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Today's Nuze

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

Nobody's listening.

BUT NO TAX INCREASES FOR UNION WORKERS

By
Neal Boortz
@ June 29, 2009 8:40 AM
Permalink | Comments (24) | TrackBacks (0)

I mentioned this one on the air last week, but it is so outrageous that it is worth repeating. When it comes to healthcare reform, the Senate is considering the idea of allowing union-negotiated benefit packages go un-taxed. Yep, as I just talked about in the Nuze item above, there is still an option on the table that would tax employee healthcare benefits. However, if that plan makes it into the bill, union-negotiated contracts would be exempt from paying these taxes.

You can thank Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus for this one. He's the one that believes that any major changes to the US healthcare system should exempt perks secured by existing collective bargaining agreements. In other words ... they would be grandfathered in. Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute makes a good point. He says that this "smacks of political favoritism ... "I can't think of any other aspect of the individual income tax that treats benefits of different people differently because of who they work for."

So this would be a way to still tax benefits, but magically exclude 12.4% of American workers who happen to be union members. In the end, who is going to have more of a say come election time?



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What others are saying

  • nevermind Atlas, how about Animal Farm?
    "All animals are equal!" "But Pigs are MORE equal."
    Animals would be workers, and Pigs would be Union Workers. It's not hard to understand; it's just hard to understand why Americans put up with it.
  • Re: tshirt doctor
    The thing is, I don't believe you should "get" a raise. I believe you should "earn" a raise. I work on commission... if I sell more, I earn more. My father was a self-employed contractor. If he won more bids and did more work, he earned more. Staying at a company for a long time shouldn't be the only reason you make more money. You should also provide more benefit to the company. Bottom line: if your skills are worth more to the company you will earn more, even if you have to go to another company that recognizes your skills. All that said, I agree with you about ILLEGAL immigration. Legal immigrants who come here and want to work, well that's fine by me.
  • @Copy
    If you're implying that union "workers" (which is an oxymoron in itself) are productive and non-union workers are leeches, then you demonstrate a complete lack of mental clarity. Unions are like a cancer: they invade and kill the host. Then move on to another victim.

    Why don't you rise above expectations and write something intelligent for once?
  • Depends on the employer I guess
    I don't know anyone that hasn't received either a raise or a pink slip every year except this one.

    And I typically get bonuses.

    When business picks back up, I fully expect my boss to reward our continued productivity, even during the hard times. And I don't have to pay union dues! Hear they are pretty steep these days.

    Unions suck.
  • "Him that pays the fiddler, calls the tune."
    This one's going to be a shindig.

    I' mildly surprised they didn't go ahead and put all union employees on Congress' health plan.
  • Constitutional challenge
    I am at an unusual loss here. I've reviewed the Constitution and Amendments again, and I know that this is there, but cannot find the clause. I am looking for the statement that all are held equal before the law, i.e. requires that all laws be facially neutral (even when not *factually* neutral).

    This - along with likely 90% of the tax code - is a direct violation of this clause. The same can be used to fight the wholly un-Constitutional "hate crimes" legislation as it sets two entirely separate punishments based on who the plaintiff and defendant are.

    The same would be true in the application of Marxist "progressive" tax policy. Anyone have any thoughts?
  • Copyleft
    Uh, union workers ARE leeches. They drain a company dry until it folds and then move on to another victim.
  • Doc
    ACORN is definitely tied in with anything dealing with unions, either directly or through one of their associate groups such as SEIU. They have already interferred with the health care employee unions in California.

    And Unions have lobbyists too, between those and the campaign contributions to Obama, this is payback!
  • Acorn & tax policy
    The current president of SEIU Dale Rathke is the former president and one of the founders of ACORN. A post which he held until his brother the CFO embezzeled $1,000,000 of ACORN's funds. Both left as part of an agreement not to prosecute. In addition the Acorn mailing address/drop box in New Orleans is the home of 250 front companies including the N.O SEIU local. In Jerry Nadlers NY district Acorn shares digs with the "Blue collar workers society" a union sponsored activist group.
    There was a time that unions were needed, but when they became the defacto managers of companies that need died and has taken the companies with them (ie. Government Motors).

    Exempting Unions from a "Healtcare tax" is Bull. All should be treated the same but unfortunately as we have been shown time & again we aren't!
  • All pigs are equal...etc.
    I worked in GA as a non-Union electrician...we were expected to do enough work to justify our paychecks.

    A friend of mine worked as a temp on a Union job, and got fired for being too productive. Apparently, one person is not allowed to lay more than 100 ft of pipe a day. He and another guy had 1000ft laid by lunch time. They were kicked off the job site. And the union wage was over twice that of non-union, but they couldn't get work except on government jobs. We always had a lot of union guys working for us, because they couldn't get work elsewhere. Only so many Federal jobs.

    Never try to tell me that unions are productive. Not buying it.

    I was working on my Master's license when I left GA. The union in Idaho has made it impossible for me to get a job here, without starting over as a apprentice, even though Idaho is supposedly a right to work state. The unions did their damage with the state legislation before they fell out of power.

    So now I drive big trucks.
  • Steve
    i agree with all that you unions do that ain't productive. all except for the bloated "living wage". non-union workers haven't got a wage increase in about 30 years. that's because of the illegal aliens keeping our wages down.
  • Union of Workers Against Tax Increases
    What if we just create a new union--the Union of Workers Against Tax Increases--and its sole purpose is to avoid the tax on health benefits? Anyone can join and, according to its charter, the union is not allowed to do anything. Could we loophole this legislation?
  • More unions are the answer...
    to the question "how can we screw up the American economy the fastest?" Can one of you union hacks out there explain to me how it's a good thing to pay people not to work (teachers or autoworkers for example) when they're no longer needed or incompetant or even criminals, just because it's impossible to fire them? Or how a business is supposed to survive when it not only pays a salary and benefits to a current worker but also to the three previous employees at that position who retired with 25 years service and are now working other jobs somewhere? Or how it makes sense to pay all workers the same bloated "living wage" regardless of skill or ambition? Or to make the good workers slow down so as not to embarrass the bad workers? All this BS happens in any typical union. But sure, if I was a businessman I'd risk all my life's savings and invest all my time and effort into building a company that would be forced to unionize via card check so I'd have to support lazy union thugs forever. That makes sense to me. Sure.
  • Copyleft...again
    Your a stooge. No one is saying this is new..save your ridiculous sarcasm, GAWD !!!! It's not even good sarcasm. Whether its been done before or not doesn't make it right..What IS good, is that it helps clearly illustrate what Obama is all about. Hopefully people will wake up sooner than later and stop this ridiculous political juggernaut at the polls...America needs a politcal Red Bull
  • Joyce M/Blythe
    you're going to have to explain to me what ACORN has to with this. and how they've GOT inroads to the CWA and the AFL-CIO, and other unions
  • health care/unions
    Let's see, card check is in big trouble, how do we get more union members??? I KNOW FREE HEALTH CARE!!!!
  • Doc
    That make no sense dude! It's ACORN pushing for this. If we didn't have a president indebted to them, they would have to pay the same as everyone else.
  • So much for the classless society
    Just one of many lies from TOTUS.

    These people need to be stopped.
  • Question
    Would this stand up to a constitutional challenge?
  • Another first!
    Gosh.... tax breaks being used as political favoritism? This is unheard-of, and utterly without precedent.

    After all, it's not like corporate interests have ever received tax breaks, special exemptions, loopholes, and even legislation that singles them out BY NAME for special tax-cut favors.

    No sir, the Obama administration is breaking new ground with this--they're actually doing favors for WORKERS instead of LEECHES. Heavens! The sky is indeed falling.
  • 12.4% vs 88.6%
    so your mad at the union members for not paying the taxes. i'm impressed. i've said in an earlier posting that i like the unions because they had numbers behind them. that's all i liked about unions. if you not from a union, its you all alone, invisible to those in power.
    if we had 88.6% of union membership maybe we wouldn't get taxed so much?
  • Tax breaks based on employer
    I believe that the US Congress has separate plans for taxation as well.
  • This is just...
    payback for helping getting him elected. That is all. Everyone should know this.
  • Political favoritism?
    Actually America has been under a state of political GANGSTERISM since around 2001 and it continues strongly today...its just a matter of whether people realize that or not.
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