Big Labor Gets a Big Payday in Obamacare

Big Labor is about to get a big handout from President Obama, discreetly tucked away in the President's health care legislation. You might consider it a reimbursement for all the cash union leaders showered on Obama's presidential campaign.

On January 13 the President hosted a closed-door meeting with the most powerful union bosses in the nation and agreed to exempt union employees from the dreaded Obamacare "Cadillac tax." The tax is a crushing 40 percent excise tax that would kick-in on health care plans valued at $8,900 or more per year for individuals and family plans costing at least $24,000 annually.

Under the deal between Obama and Big Labor, union members and government employees with collective bargaining contracts would be fully exempt from the tax until the year 2018, saving them an estimated $60 billion over that term.

And for all you suckers slaving away in the private sector and clinging desperately to your non-union job, the tax will soak you for an estimated $90 billion over the same time period.

And for those paying close attention, yes, the 2018 deadline is mighty convenient as well. It's far enough into the future when President Obama will be long gone, should voters elect him to a second term. The question of what to do with Big Labor's exemption in 2018 will become someone else's problem. No wonder the President so desperately wants to hide his health care dealings from the public eye.