Call this another major missed opportunity in the budget battle. Some Republicans have been waging a months-long effort to cut funds for the National Labor Relations Board, which under Obama has become nothing but the voice of Big Labor within the government. And at taxpayer expense. Several in the House wanted to roll back the NLRB by about one-fifth, to 2003 funding levels.
But the House Republicans who were best positioned to get the cuts, most notably Rep. John Kline (R-MN), chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, blew their opportunity.
But here’s the thing. The NLRB, by its own accounting, is actually overfunded. It ran a surplus in FY 2010. Its case load has trended down over the past several years, while its funding keeps going up. That’s typical of Washington bureaucracies, but it also makes the NLRB a very obvious place to cut. And yet…no cut.
It’s like some Republicans aren’t even trying to be convincing when it comes to cutting spending.
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