New book ‘Shadowbosses’ shows how unions fleeced taxpayers on ObamaCare

The new book Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind analyzes President Barack Obama’s healthcare tax bill from the standpoint of what unions gained and what it cost the U.S. taxpayer. The book provides insight on this tactic and others that enable Big Labor to exert sizable influence on our government.

ObamaCare turned out to be a bigger gift to unions than most of us knew.

Written by Professor Mallory Factor who is currently the John C. West Professor of International Politics and American Government at The Citadel, the book currently ranks in 11^th place on Amazon.com.

The Daily Caller did a feature on the professor and the book, and the takeaway is that unions lobbied for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act commonly called ObamaCare because they stood to gain millions of new members. That meant billions of dollars in increased revenues from dues.

Factor traces the relationships and process that led unions to spend “hundreds of millions of dollars promoting ObamaCare.”

There was a bone of contention Democrats and the unions resolved—that tax on the Cadillac Plans that would have impacted the unions. Obama, known for legislating from the Oval Office anytime he feels like it, gave the unions a waiver on those taxes until 2018.

However, ObamaCare counted on that $120 billion in projected tax revenue. So TDC said the "shortfall” was offset by additional cuts to Medicare Advantage. Seniors may not realize that until all the provisions of ObamaCare kick in, by the way.

Total cuts to Medicare exceed $700 billion in the ObamaCare tax bill.

Labor unions were the largest recipients of general ObamaCare waivers—more than 1,000 were handed out to groups and businesses. At least 88.6 percent of the employees who benefited belong to unions said TDC.

I’ve ordered Factor’s book and will do a writeup once I finish reading it.

The Citadel, an elite military college in Charleston, South Carolina, is known for the quality of faculty.

The Citadel said in January, Factor began a new class that would include distinguished speakers from across the political spectrum:

‘The Conservative Intellectual Tradition in America’ will bring in nationally prominent lecturers every week, including former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, and former Reagan economic advisor Arthur Laffer.

Factor is also a columnist for Forbes and senior editor of money and politics for TheStreet.com.

Some pundits wondered why the unions lobbied so aggressively for ObamaCare, since most union workers have more generous plans than average Americans.

Now we know—it wasn’t about existing union members. It was about grabbing all those new workers who would have to cough up  dues in 27 forced unionism states—a captive audience, courtesy of Obama.

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/Aug. 21, 2012)

Read archived articles about ObamaCare at The US Report.