Mallory Factor - Shadowbosses: Government unions control America and rob taxpayers blind

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To our beloved parents: my mother, Sylvia,
and Elizabeths parents, Karen and Jim

They sat around the table together in a carefully guarded ceremonial meeting room in the capital city. The government was represented by the political leader of the country, a tall and stately figurehead for the nation. Across the table sat those who had put him in power: his Shadowbosses.

The leader and the Shadowbosses had come to a standoff. Their stated positions on an important public matter were at odds with one another. And so, the meeting was called to harmonize their positions.

By the time the meeting was over, the parties were close to a deal; the details would be worked out in the coming days. But the deal would send the country in a new, more radical direction. And the people would never understand that they had been sold out by their leader and his Shadowbosses. Until now.

T HIS meeting did not take place in Soviet-era Moscow with the Communist Party dictating terms to an Eastern European political leader. Nor did it take place today in a former Soviet republic with the oligarchs telling the government leader what to do.

This meeting actually took place on January 11, 2010. At the White House.

At that table sat President Barack Obama and the most important labor union bosses in America. Many of the powerful labor officials that we will meet in this book were at the meeting:

Dennis Van Roekel, boss of Americas largest labor union, the National Education Association (NEA);

Richard Trumka, former mine worker and fabled strongman of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO);

Andy Stern, the elegant, Ivy Leagueeducated head of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), now retired;

Gerald McEntee, the thirty-year head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME);

James P. Hoffa Jr., head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and son of the thug/legend Jimmy Hoffa; and

Randi Weingarten, firebrand president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

What could be so important to bring together all these powerful labor bosses at the White House? The President needed their help to pass Obamacare, and the labor unions were threatening to tank his legislation. Why? Because Obama had proposed to tax union members extremely expensive health-care plans, the so-called Cadillac plans, to pay some of the cost of Obamacare.

Before the meeting, Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO spoke at the National Press Club, where he condemned Obamas proposal to tax the Cadillac plans.

After the White House meeting, the union bosses tone changed. Trumka emerged from the meeting sounding satisfied. It was a frank and productive meeting between friends about moving forward with health-care reform, Trumka announced to the press. Meeting between friends wasnt precise enoughit was really a meeting between our countrys elected leader and the union officials who got him into office and who hold him accountablehis Shadowbosses.

The White House meeting was closed to the press and even to White House staff. Obama, as a candidate, had promised that all health-care negotiations would be broadcast on C-SPAN in an open forum. Obama, as President, broke his promise of transparency to satisfy the unions demands out of the public eye and to get Obamacare enacted.

Two days after the meeting with Obama, the union bosses met with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to hammer out details of the deal. When the meeting ended, the Obama Administration announced that it would give labor unions a seven-year moratorium on taxing Cadillac plans. It was a victory for the unions, but not for the taxpayers who are stuck paying an additional $120 billion for this concession to the unionson top of the other costs of Obamacare.more in the dealObama opened up enormous new opportunities for the unions which you will learn about later in this book.