Obama and company have been on a demagogic spree in recent weeks, attacking the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a host of shadowy, unnamed “foreign interests” for allegedly pumping millions of anonymous dollars into U.S. politics to buy the election. The charge is demonstrably false, but that doesn’t prevent its endless repetition. On Friday, however, we learned courtesy of the Wall Street Journal that the biggest political spending in 2010 is by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. AFSCME will have funneled an estimated $87.5 million into the campaign by Nov. 2, all of it going to Democrats and an amount far exceeding the chamber’s $75 million. More millions are being poured into Democratic campaign coffers by other public-sector unions. On Friday, for example, the National Education Association spent $500,000 on ads aimed at helping Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak defeat former Rep. Pat Toomey, the Republican in the Pennsylvania Senate contest.
But there is a fundamental problem here that FDR understood years ago and that AFSCME President Gerald McEntee inadvertently highlighted when he told the Journal: “We’re spending big. And we’re damn happy it’s big. And our members are damn happy it’s big — it’s their money.” Actually, it’s not simply “their money.” Every dollar paid to a unionized government worker was taxed away from somebody who earned it in the private sector. So when these unions spend millions to elect Democrats who will vote for bigger government, they are literally using money from the productive part of America to enable more government taxing and spending. FDR might well have had this inconvenient fact in mind when he wrote in 1937 that “meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government … the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.”
The interests of government employee unions are inextricably opposed to the public interest. It’s time campaign finance law recognized this truth.
Sweet deal these folks have worked out, eh? I mean, not only do they make on average far more than their counterparts in the private sector, but they’ve actually rigged the system so that it’s legal to take from our pockets in order to subsidize the message that they should be allowed to take from our pockets.
I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the invisible hand Mr Smith had in mind. His, at least, would have the courtesy to give you a reach around first.
Well they think because you can’t outsource government jobs to China, that somehow that makes it okay.
[…] campaigns, most of which is being spent to support Republicans. From The Washington Examiner, via Jeff Goldstein: Obama and company have been on a demagogic spree in recent weeks, attacking the U.S. Chamber of […]
It is pretty sweet. What’s better is the mandatory dues that are forced out of members. I remember my first “union” job at a University where they took a mandatory $50 out of my paycheck each month, even though I wasn’t covered under collective bargaining and I didn’t have any voting rights to the union. When asked what I could get from the union, the answer was “Well, if you have a grievance, we can help you with that.” To which my next line was, “Ok. I have a grievance with the union for taking $50 a month from my salary without giving me a way to opt-out.” That didn’t go over so well.
When will the shadowy Dem organizations open up their books for review? When will Barcky call on them to do so? When will the MFM report that the biggest spender, and 3 of the top 5, amongst outside groups are leftist unions?
Like the AFL-CIO “International” unions and the SEIU locals organized in foreign nations perhaps? Nah. They are so very clean.
Snow. On the ground. Snow on the ground this morning.
Good thing I planted my snow crocuses Saturday.
Dicentra – my little brother ran into some snow this weekend while trying to finish up his yurt.
Geoffb – That is different. They are good and pure. The Chamber of Commerce is evil.
#7 – finish his yurt? So, since winter snow is here too soon, he will have to lead his Mongol warriors into the nearest village to loot and pillage?
Recycling.
Thank you JFK, and Jerry Brown.
He bought a huge yurt to put on his new back-country land he bought. Plus, that is a fun word to say.
Snow di? Excellent!
For my area of SoCal it’s 61 and intermittent rain. Absolutely wonderful. This is usually our worst month of the year for fires.
It feels so much like the holidays, I want to bake some pies …
Mostly unrelated: my wife has been hired by a certain large employer of people here in Central Florida, and at the end of the hiring process the whole new hire group was visited by the local union rep.
He proceeded to tell them what the union does for them, and then (I am not exaggerating, here) commanded them to pick up their union application and fill in their name, etc. one step at a time. There were a certain number of foreign nationals in the room (which ought to tell you more exactly who was doing the hiring), and they kind of went along with it because they had no ideas what the rules were.
Then this lady held up her hand and asked: “Are you going to tell them that they don’t have to join the union?” and some other similarly awkward questions, which process he terminated by pointing to her and saying “you’re done”. Then some others got into the fray, and by the time he asked for applications, not one person in the whole (considerably large) group would turn in an application.
If no one had asked, this guy would have railroaded the entire room into joining, not even telling them they could choose not to, and not even telling them what dues were.
SoCal is going to bin the 60’s when I vista,of course. Gaia hates me.
@#11-
Just out of curiosity, what is Whitzeneggers view on public unions?
Oh yeah, she will protect them for an endorsement.
Choice!
Nobody seems to call Barcky on the aggressive hypocrisy he engages in when ignoring the fundraising practices of his own campaign.
Yurt! That’s been a nice import from Mongolia. Nice addition to the back country, on account of them being warm and stuff.
Now. If the Mongols incorporated Coleman tents into their culture, would that constitute a corruption of their culture by consumer capitalism? If so, why haven’t we corrupted OUR culture by adopting yurts?
If no one had asked, this guy would have railroaded the entire room into joining, not even telling them they could choose not to, and not even telling them what dues were.
I’m sitting here with absolutely no indication of surprise on my face.
Is that why most of the political contributions from bailed out companies are going to Republicans – the same people supposedly against “Big Government?”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was a fierce critic of the federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler last year, saying he could not “ask the American taxpayer to subsidize failure.” Now he’s on the take from GM.
That’s the way the GOP does business.
Yeah. We’re all big fans of the GOP establishment here.
I think you should head over to Hugh Hewitt’s place. Where your barbs might actually prick someone.
Oh. And I haven’t clicked your link. But that’s only because I’m willing to bet — even without looking — that you are characterizing it in a way that is entirely false, or that the WaPo has put a spin on numbers that other competing numbers would readily call into dispute.
I wonder if AJB is getting paid for this, because he/she/it doesn’t seem to get much satisfaction from the postings, based on how lame and weak they are.
It’s sure a nice deal if you can get it. It’s even nicer if one considers that big labor, representing public employees and otherwise, is blowing big money that they should be depositing in their underfrunded pension fund accounts.
So they’re blowing money to put in socialist politicians on the premise that they can make them agree to bail out the pension funds they’ve been shortchanging-using the money instead to adversely influence elections!
There’s an ouroboros somewhere in there, I just haven’t figured out exactly where…
And for the umpteenth time I’ll point out my bewilderment as to why exactly we need public employee unions. We didn’t have them at the Navy. And it seems to me that the eeeeeevolll management they are in the business of extorting are the people of the city, state, or country they work in!
What, you guys don’t &heart; the GOP?
I’m outta here.
Poop.
I ♥ PW.
(hearts, Cranky)
Own it AJB.
Fannie/Freddie is the biggest allegedly private corporation to be bailed out, next to General Electric that is. And it doesn’t take too many mad google skillz to find out their top ten recipients of their largesse for the years 1998-2008:
http://tinyurl.com/5w38tk
1. Dodd, Christopher J D-CT
2. Kerry, John D-MA
3. Obama, Barack D-IL
4. Clinton, Hillary D-NY
Asshat Jawin’ some Bullshit again.
There’s a reason I’ve taken to calling them “Establicans,” to distinguish them from Republicans who still believe (silly Neanderthals!) that principle trumps cynical (note the adjective!) self-interest.
Wait, AJB used an honest-to-goodness hyperlink in a comment, and agreed with Tea Party sentiments that the business-as-usual GOP is not much better than the corrupt Democrat machine it wishes to replace? I think I need to take back the mean things I was saying earlier. AJB can be taught!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to take my watch to the jeweler. Almost every time I look at it, it shows the wrong time, except for a couple of times a day when it’s right on the money. I need to get to the bottom of this.
Squid, did you try twirling the little knob thingy on the side?
No, but I gave it a couple of good whacks. That always worked with my old TV.
Fixed a couple of hippies that way, too.
Jeff G : ‘Sweet deal these folks have worked out, eh? I mean, not only do they make on average far more than their counterparts in the private sector, but they’ve actually rigged the system so that it’s legal to take from our pockets in order to subsidize the message that they should be allowed to take from our pockets.’
Yes, and explains the left’s freaking out at the Citizen’s United decision, where they found out that their opinions no longer enjoy a monopoly in the marketplace of ‘news’, and can be countered by the non-connected to the government trough types.
Unfortunately for the ‘elites’, Hoi Polloi has it’s share of outlaws.
Staying DEEPLY DEFIANT is the only answer to the totalitarianism of the left.
Rob Reed at # 27. Don’t forget Gorlick and Raines, leftist do gooders who made millions in bonuses garnered by misstating the profits of Freddie and Fannie in a way that make Enron executives look like rank amateurs.
More big biz shennanigans that keeps you up at night, right AJB?
AJB is wailing and gnashing his teeth and rending his garments over a $5000 donation to Mitch McConnell. Five.fucking thousand dollars. When AFSCME is spending $87,000,00+ in taxpayer dollars.
Doubled – Don’t forget that Rahmbo got some of that sweet Fannie Freddie money.
Don’t forget…got some…sweet Fannie
Dowdify’d!
Quotes are fungible in the MFM world. Why not everywhere? ;-)