Union Bosses’ Billion Dollar Target — John McCain
$200 million dollars. That is the latest amount pledged, out of general treasury funds, by AFL-CIO bosses to spend on the 2008 presidential and congressional elections. The focus of much of their ire will be Sen. John McCain. Political director Karen Ackerman said the opening salvo will be to link McCain to President Bush, who endorsed the Arizona senator on Wednesday.
It’s important to keep in mind that the AFL-CIO and its affiliate unions alone will spend a quarter of a billion dollars on politics and that is a conservative estimate. Change to Win, the Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters, UNITE HERE, and the National Education Association union will spend hundreds of millions more. Based on 2004 and 2006 activity, it is likely that big labor will spend up to a billion dollars in 2008 trying to elect a president and a congress that will enact their agenda for more forced- unionism privilege. It has become evident that union officials have nothing to offer workers that they would buy voluntarily so the answer is to spend truckloads of forced-dues dollars on politicians who will bestow the privileges gladly.
One thing is clear: Most of that money would remain in workers’ pockets if they had a choice in the matter.