Research

On Saturday, President Obama made 15 recess appointments, including one for Craig Becker, a lawyer for both the SEIU and AFL-CIO, to the National Labor Relations Board. Never mind that Becker has made it clear through his writings and statements that he would be the union bosses’ man on the NLRB. Back in 2005, Obama said that recess appointments were the “wrong thing to do” and that recess appointees are “damaged goods” and “have less credibility.”

But the hypocrisy doesn’t end there. President Obama said the following when defending his recess appointments:

The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees … I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government.

Here’s the thing, Mr. President: the United States Senate did disapprove of Craig Becker, with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) saying that he would bring “an aggressive personal agenda to the NLRB.” And while Obama’s recess appointments of Craig Becker and fellow Democrat Mark Pearce to the NLRB are being spun as simply necessary to getting the NLRB fully staffed to serve “the basic functioning of government,” why didn’t President Obama also give the pending Republican NLRB nominee Brian Hayes a recess appointment as well?

By only appointing the 2 Democrats to the NLRB, it is clear that this was not a move toward good government or ensuring a fully staffed NLRB. This was political payback to his union paymasters who supported President Obama’s new multi-trillion dollar health care entitlement program.