Last week we noted that the Obama administration’s stimulus package had made the federal government, for the first time in our nation’s history, the main source of income for state and local governments. We warned at the time:
[A]s states become more dependent on federal funding, they begin to lose their ability to set priorities and make policy decisions that are best-suited to their specific needs.
This Friday the Obama administration made that fear a reality when they threatened to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money from California unless the state reversed their decision to lower home health care worker salaries from $12.10 to $10.10.
But California, which already has the most unionized public employee workforce, picked on the wrong union. The SEIU owns the Obama administration, and they were a driving force behind the White House Golden State threat. The SEIU has been completely unapologetic about their complete control of the Obama administration. The Los Angeles Times reports:
SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette called suggestions that the union’s involvement was inappropriate “absurd.”
“We lobbied the Obama administration to get the stimulus money to California as quickly as possible, and we pointed out when the state considered action in violation” of the terms for receiving those funds, she said. “We make no apology . . . for expecting the Schwarzenegger administration to obey the law.”
The end of federalism is here. Thanks to the Obama administration and their economic stimulus package, the SEIU, not you, now runs your state.
