Outrageous. Democrats are constantly accusing Republicans of wanting to “slash Medicaid.” Meanwhile, they institute policies that allow public-sector unions to do this:
If you’re a parent who accepts Medicaid payments from the State of Michigan to help support your mentally-disabled adult children, you qualify as a state employee for the purposes of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). They can now claim and receive a portion of your Medicaid in the form of union dues.
Robert and Patricia Haynes live in Michigan with their two adult children, who have cerebral palsy. The state government provides the family with insurance through Medicaid, but also treats them as caregivers. For the SEIU, this makes them public employees and thus members of the union, which receives $30 out of the family’s monthly Medicaid subsidy. The Michigan Quality Community Care Council (MQC3) deducts union dues on behalf of SEIU…
Mr. and Mrs. Haynes, of course, are both the parents (the employer) and the health care providers for their children, but they still lose money to the SEIU every month, despite having no interest in joining the union. They have been arbitrarily classified as state employees so that the union can take money from them.
The arrangement began in 2006 under then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D., Mich.), and reportedly provides the SEIU with an annual haul of $6 million for their union coffers, which are then used to elect Democrats who are more than willing to return the favor. In 2010, Granholm infamously decided to classify in-home daycare providers as “public employees,” thereby compelling them to pay union dues. That program was ended by current Gov. Rick Snyder (R), but legislation to end the SEIU’s ability to collects dues from Medicaid recipients is remains stalled in the state Senate.
More here.
(h/t Mark Hemingway)
Just when you think you've seen it all.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSounds like a pretty corrupt way to sneak health care money into union coffers. Just think, money intended to assist the poor with health care might get spent on union junkets or union advertisements.
Maybe this is why the Democrats are so committed to nationalizing health care.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is simply outrageous. I would ask how low union leadership can go, but I know the answer is an unfathomable abyss.
Allowing government workers to unionize should never have happened. Thanks, JFK!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat's breathtaking.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRepublicans should focus on one thing if they want to wrangle in the power of unions, go after how their funded.
If you create laws that make Union membership and Union dues optional in all 50 states and make these organizations allow members to vote on how union dues are spent (read political campaigns) you will have solved most of your problems. These sort of reforms also have lopsided public support at large, and even among many rank and file union workers. A Republican Congress and President could easily get federal reforms like these passed.
That's a much better start than just coming right out and trying to ban collective bargaining, which will only lead to the results you had in Ohio.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm sure the resident liberal NRO commenters will be along soon to explain how the unions have to do this to fight the evil corporations ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNope, rather than defend the system they support, they'll pretend the post doesn't exist.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse>>Just when you think you've seen it all.
***
My sentiments exactly. Just before I saw this, my BP was already through the roof after being reminded by PowerLine of the difference in the way that the media reacted to the alleged sexual history of Herman Cain compared to the very well-known history of 2008 Democrat candidate Chris Dodd.
Now this. The fix is in...totally. The MSM is deeply corrupt; prestigious colleges are so obsessed with sports and money that they will overlook child rape; public sector unions are rapacious conspiracies between themselves and corrupt or weak-minded and weak-hearted politicians to plunder the public treasury while stacking political odds hopelessly in favor of the huge and growing freeloader class. Meanwhile, our over-funded and low-achieving public schools are run by a class of people who think in terms of "stakeholders," meaning all the people stuffing their pockets with public education money, rather than being primarily concerned with ~the children~, who are being educated by marginally competent and marginally interested, Democrat-partisan, tenured, union members. There are a few intelligent, honest politicians, but far, far too few to stand against all the corruption and self-dealing in this country: The media, the union thugs, the lawyers, education administrators and educators at all levels, corporations with their cozy boards and golden parachutes, on and on it goes. The thing has got away from us...our culture (and our country) are more about getting a piece of the scam rather than about actual useful, honest work and productivity.
There is no reasoning with so many wild hogs. The correction is going to have to by the ways that mankind has always settled its most profound differences.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis was just one of the many joys of having Jenny as Gov. for eight years. Ask about her husband's role in building the new, over-priced, State Police Headquarters in Lansing.
Immediately after leaving office she fled to Berkley on the left coast to begin her new career. Good riddance.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is what we need from NRO/The Corner. Lots of stuff like this..WITH ORIGINAL SOURCES...that we can then re-broadcast through social media.
The mainstream media will never latch on to stories like this. We need to build a groundswell through social media.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis story has actually been covered on Fox Business as well, to include an interview with the Haynes'.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere was a similar move in California to make state-supported "care givers" members, or at least dues-payers, of the SEIU.
I forget how it turned out but it sounds like a similar scam, perhaps inspired by Michigan.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'd like to volunteer for a new psychology experiment to see how much violent abuse people would be willing to inflict on people with whom they disagree.
In one room, would be a crowd of union thugs, corrupt Democrat pols, OWS demonstrators, MSM hypocrites, Hollywood elites, etc., etc. They would all have electrodes (nasty alligator clips) roughly attached to the most delicate areas of their bodies.
Watching them through a one-way glass would be the actual test subjects, each of whom would have a heavy control lever by which he could send a surge of alternating current into the leftie mob. A grad student with a clipboard would note how violently the lefties' bodies had to thrash around and what level of electricity was required before each test subject felt that he had done his duty.
I would raise my hand and ask one of the grad students why the markings on my control lever only went to 220 volts.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat experiment was run for decades in the South.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh, an anti-South bigot. That's cool...I am a free speech absolutist.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse'Cuz the antidote for stupid is . . . more stupid.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMike, please give up on the stupid schtick.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAh, finally the reason for Mike's post. He hopes to up the stupid quotient.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseQuick everybody, MikeB needs as much stupid as we can provide.
What's that you say? There isn't enough stupid in the world to counteract MikeB's case of stupid?
Did you check with Joe Biden? How about the CBC? Come on, there's one guy there who thinks Guam... Oh, you included all of his stupid.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIs FICA deducted as well?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse