President Barack Obama has appointed Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern to a new commission tasked with coming up with recommendations to help reduce the federal deficit. While disappointing, this is not surprising. Stern’s appointment is merely the culmination of a series of appointments by the Obama administration of individuals closely associated with SEIU to government posts.
These include Patrick Gaspard, a former vice president for politics and legislation for SEIU Local 1199, a giant New York health care workers union, who was named White House political director following Obama’s election, and SEIU Treasurer Anna Burger, who was named to Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Then there’s former SEIU associate general counsel Craig Becker, whose nomination to the National Labor Relations Board failed in a Senate cloture vote.
Yeah, you heard that right. He has tapped the unions to control costs. His latest fox to guard the hen house visited the White House 22 times in 2009. His union is the 10th largest donor to politicians and almost 100% of that donor money goes to Democrats. Add all that up and now we understand how this kind of person can get appointed to a position like this.
…asking the head of a union that organizes public sector workers presents a clear conflict of interest, especially now that union members in the public sector sectors outnumber their private sector counterparts for the first time ever. Â Would Stern be willing to reduce growth of the sector where his union is most likely to find new members?
This is nothing more then stacking the commission with those he thinks will rubber stamp his tax increases if the unions are unpopular or not:
In recent years, positive attitudes about labor unions have declined significantly across most demographic groups. The largest change has come among those 65 and older. Currently 29% of this group says they have a favorable opinion of unions, down 31 points from 60% in 2007. Notably, those younger than 30 are the only age group in which a majority (53%) expresses a favorable view of unions; even so, far more young people (66%) expressed a positive opinion two years ago.
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He would’ve appointed someone from Acorn but we all know why that didn’t happen. Obama’s a crook and sooner or later he will be caught.
This is part of “Murphy’s Law”. If Obama has to find a candidate for something, he will choose from CHICAGO, ACORN, or SEIU.
The normal working class just does not stand a chance with this administration. SEIU are just as radical as Obama.
That’ll be one bloated and fat fox to trust with the guardin the hens that remain… I wonder if Obama is blind to the gnawed on chicken corpses sitting by the near immobile fox?
Alan Simpson said in an interview that the commission will deal with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid … and nothing else
If he only deals with SS, Medicare, and Medicaid, what’s to worry?
Tell me why my edited comment has a French statement attached??
So, the head cheese behind SEIU gets to oversee Social Security? Isn’t SEIU in trouble with membership levels, budget deficet issues for many chapters, and the target of being dumped by certain labor markets across the Nation? That’s one hell of a fox to entrust to guard the hens especialy when the payment ratio is scarier than a zombie uprising film of a whooping 3 payers per 1 retiree for now and future forecasts due to unemployement levels and labor forces being translated to oversea markets pointing to that ratio being 1 payer per 3 (or more) retirees.
You can’t fix stupid.
Keep doing your thing, Mr. Obama, we are only 2.75 years away from your trashing the White House and setting up shop somewhere else. Then we will really see – change.
Plus, we certainly won’t be seeing your mug on any currency, and it’s got nothing to do with your skin color. Maybe someone can name a failed bank after you.
You people are beyond dumb. If the deficit reduction is going to include ANY reduction in entitlements, then we have to have buy in by unions. SEIU, which you fidiots call a “radical” union (tell that to the Teamsters and the Electrical Workers!) is the perfect mechanism to get the AFL-CIO behind entitlement reform. And University of Pennsylvania grad Andy Stern is the perfect man to sell it, too.
But I see what is REALLY going on here. The conservatives, who singlehandedly expanded entitlements by adding the un-paid-for drug bill and are now OPPOSING any reductions in Medicare and Medicaid spending, really want to defeat any effort by Obama to actually tackle the deficit. Think of history: Reagan, Bush I and Bush II . . . not a one of them EVER submitted a balanced budget. The last thing the GOPers want is for Obama and Clinton to go down as the only presidents since the 1970s to balance the budget. Paying as you go is simply anathema to conservatives, who believe in the perpetual free lunch of “more spending plus more tax cuts”. But to then turn around and claim you folks are in favor of “small government” having spent two presidential administrations expanding entitlements, running up debt, and doing the bank bailouts* — proves the lack of any actual fiscal responsibility on the part of conservatives.
* Not that I oppose the bank bailouts. Read “On the Brink” by Hank Paulson and you’ll understand why they were necessary, why Bush deserves credit for doing the right think though he did not like it, why Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank deserve a lot of credit for tamping down the lefty impulses of the Dems and getting the Bush package passed, and why Paulson basically considered the Congressional Republicans “useless” (Bob Corker excepted).
Shoot, I have to leave to go help a dog rescue league do an adoption event today so I’ll have to wait til late afternoon to see the thumping you’re about to get over this one.
Wondering if you may be abusing that unpaid for drug bill.
It’s the Chicago way….Cronyism, pandering to unions, corruption…..Obama brings it all to the table…
BRob, are you this much of a fool to support a Union that is bleeding membership to unemployement, new rival Unions, or flat out defecit issues within their own budget?
For the matter, do you even comprehend what a Defecit is in business or Government’s terms? If you do not, here is what it is:
The United States is expected to lose it’s AAA credit rating, which means our current long term and short term borrowing rates for interest will increase which means the United States Government has to deviate more monies away from National budget concerns to paying off the interest of the loans alone and THEN the loans themselves. As it stands right now, the United States Government has to BORROW monies from other sources outside of Tax Revenue to even remotely pay for the entitlement programs and to pay for previous loans. This money is being borrowed mostly by other Nations instead of internal borrowing among United States Citizens, and this has posed a great security risk to the Nation in terms of economical stablity. Since you are ignorant over history and law, let me quickly point out that the former Soviet Union of Russia’s collapse was spurred not by weapons of war but by economical instablity by external market influences on a Global scale.
The best metaphor for what the United States Government is facing in terms of all of this borrowing from external sources of monies is a neighbor living off of a Mastercard, a Visa, and an American Express Card. The neighbor uses the Mastercard to pay for all goods and services on his budget that can’t be sustained by his weekly (biweekly) paycheck, as this card’s limit is topped and interest rates roll in hindering the neighbor’s ablity to afford such a budget the neighbor idioticly uses the Visa card to pay off the interest rates and some of the actuall bill of the Mastercard. Once this Visa is maxed out, the American Express Card is used to repeat the process. Sooner or later all forms of credit lines will be maxed out, the interest rates will increase due to declining credit score and the price the neighbor has to pay becomes so great that all he can do is either pay the interest rates or file bankruptcy and lose everything. This is exactly what the United States Government has placed us in within this spending Hurbis by Progressive Republican and Democratic policies.
And if you have not paid attention Greece is exactly in the spot the Federal Government of America is heading towards due to no monies to even remotely operate the Government. The Greek Unions are rioting and there is the prospect of full out civil war between a group of Greeks who think they are entitled to the monies and another clinging on to their mere existance as a Nation.
The United States Government’s strongest days was when it did not have entitlements to doll out, but forced its peoples to care for themselves. You don’t like the idea of a person having to fend for themselves, that’s your issue but many conservatives do not want their private wealth that was earned though personal hardships to be taken away and given to those who squander it and then demand more.
The SEIU Boss is in dire need of more wealth because his Union is losing membership and monies fast due to many variables, one of them being unemployement (which much to your chagrin is rising still) and businesses and some states flat out denying them.
New here, but already I’ve read BRob’s comments after several of the articles on-site. My first instinct was to ask “why do you all let him in here?” However, after some thought on it, he actually serves a very useful purpose by posting his nonsense. The statist’s desires are echoed by his comments and refuted by facts. Interesting that some people cannot get beyond their own ignorance to see how wrong they are in their views on life and liberty.
@johngalt:
John Galt!
Welcome to FA.
Pull up a chair, make yourself at home, and stay awhile.
You are correct about B-Rob and his vapid nonsense. We allow him to stay because, while unpleasant like a bitter medicine, it serves a great purpose.
Not only can we learn and sharpen our skills while defeating him we, hopefully, are educating those who choose to read here without actually posting comments.
There’s no better poetic justice than to use freshly squeezed MoonBat juice as a Conservative educational tonic.
Again, welcome.