Why Stop at Union Dues?

It’s nice to see that the media has finally stopped referring to the attacks on collective bargaining as a debate about deficit reduction and started identifying it as the political power grab that it is. Given that the RNC’s intentions have been exposed they have shifted to a different argument.

Below is an excerpt from NPR describing the new tactic.

So we come to where the rubber meets the road: the money unions spend on politicking. This money originates with taxpayers, who pay public employees' salaries, a portion of which is deducted in the form of union dues and then used by the unions to support, almost exclusively, the Democratic party. The public, in effect, subsidizes a powerful demand for bigger government and higher taxes.

So according to Republicans the wages earned by a public employee are not theirs to do with as they please. Apparently the taxpaying public still has a say in how a public employee chooses to spend the money they earned as a public employee. If this is the case why would you stop at union dues? Public employees should be required to only purchase American made cars, after all why should my taxpaying dollars go to a company that isn’t 100% American. Maybe we should limit the ability of public employees to vacation outside of the United States. Why should my taxpaying dollars end up in any country other than the United States? Perhaps we should also limit the public employee’s food consumption to only healthy food since a public employee who is in poor health will incur higher medical costs and live a shorter life. Ultimately by living an unhealthy lifestyle the public employee costs me more money as a taxpayer.

Luckily unions are a form of a corporation so the Citizens United Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited undisclosed contributions by companies, unions and non profits means that the union may or may not be using the dues they collect for political gain. Either way the American public has no right to know what unions are doing with their dues and subsequently no right to attack union dues based on political contributions.