-By Warner Todd Huston
James P. Hoffa is now saying that if Obama pulls the “public option” out of his healthcare bill, it is not a deal killer as far as union support is concerned.
Hoffa said that he was only interested in what was “doable” and that they need to “get something doneā¦ and declare a victory.”
Now let’s take a look at these quotes from Mr. Hoffa, shall we? What does it mean if we aren’t seeing obliged union support without integrity for Obama’s healthcare coming from Hoffa’s Teamsters? Hoffa is saying that he doesn’t care at all what healthcare “reform” will look like as long as they can get it done with and “declare a victory.”
This is unprincipled support of Obama’s healthcare purely for political reasons. What would Hoffa and the unions get from such unprincipled support of Obama’s socialist take over of one sixth of our nation’s economy? Why is Hoffa so disinterested in the actual outcome of the healthcare debate as long as they win it? What will Hoffa get out of this?
It’s all a gambit leading to what the unions really want: the Employee Free Choice Act.
You see, if Hoffa and the unions can be seen by the administration and the Democratic Party as having had a major hand in helping to pass healthcare reform and if the administration can claim a great victory in passage of healthcare “reform,” then when the EFCA comes to the plate Obama might still have enough juice to get the EFCA passed. And the EFCA is all the unions care about. They don’t care a whit if healthcare really passes or not. They just want a feather in Obama’s cap to help give him the power to pass the EFCA later on. If Obama loses his healthcare fight or if he only gets something passed in a materially weakened form, then the EFCA might be endangered.
So, because the unions want the EFCA to succeed later, they are willing to lend unprincipled support to Obama’s healthcare policies now.
It is a sad commentary, but it does show how unprincipled unions really are when all is said and done.
(Cross posted at TheUnionLabelBlog.com.)
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as NewsBusters.org, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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