Focus on the majority of workers

Focus on the majority of workers

Republicans cheating the “working man?” I have to disagee with the letter to the editor that made such a ridiculous comment regarding the effort being made by Gov. John Kasich and Republicans in Columbus.

Doesn’t the writer realize that the working man pays the freight so public employees can contribute less and get more than the average working man?

Have any of those railing against Senate Bill 5 or the governor’s budget stepped back to look at the situation in Ohio? Even Democrats should agree that had more effort been made to trim the budgets over the last few years instead of burning through “stimulus” dollars (which are now gone), school districts and local governments would be having an easier time. Gov. Kasich had to make many hard decisions to close an $8 billion deficit to try to bring jobs back to Ohio.

The public sector working man is only 350,000 of the 9.9 million working-age men and women in the state of Ohio. SB 5 brings parity and equality to a system which has been grossly unbalanced for many years. Those 9.55 million working Ohioans, who support public-sector employees have been facing higher health care premiums, lost pensions and a jobs forecast that is one of the worst in recent history.

Our teachers, firefighters and police are important. We are grateful to all for their service, but at what point does the private secoter working man and woman stop getting cheated? And who in the Democratic Party is fighting for them? The Democratic Party in Ohio and this region only appears to be catering to one special interest, public employee unions and their leadership. Republicans are hitting the right notes and doing what needs to be done to get the private sector — 97 percent of Ohio’s workforce — back on its feet again.

Jill A. Downie, Youngstown