Unions

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Jobs - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How To Become a Millionaire Easy: Become a Gov’t Worker

February 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Having trouble making ends meet? Eating your meals from a dog food can? Lost your job, seen your retirement accounts dwindle or disappear, having a hard time getting work? Millions of Americans are facing these problems. Some, however, aren’t. And those some are government workers, apparently. Unionized government workers at that.

Doug Ross has a very startling post at his website that really brings this home in stark and easy to grasp numbers. Under the rubric of “How’s this for an investment” Ross gives us the following:

You pay a total of $124,000 into your pension plan and, upon retiring at age 49, you receive $3.3 million in pension payments and $500,000 in health care benefits. You receive $3.8 million in total on a $124,000 investment.

You pay a total of $62,000 towards a pension plan and absolutely nothing for health care (medical, dental and vision coverage) over your working career. Upon retirement, you are paid $1.4 million in pension and $215,000 in health care benefits. You receive $1.6 million on a $62,000 investment.

This is what happens when you work for the State of New Jersey as Ross discovered.
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How To Become a Millionaire Easy: Become a Gov’t Worker”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Government - Jobs - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

CNBC Slams Obama’s ‘Unholy Alliance’

February 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, CNBC’s Media and Technology Editor, Dennis Kneale, is only the latest to jump my little “Unions are Antithetical to Good Government” bandwagon. Kneale slams Obama’s “unholy alliance” with Big Labor and proclaims it a danger to the country. He couldn’t be more right.

Here is the article: “Obama’s Unholy Union-With Unions”

Here are a few choice quotes:

  • It is an unholy union. It’s bad for business, bad for the economy, bad for our country. Worse, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment, this alliance could lead to bigger government at all levels, which will require higher taxes on everyone (not just the top 5 percent of earners, those grossing $155,000 or more, who already pay 60 percent of federal income tax).
  • Let’s be blunt about it: Unions hurt profits, and that hurts stock prices. The typical union salary is 20 percent to 30 percent higher than the pay for a comparable job in a non-union shop, BLS data show.
  • The unions’ expansion into all levels of government already is having a pernicious impact. Today the average government job pays MORE than the average pay in the private sector.
  • On which side of the bargaining table does President Obama sit — with the union workers, in fat government bureaucracies and old ailing industries, who helped him get elected? Or with the Real Majority — the rest of the people he was elected to represent?
  • My fear is that the answer is all too obvious, and it isn’t the right one.

Now if only I could get them all to pinpoint me as the mastermind of this mantra! I couldda been a contender. Ha, ha.
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CNBC Slams Obama’s ‘Unholy Alliance’”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

NLRB Nominee Stymied

February 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two Democrats joined newly seated Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown Tuesday to uphold the Republican-led filibuster against President Obama’s nomination of Craig Becker to head the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The Democrats that joined the filibuster were Blanche Lincoln (D, Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D, Neb.). Both are thought to face losing their seats in the upcoming 2010 elections over the many left-wing votes they’ve recently cast.

The GOP is against the elevation of Becker to the NLRB Chair because his past statements show that he’ll take the position with a Big Labor agenda firmly in mind.

“Mr. Becker’s previous statements strongly indicate that he would take an aggressive personal agenda to the NLRB, and that he would pursue a personal agenda there, rather than that of the administration,” Senator Nelson said.

The final vote was 52-33, falling short of the 60 that Becker needed to sail out of committee and toward an open vote.
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NLRB Nominee Stymied”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Jobs - Liberals - Maryland - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Maryland’s Toxic Teachers Union

February 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We all know the drill, right? Unions curry favor with compliant politicians, the unions then donate campaign cash to them hoping for political favors later down the line. Yes, that’s the drill… unless you are the Montgomery County, Maryland teachers union. See, in that case candidates are expected to pay the union for its favors, not the other way ’round, apparently.

As the Washington Post says, this upside down relationship “distorts and perverts the political process.” Folks, if even the left-wing Washington Post understands that unions are bad for our democracy, you have to know things have gotten horribly out of hand.

In some unusually harsh language, the WP takes after these union thugs big time:
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Maryland’s Toxic Teachers Union”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Elections - GOP - Jobs - Pensions - President - Republicans - SEIU - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Another Voice Agrees With Us: Gov’t Unions Are Un-American

February 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yeah, I know… it’s like a broken record around here. But, here is another voice coming to our side to agree with us that public employees unions are antithetical to good government, wholly un-democratic, and, therefore, quite un-American. This time it’s the well-regarded Michael Barone echoing our mantra.

Barone is one of the best political reporters in the country and in his own inimitable way has jumped on the anti-union bandwagon (not that he never has in the past, just that this piece is particularly on par).

Before he gets to government unions, one of his points is that unions aren’t even needed in the private sector anymore because all the evils that employers perpetrated in the days of yore have now been regulated away by governments and laws. Because of an active government unions just aren’t needed to protect workers anymore, says Barone. It is a good point, after all.
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Another Voice Agrees With Us: Gov’t Unions Are Un-American”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Jobs - Journalism - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Pensions - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How Media Chooses Words Adds to Bias

February 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Politico had a story about Big Labor penned by Jeanne Cummings, the reporter famed for going after Sarah Palin’s Party purchased wardrobe during the 2008 presidential campaign, that was an object lesson in Old Media bias. Her piece headlined “Labor helps kill its own top priority” is a great example of using language to subtly shade the arguments, in this case those of Big Labor, to elicit a positive view of the ideology contained in the issue. Her piece very subtly shades the goals of Big Labor in a positive light easily giving the reader a feeling that Big Labor’s goals are good and noble and is a perfect example of how the media creates emotional appeal for the left’s actions.

Because it is such masterfully crafted example of subtle bias, it deserves to be studied closely.

Cummings Begins her propping up of Big Labor by saying that Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts is “bad news for health care” and will mean that Republicans can “block the Employee Free Choice Act,” and so she immediately casts the possible actions of the GOP in a negative light at the outset. “Bad news for health care”? It is said as if the GOP was against “health care.” It isn’t. And of course “block” is certainly a negative action. In any case, she started by shrouding the GOP in negativity right away.
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How Media Chooses Words Adds to Bias”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Why Unions Are Dangerous in Education

February 8, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

One would think that a teacher that had 30 some years ago allegedly impregnated a 16-year-old student, a few years later sexually accosted two 12-year-old students, and was accused of molesting yet another student four years after that, would be out on his ear never to teach or be allowed around children again.

But the New York teachers union would beg to differ.

In fact, the union has differed so much that troubled teacher Francisco Olivares has been continually paid his $94,154 a year salary even though he’s been kept from the classroom for the last seven years.

So, who cares what the union says about this guy? Unfortunately, the union’s resistance to getting rid of him is enshrined in state law. The school can’t get rid of this dead weight either.

As a result, because the school can’t fire him and the union won’t let them, Olivares sits day in and day out in what is called a “rubber room” getting paid his full salary. That is getting paid his fall salary courtesy of the taxpayers of New York.
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Why Unions Are Dangerous in Education”

Business - Children - Education - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Why Unions Can’t Work in Education

February 5, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle had a great piece pinpointing exactly why unions don’t work, especially for education. Her piece headlined “How Unions Work,” really brings it home why unions can’t agree to merit pay for teachers.

McArdle’s post was prompted by a piece by left-winger Matthew Yglesias whose post is meaningless and I won’t go into too much here. But it did spur some good points by McArdle. Suffice to say that what Yglesias said was that he thought unions could come to like merit pay but that the discussion is messy because people “have ideological opinions about unions in general.” In other words, Yglesias thinks it’s everyone else’s fault, not the union’s fault.

Yglesias is fooling only himself.
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Why Unions Can’t Work in Education”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media - SEIU - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dem Senate Hurries To Push Liars and Symps into Power Before Brown Comes to Town

February 4, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s Katie bar the door as the Democrats in the Senate try to push as many liars and Big Labor crooks into positions of power in the Obama Administration as they can before they lose their super majority once Scott Brown of Massachusetts is seated on the 4th of February.

On Monday, the Democrats pushed through the confirmation for Obama’s Solicitor of Labor despite that it has been effectively shown that she lied in her Senate testimony.

Senator Mike Enzi (R, Wyo.) revealed a report that Obama’s appointee as Solicitor of Labor, Patricia Smith, lied several times during her appearance before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in May of 2009.

Then on Tuesday, the Democrats with their temporary super majority tried to push through Obama’s nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Becker is a union-flack and would become the first lawyer employed by unions to take a position that is supposed to investigate and rule for or against unions with an unbiased hand.
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Dem Senate Hurries To Push Liars and Symps into Power Before Brown Comes to Town”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Wall Street Journal Echoing The Blog

February 3, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

That’s right, it’s time to do the happy dance. Our drum beat of unions being antithetical to good government has, today, been echoed by the Wall Street Journal in an editorial board piece titled “The Public-Union Ascendancy.”

OK, OK, I am not silly enough to imagine that the WSJ is hanging on every word we here at the blog say — though I was told by John Fund a few months ago when we met in Chicago that he has read a lot of my work — but it is still good to see that we aren’t the only ones thinking along these lines.

The Journal has some interesting states to report on the increase in public sector leeches… um, I mean unions… and makes the salient point that it isn’t good.

The money paragraph sounds like something I’ve written a dozen times:
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Wall Street Journal Echoing The Blog”

Andy Stern - Capitalism - Jobs - SEIU - Senate - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Chief: Senators Are ‘Terrorists’ For Not Voting With Big Labor

February 1, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern said that Senators that vote against his ideas are “terrorists.” That’s right, folks, this union chief is saying that any politician that votes against the politically motivated ideas of Big Labor should be branded a “terrorist.”

This is the sort of gutter rhetoric that union thugs specialize in but regardless Stern should be ashamed of himself for bringing the political debate down into that gutter. Scum. Andy Stern is simply scum for using such idiotic and demagogic rhetoric.
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Union Chief: Senators Are ‘Terrorists’ For Not Voting With Big Labor”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Rights - SEIU - Senate - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Heritage: Unions Ate Your Raise

January 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

James Sherk has a very good post over at the Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry blog about how unions have hurt us all by fighting for tax increases.

Unions almost never go on strike anymore. Instead, they fight to get more for their members by lobbying for tax increases. Unions spent tens of millions of dollars last year campaigning for higher taxes across the country: Illinois. California. Minnesota. Washington State. Arizona. In many cases they have succeeded.

Nearly every day now we are visited with more proof of how public employees unions are a danger to this country and Sherk has shown us yet another example.

Sherk reports that in Oregon the public employees unions spent $700 million dollars to increase taxes on the people of Oregon. The unions wanted higher taxes to protect their undeservedly high salaries and rich benefits while the regular folks of the Beaver State lost jobs, had their pay cut, and were generally finding hard times — like the rest of normal, non-government worker America.

Not only are unions working against the best interests of the voters, but they are also working to allow out-of-control spending and irresponsibility in government to grow.

Unions are not only antithetical to good government, they are dangerous to our individual prosperity.
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Heritage: Unions Ate Your Raise”

Barack Obama - Chicago - Cook County - Elections - GOP - Illinois - Jobs - Republicans - SEIU - Tea Party - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Hiding Behind Anti-Tea Party Website

January 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Video king Lee Doren has done some great sleuthing to find out who is behind the newest attack on patriotic America by the left. A site called TheTeaPartyIsOver.org has popped up just as the primaries in Illinois get going. Its goal? To destroy the influence that Tea Party groups might have on the political process.

Turns out the biggest contributor to the group that created the site is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of Obama’s biggest supporters and the union that controls a large number of government employees unions.
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SEIU Hiding Behind Anti-Tea Party Website”

Budget - California - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Pensions - SEIU - State Government - States - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California, Part 2

January 27, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

(Editor’s note: Some of this I posted earlier this month, but this is an expanded version that was just posted by BigJournalism.com, so I thought I’d go ahead and post it here, too.)

Steven Greenhut has an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal about how the evils of public employees unions are destroying California’s budget and economy.

Greenhut begins by noting that with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, California is losing its “productive citizens” to other states but is still saddled with an economy killing surfeit of public employees unions that, “drive costs up and fight to block spending cuts.”

Greenhut goes on to report that the unfunded pensions that California is stuck with has increased by 2,000% in the last decade because of the overweening power of the unions.

Approximately 85% of the state’s 235,000 employees (not including higher education employees) are unionized. As the governor noted during his $83 billion budget roll-out, over the past decade pension costs for public employees increased 2,000%. State revenues increased only 24% over the same period. A Schwarzenegger adviser wrote in the San Jose Mercury News in the past few days that, “This year alone, $3 billion was diverted to pension costs from other programs.” There are now more than 15,000 government retirees statewide who receive pensions that exceed $100,000 a year, according to the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility.

That is an absurd reality!
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Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California, Part 2″

Business - Chicago - Communism - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Illinois - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Newspapers - Pensions - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Chgo Trib: Who Will Smack Down the Unions?

January 27, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Dennis Byrne, a columnist with the Chicago Tribune, has a great piece asking the seminal question: what politician will take on the public employees unions?

This is, of course, the question we’ve been asking here for years! Who will stop these union thugs that have bought for themselves a bevy of compliant politicians at the state and federal level who will do their bidding against the best interests of the voters? What politician will step up and cut these thug’s illicit power down for the good of the people?

Seeing as how he is an Illinois columnist, Byrne centers his discussion on the $80 billion shortfall that Illinois’ public pensions are saddled with, but he can just as easily be talking about California, Oregon, Wisconsin, New York or any other state in the Union.

To quantify the $80 billion, Byrne tries to put it in context:
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Chgo Trib: Who Will Smack Down the Unions?”

Budget - Business - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Membership Down Another 10%

January 25, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

With some ups and downs, unions have been steadily losing members for quite a while and 2009 is no exception. According to the Labor Dept., private-sector unions lost 834,000 members last year.

On Friday, the Labor Department reported private-sector unions lost 834,000 members, bringing membership down to 7.2% of the private-sector work force, from 7.6% the year before. The broader drop in U.S. employment and a small gain by public-sector unions helped keep the total share of union membership flat at 12.3% in 2009. In the early 1980s, unions represented 20% of workers.

The Wall Street Journal also notes that it isn’t likely that the union jobs lost will come back as union jobs if they ever come back at all.

But the Journal doesn’t stress the most important union fact nearly enough. Unions that serve government workers in still on the rise and form the largest section of union workers.
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Union Membership Down Another 10%”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California

January 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Steven Greenhut has a great piece in the Wall Street Journal about how the evils of public employees unions are destroying California.

Greenhut begins by noting that with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country California is losing its “productive citizens” to other states but is still saddled with an economy killing surfeit of public unions employees that “drive costs up and fight to block spending cuts.”

Greenhut goes on to report that the unfunded pensions that California is stuck with has increased by 2,000% in the last decade because of the overweening power of the unions.
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Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California”

Budget - Business - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Illinois Policy Institute - Pensions - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Policy Institute: About Those Attacks on Our Pension Idea

January 22, 2010 by 1 Comment

This week, we released our Pension Funding and Fairness proposal, which offers a groundbreaking solution to our state’s growing pension funding crisis. Our proposal provides a path to fund the system, which now faces a whopping $83 billion in unfunded liabilities, without breaking the bank.

Our plan has received considerable media attention—and some criticism. Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business summed it up well. The Institute “rolled out its vision of how to close an $80-billion-plus gap in Illinois’ employee pension plans,” he wrote, “and, though portions will offend just about everybody, it’s worth a look…This is a serious report that offers a good starting point for some much needed discussion.”
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Illinois Policy Institute: About Those Attacks on Our Pension Idea”

Budget - Business - Chicago - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Illinois - Illinois Alliance For Growth - Illinois Policy Institute - Pensions - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dueling Illinois Policy Groups: IAFG Smacks Around the IPI

January 22, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Illinois Policy Institute recently released its recommendations for how Illinois could fix its pension mess. Titled the Pension Funding and Fairness Act, the IPI assures the state that this is the answer to its pension problems. Despite that assurance, another Illinois policy group begs to differ. In an Illinois policy group head-to-head smack-down the Illinois Alliance for Growth* has published a critique of the IPI proposal resulting.

One of the proposals in the IPI plan is for Illinois to borrow $20 billion to tide the pensions over while the state legislature makes the needed adjustments to the pension laws. IPI Director Jim Tillman is saying that his plan is a case of “responsible borrowing” a claim that the IAFG finds risible.
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Dueling Illinois Policy Groups: IAFG Smacks Around the IPI”

Budget - Business - Campaign Finance - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Massachusetts - Republicans - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Wastes $1 Million on Coakley, Blames GOP

January 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michelle Malkin has a post that reports about the hilarious episode of union whining that is being laid out by the President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Andy Stern. He wasted $1 million of his member’s dues money trying to shore up Massachusetts loser “Marcia” Coakley but is he blaming the Democrats for this debacle? Nope, he’s mad at Republicans!

Why did Coakley croak? Why it’s because of those dastardly Republicans that have held up Obamacare, dontcha know?

From the SEIU website we get these hilarious words:
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SEIU Wastes $1 Million on Coakley, Blames GOP”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

$42 Million Union Embezzlement Case, Little Media Coverage

January 19, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Union operative Melissa King of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) has been arrested for stealing $42 million in union funds to support the lavish lifestyle to which she and her daughter have become accustomed. It is being called the biggest union theft in history. So why haven’t we heard of this union theft? Why hasn’t it been all over the news?

That would be a good question and Brian Johnson, for one, asked the question himself. Johnson makes an interesting point when he notes that the Old Media have lost its collective mind over the Bernie Madoff scandal, yet they’ve made barely a peep about this monumental theft by a union member.

Famously nicknamed the “sandhogs,” the LIUNA is a union that represents the workers that dig the tunnels that are networked throughout New York City. It is they that are responsible for sewer tunnels, the subway, and other such excavation work.
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$42 Million Union Embezzlement Case, Little Media Coverage”

Budget - Business - Chicago - Conservatives - Cook County - Economy/Finances - Education - GOP - Illinois - Liberals - Republicans - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dan Proft: Renounce that Union Endorsement, Kirk

January 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I asked the same question as Mr. Proft… just what did the teachers union the Illinois Education Association (IEA) see in Mr Dillard so that they felt comfortable endorsing him?

Dan Proft wants Dillard to renounce the union endorsement. Proft says we need someone to “take the fight to the IEA,” not bend to their desires.

I agree.

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Dan Proft: Renounce that Union Endorsement, Kirk”

Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Liberals - Massachusetts - Republicans - Senate - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Not All Union Members Bought and Paid By Coakley

January 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Jan 13, we posted an interesting video showing that union members in Massachusetts were being paid by the union to stand at Martha Coakley rallies and pretend to be supporters.

Well, by way of Smart Girl Politics, we find that not every union member in the Bay State has been turned into an automaton. Check out this great shot of an SEIU member rallying for Republican Scott Brown…

This Mass. special election to fill the people’s seat that Teddy Kennedy left vacant is verrrry interesting, isn’t it?
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Not All Union Members Bought and Paid By Coakley”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Economy/Finances - Freedom - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Now WE Will Pay for Unions Fancy Healthcare Packages

January 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As if there were ever any doubts, the unions bosses that descended upon the White House earlier in the week appear to have succeeded in getting their members excluded from the so-called Cadillac taxes on expensive healthcare packages.

The Obama administration, having been bought and paid for by unions, agreed to demands that unions be excluded from the onerous taxation that many of the rest of us will be forced to pay to float Obama’s budget busting Obamacare plans.

The unions pretended themselves to meet Obama in the middle by agreeing to put a time limit on this sweetheart deal. It was agreed that the unions would be exempt from these taxes for the next 18 years after which they’d then have to pay the tax like everyone else.

But, come on. Does anyone believe that 17 years from now that the unions would not be right back up at the White House demanding to have that 18 years extended or the tax exclusion made permanent? And does anyone believe that their demands would not be easily agreed to by pliant politicians looking for Big Labor’s giant political donations?

If anyone doubts that once Big Labor gets an exclusion it will never be rescinded, then they are not very bright!
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Now WE Will Pay for Unions Fancy Healthcare Packages”

Anti-Americanism - Blogging - Book Reviews - Budget - Chicago - Communism - Congress - Constitution - Cook County - Crime - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Federalism - Free Speech - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - History - Inernet - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Republicans - Security/Safety - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - States Rights - Taxes - Tea Party - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?

January 13, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new book about the Tea Party movement — and a movement it really is — will soon be hitting the shelves. “A New American Tea Party” penned by John M. O’Hara, one of the many folks that helped bring us some of those protests in early 2009, is a book that hopes that the reader will come away understanding and appreciating the Tea Party movement as a truly grassroots happening, a spontaneous outpouring of interest backed by true red, white and blue American ideals.

Author O’Hara, himself an early Tea Party organizer in Washington D.C. and the Chicago area, answers several questions with the book: what sparked the Tea Parties; is the name “Tea Party” itself a proper sobriquet; what do they mean; what does the future hold; and how do you make more?

The first thing one might notice is that O’Hara writes in a crisp, conversational style with short subchapters. This makes it ideal for reading bits at a time. This is not a dense treatment and I think his style makes the book very accessible to people of all ages — without talking down to the young or dumbing it down for the more advanced reader.
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Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?”

Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Liberals - Massachusetts - Republicans - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Video: Coakley Buys her Union Support

January 12, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Queen of the Internet tubuals, Michelle Malkin, published a letter from a Massachusetts reader that revealed the extents that unions are going to in order to keep in Democrat hands the Senate seat that Teddy “the lesser” Kennedy held. This seat appears increasingly at risk, though, if the latest polls are any indication. Unions are rallying to support Democrat candidate Martha Coakley, but it doesn’t seem to be helping.

This video shows that union members admitting that they are being paid to stand and rally for Democrat Coakley.

Not realizing he was being video taped, a member of the “Sheet Metal Workers” union, Local 17, admitting that he was being forced to come down to hold a sign, but he’s at least being paid $50. He also openly admits that he’s voting for Brown, then promptly “high-5’s” Angel.

By the way, it might not have been much help that candidate Coakley misspelled the name of her state in her TV ad recently! Hat tip to JammieWearingFool for that hilarity.
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Video: Coakley Buys her Union Support”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions to Rake in $19 Billion Per Year From Obamacare

January 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at BigGovernment.com, Don Loos posited an excellent reason about why the big public employees unions are falling all over themselves to help Obama force Obamacare down America’s throats even though their members would lose their lavish healthcare plans as a result. The reason? $19 billion in likely dues money that these unions will get when helathcare is taken over by the federal government is the reason.

It is true that everyone in the country will be hurt by the current Obamacare policies, it is true that everyone will experience less healthcare coverage at higher costs, it is true that government will ration healthcare and the elderly and very young will find less access to healthcare, it is true that government will destroy the best healthcare in the world. But the bosses of Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME), Andy Stern and Gerald McEntee, feel that the trade offs will be worth the loss.

… and to be sure neither Stern nor McEntee will lose their own Cadillac healthcare plans regardless.
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Unions to Rake in $19 Billion Per Year From Obamacare”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Family - Free Trade - Illinois - Liberals - Oregon - Rights - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

In Worst Economy In Decades Oregon Considers Massive Tax Hike

January 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you Tea Party goers in the western U.S. want a specific battle to fight there is none better than ballot measures 66 and 67 in the State of Oregon. The venerable Beaver State is preparing to chase out even more jobs and intends to tax its industry and small businesses to death with these badly timed measures but Oregonians have a chance to stop them by voting “no” on both 66 and 67.

During the worst national and state-wide economy since The Great Depression, with Oregon families losing jobs in every corner of the state, with businesses going out of business everywhere, the high-minded, left-wing state government has decided in its inestimable wisdom to launch the largest tax hike on the business community and the so-called rich in Oregon’s history. In 2009 over 1$ billion in permanent tax hikes was signed into law by Governor Ted Kulongoski, the drunken sailor that sits in the State House in Salem.
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In Worst Economy In Decades Oregon Considers Massive Tax Hike”

California - GOP - Jobs - Liberals - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

John Stossel Gives me a Shout Out

January 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Usually I don’t give notice for every single time some news agency cites my work. If I did I’d be spending too much time doing it (no, that wasn’t too self congratulatory at all! Ha, ha). But here is one that I am sort of proud of.

On his new Fox Business blog, long-time TV libertarian John Stossel cited my piece on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s union woes today. In a post titled “Unions’ Next Victim: California” Stossel cited my Publius Forum piece published on Jan.5.

I have a ton of respect for Mr. Stossel even as I don’t agree with some of his more libertarian ideas (such as those on drug control and prostitution) but he is right on in so much. So, that being said (and why must they always say it, right John?) I was pleased to see Mr. Stossel citing my piece.

Also, I want to wish good luck to Stossel on his new job with Fox Business channel.

Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Case Against Public Sector Unions

January 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

By now you are all familiar with my beating on my little unions-are-bad-for-government drum… ya may even be tired of it by now. Still, I’d like to pass on the work of friend to the blog David Denholm who has also addressed this point in the past.

On the Public Service Research Foundation website can be found Denholm’s excellent article titled, “The Case Against Public Sector Unionism and Collective Bargaining.” In it you’ll find some great points and a thorough discussion on the evils that is a unionized government workforce.

One of the best insights that Denholm has is that a unionized government workforce eliminates the democratic right of the voters to affect their government. (download pdf copy)

By making the union a full and equal partner at the bargaining table, compulsory public-sector bargaining laws deprive the public of its right to participate in policy making. This point was emphasized in a U.S. District Court opinion which upheld the constitutionality of a North Carolina law declaring public-sector union contracts to be void. The Court said:

Moreover, to the extent that public employees gain power through recognition and collective bargaining, other interest groups with a right to a voice in the running of the government may be left out of vital political decisions. Thus the granting of collective bargaining rights to public employees involves important matters fundamental to our democratic form of government. The setting of goals and making policy decisions are rights inuring to each citizen. All citizens have the right to associate in groups to advocate their special interests to the government. It is something entirely different to grant any one interest group special status and access to the decision-making process.

This reflects my own points made so very often right here on the blog. The incestuous relationship between union — that becomes a patron of politicians — and politicians — that return that patronage — wholly cuts out the voter’s ability to direct government to their desires and needs.

Anyway, Denholm makes some great points and his piece is well worth the read.
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The Case Against Public Sector Unions”