Americans Support Making Public Employees Pay More for Benefits and Retirement Programs

There's been a lot of buzz surrounding public opinion polling on Wisconsin. The New York Times earlier showed that 3 in 5 respondents favor the rights of union members to collective bargaining. Plus, with Rasmussen showing that Gov. Scott Walker's approval has dropped to 43 percent, the progressives have gotten excited. One result here is a stepped up left-wing advertising blitz in Wisconsin. Greg Sargent reports, "New ad turns up heat on Wisconsin Republicans as Walker's poll numbers sink." The ad's sponsored by the neo-communist Greater Wisconsin Committee, "Stop Walker's Budget!":

No doubt the standoff has emboldened progressives, and some of the polling trends may be helpful to Democrats. Yet I'm still not convinced that progressive fleebagging and thug protests are winning the battle for public opinion. While Americans are hesitant to restrict collective bargaining rights, there's huge support for greater employee contributions to public sector benefit and retirement programs. See the recent Wall Street Journal poll:

The poll shows 68% of the respondents would like public employees to contribute more for their retirement benefits and 63% want these workers to pay more for their health care.

And Quinnipiac University National Poll, "Democrats, Republicans Divided On Gov't Worker Pay."