Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach, Obama birthday party edition

Chicago asks, "Where are the jobs?"

This afternoon I'll be attending the Tea Party "Jobs Bash" one block away from President Obama's birthday party and fundraiser at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago.

Meanwhile, the jobs killing Obama-controlled agencies continue to create wreckage.

From the Workforce Fairness Institute:

A group of law professors sent House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa a letter requesting he cease from carrying out his constitutional duty to provide oversight on the executive branch of government, including his request for documentation involving the National Labor Relations Board’s complaint against the Boeing Company for opening a facility in the right-to-work state of South Carolina.

However, Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon claims that disclosing information could impact the outcome of the legal proceedings currently underway.

In their letter, the law professors, including one from South Carolina state "as national legal and labor policy experts, we are gravely concerned by the undue pressure that this letter, and its threats to compel disclosure of privileged documents, have placed on an independent law enforcement agency."

Well, if law professors who have never created a single job and who have not been given a role in our nation’s system of checks and balances say so, it must be the case…

Did you think the Employee Free Choice Act went away because it couldn't get out of Congress? You are wrong, as the Charleston Daily Mail tells us:

EFCA, or the "card check" bill, would have eliminated the sacred right of employees to participate in their union elections by secret ballot.

It would have substantially increased penalties on employers (but not unions) for violating the National Labor Relations Act. It would have obtained other "wish list" items for unions that no Congress ever intended, as re-emphasized with their vote.

Those who believed the card check bill was gone are now realizing that was naive.

Where the current administration has failed to persuade Congress to adopt its legislative agenda, time and again, it has waived its regulatory wand and enacted the failed "legislation" as "regulation."

Magically, it becomes the law of the land.

Pro-union radicals Craig Becker (board) and Lafe Solomon (general counsel) were named to important positions on the National Labor Relations Board by President Obama utilizing recess appointments. Thanks to Republican Senate tacticians, the president won't be able to perform such mischief now that the upper chamber has recessed.

Then there is the partial FAA-shutdown. From The Hill:

With the House adjourned for its August recess, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) moved quickly to blame Democrats in the Senate for the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that appears headed to last until at least September.

The monthlong furlough of 4,000 FAA workers can only be avoided now if the Senate passes the short-term funding bill with cuts to rural airport subsidies objected to by Democrats. Their resistance shows they are not seriously concerned about the out-of-work aviation employees, Mica said.

"After waiting weeks and doing nothing but complaining about the process and blaming everyone but themselves, Senate Democrat leaders failed again today on a last-ditch effort to approve an extension of FAA programs," Mica said in a statement released by his office late Monday evening. "Apparently, protecting outrageous airline ticket subsidies is more important than putting 4,000 furloughed FAA employees and thousands of airport construction workers across the country back to work."

Mica again argued that the cuts to the Essential Air Service program that sank what would have been the 21st short-term extension for the FAA since 2007 were included in a long-term bill passed by the Senate earlier this year. Democrats argued the provision was political retribution for the Senate's objection to labor provisions in the House's version of a long-term FAA bill, but Mica said that was not the case.

Once again, from the Workforce Fairness Institute:

Senator Rockefeller continues hold the Federal Aviation Administration hostage in an effort to ensure that rules in union-organizing elections in the railroad and airline industry favor Big Labor. According the Associated Press, the cost of the FAA shutdown could exceed $1 billion. So far, the shutdown has cost the FAA at least $250 million dollars.

While Congress debates the fiscal policy of this country, Senator Rockefeller is just making things worse.

Unfortunately for those workers furloughed while Congress remains gridlocked, Senator Rockefeller continues to blame the shutdown on funding regarding Essential Air Services. When in reality he continues to refuse a provision that passed the House of Representatives in the FAA Reauthorization Bill this past spring that would overturn a recent ruling by the National Mediation Board. This ruling would allow a majority of those voting in a union-organizing election to form a collective bargaining unit, as opposed to majority of the workforce. Senator Rockefeller wants to ensure that 75 years of law is overturned to give another handout to union bosses.

Publicly, Senator Rockefeller continues to say he is fighting for $16 million in subsidies for rural airports in his home state, but behind closed doors he's fighting for millions of dollars in campaign contributions from union bosses to help him electorally. In return, he promises 'payback' by refusing to accept changing this bureaucratic overreach.

After his humiliating defeat in the debt-ceiling battle, Obama decided to reunite with his first love: union bosses. From IndustryWeek:

Stung by a bitter battle over the U.S. debt, President Barack Obama shifted his focus towards putting Americans back to work Tuesday, holding an "urgent" meeting with unions frustrated over the slow pace of job creation.

Obama held a closed-door meeting with leaders of the AFL-CIO, the country's main labor union umbrella organization, and was expected to hear complaints for shrinking from his demand to include tax revenues as part of the debt deal.

"This morning's meeting with the general board of the AFL-CIO was a conversation about the urgent need to focus on job-creating policies that will propel working people and our economy forward," union spokeswoman Alison Omens said.

"Working people are desperate to hear how we're going to focus on the real economy and the jobs crisis, and President Obama conveyed his own feeling of urgency around dealing with the jobs crisis," she added.

What do you know? It's time to revisit the Workforce Fairness Institute:

According to the White House, President Obama met today with union bosses from the AFL-CIO to "discuss issues important to working families, including how to continue growing our economy and putting Americans back to work."

Isn't that ironic? Policies favored by this administration and supported by Big Labor are doing just the opposite – negatively impacting economic growth and putting Americans out of work.

Whether it's the National Labor Relations Board and their continuous threat to jobs and economic freedom, or the National Mediation Board and their continuous threat to worker freedom, it is clear that these policies are hurting our economy and working families.

But behind closed doors, what will these union bosses demand next from the President? And what bailouts will the President grant them to help address Big Labor's increasing irrelevance? After making nearly a half a billion dollar investment in President Obama in 2008, there is no doubt they want "payback" for it.

From the Daily Caller:

With the country in the grips of an economic downturn, unemployment hovering just below double digits, underemployment well over 10% and 14 million Americans looking for work, one would think elected officials on Capitol Hill would be sensitive about spending taxpayer dollars and focus on job creation as opposed to special-interest bailouts.

Unfortunately, that is just not the case.

Some in Washington are refusing to extend the Federal Aviation Administration’s authorization, because they want taxpayers to continue to subsidize empty airports that often have more workers than passengers.

As unbelievable as it sounds, some senators are threatening the most recent FAA extension because they are protecting subsidies costing thousands of dollars per passenger. In Nevada — Democrat Leader Harry Reid's home state — taxpayers spent over $3,700 per passenger for the 471 passengers who used the Ely airport instead of driving an extra hour to another airport.

The extension passed in the House of Representatives incorporates common-sense reforms like capping the subsidy at no more than $1,000 per passenger. That will save taxpayers millions each year. And contrary to some Democrat claims, the only issue holding up the extension is these subsidies.