Biden's Real Goal

Everything President Trump warned us about and his supporters feared is coming to pass. Biden's infrastructure bill was bad enough, spending $2.5 trillion on a wish list of Democratic and environmental projects.

He said it is becoming clear that Biden used the fear of Covid to deform our electoral system and is now using the terror of climate change to fundamentally alter the construction industry.

But worse, as a result of Democratic pressure from the left, he is now seeking to pass his PRO bill through the budget reconciliation process with just 51 votes as an add on to his infrastructure proposal.

This maneuver reveals the real purpose behind the infrastructure package: To force universal national union membership. With private sector unionization dropping dramatically over the last few decades (now down to 6% of the private sector workforce), Biden is determined to use the carrot of federal money to force contractors and other employers to unionize in order to receive federal funds.

Biden has explicitly stated that the Davis-Bacon Act requiring union wages and companies will govern the expenditure of federal construction money under the infrastructure bill. This includes just short of $2 trillion on building roads, bridges, airports rewiring and re-insulating private buildings and schools, renovating the electric power grid, replacing old water system pipes, building charging stations for electric cars and all manner of other construction. With that amount of money, no company can resist unionization if that is what is required to get in on the gravy train.

Essentially the infrastructure package shifts the task of constructing America's infrastructure from the private sector and states to the federal government. The United States had $40 trillion in fixed assets in 2019. 65% of it was owned by the private sector 30% by the states and only 5% by the federal government. Biden's infrastructure package will tilt the ownership overwhelmingly toward Washington.

The PRO Act itself is one of the most dangerous and disastrous pieces of legislation ever to be introduced in Congress. God help us if it passes. With Biden trying to ram it through with 51 votes, the prospect of it becoming law is terrifying.

It would make it illegal for any company to hire a consultant, contractor, or freelancer if that person's work was related to the company's main business. So a video firm could not hire a videographer as a consultant or a freelancer to shoot videos. They could hire him to sweep the floors and clean the toilet but not to film videos.

So, with the stroke of a pen, 30 to 50 million people who are now consultants, contractors, or freelancers would be forced to to terminate their contracts and seek work as ordinary employees of their former clients and customers.

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Many employers would be reluctant to hire their former contractors as employees because they would be reluctant to have to pay FICA, unemployment insurance, health insurance or Worker's Compensation. Also, many high priced consultants and contractors may find that they don't conveniently fit into the pay structure of their former clients were they to become employees and will have to face sharp decreases in their incomes.

The goal of these provisions is to force people to become regular employees rather than outside contractors. As such, they are easier to force into labor unions – the real goal of the law. The PRO act overrides the right to work laws of 27 states so that any every worker can be forced to pay union dues.

The PRO Act allows unionization without elections. No voting by workers on whether or not they want a union. The proposal with permit the mandatory formation of the union if a majority of the workers checked off cards saying they wanted one. Experience is shown that the card check is not a reliable indicator of workers' feelings since many are coerced into signing right in front of their shop stewards, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.

In fact in one-third of union elections, the union loses even though to hold the election in the first place, a majority of the workers had to sign cards saying they wanted a union. But, upon consideration and hearing what the management has to say, they decide to vote no.

Of course the real goal of all this is to generate more dues for unions and more contributions for Democrats.

Unionizing the American workforce is a little like collectivizing the small farm owners in Russia in the 1930s — a key goal of the left to generate conformity, uniformity, and enable regulation and exploitation.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Dick Morris, who served as adviser to former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and former President Clinton, is the author of 16 books, including his latest, Screwed and Here Come the Black Helicopters.