AFL-CIO Passes Resolution Bashing Obamacare --Welcome to the Hell You Created

AFL-CIO Pres. Richard Trumka is Feeling the Pain of Obamacare

Note to the AFL-CIO: Welcome to the "hell" you created. We have been here for a very long time.

The AFL-CIO approved a strongly worded resolution yesterday expressing their concern that Obamacare will drive up the costs of union-sponsored health plans to the point that workers and employers are forced to abandon them and that that the law is being implemented in a way that is "highly disruptive" to union health care plans.

Guess what guys, it's that way for the 85%+ of Americans who aren't in a union.

A labor official told The Associated Press that White House officials had been calling labor leaders for days to urge them not to voice their concerns in the form of a resolution. The official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the conversations publicly and requested anonymity, said many union leaders insisted that they wanted to highlight their concerns.

Asked about any efforts to discourage unions from passing the resolution, the White House said in a statement Wednesday night that officials "are in regular contact with a variety of stakeholders, including unions, as part of our efforts to ensure smooth implementation and to improve the law."

The AFL-CIO, one of the president's major boosters and Obama has been "taking care" of the unions at the expense of the rest of the country.

Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Firefighters, said the intent of the resolution is to "point out the criticisms without being overly caustic."

"There have to be some changes made in the area that are giving a number of our unions great concern," said Schaitberger, who chaired the committee that hammered out the resolution's language.

The resolution was approved at the AFL-CIO's quadrennial convention in Los Angeles. It claims the new law will increase costs for health plans that are jointly administered by unions and smaller employers in the construction, retail and transportation industries. That could encourage employers to hire fewer union workers or abandon the health plans altogether and force union members to seek lower quality coverage on the new health exchanges.

Union officials are seeking rule changes that would make their low-income workers eligible for the same types of federal subsidies they could get in the exchanges. They have also suggested rules that would treat their multi-employer plans as qualified exchange plans under the new law.

But the Congressional Research Service issued a memo earlier this year finding that neither change is allowed through rulemaking. The AFL-CIO resolution calls for the law to be amended by Congress if new rules cannot satisfy their concerns.

That will never happen. Progressives realize that if Obamacare is reopened for Amendments it will be thankfully killed.

The AFL-CIO resolution was toned down from a draft originally offered by Sean McGarvey, head of the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department. The early draft said the AFL-CIO could no longer support the health care law and called for its repeal unless changes were made to protect union multi-employer plans.

Republican critics of the health care law have seized on the union complaints to fuel their push to repeal the law. At the same time, GOP leaders have warned the White House against carving out any special deal for unions.

"We will do whatever is within our power to ensure that the administration does not once again provide a special exemption to unions at the expense of American taxpayers," Michigan Rep. Dave Camp and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch wrote in a letter this week to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. Camp is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and Hatch is top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

Unions helped to create this monster. This is the part of the Frankenstein movies where the creature attacks the scientist who gave it life. Labor Unions were a big part of getting the Democrats the super-majority they needed to pass Obamacare, and they were huge supporters of the President's signature legislation.If the rest of us have to suffer with the higher costs of this disaster, the 12-15% of the country with a union card should also!

If they want to end their higher costs...we'll then they should push for the bill's repeal--they would have my support.

“Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. 'Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.' -The Creature from Frankenstein By Mary Shelly