puts hard-working Americans solidly in the middle class.

Tomorrow (we hope) it's back to the real crime: running crappy letters filled with lies and smears to covertly push the editors' shitty agenda.


* Is it any wonder that he draws the crap he draws? His bio reads:

Varvel spends his mornings as a part-time art teacher for Bethesda Christian School High School in Brownsburg, Indiana. He is a member of Bethesda Baptist Church and is a Sunday School Teacher for an adult class.   

Varvel is a frequent speaker at churches, business groups, social clubs, colleges and schools. His motivational talks range from a comical conversation about current events as depicted in his cartoons, to the keys to success in following your dreams, to an historical perspective on America's Godly heritage.

Holy crap. Talented artist, but a decidedly untalented thinker. Oh well....