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“Economic Treason” & the Confiscation of America

How Marxist Unions & Democrats Plan to Steal America

YOU are the ONLY thing in the way of them fulfilling their agenda.

Over the last year (and longer), we’ve written on the union push to nationalize America’s retirement system and how important the $165 billion union pension bailout bill is to union bosses and their lackeys in the Democratic Party. Moreover, for two years, we’ve written how America’s health care system will be socialized medicine within three to five years.  We’ve also forewarned, before it was too late, how “Wall Street reform” opens the door for unions to re-order America’s companies into their own unionized image. We’ve shown how today’s union bosses are wholly lined up with global socialists and you saw the Marxist March on Washington last weekend.  And, finally, we’ve told you how unions or their allies may already be stealing the November elections.

Why has all of this been put before you? Very simply, to show you how unions and their minions in the Democratic party are stealing the nation out from under all of us.  It is something that has been long in coming—indeed, it’s been a battle that has raged back and forth inside the union movement for well over a century.  And, the vision that was Samuel Gompers’ vision of a free labor movement died when the socialists won. You see, upon realizing that, it became the reason some of us left the movement so many years ago—we saw the noose that we were helping to put around America’s neck and began to realize that the nation would eventually slide into a socialist state. So, we chose to fight it.

Now, with the mid-term elections a mere three weeks away, unions and their Democratic dependents may be laying the ground work for the coup de gráce, to finish America’s quasi free-enterprise system.  And, frankly, it is only through your massive, coordinated, and executed voter turnout that their plan to confiscate and redistribute—merely fancy words for steal—America’s wealth and create their Utopian socialist state may be averted.  [It may already be too late, as the groundwork has been laid for quite some time.]

Economic Treason
Several weeks ago, in a manner befitting Josef Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda, AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka escalated the demonization of American businesses that are not creating jobs.  Due to a risk aversion created by Washington and its an anti-business climate, Trumka has taken to calling businesses “corporate traitors“ and accusing them of “economic treason.”  [Ironically, much of Corporate America's risk aversion comes from very policies that union bosses like Trumka have pushed via the Obama Administration.  As a result, after wasting trillions, if anyone is to blame for America's unemployment woes it is Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the people pulling their strings—their union bosses.]

Even though Trumka and his cronies have always used economic populism (and other means) to lash out at America’s corporations—Trumka even hypocritically challenged Sarah Palin for her choice of words recently—the escalation of Trumka’s rhetoric is especially provocative (and enlightening) when, just a few weeks later, he stated:

We need to fundamentally restructure our economy and re-establish popular control over the private corporations which have distorted our economy and hijacked our government. That’s a long-term job, but one we should start now [emphasis added].

Last week, in furtherance of Trumka’s campaign to demonize business, the AFL-CIO’s Working America (the AFL-CIO’s quasi-equivalent of ACORN) launched an online tool called Job Tracker, which enables users to:

Find out which companies in your area are exporting jobs, laying off workers, endangering workers’ health or involved in cases of violations of workers’ rights. The database contains information on more than 400,000 companies nationwide.

Then, on Friday, the federation continued its “corporate traitors” rhetoric when it sent an e-mail blast to those on its e-mail list.

While the “job tracker” is reportedly going to be used as a way to fire up union members to get them to the polls on November 2nd, the reality is that the tool will be used after November to help enable the AFL-CIO bosses to continue the demonization of American business for political purposes.

Meanwhile, President Obama’s speechwriters, in a strange and faux-xenophobic kind of way, are also trying to add their version of ‘patriotic populism’ approach through its attacks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce [which given the evidence so far, a 'patriotic' theme is one they should probably work to avoid].

“You don’t know,” Obama said at the rally for Senate candidate Joe Sestak and other Democrats. “It could be the oil industry. It could even be foreign-owned corporations. You don’t know because they don’t have to disclose.”

The problem for Obama and the Democrats is that, by using this approach, it may backfire in several ways: First the sheer hypocrisy of the claim, given Obama’s own skills at raising foreign funds. Second, the “foreign-owned” corporations (like Toyota, Nissan, BMW) are doing a better job at creating jobs in America than their unionized counterparts are.  And, thirdly, by slamming the oil industry—especially after the Administration’s massive bungling of the BP oil spill and the forced unemployment in the region as a result of the drilling moratorium—voters can see through his rhetoric.

The Confiscationalists.
Also on Friday, an online firestorm was created when Human Events writer Connie Hair exposed what Democrats were doing last week during a recess hearing in the Senate HELP Committee:

Democrats in the Senate on Thursday held a recess hearing covering a taxpayer bailout of union pensions and a plan to seize private 401(k) plans to more “fairly” distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee heard from hand-picked witnesses advocating the infamous “Guaranteed Retirement Account” (GRA) authored by Theresa Guilarducci.

In a nutshell, under the GRA system government would seize private 401(k) accounts, setting up an additional 5% mandatory payroll tax to dole out a “fair” pension to everyone using that confiscated money coupled with the mandated contributions. This would, of course, be a sister government ponzi scheme working in tandem with Social Security, the primary purpose being to give big government politicians additional taxpayer funds to raid to pay for their out-of-control spending.

The New School, at which Theresa Guilarducci is the Director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, was founded in 1919 as a center for progressive thought by Fabian socialists, as well as historian Charles Beard and philosopher John Dewey. According to the New School’s website:

The New School is a legendary, progressive university comprising eight schools bound by a common, unusual intent: to prepare and inspire its 10,200 undergraduate and graduate students to bring actual, positive change to the world.

Now, the constitutionalist in you may, at first, balk at the usage of the term “confiscate.” After all, in addition to being possibly unconstitutional, a Castro-Chavez style nationalization (or confiscation)  is probably too crude for this crowd of Ive-League Leninists. No, their brilliance would likely reqiure more subtlety…like the tax code.

You see, if another government-entitlement were to be established, it would have to be pushed through Congress (which gives rise to the concerns of a ‘lame duck’ Congressional attempt at creating this monstrosity).  Once it is created (assuming it could withstand court challenges), however, they could argue that the creation of an ‘account’ in this new scheme would suffice the eminent domain and just compensation provisions of the Fifth Amendment; or, if they don’t want to bother with that, they could just use the tax code to incentivise Americans to put their retirements into the hands of the government.

The Final Noose Around America’s Neck
The plan to end America’s semi-capitalist system may be announced very shortly when the President’s deficit reduction panel makes its report to the President. In fact, one of its members, former SEIU boss Andy Stern tipped their hand in July when he talked to the Huffington Post:

Andy Stern, a key member of the deficit commission, is pushing to invest a significant portion of the Social Security trust fund in private companies through the stock market, the former labor leader told HuffPost.

Stern, taking a break from one of the few public meetings of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, said that Social Security “needs to be, like any pension fund, brought back into balance.”

There were several ways to bring the fund into balance, he said, but one that he favors consists of “investing some percentage of government money in the stock market, as they do in Canada. Not individual taxpayer money, but government money.”

The significance of this cannot be overstated.  As bad as financial reform will for job growth, if the federal government invests in the private sector, there will be NO private sector.

As was stated at the beginning of this post:

YOU are the ONLY thing in the way of them fulfilling their agenda.

November 2nd is a mere three weeks from now.

Get Out the Vote.

__________________
“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Cross-posted

For more news and views on today’s unions, go to LaborUnionReport.com.

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COMMENTS

  • reddog53

    The seizure of 401(k) funds was talked about briefly in the Clinton administration as well.

    Whenever anyone puts the word ‘economic’ in front of other words like ‘justice’ or ‘treason’, that’s a dead giveaway that they aren’t just liberals but true to the cause Socialists!

    November is coming and this must be defeated!

  • mikerazar

    I hope it gets wider distribution than just to RedState members

  • gwalt

    They are targeting companies, maybe we should? Perhaps LUR can choose one (just throwing out the possibility ) and we reach out to our network of bloggers and e-mail list. One that is Trumka-heavy?

    Perhaps Chrysler? I have in the past bought 5 Jeeps and my family has owned many many Chrysler products. No more.

  • wethepeoplevstheprogressives

    As in 1 of General Neylands maxims…..Bring the fight to your opponent from start to finish and fight, fight, fight (with knowledge, information,etc not physical)

  • persiflage

    before the pols realized that progressive income taxes, in a time of recession, would no longer yield enough revenue to satiate their lust for power and control. The obvious next step is wealth taxes, and that huge pool of personally-owned, personally-funded, personally-managed 401(k) plans is an irresistible target. A raid on 401(k) plans would be merely the first shot, as too many of the current crop of pols evince an insatiable and rapacious appetite to consume ALL wealth for their own ends.

    Be very careful who you vote for this November.
    Vote freedom first. You kids and grandkids are depending on you.

  • callawyn

    The so-called Social Security Trust Fund is a worthless pile of IOU’s written by one branch of govt to another. All of the money was spent as it came in, none of it was saved or invested in anything whatsoever. There is nothing to invest. As of this year, there is no longer a Social Security surplus either, from now on it will spend more than it takes in. Technically, the deficit is ‘paid for’ by ‘cashing in’ on the ‘Trust Fund’, but since the previous surpluses were spent rather than invested and the ‘Trust Fund’ is a pile of worthless IOU’s rather than equity or debt that could be liquidated, the deficit must be made up by drawing on the Treasury, which itself is, of course, bankrupt. So, they’re printing money and selling Treasuries.

    You’d think Stern would be aware of this. How much stock in private companies can the government buy with a pieces of paper that say that one branch of government owes money to another branch of government? Paper backed by nothing, which the government can default on at any time.

    • davesinsanantonio

      buying stock in a company, and end talking about “taking” it.

  • ihateliberals

    the socialist utopia. It has been going on for over a century and each decade they get closer to their goal. If it had not been for the unions the free market would have taken care of all of the problems that the unions have alleged to have fixed over the years. Our auto industry could have competed with the foreign markets Our Education system would not have dropped to 12th in the world from 1st place. Unions are one of the socialist, communist, liberal tools to gain control of the people. Unions for years have tried to figure out how to take over Professional people like programmers, scientist etc. The problem is that the free market system took care of these people and they saw no need of a Union to do nothing for them. don’t forget to “Take Out the Trash November 2nd”.

  • ihateliberals

    decided to allow the funds to be moved into the general funds and be used in the fight against poverty. “How’s That working for you”? I am retired now of Soc Sec Disability. I fi had been allowed to invest 1/2 of my payments into the system even with the up and down of the economy I would have been able to retire with about 25% more per month than i do right now. this is criminal. Plus now i can’t even get a raise this year becasue the congress needed to get their pay raises and the welfare as well. Mandatory savings for retirement is a good thnng. Mandatory Social Security is like pouring money down a snake hole. Sooner or later the snake gets pizzed and comes out to bite you.

  • rwlungren

    “Andy Stern, a key member of the deficit commission, is pushing to invest a significant portion of the Social Security trust fund in private companies through the stock market”.

    He’s one of Them and They are accusing evil Republicans of wanting to force folks into investing their Social Security into the stockmarket run by their evil greedy Wall Street buddies. Maybe Andy didn’t get the memo.

    Also, he favors……

  • davesinsanantonio

    A lame duck! When the Commiewannabes lose next month, they will not only want to “double-down” on their agenda, but they will also want revenge against the voters who took away their candy jar. They will try to pass the most onerous garbage that will put them in effective control of our country and our lives forever. We must be vigilant and resourceful to not only win the election, but to keep them from completing their revolutionary takeover in the lame duck session.