If you were wondering why the Senate’s vote on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) went the way of Big Labor the other day, all you need to do is follow the money. It’s a trail that leads to Charlotte, North Carolina, where the next Democratic National Convention will be held, and the piles of Big Labor cash are spent to make the show go on.
Senator Mike Enzi’s (R-WY) S.J. Res. 36 would have stopped the National Labor Relations Board’s “ambush election” rule in its tracks – if 54 Senators didn’t vote against it. But, beyond the muscled grip that Big Labor bosses and their lobbyists have on Congress, it comes as no surprise once you see how much loot the Democratic National Convention Committee and the Obama White House is asking for – all of it from union bosses.
Reports Tim Funk in the Charlotte Observer:
In its hard climb to raise $36.6 million for the Democratic National Convention, Charlotte’s host committee is reaching out to one of the party’s perennial allies: labor unions.
Organizers of the 2012 convention in Charlotte can’t accept a penny in cash from businesses, but can take $1 million or more from a labor union.
Of course this is really nothing new for the DNC. In 2008, the Laborers Union gave $1.5 million to the Denver Host Committee. The National Education Association gave $1.18 million, while the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the American Federation of Teachers each gave a little over $1 million. It could be the same or more in 2012, a reminder of the shameful spending by union bosses out of the pockets of American workers struggling through a brutal economic rough patch.
Thus, the outcome of the CRA is a bit dubious. It appears to compliment a string of efforts by President Obama and Washington lawmakers who are bending over backwards to appease union bosses (some of whom are displeased with the pick of a “right-to-work” state for the convention).
To now ask for cash to pay for a $40 million convention means Big Labor will want payback. Like the CRA vote, expect more favors like this on Capitol Hill as we head into the summer.