Unions Get Waivers Bought With Political Cash

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Investors Business Daily:

Politics: In a telltale Friday-night document dump, the White House released records showing the latest lucky recipients of Obama-Care cost waivers. By the wildest of coincidences, 87% of them belong to Big Labor unions.

Interesting, since Big Labor pulled out all the stops to get the president's signature on health care reform passed in March 2010. But as the waivers came, it's clear they never had any expectation of paying for it.

From the very start they carved out special exemptions for themselves, showing all the earmarks of political favors in exchange for campaign contributions. The actual skyrocketing costs, reduced choices and lousy service were shoved on the rest of us.

This isn't conspiracy thinking. Judicial Watch obtained records from closed-door meetings between Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO, Andy Stern of the SEIU and other labor advocates of health care nationalization, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Vice President Joe Biden, Majority Leader Harry Reid and ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They point to deals cut to benefit Big Labor.

What's more, union leaders such as Stern, Trumka and Change to Win's Anna Burger were the most frequent White House visitors during the political battle.

No surprise then that 543,812 union workers have magically gotten waivers, according to documents dating from June 17, 2011, while only 69,813 nonunion workers did. That's a shocking 83% total for union members, who make up only 6% of the private workforce.

If any group should bear the full brunt of ObamaCare costs, it's Big Labor. Labor's million-dollar lobbyists shoved it onto an unwilling public, while union leaders vowed revenge against lawmakers who opposed it.

The SEIU's example is instructive. Having spent a large part of its $2.7 million lobbying budget on this bill, it spent nearly $300,000 on direct mail and other activities to oust Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., in the 2010 primary. Why? Because he had voted "no" on ObamaCare.