Footing labor's bill - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Footing labor's bill - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Washington, D.C., has too many people who wrongly think the supply of federal dollars -- taxpayer dollars -- is infinite. Unfortunately, so do Detroit and, yes, Pittsburgh.

Buried in Capitol Hill's thousands of pages of health care reform proposals are provisions that would give $10 billion to union-backed retiree health plans. Many of those plans, such as the United Auto Workers', are woefully underfunded.

So it's no surprise that unions that helped elect President Obama -- including the UAW and the United Steelworkers -- support this multibillion-dollar giveaway of public money. And the prospect of health care reform cutting costs for their retiree health plans surely is a key factor in such unions' support of Washington's overall reform effort.

One expert says the $10 billion could be exhausted in less than two years. Already, labor advocates are saying the $10 billion won't be enough. So it's all too likely that when that funding runs out, Congress will give billions more to Democrats' union allies.

That's a compelling reason why this proposed boondoggle ought to die. But if that's not enough, consider the idiocy of a federal government that owns 61 percent of General Motors lavishing such largess on the UAW -- and the patent unfairness of taxpayers footing the bill for Big Labor's largely self-created woes."