Poor Republican

Obama spent the week kissing up to Big Labor Unions and hiring lobbyists in violation of his promise not to.

Obama signed or is about to sign four executive orders designed to benefit Big Labor.  He’s also looking forward to signing the ironically named Employee Free Choice Act, which basically eliminates voting in forming labor unions.  It would instead allow unions to be formed by signing a card (thus the commonly used “card check” name for the bill).  It also means that if you are opposed to the union, it would allow union thugs to know who you are and pressure you.  This would not be the case in secret ballot voting, and Big Labor is clamoring for this bill.  Obama says he supports it.

Obama has said repeatedly that he would not govern for the special interests, and he claims that supporting these measures is for “working families,” which is in itself a nonsense term.  Does Obama mean that if you make $150k a year by running a business that you work at 60 hours a week you are not a “working family?”  After all, you make too much and you are not a member of a union!

And why is everything about “families?”  I guess if you’re single and busting your butt every day to scratch out a living, you don’t count either.

That aside, union membership is about 12% of all workers, or about 1 of every 8.  That means Obama is going out of his way to give special power to 1 out of every 8 people, instead of the other 7 who are not in unions.  In reality, he’s actually giving power to even fewer people than that, because in many states union membership is compulsory in many jobs.  That means the 12% union membership figure is deceptive; many people in unions have no choice about being in the union.  Obama isn’t helping them either.

When you are going out of your way to give power to 1 person in every 8 (or 10 or 12 taking into account the unwilling members of unions), how do you go out and claim, with a straight face, that you are not governing for special interests?

Obama is also lying about his administration’s “no lobbyist” policy.  He says his administration is “the most ethical,” then he immediately sets about breaking his own rules.  Here’s an entire list of people “waived” on those rules.  Even the new Treasury Secretary, Mr. “I don’t understand Turbotax” Geithner, immediately hired a lobbyist as his chief of staff….after publishing a bunch of “no lobbyist” rules for his Department of the Treasury.  His new top staffer, Mark Patterson, was a lobbyist for Goldman Sachs.  He specifically lobbied Treasury, and now he’s chief of staff there.

So Obama, after promising an ethical, open administration that won’t govern for special interests or employ lobbyists, appoints a tax cheat to be in charge of the IRS, who then appoints a lobbyist to be his chief of staff.  Then he goes out of his way to empower Big Labor, which represents less than 1 person in 8 and probably less than 1 in 10.

If you’re a Republican, it’s easy to be confused by criticism that you’re not giving Obama’s policies a chance.

After all, it’s pretty obvious even Obama doesn’t support his own policies.

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