Big Labor’s investment in Obama pays off

[easymoney]

“We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama — $60.7 million to be exact — and we’re proud of it,” boasted Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, to the Las Vegas Sun this week. The behemoth labor organization’s leadership is getting its money’s worth. Whether rank-and-file workers and ordinary taxpayers are profiting from this ultimate campaign pay-for-play scheme is another matter entirely.

Through a series of local chapter takeovers, corporate shakedowns, and bully campaigns to destroy the reputation of executives who refuse to submit to their will, Stern and his scandal-plagued lieutenants have consolidated low-skill service workers to create a 21st century labor empire. The ubiquitous Stern now enjoys a prominent seat at the table of every major policy discussion at the White House, including economic recovery and health care radicalization.

The SEIU scored not one, but two, Cabinet appointees: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. Stern dubbed Sebelius a “top choice” for the SEIU and lobbied for her confirmation. The SEIU pitched in with maximum campaign donations to Solis’s first congressional campaign and lent her nearly 300 rank-and-file canvassers and ground troops. “I wouldn’t be here, were it not for my friends in the labor movement,” she gushed. Indeed, over four terms in Congress, Solis has pocketed more than $900,000 in union campaign contributions.

The payoffs keep coming. Last week, Obama slashed the Labor Department’s funding to investigate union corruption – a welcome move for Stern, who has seen three of his closest hand-picked deputies resign in 2008-2009 over financial scandals involving rampant cronyism, nepotism, and embezzlement.

Michelle Malkin

I guess it really does pay (big time) to have friends in high places, huh mr sotero?

[Sodhunter]

The health care stuff is going to be DEMANDED by his union supporters. If the unions can get out from under their healthcare payments, lots more money for political payments.

[easymoney]

Bingo...