Is Thug Health Care On The Horizon?

I have been pondering the reasons that unions have supported health care reform. This doesn't make any sense for two reasons. One, unions, like their enemies, are made up of sinful men and are, top to bottom, notoriously greedy and care only about what's in it for themselves. Two, there is nothing in it for the union worker. Furthermore, there is the potential for much loss.

One thing that I think can be safely said about the rank and file union member is that they are not visionaries. They are blinded by envy and covetousness and see themselves as victims, and their leaders as savior saints who would never betray them. With such a victim mentality union members have an admirable affinity for the "working man" and are easily sold a bill of goods that purportedly helps other victims-at no cost to themselves of course.

This is not so with the Washington union leadership who are de-facto government representatives, duly elected and funded through a back door tax known as union dues. As government representatives they are power-brokers wielding incredible power by way of legally generating expensive ads, generating enormous campaign funds through the back door tax system, and by producing a herd voting block.

As is true with many politicians-especially on the left where union leaders find themselves-they are on the lookout for ways to satisfy their ever increasing huger for power. This was demonstrated quite well with Bob Chanin's farewell speech from the nation's largest union, the NEA. Never mind for the moment the cognitive dissonance of a union that wants the very entity in which it is organized against, the government, to take over its health care; the question remains, why would unions in general want this when it will in the long run hurt the people they care about the most, themselves?

The answer to this question can be found, I think, in Bob Chanin's farewell speech. Below is a transcript of that speech, except that I exchanged all references to education with references to health care. Union leader de facto politicians are now slobbering over what they see as perhaps one of the largest power transfers in the history of this nation.

For this reason, I foresee a National Healthcare Worker's union that will one day make the NEA's current stranglehold on education look like a second-grade playground bully choking one of his weakling classmates in one of their schools.

Chanin's fare well speech, or watch it here:

Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas; it is not because of the merit of our positions; it is not because we care about health care; and it is not because we have a vision of a great government health care system. The NHA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power. And we have power because there are more than 10 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of million of dollars in dues each year because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them; the union that can protect their rights and advance their interests as health care workers. This is not to say that the concern of NHA and its affiliates with closing gaps, reducing wait times, improving doctor and nurse quality, and the like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary these are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights, or collective bargaining.That is simply too high a price to pay.

As Christians we should recognize the sinfulness of all men, no matter what providence has given them, and hold them accountable to the truth of God's Word. We should be as shrewd as snakes, as well as gentle as doves, and look past the masks of compassion worn by those bearing gifts, to the hell hidden behind.