Research

Obama has claimed many times that he’s committed to making “his administration the most open and transparent in history.” Yet, when it comes to his labor union bosses, Obama has no problem blocking their activities from public view:

Since President Obama took office, the Labor Department has rescinded or delayed three sets of rules proposed by the George W. Bush administration that would have required unions and their leaders to more specifically detail their finances … The rules were rolled back while the Obama administration was seeking more stringent regulation of corporate America, including banks, insurance companies, health care providers and publicly traded companies.

During the Bush administration, unions had to disclose where their money was going, giving American union members valuable information about how their dues were being spent. As a result of these rules that President Bush put in place, it was discovered that unions gave $3.2 million to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, and that one union boss in California had been spending hundreds of thousands of union money on items such as contracts for his wife’s production firm and $10,000 at a cigar bar.  

It’s not surprising that Obama doesn’t want any more sunshine on union finances. After putting SEIU president Andy Stern on his deficit commission and nominating AFL-CIO and SEIU lawyer Craig Becker to the NRLB, Obama is anxious to hide his union paymasters’ activities.