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$50 Billion More for Big Labor

The "hottest" idea around Washington these days is the suggestion government create a $50 billion fund to build infrastructure across the nation.   Despite the fact that the failed stimulus package included over $200 billion for "shovel-ready" projects, the president is desperate to bump employment numbers up and is calling for immediate passage of an addition $50 billion in spending. It's no surprise the President touted this idea at the AFL-CIO rally on Labor Day.  This new spending would be another handout and bailout to the labor union bosses and Michelle Malkin understands why President Obama calls his latest attempt to revive the economy a “Plan to Renew and Expand America’s Roads, Railways and Runways.” I’m calling it “The Mother of all Big Dig Boondoggles.” Like the infamous “Big Dig” highway spending project in Boston, this latest White House infrastructure spending binge guarantees only two results: Taxpayers lose; unions win. The blunt instrument used to give unions a leg up is the “project labor agreement (PLA),” which in theory sets reasonable pre-work terms and conditions — but in practice, requires contractors to hand over exclusive bargaining control; to pay inflated, above-market wages and benefits; and to fork over dues money and pension funding to corrupt, cash-starved labor organizations. These anti-competitive agreements undermine a fair bidding process on projects that locked-out, nonunion laborers are funding with their own tax dollars. And these PLAs benefit the privileged few at the expense of the vast majority: In the construction industry, 85 percent of the workforce is nonunion by choice.