TARP Enables Big Labor Crony Capitalism Again

Posted November 5th, 2009 at 10.44am in Enterprise and Free Markets.

Nolan Finley at The Detroit News reports:

Workers in Barack Obama’s new economic order fall into two categories — those who are worthy of the president’s energies, and those who aren’t. You may be surprised to learn where you rank.

Obama doesn’t weigh the value of workers based on their paychecks, what they do or whether they slip their feet into wingtips or steel-toed boots in the morning. His sole interest is in whether they have a union card in their wallet.

If they do, the president is in their corner, working hard to make sure they don’t get the short end of any stick. But if they are among the 88 percent of American workers who don’t belong to a union? Ask Delphi’s salaried employees what Obama thinks of them.

As part of Delphi’s restructuring in bankruptcy court, the Troy-based auto parts maker dumped its pension plan onto the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp.

That usually means a continued pension check, but one that is much smaller. And for Delphi’s salaried workers, that’s what they can expect.

Delphi’s union-represented workers, however, will dodge that bullet. The Obama administration swooped in and, in an extraordinary deal, is forcing General Motors to make the 46,000 union workers and retirees whole. GM used to own Delphi, and relies on the supplier for much of its parts.

“The U.S. government is taking care of a select group of people and tossing the rest of us under the bus,” Peter Beiter, a retired financial manager for a Delphi plant in Rochester, N.Y., told the New York Times.

And it’s doing so with the tax dollars of those like Beiter who aren’t in the favored class of workers. GM is operating with more than $50 billion in government bailout money.

The Obama administration already undermined the rule of law by ignoring bankruptcy law to give Chrysler to the United Auto Workers union. Now they are again rewarding union workers at the expense of average Americans.

Sacrificing the rule of law and economic freedom to big labor power will only kill, not create jobs.

It is far past time to end TARP.

Author: Conn Carroll
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7 Comments

November 5, 2009 Freedom of Speech TX writes:

Yes. And what does this say for being a President for ALL the people?

We have a radical liberal minority of far left politicians running the country. Since the the unions back this nonsense of course a minority number of the total population of workers are going to be protected.

If this is not a marxist/socialist theme of “workers unite” then what is?

This is why the majority of Americans, no matter their political preference, better join in stopping this ideology.

In the long run, well-meaning democrats have nothing to gain and will also be crushed.

November 5, 2009 Leon, Durango, CO writes:

Now look, this crony capitalism is illegal. Do you remember when it was illegal for any individual to receive private payments from the government? I could have sworn it was still on the books. But the plain view quid pro quo, it is everywhere now as if it weren’t illegal.

Corruption: Noun, private payments of public funds for political favors, payments and FREE MONEY for Liberal (anti-American) causes.

I was a Union Electrician. They stole my money to put these jacka**** in Congress. I wasn’t represented. So big Labor has lots of internal Conservative victims. Special favors for political constituents is illegal, it has to be for the good of All Americans.

November 5, 2009 Bobbie Jay writes:

Never belonged to a union. Always seemed an area of corruption. Today, unfair to the business owner who has lost his right to run the business according to the owner’s standards. Now forced to make exceptions discriminatingly, costing needless dollars.

Unions in government sends a message of COVER=UP AND CORRUPTION. Unethical and a conflict of interest to the taxpayers. ALL OVER. THE COST OF EDUCATION IS INEFFICIENT AND PROTECTS THE LEAVE OF VIOLATORS WITH TAX DOLLAR PAY! IT’S ALL OVER AND UNIONS SHOULD BE NON-EXISTENT IN GOVERNMENT, ON THE BASIS OF CHECKS AND BALANCES OF THE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE. WHERE ONCE I UNDERSTOOD UNIONS TO PROTECT THE EMPLOYEE FROM ANY CORRUPTION FROM THE EMPLOYER OR BUSINESS, TODAY, UNIONS ARE NOTHING BUT A COST OF CORRUPTION. IN AND OUT OF GOVERNMENT. THERE SHOULD BE NO NEED FOR UNIONS AT ALL. SUBSTANDARD!

November 5, 2009 Bobbie Jay writes:

… UNION BACKING IS GROSSLY UNPRODUCTIVE!

November 5, 2009 Roger S., Ma. writes:

Unethical, immoral, illegal, and all you want is to end TARP? As if that were the only “tarp” ever laid on J.Q.Public. Let’s start looking: bet we can find truckloads of tarps out there, of which some have been around in one or another variant since before the last Depression. They all need to go! And we need to come — to the polls, to replace the tarp-makers and pork-butchers with representatives who will abide their Constitutional limitations.

Concerning unions, they need to have any special legal protections revoked and be treated like any other corporate entity, including being taxed. That’s to remind them that they cannot be exempt from the market forces pushing the other participants. Otherwise, we need not expect them ever to become responsible.

Actually, it’s not the government’s business to “bail out” anybody, because if “equal protection” is one of its mandates, then it can do so only by taking from those whom it does not bail out, thus violating that very premise. Automatically, we become a “government of men” instead of a “government of laws.”
Americans will need to chose: Collectivism and individual serfdom or Capitalism and individual liberty. History presents ample proof that there can not be a “middle of the road”, any compromise, between the two. It’s one or the other. Time’s running short! Nothing and nobody is ever “too big to fail.”
The Romans proved that, a Millennium and a Half ago!

November 7, 2009 Nicolai Alatzas writes:

This is a side note but I have lived all over the country. Where ever I lived an Unions are prevalent in the trade industries the middle class seem better off.

Down here in the south tradesmen without Union representation get paid nearly 1/3 of what their equal counterpart makes in Northern States with strong unions regardless of whether or not the people in that particular industry are in the Union or not.

This is of my own opinion however if anyone can site any resources to look at living wages in Union VS Non Union states I would love to take a look. Clearly their are other variables including large amounts of illegal immigrants in Non-Union states.

November 13, 2009 Lock In The Deficit Savings: End TARP Entirely | Conservative Principles Now writes:

[...] “some of the unspent funds available for emergencies.” TARP was not created to be a White House slush [...]

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