Bill Targets Massive Subsidies For Big Labor
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the “No Union Time on the Taxpayer’s Dime Act,” (S.4868), a bill to put an end to this corrupt practice in federal agencies.
So-Called 'Official Time' Is a Racket
Investor’s Business Daily editorializes about how the federal government is ripping off taxpayers to pay $100,000+ salaries to union officials who do no work whatsoever for the government. This scam, which is especially maddening at a time when the U.S. government is drowning in red ink, is often euphemistically referred to as “official time”:
Taxpayers are forking out $4.8 million for 35 union officials at the Department of Transportation. But the beneficiary here isn’t the taxpayer, it’s President Obama, who is raking campaign cash from these unions.
According to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by Americans for Limited Government, 35 officials, representing mostly air traffic controllers’ unions, are members of the $100,000 club among federal employees.
Unlike the average American, or even average DOT employee, these union officials draw an average $138,000 in salary and benefits from the federal government, not to give something of value to the taxpayers, but to work exclusively for their unions — the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (Natca), the AFL-CIO-affiliated Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (Pass) and two others.
