The Official Unraveling of the Obama Presidency

It can be no secret by now that President Obama did not have a signature achievement his first year in office. Of all his major initiatives, health care, cap and trade, civilian trials for terrorists and the “stimulus” bill – only the so-called stimulus bill was enacted. Hardly a success, as more Americans than not know what Paul Krugman and E.J. Dionne do not – that it was a bad idea. Worse for the Democrats — none of those efforts have produced a greater consensus or momentum for them or Obama. To the contrary, the Democrats lost key races in 2009, a Democrat House Member defected to the Republicans, the nation is more divided than ever and the Democrat Party is in disarray — as in the Obama presidency.

Not to be out-done by 2009, in 2010, the Obama presidency has endured:

(1) the loss of the Kennedy seat (which is how the Democrats view that race) even though Obama stumped for the Democrats’ candidate;

(2) Obama’s deficit commission was shot down;

(3) The unions are warning the Democrats that they are “going to have a hard time getting members out to vote”;

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Tags: 94 republican revolution, Barack Obama, Big Labor, bush tax cuts, cap-and-trade
Posted Feb 12th 2010 at 5:21 am in Congress, Featured Story, News, Obama, Politics | 74026481 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2010/02/12/the-official-unraveling-of-the-obama-presidency/The+Official+Unraveling+of+the+Obama+Presidency2010-02-12+13%3A21%3A52Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Congratulations to the ‘Tea Bashers’

As a member of a very successful Tea Party in Quincy, Illinois it is my distinct honor and privilege to offer my thanks and congratulations to this astroturf response to the tea parties. This hard hitting website has taken the MSNBC format to a new level. Hit us again guys, because while you spend never-ending union dollars attacking Tea Parties, we are repairing the change you said we could believe in, one candidate at a time.

This tiny group of Tea Bashers says its mission is “To prevent the Tea Party’s dangerous ideas from gaining legislative traction.” You might want to watch something other than the mainstream media. In case you haven’t heard, we have already gained legislative traction, which I’ll venture a guess that this was the reason for the emergency birth and delivery of your premature website.

We can’t think of a better way for organized labor to spend its time and money. I am so thrilled with your approach I may donate to your cause myself.

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Tags: astroturf, Big Labor, Hope and Change, MSNBC, organized labor
Posted Feb 11th 2010 at 10:13 am in Big Labor, Tea Party | 67634255 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/smcqueen/2010/02/11/congratulations-to-the-tea-bashers/Congratulations+to+the+%27Tea+Bashers%27+2010-02-11+18%3A13%3A24SFC+Steve++McQueen+%28Ret.%29

Missing The Mass Point

As Democrats are grieving their lost super-majority in Congress, some special interests are trying to spin the loss in ridiculous ways. The latest: Union boss Leo Gerard writes that “The message of Massachusetts should be clear: If Democrats want to save their own jobs in the midterm elections this fall, they must create jobs now.”

Create jobs? Create jobs?! It’s truly a fundamentally different worldview — and the kind that led Democrats off the cliff in the first place — to believe the government, rather than American entrepreneurs create jobs. (Here’s just one retort to that kind of logic.)

In one sense, there is a way Democrats could create jobs: They could quit trying to kill job-creating employers. Shred cap and trade. Hit the reset button on health care legislation. And, particularly important given the disastrous push by labor bosses, toss card check. Quit trying to force “green jobs” by killing other jobs. Stop the devastating machine of regulation from steamrolling any hope of economic recovery.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Big Labor, cap-and-trade, Card Check, government health care
Posted Jan 25th 2010 at 3:17 pm in Big Labor, Economics | 6495893 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bjacobson/2010/01/25/missing-the-mass-point/Missing+The+Mass+Point2010-01-25+23%3A17%3A35Bret+Jacobson

Transforming the U.S. Department of Labor to the Department of Organized Labor

In their first year in office, the Obama Administration has re-made the U.S. Department of Labor into the Department of Organized Labor, working hard to make certain that those who spent hundreds of millions of dollars to put them in office get a return on their investment.  While many dismiss the importance of the Department of Labor, virtually every person in America is directly touched by the rules and regulations that this federal bureaucracy creates and enforces, so changes at the top have real consequences for every working American.

As we evaluate the impact of the past year on the nation’s workforce, it is worthwhile to remember the accomplishments of President Bush’s Secretary of Labor, Elaine L. Chao.

When Secretary Chao left office, workers were safer in their workplaces than at any time in history, the Labor Department was focused upon encouraging private sector job creation, and created an enforcement environment that successfully protected workers from employers who egregiously violated the law while providing the necessary education to limit inadvertent violations.

Secretary Chao put an emphasis on clarifying workplace regulations to make it easier for employers to know the rules of the game.  Her efforts led to overtime requirements being more clear-cut for employers while explicitly guaranteeing overtime protections for blue collar workers, police and fire fighters, EMTs, construction workers and others.

The Labor Department under Secretary Chao brought transparency to the spending of Big Labor through regulations which for the first time shined a light upon labor union expenditures.  These reports revealed the massive labor expenditures supporting ACORN’s efforts,and were used by LA Times reporter Paul Pringle in his Polk Award winning series that brought down the SEIU powerbrokers in the California SEIU.

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Tags: ACORN, AFL-CIO, Andy Stern, Big Labor, Boston Big Dig
Posted Jan 20th 2010 at 12:17 pm in Big Labor, Economics | 6196268 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/rmanning/2010/01/20/transforming-the-u-s-department-of-labor-to-the-department-of-organized-labor/Transforming+the+U.S.+Department+of+Labor+to+the+Department+of+Organized+Labor2010-01-20+20%3A17%3A17Rick+Manning

Unions Make Obama An Offer He Can’t Refuse

It’s amusing to watch President Obama try to stick it to his friends in organized labor by proposing a tax on union-negotiated health care benefits.

If it weren’t for the fact that the tax proposal would have a  devastating effect on the American economy, the situation would be downright hilarious.

Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President

On Monday, a group of top leaders from the American labor movement gathered at the White House to share their concerns with the president.

The irony of the discussion was delicious. During the campaign, Obama and the Democratic Party (including the unions) attacked John McCain for suggesting that health care benefits should be taxed as income.

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Tags: AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Andy Stern, Anna Burger, Big Labor
Posted Jan 13th 2010 at 8:28 am in Big Labor, Healthcare, Obama, Politics | 5901068 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2010/01/13/unions-make-obama-an-offer-he-cant-refuse/Unions+Make+Obama+An+Offer+He+Can%27t+Refuse2010-01-13+16%3A28%3A43Kyle+Olson

21.1 Million Reasons Big Labor Pours Money into ObamaCare

The bosses of Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME), Andy Stern and Gerald McEntee, know that ObamaCare will hurt the very workers that they claim to represent.

But, it appears that they just don’t care!

These two union bosses who stand to gain the most power under ObamaCare are spending hundreds of millions of forced union dues promoting ObamaCare. A government run health insurance program is an SEIU and AFSCME “membership net” designed to eventually complete the capture of 21.1 million forced-dues paying government workers.

It is clear that Big Labor is banking on the probability that all healthcare workers eventually become federal, state, and municipal healthcare employees.

According to SEIU’s numbers submitted to the Obama transition organization (The National Heath Care Workforce Enhancement Initiative, 12/3/2008), public sector labor bosses like Stern and AFSCME’s Gerald McEntee have 21.1 million reasons to support ObamaCare. After the November election, Stern’s SEIU submitted the following health occupation numbers to Rahm Emmanuel et al. at Obama, Inc.:

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Tags: AFSCME, Andy Stern, Big Labor, forced dues, Gerald McEntee
Posted Jan 7th 2010 at 8:21 am in Big Labor, Healthcare | 5650679 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloos/2010/01/07/21-1-million-reasons-big-labor-pours-money-into-obamacare/21.1+Million+Reasons+Big+Labor+Pours+Money+into+ObamaCare2010-01-07+16%3A21%3A13Don+Loos

ACORN and Big Labor: Two Peas in a Pod

With the unearthing of a memo detailing an ACORN scheme to use “dirty money hungry lawyers” to force “employers to open up negotiations” and its plan to create “a model for [union] organizing” that “building trades [unions] do not have,” ACORN almost assuredly fits the federal definition of a labor organization under federal law 29 CFR 401.9.

But, the detailed scheme gets even better and closer to the line that makes ACORN a labor union.

ACORN’s bombshell talks about an arrangement to “share dues” with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and opens up a whole new array of issues between these newly discovered Siamese twins.

Add in ACORN’s plans to create union organizing partnerships with other labor unions and Big Labor funded auxiliary organizations, and it becomes a tautology that ACORN is a big part of Big Labor.

These are the details of a scintillating e-mail between ACORN operatives.  While ACORN and SEIU big-wigs who are dreaming all this up may pass it off as just wishful thinking; the facts show something different.

Right now, ACORN files labor organization financial reports for SEIU 880 and SEIU 100 with the U.S. Department of Labor.  Other exposed relationships like the New York Teachers’ Union bosses – ACORN coordinated organizing effort illustrate an ACORN and Big Labor coordination, and a relationship that may have already crossed the line.

But wait, there is more!

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Tags: ACLOC, ACORN, Andy Stern, Bertha Lewis, Big Labor
Posted Jan 6th 2010 at 8:42 am in ACORN, Big Labor | 5594242 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloos/2010/01/06/acorn-and-big-labor-two-peas-in-a-pod/ACORN+and+Big+Labor%3A+Two+Peas+in+a+Pod2010-01-06+16%3A42%3A30Don+Loos

Obama’s Labor Department Gives Big Labor and Its Front Groups Another Gift

Thursday, the Obama Administration announced that it will rescind rules requiring the disclosure of financial information for Big Labor slush funds and front groups.  And, the Obama Administration is giving you only 11 (eleven) days to comment!

At least they are consistent!  Just as they did for union conflict-of-interest disclosure reporting that SEIU’s Andy Stern may be ignoring and just as it rescinded union-boss perk disclosures, the Obama Administration continues to rollback union financial disclosures.

It is not surprising that Obama’s Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis would rescind these financial disclosure rules since she is the former treasurer of the Big Labor funded American Rights at Work (ARAW) lobbying and political group.   These disclosures would reveal much about the group’s expenditures on behalf Big Labor’s agenda; the very types of expenditures Solis would have signed-off on as ARAW Treasurer.

Union officials have fought these financial disclosures since 2003.  One of the AFL-CIO lawyers involved in opposing these disclosure requirements was Deborah Greenfield.   Now, Greenfield is the Obama Administration’s Acting Deputy Solicitor of Labor and Director of the Office of the Secretariat.  As Deputy Solicitor, Greenfield oversees these regulations.

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Tags: Americans Rights at Work, Andy Stern, Big Labor, comment period, conflict of interest
Posted Dec 4th 2009 at 6:57 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Featured Story | 4090276 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloos/2009/12/04/obamas-labor-department-gives-big-labor-and-its-front-groups-another-gift/Obama%E2%80%99s+Labor+Department+Gives+Big+Labor+and+Its+Front+Groups+Another+Gift2009-12-04+13%3A57%3A55Don+Loos

Ousted Goldman CEO and Ousted NJ Governor Jon Corzine to Head Bank of America?

As the Bank of America (BofA) CEO, one of the first phone calls that Jon Corzine might receive could come from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President and White House frequent guest Andy Stern asking Corzine to forgive SEIU’s $88 million debt or at least to renegotiate the BofA terms. As former head of the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee and a Democrat governor from New jersey, Corzine knows all too well how much the Democrat party owes SEIU bosses. Corzine as head of Bank of America could create interesting opportunities for Stern.

SEIU Debt Ceiling

Debts are increasing at every level of the SEIU purple conglomerate. SEIU’s national headquarters reported that at the end of 2008, its total liabilities grew to $156 million, a total debt increase of $36 million from the prior year. And, about $60 million of its assets are receivables owed to it by SEIU affiliates.

Even though SEIU’s national headquarters reports receiving $247 million in dues revenue called “per capita taxes”, much coming from workers who would be fired if they did not pay, its combined “Representational,” “Political,” “General Overhead,” “Union Administration,” “Benefits,” and “Gifts” activities cost the union $285 million.

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Tags: ACORN, amalgamated bank, Andy Stern, Bank of America, Big Labor
Posted Nov 20th 2009 at 9:47 am in Big Labor, News, Politics | 3335829 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloos/2009/11/20/ousted-goldman-ceo-and-ousted-nj-governor-jon-corzine-to-head-bank-of-america/Ousted+Goldman+CEO+and+Ousted+NJ+Governor+Jon+Corzine+to+Head+Bank+of+America%3F2009-11-20+16%3A47%3A48Don+Loos

Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections

Even before U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was sworn in, Big Labor insiders like AFL-CIO lawyer and Obama appointee Deborah Greenfield were busily dismantling useful union financial disclosures produced by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.  It’s another Big Government – Big Labor partnership aimed at keeping individual workers, whom they claim to represent, in the dark.

Why the hurry? Perhaps Union Bosses wanted to prevent the Virginia GOP and inquisitive people like Patrick Semmens from visiting DOL’s UnionReports.gov website that clearly reveals the Big Labor-ACORN collusion.  Semmens discovered that teachers’ union bosses gave about $500,000 to the same Brooklyn ACORN office exposed on BigGovernment.com.  Both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) awarded ACORN service contracts.

That’s right; union bosses gave teachers’ forced union dues to the same ACORN that appeared to have no problem facilitating child prostitution.  No wonder Solis’ Big Labor friends want to shutdown financial disclosure!

In fact, UnionReports.gov provides detailed union financial reports and is a primary source for many union members, reporters, columnists, bloggers, and researchers.  But, the days of disclosure are numbered.  Big Labor has commanded Labor Secretary Solis to shut it all down. 

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Tags: ACORN, AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, Big Labor, Deborah Greenfield
Posted Sep 24th 2009 at 5:05 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Congress, Featured Story, Obama | 7686115 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloos/2009/09/24/solis-moves-to-shutdown-disclosure-of-big-labor-acorn-connections/Obama+Administration+Moves+to+Shutdown+Disclosure+of+Big+Labor-ACORN+Connections2009-09-24+12%3A05%3A06Don+Loos

SEIU: ‘One of the Pillars of the ACORN Family’

Part of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now’s (ACORN) rotten core includes a very cozy relationship with Big Labor.  In fact, in many instances ACORN and Big Labor are one and the same.  In 2008, Big Labor funneled ACORN millions of dollars for so-called organizing activity.  But, that is only the tip of the Big Labor iceberg.

ACORN controls or significantly dominates several Big Labor unions and organizations.  ACORN created and controls SEIU 100 (Gulf Region) and SEIU 880 (a recently expanded SEIU mega-local that covers Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas).

ACORN founder S. Wade Rathke referred to mega-union SEIU 880 as “one of the pillars of the ACORN Family.”

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern hand picked ACORN’s Rathke to direct SEIU’s nationwide organizing projects.

In addition to Rathke’s and ACORN’s SEIU involvement, Rathke controlled Louisiana HERE Local 100, was Secretary-Treasurer of a New Orleans based AFL-CIO labor organization, and served on the board of a hotel employees union organizing committee.

A search of financial disclosure reports (UnionReports.gov) filed with the U.S. Department of Labor for the years 2000 and 2006 disclosed the following positions that Rathke held in labor unions while he concurrently served as ACORN’s Chief Organizer:

Wade Rathke DOL Reported Union Positions (2000,2006)

ACORN’s connections extend to several other Big Labor funded organizations such as the Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now (WARN), Site Fighters, and Community Labor Organizing Center (CLOC).

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Tags: ACORN, AFL-CIO, Andy Stern, Barak Obama, Big Labor
Posted Sep 16th 2009 at 7:30 am in ACORN, Economics | 2918249 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloos/2009/09/16/seiu-is-one-of-the-pillars-of-the-acorn-family/SEIU%3A+%27One+of+the+Pillars+of+the+ACORN+Family%272009-09-16+14%3A30%3A28Don+Loos