I Guess We Know When the Union Campaign Contribution Checks Cleared, Don’t We?
The Democrats have struck a deal with their big-money union contributors to exempt them from a tax increase the rest of America will have to pay.
The White House has reached a deal with labor leaders to tax expensive health insurance plans to pay for health reform, but would exempt union plans from the tax through 2017, labor leaders announced Thursday.
The deal averts a standoff on one of the most contentious issues standing in the way of a compromise. Democrats now hope to send key parts of a compromise bill to the Congressional Budget Office for cost estimates by Friday or Saturday.
“We have been fighting for health care over 60 years, and we find ourselves on the threshold of a milestone despite determined opposition,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said on the call to announce the deal.
They haven’t been fighting for health care, folks. They’ve been fighting for government-run health care that they won’t have to pay for because their tens of millions of dollars buy them immunity from the Democrats whose coffers they keep stuffed full.
The payback will run about $60 billion, a ridiculously large return on their investment in the Democratic political machine. That money will have to come from somewhere and if the unions are exempt, guess who’s left?
If you’re wondering whether this should tick you off, here’s something to consider. This deal makes the so-called Nebraska Compromise, that has driven Ben Nelson’s poll numbers down so far that he took to the air to defend his indefensible decision, look like chump change. In fact, the total amount of the bribes paid to Ben Nelson and Mary Landreiu in order to get their votes will be a little less than .007 percent — seven thousandths of one percent — of this gift to the labor unions.
To put that in perspective, the total number of people who belong to a union, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is about 16.1 million people. The combined population of Nebraska and Louisiana is about 6.2 million. So, the bribes given to Landrieu and Nelson work out to abot $64.52 per person. The payoff to labor unions, per member? $3,726.71
I’d say they’re getting more than their money’s worth from their kept politicians.
(via Pat Austin)
UPDATE: Here’s an interesting little fact from the BLS site.
The largest numbers of union members lived in California (2.7 million) and New York (2.0 million). About half (8.0 million) of the 16.1 million union members in the U.S. lived in just 6 states (California, 2.7 million; New York, 2.0 million; Illinois, 0.9 million;
Pennsylvania, 0.8 million; Michigan, 0.8 million; and Ohio, 0.7 million), though these states accounted for only one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.
What else might you notice about most, if not all of those states? Think “swing states”.
As well, all of them went for Barack Obama in 2008 (no big surprise there since stimulus cash went 2-1 to Democratic districts). However all of them will hold important elections in 2010 in which either a Senate seat or the Governorship will be up for grabs, or both. No Democrat in any of those races holds more than a precarious lead in the polling right now and all of them contain a healthy percentage of undecided voters.
In Pennsylvania, Republicans hold the lead for Senate and Governor. Same for the Gubernatorial races in Illinois and Michigan. In Illinois, the Democrat has sneaked ahead of Republican Senator Mark Kirk. Barbara Boxer still holds a good lead over either potential challenger for the California Senate race, though her lead is inside the number of undecided voters.
In other words, Democrats need help, and this union payoff is big-time help in states where the left needs it the most.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Too Bad Ben Nelson Doesn’t Have to Claim His Health Care Bribe as a Campaign Contribution
- Government Health-Care: Card-Check in Disguise?
- Labor Unions to Members: Vote for Obama, You Racist
Category: Health Care Craziness, Our New Democratic Overlords
What is a good source for total union dollar contributions in the 2008 election? Time and Newsweek once published such estimates, and they were then in the $50to $75 million range. Thought I'd seen something for 2008 in the $100 million range.