"The Art Of The Deal" Obama Style

Hidden Bailout of Unions and Big Corporations in ObamaCare



HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius & House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Celebrate
Health Care Law H.R. 3590 with Obama

More "Unintended Consequences" from Obamacare.

From the Washington Examiner:

Investigators for the House Energy and Commerce Committee have discovered that a little-known provision in the national health care law has allowed the federal government to pay nearly $2 billion to unions, state public employee systems, and big corporations to subsidize health coverage costs for early retirees. At the current rate of payment the $5 billion appropriated for the program may soon be depleted.

The discovery came on the eve of an oversight hearing focused on the workings the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIO), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Section 1102 of the Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590), which created something called the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. The legislation called for the program to spend a total of $5 billion, beginning in June 2010, shortly after Obamacare was passed.

The idea was to subsidize unions, states, and companies that had made unsustainable commitments to provide health insurance for workers who retired between the ages of 55 and 64. UAW has received $206 million while AT&T got $140 million. State public unions also got the bailout with the public retirement systems in Texas and Ohio getting tens of millions of dollars. Read More

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Living In Heaven With Ralph Kramden

Can we stop acting as if people who work for the government are the heroes of working people? 

MSNBC among others are covering the public union fighting in Wisconsin as if it's the 9/11 attack, and the Republicans are al-Qaida. Its entire prime-time schedule is dedicated to portraying self- interested government employees as if they're Marines taking on the Taliban. 

Public sector workers are pursuing their own narrow financial interests to the detriment of everyone else in their states. That's fine, its what most of us do, but can we stop pretending it's virtuous? 

Because of the insane union contracts in Wisconsin, one Madison bus driver, was able to make $159,000 in 2009, about $100,000 of which in overtime pay. Jackie Gleason didn't make that much playing bus driver Ralph Kramden on "The Honeymooners."

When asked about the outrageous overtime pay for bus drivers, totaling $1.94 million in 2009 alone, Transit and Parking Commission Chairman Gary Poulson said: "That's the contract." 

There in lies the problem, not as much with the workers that are going to work and being paid per that contract, but with the political hack that agreed to that contract in the first place, all at the publics expense. It's ludicrous to suggest that these union contracts were fairly bargained. Only one side was at the negotiating table. The side who is actuall has to pay were all at work.
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If You Don't Like It....Riot!

Rich Galen

Welcome to another new normal: If you don't like something your government is doing, or if your government is not doing something you think it should be doing - riot. Don't wait for one of those pesky elections. Take over the town square, or the state house and demand that the government do what you want.

We have union thugs in Wisconsin - along with their allies, the Democrats in the State Senate - rioting in the statehouse in Madison over Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to, according to ABC News: "strip government workers of virtually all collective bargaining rights. The bill would also require public workers to pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage."

New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie is getting a lot of ink, but Gov. Scott Walker should get equal kudos for putting the issues on the line. Democrats in Madison Wisconsen are, much like their colleagues here in Your Nation's Capital: Hiding their heads in the sand; unable and/or unwilling to make tough choices. Democrat members of the Wisconsen State Senate have fled the state - much as Democrats in Texas did in 2003. 

On the broader question of what is a legitimate form of protest, Barack Obama his hand-maiden Hillary Clinton may have opened a Pandora's Box in their zeal to support the rioters in Cairo and their refusal to make a judgment call on the rioting in Bahrain.

Any group which disagrees with the position of a legally elected city council, county commission, state legislature or … dare we say it … Congress of the United States has been given the active permission of Barack Obama to riot in support of its views.

Once a Community Organizer...…  Read More Here

Rich Galen has been described as "what you get when you cross a political hack with a philosopher." Rich Galen's career includes work in and out of politics, Rich Galen did a tour of duty in Iraq where he went at the request of the White House. Mr. Galen is a frequent guest on television shows on FOX, CNN, the "Today" show, on "Good Morning America," and ABC "World News Tonight"....Read More  -  Read More By Rich Galen

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Obama Green Lights TSA Union

As if groping and naked body scans weren’t enough, the Transporation Security Administration may soon be  a union shop. The Obama Administration recently announced the TSA would be permitted to engage in collective barganinig. This means that 50,000 new union members will be reep public pensions and benefits.

If anyone would care to recall, the public was assured that the "TSA Would Not Be Permitted To Unionize" when it was created. The unionization of the TSA would mean one of the largest federal-employee government unions in the country.

The Obama Administration has not layed out any examples of how TSA unionization would increase passenger security. Perhaps that is because it won't. Read More 

Meanwhile, three Republican Senators, Roger Wicker (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Tom Coburn (Okla.) are cosponsoring an amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill that would prohibit TSA screeners from having collective bargaining rights. The legislation is necessary because TSA workers with collective bargaining rights could hamper national security, Wicker said in a statement announcing the proposed amendment. Read More
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Unions Dished Dose Of Reality

Union membership Down Across the Board

The most recent numbers are in, and they are not pretty for organized labor in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released its annual survey of union membership. The survey revealed not only a decline in the number of union members, but yet another decline in the percentage of the work force that is organized.

Here are some interesting data points from the survey:

• Only 11.9% of American employees are in a labor union, down from 12.3% last year.
• Unions lost 612,000 members in 2010, bringing total union membership to 14.7 million.
• The percentage of private sector employees who are union members fell to 6.9%, down from 7.3% last year.
• Unions lost 339,000 members in the private sector. Read More

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NJECPAC Attends Chris Christie Town Hall in Paramus

NJECPAC Chairman Joe Coviello and Government Affairs Director Joseph Hovanec were invited to and attended a Town Hall Meeting in Paramus with Governor Chris Christie.

The Governor discussed many topics including the economic state of the State at the moment he took office. If he did not take immediate fiscal action the state would not make its Payroll by mid March, only three months later. As you can imagine the state was in much worse shape than any of us ever knew.

  

The Governor will be taking on teacher tenure in an effort to move to a merit reward system for good teachers, He will work to rein in  the pension and health insurance costs of public sector unions, that if no action is taken will in itself bankrupt the state. He will soon announce the construction of many new Charter Schools. He spoke on his commitment to Autism, Road and Bridge Construction and his #1 goal is to bring New Jersey out of this fiscal mess and restore pride to the State.

Immediately following the Town Hall Meeting we were interviewed by the Newark Star Ledger and we appeared in the Fox News Channel's report of the event.

Facing huge budget difficulties, Gov. Chris Christie has been showing other states how to survive, by taking on the government-employee unions. Christie's battles with the teachers unions over the past year have crisscrossed the entire country and he has become somewhat of a star on YouTube. Last month, he was able to get the Democrat Controlled Legislature to pass to legislation to limit Arbitration awards for public employee unions to an average 2 percent annual increase.

New Jersey is not alone, other states have begun to take notice, including those controlled by Democrats such as New York, California and Illinois who are all facing fiscal calamities. They find themselves in the position to increasingly follow Governor Christie's example and rein in their Public unions benefit costs.

As Margaret Thatcher famously said, the problem with socialism is that sooner or later "you run out of other people's money." Read More

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To Watch Videos

Governor Christie: We can't lead out of fear

Congressional Candidate Diane Sare Takes on Governor Christie

Governor Christie: Why would I give this up?

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Were Labor Unions Ever Necessary?

A Common argument made by some Republicans and Conservatives is that labor unions were necessary in society a hundred years ago, but they are no longer needed in today’s workplace.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

This argument, however, has many flaws. When looking deep into the history of the labor movement, unless you support a society modeled closely around that of the U.S.S.R., labor unions were not just unnecessary a hundred years ago, but have created lasting damage and are still continuing to wreak havoc across the nation.

Many fail to see the downside of the American labor movement at the time of its inception. Few remember that it was a product of the liberal progressive movement, which created many of the problems in society that we deal with today.

Just take a look at the progress that the labor unions have made in their short history. From just 90 years ago, labor unions have gone from trying to “protect” the workers that they represented to taking complete control of the companies that they were “protecting” them from. In essence, they have a track record of completely dismantling the companies that they have set up shop in.

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Major Unions To Pool Campaign Spending For Midterm Elections

If you don't think this is the most important "Mid Term Election" in our lifetimes, read on. 

 

Major Unions To Pool Campaign Spending, 

In a not so secret campaign to buy elections?

Can anyone say "Special Interest Groups"?

The leaders of the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have agreed to coordinate spending millions of dollars in the midterm elections to support pro-union candidates, the vast majority of them Democrats.

The two labor organizations say they have a combined $88 million or more to deploy in this year's election cycle. It's not clear how much of that money they will pool together.
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The only way to compete with unions to protect your interest in the Electrical & Construction Industry is through Trade Association Political Action Committees who are all working hard for you and your business.

To do that the PAC's need funds, we urge you to do your part for your industry and donate to one or all of the Political Action Committees listed below

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Support the IEC National Pride PAC: Pre Authorization Form
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Obama Promises Unions Expanded Union Friendly Agenda

President Obama Again Promised Unions that he would  keep on fighting to pass the controversial “card check” bill. 

“We’re going to keep on fighting to pass the Employee Free Choice Act,” Obama told the union......“Getting EFCA through the Senate will be tough. It’s always been tough, it’ll continue to be tough. But we’ll keep on pushing,” he said. 

A promise from a politician to “keep on pushing” isn’t exactly inspiring. However, there’s still a lot of concern about what Democrats might do during a lame duck session.

A lot of Democrats have hinted they are going to pass card check legislation during a lame duck session. It would be a mistake to dismiss the possibility of that happening.

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The NJECPAC and our member organizations continue to support the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace in their fight against this egregious legislation, http://www.myprivateballot.com/

If passed, EFCA would strip employees of their right to a private ballot vote in union elections. Click Here To Take Action

Big Labor's Allies In The Senate Are At It Again.

Union-label Senators could bring the Police and Firefighters Monopoly Bargaining Bill to the floor for a vote at any minute as an amendment to the War appropriations legislation. 

"The US Senate majority with at least six Republicans want to impose a Government sector collective bargaining on states that do not follow these irresponsible practices.

Please send your Senators a free action fax IMMEDIATELY and afterwards call them and urge them to vote NO on this brazen union boss power grab or any attempt to add this Big Labor power grab to other legislation by Clicking Here. 

And after you have filled out your free fax authorization form, we’ll provide you with the phone numbers of your Senators so you can call and urge them to vote NO on S. 3194.

They are trying to catch us sleeping, but your phone calls, letters, and faxes helped kill that effort. Demand that they OPPOSE any bill that includes Police and Firefighters Monopoly Bargaining. To Send Your Message Click Here

Organized Labor Losing Ground In N.J. Legislature

New Jersey's public employee labor unions, long seen as a potent political force and often depicted as an 800-pound gorilla looming over the Statehouse, are running short of friends in Trenton. Gone is Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who regularly sided with unions. In his place stands Gov. Christie, who has sharply criticized labor's influence, union leadership, and benefits.

In an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer, light is shed on what the effect of the backlash we are seeing against exorbitant benefit and pensions for public workers is having on public union leaders.

Meanwhile, Private Construction unions are still basking in the sun. They continue to be rewarded for their support of the Democrat party with the expansion of Project Labor Agreements and mandated prevailing wages that are now extended to select private construction projects. The effects of these hand outs and discriminatory practices in favor of unions remain a detriment to our NJ economy rebounding swiftly.

It is important to note that it is the leaders of the public unions that are blocking real reform and not the majority of the public employees themselves. Union leaders lack the vision necessary to participate in moving NJ into the 21st Century. They prefer the status quo and would rather continue their stone age existance as the dinosaur in the room. There are a myriad of ways to rein in costs with little pain or detriment to public employees but the union leaders fearing a loss of power over their members reject anything that will help reduce costs to the taxpayer.

As the late great Ronald Reagan once said "The Status Quo is Latin for the mess we are in" 

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