"We're going to make sure that in every policy, every decision, we don't lose sight of the folks that brought us to the dance."
Vice President Joe Biden at the AFL-CIO's Executive Committee, March 2009
Boy, have they! A bill making its way through the Senate would bail out union pension funds to the tune of $165 billion. The bill's author, Democrat Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, wants the public to pay for the gold-plated union retirement benefits that the funds have mismanaged into oblivion.
This has to be galling to average working saps who watch as their 401(k)s and IRAs plummet, only to be asked to pony up billions of dollars in subsidies for unionized workers — many of whom get to retire while still in their 50s.
Casey's bill isn't the only gift that the White House and Congress have for the unions. Last year, economist Ben Stein estimated that as much as half of the $862 billion stimulus would go to unions, directly or indirectly. Even that might underestimate organized labor's take.
And just last week, the White House proposed $23 billion in aid to states for education. For education? Well, in point of fact, increased federal involvement in education has had zero positive effect on test scores. Neither has increased spending per pupil helped with problems stemming from social issues rather than financial woes. Some of the highest spending school systems, from Chicago to Washington, D.C., still are the worse school systems in the country when it comes to achievement. Who will the $23 billion benefit? Try NEA and AFT - two unions that palyed an important role in labor unions raising over $400 million in 2008 elections, virtually all of it for for Democrats.
So beholden to the unions have the Democrats become, it's fair to say they are a de facto Organized Labor Party — a far more accurate name than "Democrats." Welcome to the workers' paradise.
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