Strange times

Very cool actually. Here is the lead paragraph from this news story:

House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.

What is cool is that it was published in the Boston Globe and that the vote was 111-to-42. More:

The 111-to-42 vote followed tougher measures to broadly eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in Ohio, Wisconsin, and other states. But unlike those efforts, the push in Massachusetts was led by Democrats who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers� rights.

People are starting to see that the current levels of spending are untenable. That such a heavily Democratic state as Massachusetts can see this gives me hope.