Sarah Palin Addresses Wisconsin Protesters: You Must Be 'Willing To Sacrifice'

MADISON, Wis. — Sarah Palin says union members protesting Wisconsin Republicans' plan to help balance the state's budget by cutting collective bargaining rights are taking up "the wrong fight at the wrong time."

Palin weighed in on the debate in a Friday night posting on her Facebook page but didn't indicate whether she would join weekend conservative counter-protests organized by groups including the Tea Party Patriots and Americans for Prosperity.

In the posting addressed to "union brothers and sisters," Palin says Wisconsin taxpayers shouldn't be asked to pay for benefits "that are not sustainable." She says "real solidarity means everyone being willing to sacrifice."

New Republican Gov. Scott Walker insists the concessions he's seeking from public workers are necessary to deal with Wisconsin's projected $3.6 billion budget shortfall and to avoid layoffs.

Comments

[Cailleach9]

01:36 PM on 04/18/2011

Don't you just love it when someone who is rich to begin with, and makes their money pandering to the stupid, tells those who poor and suffering that they should "sacrifice?"

[shades3]

11:21 AM on 04/18/2011

And what is Ms. Palin sacrificing to show solidarity with her "brothers and sisters"?????

[boycottrightwingthings]

02:27 PM on 04/17/2011

Sarah, kizz my and my dear union bros and sister AZZEZ!

[N Rathke]

12:18 PM on 04/17/2011

Thanks but no thanks, SP.

We know better than you what is good for our state. Just go home already, and keep quiet.

[redstateblues69]

02:09 PM on 04/17/2011

Love your avatar. Formerly loyal large blocks now realize that the extremists have taken over and have switched camps. Cops, seniors, firefighters, teachers and the middle class have jumped the Republican ship. It thrills me to no end that they'll elect a bagger in the primary to run against Obama.Makes me want to register Republican so I can vote for Trump.

[N Rathke]

12:10 PM on 04/17/2011

Thanks but now thanks, Palin. We don't need your advice.
We know better than you what is good for our state, so why don't you go home and stay there?

[foxbat]

11:44 AM on 04/17/2011

SP Addresses Wisconsin Protesters: You Must Be 'Willing To Sacrifice'

You mean like "sacrificing" to stick out the length of the governor's term that YOU ran for and were elected to do?  You mean like "sacrifice" the big bucks to SERVE other people?  You mean "sacrifice" like find ways to SOLVE a problem rather than criticize the situation?  You mean "sacrifice" like spending time to WRITE your own op-eds instead of paying someone else to write them for you?  You mean "sacrifice" like making it about SOMEONE ELSE instead of always having to be about you?  You mean "sacrifice" like attempting to take the HIGH ROAD every once in a while instead of going for the shock value?  You mean "sacrifice" as in COUNTRY FIRST as a reality and not a bumper sticker?  You mean "sacrifice" as in what every middle class American without a SPOTLIGHT does every day of the year and with no media coverage and nothing to gain from it other than doing the right thing?

If you ever knew what the term "sacrifice" meant, you'll realize that sacrifice is something that YOU DO ... not something that you tell others that are doing it that they aren't doing enough of it.

[boycottrightwingthings]

02:29 PM on 04/17/2011

FB_ Fanned and Faved #677!

[Kristine Crowe]

08:58 AM on 04/17/2011

We're willing to sacrifice, how about Palin--she's probably getting 6 figures just to show up. When asked how much they were paying to bring her here, the tea party organizer "couldn't" say!

[kowkakaptowka]

04:53 PM on 04/16/2011

Just saw Palin up at the Wisconsin capitol building...couldn't hear her above the shouts of "Go home!" and "Shame!" but I certainly saw her :D

[ziggythedog]

06:50 PM on 04/16/2011

Wow that was fun, go to you tube, beware videos of the rally are up from the palin crew manipulated as usual. Posted with a direct feed on audio. The real stuff you can hear the drums pounding on the altered no drums

[kowkakaptowka]

12:01 PM on 04/17/2011

That's kind of what we expected to happen, unfortunately. I think that's why it was a much smaller crowd than the sort that have been up at the capitol almost every weekend. We achieved our personal goal of making Sarah feel uncomfortable, though, so I feel as though I can die happy.

[maggie h]

01:13 PM on 04/15/2011

leave us alone you worn out has been, stay home or we should get a restraining order on YOU, maybe your ''adopted'' little son Tri-G needs you, remember him, oh, when or where WAS HE BORN and to whom?????

fake pregnancy, fake hair, fake lips, fake governeor, fake fake fake

[Jesse Wright]

08:41 AM on 03/23/2011

Union rights aside for the moment. What do making a sacrifice for the current budget and removing collective bargaining rights for the future have in common. Taking away future rights is something that the unions will have to work hard for get to back...this isn't making a sacrifice, it's taking down a union.

[foxbat]

11:48 AM on 04/17/2011

She talks sacrifice, but she fails to recognize the fact that the teachers' union had already offered sacrifice and were taking cuts as proposed by Walker.  The problem is that Walker's whole plan was never about the budget.  It was about much more.  And for SP to play along that Walker was in this for the budget and pushing the line that she's pushing in support of Walker shows either ignorance on her part ... the question is whether it's willful or not.

[thebookoflife]

04:24 PM on 04/17/2011

Remember nothing these people say is intended to be a factual.....

[melissa halsten]

02:45 PM on 03/05/2011

Someone needs to tell Mrs. Palin that she is not my union sister! I wish the rich would stop telling me to make a sacrifice, I already have it is your turn. My retirement went to crap with Bush, I watched my friends loose jobs, and homes. My children have no more field trips, crappy books and a bus route from H##l! I see people working for next to nothing struggle to keep food on the table. I donate my time and money when possible to help out those less fortunate. What have you done? I talk to children who are afraid they will not have a home anymore! That is something Im sure your children do not worry about. Why should those who already do and have sacrificed do more? You do nothing,but speak words and you really are bad at that!

[ElenaOfJersey]

09:58 PM on 03/04/2011

Sarah, sweetie, they were willing to sacrifice some of their pay and benefits, the two things that the governor originally requested and the two things that would have helped balance the budget. Now the governor isn't accepting that and is looking to take away their collective bargaining rights, without which there's really no point in having a union and which will not help balance the budget.

Wake up, you fool.

[CynicalAgnostic]

04:54 AM on 02/26/2011

They should all sacrifice, just like she did when she sacrificed her govenorship to cash in on her newly found national fame.

[Aristedes DuVal]

05:35 PM on 02/25/2011

We really need Cruella Deville to tell us where its at.

[Mike Ibarra]

05:06 PM on 02/25/2011

I think Wisconsin workers should follow Sarah Palin's lead and just quit.