The Unionization of the U.S. Government
by Jayme Evans (2/16/09)
While the entire country remains divided over Barack Obama’s economic stinkulus, Obama himself has been quite busy elsewhere; consolidating power, rewarding labor loyalists and tinkering with the constitution in ways which should cause grave concern among Americans.
Three things that have recently raised my alarm level are Obama’s desire to push information technology in health care, his relationship with organized labor and his attempts to unconstitutionally tamper with the census.
Much of my adult life has been spent analyzing, troubleshooting, testing and programming information systems that interfaced with law enforcement, federal or state government systems. Federally-mandated information systems never retain their original purpose, but perpetually and rapidly expand; collecting, storing, processing and reporting more and more information as those using them become more creative and aware of their potential.
Hospitals and pharmacies nationwide already digitally process prescriptions and screen people for possible drug interactions. Contrary to Obama’s assertion that doctors still use paper charts, major providers of health care moved to electronic records long ago. The Veteran’s Administration has had them in all hospitals since Bill Clinton’s term, including prescriptions, benefits, contracts, insurance, medical and financial records. My doctor sits at a computer terminal during office visits. The providers not utilizing this technology either lack the money or patient volume to justify doing so.
What Mr. Obama envisions, is complete control over what functionality goes into new technology by requiring that all technology initiatives be coordinated through his newly-created Cabinet-level Office of the National Coordinator for Health Care Technology. Why else would a Cabinet-level office be created to address a problem that the private sector has already addressed?
Obama has also recently used his newly acquired authority, < a href=”http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88746” target=”_blank”>still being vociferously challenged all over the country to reward the loyalty of organized labor by completely “unionizing” the federal procurement and construction contracting processes using a series of Executive Orders.
Unpublished on Obama’s presidential website despite his promises of full disclosure, Executive Order 13495, essentially unionizes non-union government workers throughout the entire federal procurement process by giving them union rights if they lose their jobs. End Result: Even if the government could save large sums of money by hiring a more competitive, cheaper workforce, more expensive, displaced workers now retain employment rights, wages and seniority without ever having to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement.
Executive Order 13496 mandates that all non-union contractors provide their employees on-the-job posted notification of their rights to collectively bargain. The penalty for non-compliance is termination of the contract and termination of future employer eligibility for further federal contracts.
Executive Order 13502 mandates the use of “Project Labor Agreements”, a stealth attempt to impose collective bargaining agreements on all federal construction projects not already covered by them. No one even noticed this stealth maneuver, but as you can see, the combined effect of these three Executive Orders is that, with the stroke of a pen, Obama has now unionized the entire federal procurement process, which does $350 billion in business annually, and all federal construction projects, worth hundreds of billions more, without a peep of discussion.
The decennial U.S. census is perhaps the most important function our government carries out, other than keeping us secure. It is a constitutionally-mandated head count, the results of which are used to redraw congressional districts, apportion new congressional seats and hand out federal dollars. As such, it is an apolitical process that should not be tampered with. Despite his assurances to the contrary, all indications are, that like his Democrat predecessor Bill Clinton, Obama is trying to do just that.
The census already employs an army of thousands of dedicated professionals. They also recruit thousands of volunteers. Senator Judd Gregg (D-MA) withdrew from consideration as Obama’s Commerce Secretary last week, in part because of Obama’s refusal to allow him control over the census, a function historically controlled by Commerce.
Notwithstanding Barack Obama’s condemnation of George W. Bush for his supposed secrecy and attempts to expand the scope of his authority beyond Constitutionally-recognized limitations, the available paper trail of evidence being left behind by the Obama administration in their opening weeks is damning evidence of Obama’s intentions to grab even more power than his predecessor.
There is ample proof that Obama intends to try and unionize the entire federal government. There is also ample proof he is attempting to micromanage the census tally to try and skew the results in favor of Democrats.
The opening weeks of this administration have been dominated by the biggest unilateral expansion of federal power in our history and furious back-door attempts to grab more by a president who is less than honest about his plans for this country.
Jayme Evans
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