Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (24462)	8/12/2012 6:06:04 PM
From: greatplains_guy	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Unions' investment in Senate Democrats pays off in TSA vote February 16, 2011 Senate Democrats turned back an attempt by Senate Republicans to bar federal employees at the Transportation Security Administration from becoming unionized as members of either the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) or the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). The 51-47 vote Tuesday came as no surprise because unions are the biggest contributors to Democrats and public sector unions like AFGE and NTEU are the big bosses in labor land. Neither should anybody be surprised by the cold, hard data on union campaign contributions in 2010 to senators. The 59 Democrats in the Senate during the 2010 campaign cycle received a total of more than $4.1 million in union contributions, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics on its OpenSecrets.org web site. The average union total for the Democrats during 2010 came to more than $70,000. On the Republican side, only 30 of the 41 GOPers in the upper chamber received any union donations, as the total came to just over $173,000, for an average of $5,768. The Senate's three independents received far more from unions on average than Republicans, at $34,683. The situation is even more illustrative when the focus is specifically on contributions by AFGE and NTEU, the two bureaucrat unions vying to represent TSA employees. According to MAPLight.org, between 2004 and 2010, senators voting against the amendment barring TSA unionization "received on average $17,404 from contributions connected to federal employee unions, while senators in favor of adoption only received $2,633 on average." MAPLight has a superb chart illustrating these numbers here (http://maplight.org/us-congress/bill/112-s-223/890276/contributions-by-vote). If 100 percent of all donations made to senators in 2010 were available, the gap between Democrats and Republicans in these numbers would likely be even greater. The OpenSecrets.org database doesn't count contributions under $200. These data also [udon't account for in-kind spending by unions for and against targeted candidates.[/u/[ ... washingtonexaminer.com Sorry to stray from the subject of whether we need a socialist utopia for medical care. The lack of understanding by the responenet required it.