By Adam Bitely –
A senior White House official told Ben Smith of Politico.com that “Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise.” This comment was made in reference to Obama backed Blanche Lincoln defeating Big Labor candidate Bill Halter in the Arkansas Senate Primary.
The comment from the White House is spot on. The labor unions, in a pique of anger at Senator Lincoln who has not always towed their party line, frivolously spent cash that their members could have benefited from on a campaign that ultimately failed. There is no way for the unions to recoup their losses. The money is gone and the membership of the labor unions involved should be outraged.
Taxpayers should be outraged as well.
At the same time Big Labor was spending money like drunken sailors in Arkansas, their lobbyists stand with their hands out demanding that taxpayers bail out their dramatically underfunded pension systems to the tune of a possible $165 billion.
These same Big Labor lobbyists are slipping their hands into taxpayer wallets by convincing the Obama Administration and state governments like the state of Maryland to impose laws that require that union wages be paid for construction projects at an increased cost of between 15-20%.
Notorious for wasting the money of the members, Big Labor has even convinced the Obama Labor Department to roll back regulations that would require them to show their members how they spend their money. Unions are bad with money—and worse at defending the interests of the members they supposedly protect.
But the comment from the White House official is more troubling. Simply reading the first half would mislead a reader into believing that the official agreed with me, but that would be unwise.
The White House official continued by suggesting that “if even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November.” There you have it.
Standing with the Union leadership in their financial malpractice is the White House. Instead of considering that the small sum of $10 million when compared to the $165 billion in unfunded labor union liabilities could have been used to offset the unions’ budget deficits, the White House has political interests instead.
No wonder labor unions campaign for Democrats. It’s in their interest to get tax and spend Democrats elected that will bail them out. They see an investment of $10 million of their members’ dollars as a way to get a potential $165 billion bailout from the taxpayer. Sick.
It’s no surprise that AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale came out and said that “labor isn’t an arm of the Democratic Party.” He is right. The Democratic Party is an arm of Big Labor.
