Will More Tax Dollars Go to Unions?

Michele Bachmann | August 17, 2010 4:12 PM

On the heels of last week’s $26 billion spending bill, of which much is going to public sector unions, a new union bailout bill may be gaining traction for discussion this fall.

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, we discovered why some lawmakers would put taxpayers on the hook for union retirement pensions:

“We wrote in June about this class of some 1,500 union-run retirement vehicles, in which companies across an entire industry pay into a single pension pool. Hundreds of these multi-employer pools are badly underfunded, thanks to years of labor funneling money into new pay and benefits, rather than into the funds for retirees.

“The big problem with these plans is that when one company in the pool goes out of business, the other companies remain on the hook for the cost of the plan. These spiraling liabilities inspired Pennsylvania Senator and Big Labor favorite Bob Casey to introduce legislation to cordon off "orphaned" pensions—those for which an employer has stopped contributing or withdrawn from the plan—and drop them on the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

“The PBGC is already significantly underfunded and taxpayers are its ultimate backstop. Yet the Casey bailout could dump as much as $165 billion in new liabilities on the PBGC, while multi-employer plans would get a clean bill of health.”

Recently the Democratic Majority Whip, Senator Dick Durbin, signed onto the plan bringing it a new round of attention and raising my concerns that the bill could move forward to a full vote in the Senate and potentially, the House of Representatives.

Enough is enough. Democrats have proven time and time again they are not shy when spending your taxpayer dollars, especially when it comes to their union buddies. It is time for Washington to stop the futile bailouts and end the reckless spending spree for good.