The Labor Union Myth

           With the inception of Labor Unions in the early 1900’s, workers were being gravely mistreated with long hours, little pay, and being forced to work in harmful work environments. The members stood up to politicians, interest groups, and fought for equal rights all around. Yes, labor unions were needed at the turn of the century, but the year is now 2011 and labor unions are the biggest political machine in America, working in iron triangles to achieve their revolving door political schemes. To quote Barack “I’ve been working with the SEIU before I was elected to anything.”

            So how can labor unions really be involved politics? Aren’t they just trying to level the playing field for the common working man? Well first of all, I wouldn’t call a union member a “common man” considering on average their salary is higher, pensions better, and health care cheaper than most of private sector workers. Their collective bargaining rights allow them to raise money to give to politicians who promise the head of the unions that they will maintain power. To put it in perspective, SEIU president Andy Stern (who regularly visits the White House) was quoted as saying, “We Spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama – 60.7 million dollars, to be exact – and we’re proud of it.” So it’s no wonder Barack called for the recession appointment of Craig Beck to National Labor Relations Board despite bipartisan disapproval. The unions were instrumental in getting him elected, so now it’s time for to return the favor by passing card checking laws, appointing the obviously pro-union Becker, and giving bailouts to both the teachers and auto workers unions with tax payer money. Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO is quoted as saying he goes to the White House 2-3 times a week. It's nice to know that Obama is so in touch with the "common working man"...

              So why do union bosses only give their funds to Democrats instead of Republicans? Well in all fairness, on average a labor union will give 5% of their funds to a GOP candidate, so at least the Republicans aren’t left out completely! But the answer is simple, the unions supports bigger government and higher taxes- just like liberals!

 Here are some examples of a union’s true intent:

          

              -Oregon – unions spearheaded a battle to raise taxes on business and income by $727 million a year. 75% of the funding for the promotion of this tax increase came from unions.

            -Arizona – in order to avoid government spending cuts, unions played a pivotal role increasing the sales from 5.5% to 6.6% , totaling about 1 billion dollars a year.

            -Washington - Unions contributed over half of the $6 million dollars it took promote substantially raising taxes on those earning over $200,000 per year.

            There are countless other examples of  unions giving the money of their members to any political scheme that fits with the bosses specific political agenda.

           

            Union membership has been on the decline, dropping from 14.3 million members in 1997 to 6.1 in 2011. This drastic decrease calls for Democrats to try and pass things like the card check, which makes it much easier for a company to unionize. Frankly, without the unions, in which all the members must pay their dues to the boss, who in turn give it to a Democratic candidate, the left would have a serious funding problem. The GOP has finally stepped up and taken on this corrupt partnership, much to the left’s dismay.

            The challenges started with Chris Christie in 2010 when he demanded that teachers take a 1-year pay freeze (union members typically have an automatic raise after every year) and contribute a measly 2% of their salary to cover their whole families health care for a whole year. Considering the state of the budget, and how hard the private sector was hit by the recession, that doesn’t seem like too much to ask does it? Well the teachers union went on vicious smear campaigns against Christie, which lead to an email being circulated wishing for his death.

         

             In more recent news, every Union member (and maybe just a handful of liberals) are up in arms about Republican Governor Scott Walker carrying through with his campaign promise and attempting to pass a bill that would avoid laying off 5,500 state workers by having them contribute 5.8% of their incomes towards their pensions, 12.6% of their salary towards health care, and have their collective bargaining rights removed. Even with the raise of contribution towards pensions and health care, the price for these union members would still be lower than the national average. It’s no wonder the cowardly democrats literally ran away from these problems, they are afraid without the bargaining rights their funding will dry up (one can only hope!). Considering the 3 billion dollar budget Wisconsin faces, do you really think that this bill is asking too much of these union workers?

How Can Obama be so out of Touch with the Rest of America?

            In his State of the Union speech, which many critics called Reaganesque, Obama pretended to be at least a little fiscally responsible. However, at the same time, he laughably contradicted himself with all the “investing” (aka more spending) talk. What America needs right now is jobs jobs jobs. I really don’t know what it will take to make the “anointed one” (props to Hannity) realize that the Federal Government DOES NOT CREATE JOBS! Jobs are created in the private sector by entrepreneurs and businessmen. The best thing the Federal Government can do is simply get out of the way! There is no such thing as a “shovel-ready” job as Obama admitted in an interview after passing the wretched stimulus bill. (Fun fact: 70% of economists agree that the stimulus didn’t help the economy recover).            

            Obama even went as far as saying he would veto any bill with an earmark that came to his desk. Ugh it’s a shame he didn’t make that promise before passing the health care bill, which had literally thousands of earmarks! Still, I was thinking, “Alright, Barack finally gets the idea, we need to rein in Federal spending” but then comes the 3.7 trillion-budget plan. You know your budget is unpopular when even the San Francisco chronicle disputes its fiscal responsibility. The budget has been widely criticized by the right AND the left, various newspaper articles remark, “Obama punts on deficit” and “Obama pulls a Cee Lo Green with the budget”. Obama continually claims not to be a big spender, a socialist, or even a progressive, and who wouldn’t believe him with his elegant rhetoric that can go on for hours? (unless O’Reilly is there to interrupt him). But the truth is that the “anointed one” continually breaks his promises of bipartisanship (“You need to punish your enemies” –Obama on Latino radio, referring to Republicans of course), fiscal responsibility, and a transparent Washington.