Good News & Bad News on the Union-Free Front: EFCA's in a "Holding Pattern"

There's good news and bad news on the union-free front.

First, the good news: The moronically-named Employee Free Choice Act (that job-destroying bill that union bosses have been pushing for the last few years) may now be on the back burner until after Labor Day.

According to the Communications Workers' of America (CWA) top boss Larry Cohen:

“...[T]he trouble we have is with cloture.” He explained that “unions don’t have solid promises from both Arkansas senators and from Sen. Specter yet that they will vote to break a filibuster.”

Blaming Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman, Cohen stated:

"Republican obstructionism that keeps one of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seats vacant, plus congressional concentration on health care, are combining to put consideration of the Employee Free Choice Act in a holding pattern."

In addition, there are apparently 12 "wavering" Democratic Senators. These include Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Thomas Carper, D-Del., Mary Landrieu, D-La., Michael Bennett, D-Colo., Arlen Specter, D-Pa., Kay Hagan, D-N.C., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and both senators from each of two states, Arkansas and Virginia, according to the CWA's Annie Hill.

According to the People's Weekly World, EFCA may have to wait until after Labor Day:

The same congressional committees that would deal with labor law reform are now busy with overhauling health care.

The result is that labor will likely have to delay its goal of having the Employee Free Choice Act on President Obama’s desk by Labor Day.

If this is indeed the case, it would appear that President Obama's effort to nationalize America's health care will be taking precedent over the job-destroying union bail out bill...And that is the bad news.

Despite candidate Obama's ridicule of Sen. John McCain's proposed health care plan last year, it would appear that Democrats are proposing to tax Americans for their health care after all.

According to Fox Business, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), is proposing “options to limit allowable tax free health benefits."

The Baucus Plan, which is estimated to cost more than $1 trillion, will tax one in eight Americans for their health care coverage. However, in a payback to his Big Labor backers, Max Baucus plans on exempting union members' benefits.

As Human Events notes: It would penalize every non-union recipient of employer-provided healthcare benefits.

As unbelievable as this seems, Baucus apparently feels that discriminating against more than 87% of Americans who are not paying union dues is all right.

Of course, should this reprehensible discrimination against those who choose not to be unionized make it into the socialized medicine plan, Baucus and his union backers know full well that this will create an incentive for workers to unionize.

Unfortunately, if this causes more workers to unionize, it will cause less companies to offer benefits and, for those that do, it will cause a greater incentive for those companies to dump their workers onto the government's plan. Thus, the speeding up of the transition to full blown national health care will occur.