I've pointed out before how Obama keeps stabbing his supporters in the back. Examples of this abound, like how the employment prospects of blacks went in the toilet under Obama, how black racists found all the spoils the Democrats have given them over the years wiped out by the Supreme Court without a fight from Obama, how unions who got blasted with Obamacare, how environmentalists saw their global warming scheme get depantsed by Obama at Copenhagen, how he let China off the hook for currency manipulation, how not a single Wall Street exec went to jail and how "too big to fail" got official protection in the law, how his supporters now need to buy health care rather than get it free, how he avoided giving gays anything they wanted except token support, how he expanded our wars and drone attacks and never closed Gitmo despite the squeals of his peacenik supporters, and so on.
Now we have a new one to add to the list.
Construction workers, teamsters and food service workers tend to be covered by what are called multi-employer private pension plans. More than 10 million employees are covered by about 1,400 of these plans. Unfortunately, many of these plans, like the Teamsters Central State Fund, are underfunded. That means they don't have enough money to pay out the benefits they owe. About one million of those employees are in plans that can't pay their benefits.
Naturally, the unions want a bailout. They want Uncle Sam to rape the taxpayers to pay these benefits. And that's exactly what Obama did... right? Nope. Obama has refused to fight for a bailout and instead he's running with a plan the Teamsters and AARP have both opposed. In essence, Obama has decided to screw several hundred thousand retirees and soon to be retirees. Indeed, he has appointed an attorney to review applications from the pension plans for permission to cut the benefits of hundreds of thousands of retirees so that the funds will remain solvent for the rest. This includes currently retired employees, by the way... unless you are over 80, then you are protected.
So let's bottom line this. Rather than seeking government money to fund the pensions of these union employees or harassing employers with lawsuits by DOJ until they pay more into the funds, Obama is going to strip hundreds of thousands of union workers of their benefits.
So once again, being Obama's supporter is a ticket to disappointment. This man is amazing.
15 comments:
Wouldn't a bailout have to go through the Republican controlled Congress? That would have never happened.
Unions are probably far more pissed about the trade promotion authority.
Shouldn't the Teamster guys just go down to Vegas and try to win their money back? I mean, that's what it was all used for in the first place!
I guess what I'm trying to say is, "Stop spazzing out and fuggedaboutit. Na mean?"
Oh, wait. Chicago ran Vegas, not New York.
Let me rephrase that: "Look, quit tryin' to simonize your pipe dreams and go gank 'em already!"
Regional dialects. Really, eadder it's slippy out there er yinz 'er all nuts in my eyes.
Rustbelt,
"Look, quit tryin' to simonize your pipe dreams and go gank 'em already!"
I have no idea what you just said.
Kit, according to a dictionary I found, that's Chicagoan
simonize- to polish
pipe dream- unrealistic hope or ambition
gank- rob
In other words, "Hey, Teamsters! Quit chasing something that ain't gonna happen and go rob the place that took your money in the first place!"
You know, I'm surprised Andrew hasn't had a stroke from that third dialect I used. ;)
Made me smile, but I'm wearing a Clemente shirt.
In other words, Obama is the manifestation of all the Democrats' worst fears about Republicans. Ironically, Republicans are in practice far to timid to do what Obama has done, even if they don't mind the results.
Anthony, It would need to go through Congress in normal situations, but...
(1) the left has always expected its political leaders to "die trying" rather than surrender, and what better issue to beat the GOP with than telegenic little white 79-year old blue-collar couples in cute heartland houses who are whining about losing it all because those meanie rich-loving Republicans won't save the pensions destroyed by the "speculative" investment practices of their fat-cat big business friends.
If I were a Democrat, I would definitely probably fight that one.
(2) Obama has a history of "finding" money in other projects that he then illegally shifts to whatever it is he wants to do.
(3) He could also try to get more money by sending DOJ to shake down these businesses, especially the mega construction firms. DOJ settlements do not need Congressional approval.
Rustbelt, Da bears!
I think the reason the Teamsters aren't doing anything proactive is because they don't want to use their money to start fixing the problem. They want your money instead. After all, unions don't exist for the benefit of members (and certainly not retired members) they exist for the benefit of union leaders.
Eric, The only thing worse than being Obama's enemy during his administration has been being his friend.
tryanmax, That's the real irony. On many key issues, Obama has been everything the Democrats see as a Republican boogeyman... yet neither side wants to admit that for various reasons.
In all honesty, even Obamacare is exactly what the Republicans would have come up with if told to do healthcare - force everyone into Big insurance and pretend that was a market solution.
These are strange times.
... and to be clear, there are times where Obama is just a typical socialist crony, especially in rhetoric, but he's mainly been the black-face continuation of W Bush.
You keep picking on Bush except he did bail out the auto-union members at GM and Chrysler. I think Bush in the same situation would have probably at least talked with the unions. The problem is the unions would have still come out and blasted him as a heartless republican.
Why is Obama doing it? I don't know but you will probably find the answer if you follow the money.
Koshcat, Bush and Obama's policies have been nearly identical with the only real differences being which big companies get the benefits.
In terms of why, I think following the money provides a great clue. But I also think Obama just doesn't want to do anything hard (he's lazy) and his ego keeps him from working with people. So his natural instinct is to just do whatever needs to be done to get the issue off his plate.
In terms of bailing out the car unions... that was started by Bush, the money came from a Democratic Congress with instructions, and all Obama did was basically hand over the cash after getting everyone except the small bond holders to agree to the solution.
"So his natural instinct is to just do whatever needs to be done to get the issue off his plate."
See, Iraq.
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