Obama’s New Proposal: Much More Spending on Government Unionized Workers

In spite of record-breaking peacetime American debt , massive borrowing from foreigners, economy-crushing tax and health-care policies, and near bankruptcy of hundreds of American states and cities, Obama has just proposed (link) borrowing yet more money to subsidize unionized state and local government workers -- workers who already have received a giant federal handout known as the “stimulus” spending plan (most of that federal spending went to state and local governments to support their unionized workers). Government unionized workers already earn far more in salary and benefits than private sector counterparts, but Obama wants more.

Obama doesn’t want a single unionized state and local worker given a furlough or a wage freeze just because their public employers are broke and deeply in debt, caused more than anything else by profligate spending on wages, benefits, and pensions for these employees. But unions such as SEIU make up the most powerful and dependable part of the Democrat Party and seem to provide most of the goon squad thugs who have been intimidating peaceful tea party protesters, so Obama needs them more than anyone else. In short, Obama wants to borrow money from foreigners, for which private sector workers will effectively be on the hook, to subsidize his most reliable Democrat Party members who are already substantially overpaid.

Nicole Gelinas, writer and analyst at the quarterly City Journal and the author of a recently-published terrific analysis of the causes of the recent financial crisis titled “After the Fall”, took apart this proposal of Obama’s in a commentary (link) titled “A Stimulus To Ruin”.

One more piece of evidence, as if any more were needed, that Obama’s true goal is to turn America into a European-style socialist welfare state where government has all the power and most of the jobs. His role model could be FDR, who became ever more popular while in office despite wreaking the economy via bonehead policy mistakes because he emoted well and talked up concern for the little guy; FDR let no crisis go to waste. But this time around Americans are more educated and more attuned to policy matters, and Obama isn’t getting the same widespread misplaced trust and adulation that FDR received. Even some Democrats may be waking up from the Obama spell -- Hot Air reports (link) that some Congressional Democrats may resist Obama on this one; they’ve had enough over-borrowing and over-spending. One can only hope.

John M Greco