Kristen Soltis calls The One out for his attempted dodge on the NLRB vs Boeing case:
Boeing, which simply made a business decision to open new operations in a state with right-to-work laws, contends that NLRB’s suit will cause thousands of layoffs and the closing of a $750 million plant.
It’s a bit challenging for Obama to claim he’s focused on job creation, when a board made up mostly of his appointees is penalizing a company that is trying to create jobs.
On Wednesday, Obama was asked if the dispute between NLRB and Boeing is “an example of the kinds of regulations that chill job growth.” He responded with a lukewarm nonanswer. “Companies need to have the freedom to relocate,” Obama asserted, also saying it would defy “common sense” to cut jobs “because labor and management can’t come to a sensible agreement.” One could be forgiven for having no idea what side Obama is on. The reason is simple: Organized labor isn’t just an essential source of campaign cash for Obama, it’s a significant voting block. In the 2008 election, over one-in-five voters came from union households, and they broke for Obama by a 20-point margin.
Meanwhile, in the category of “You’re not helping!”, former SEIU head Andy Stern gives away what’s really going on in the Obama/labor mind. Says Larry Elder:
The top priority of the left isn’t “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Andy Stern, the former head of the Service Employees International Union and hero to the left, makes this clear: “Western Europe, as much as we used to make fun of it, has made different trade-offs which may have ended with a little more unemployment but a lot more equality.”
More “equality,” even if that means fewer actual jobs. Remember, Obama adopted the SEIU’s agenda and promised to carry that agenda with him to the White House. Whatever platitudes he mouthed on Wednesday to the contrary, he is using the NLRB to pursue that agenda. I keep linking to that clip because it’s important: For all the various Obama statements whose expiration dates have come and gone, he has been remarkably consistent about keeping promises made to certain groups: the far left and Big Labor. And he keeps those promises even though he seems to understand that he is paying a political price for doing so. The best way to make sense of that is to assume that he is pursuing a larger agenda that he believes is worth the short term political pain, and the NLRB’s attacks on Boeing and on Arizona and South Dakota fit a strategy of damaging state right to work laws and accelerating unions’ ability to force workers to join. Both obviously strengthen Big Labor, which in turn keep the unions wedded to Obama’s Democratic Party, and keeps their money (which when it comes from government worker unions, was once your money) flowing to the Democrats. And the larger goal of that union is the “fundamental transformation” Obama promised/threatened (but never defined) as a candidate in 2008. Stern’s quote offers a glimpse of what that “transformation” entails. So Obama accepts some temporary Labor pains to give birth to a new, more “fair” (and far less free) America.
Kristen Soltis, by the way, can be seen each week on PJTV with Amy Holmes and Katie Pavlich.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member