In a line that should be on Saturday Night Live instead of the news, Peter Orszag (yes…the same guy who said there was no risk in the under capitalization of Fannie and Freddie…and yes, the man Obama appointed as his budget director) said the reason for federal government inefficiencies is that they use out of date technology. Maybe somebody should get this guy a history book. Another little funny that I saw yesterday was that Joe Biden was holding a meeting on transparency….wait for it….behind closed doors. Sorry, I had to mention it.
On a topic that is not quite as funny, the result of the closed door meetings with the unions was revealed yesterday. (Meeting attendees included AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, SEIU head Andy Stern, and Change to Win’s Anna Burger among others) The unions are now exempt from the health care tax that Obama planned to use to help pay for his Obamacare. The unions also received $5 billion to subsidize the costs of employer health benefits for early retirees. Now that is what I call return on Investment. The Obama administration just does not seem to care that this is one of the most blatant vote buying schemes of all time. Evidently Unions are not a special interest. And evidently they think the majority of the American people really believe that unions are helping the people. Perhaps if someone explained to the President that there are actually not that many people in unions he would change his mind, but then where would he get his money from. I challenge any union supporter to come on here and convince me that unions are worth while and not destructive to our nations economy.
Besides this little demonstration of pay to play politics, there is another issue. Where will the administration get the extra money to pay for this deal? One idea floating out there from the White House and Congress is to expand the Medicare payroll tax to capital gains, dividends and any other form of unearned income. This is an ultimate case of punishing success. Punishing those who are financially responsible and saved. And punishing those who are living off of these savings. I do not really think that the administration has a grasp on how many hard working Americans this will affect. Their disdain for capitalism is really shown here. They will brand this as a tax on the wealthy…using the tired argument that they are not paying their share. But this is simply Obama and his comrades trying to invoke class warfare, just as many of his predecessors have done. It is a great tactic for politicians, but has horrible effects on our country. History is our proof.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Yup. So much for Obama bringing “a new kind of politics” to Washington.
This sort of thing is going to alienate a lot of liberals, few of whom are actual union members. They’re going to start saying ‘wait a second…’ and ask why should they pay higher fees when union members get a break.
I sure hope so.