Targeting Non-Union Pensions

By Gary Bauer

Conservatives have long suspected that the auto bail out, which Barack Obama often brags about, was really a bailout of the auto unions -- especially their pension plans. Today there is more evidence to support that claim. 

The Daily Caller reports that new emails reveal Treasury Department officials were actively involved in the decision to terminate the pensions of 20,000 non-union Delphi workers, a GM company and major auto parts supplier. 

This could be a major scandal for the Obama Administration, as its officials have repeatedly insisted, even in sworn testimony, that the independent Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) made the decision to eliminate the Delphi pensions. According to federal law, only the PBGC can terminate pension programs. But the emails strongly suggest the decision was made by Treasury Department officials working for Secretary Timothy Geithner. 

In fact, one set of emails between representatives of the PBGC from early April 2009 reveals that they were "disinvited" from a meeting with members of the auto bailout task force by officials at the Treasury Department, and "It's for the best." Emails from early July 2009 make it clear that former Treasury official Matthew Feldman was also coordinating with the White House. The decision to terminate the 20,000 non-union Delphi pension plans was finalized a few weeks later. 

It's unlikely that Big Media will report this story. But once again we see that what the left accuses us of doing is often what it does. Obama and his liberal supporters have repeatedly accused Mitt Romney of killing jobs and hurting pensions. But it wasn't Mitt Romney who made the call to terminate 20,000 non-union Delphi pensions. 

We also see just how political this administration is. Ideology is everything. While the non-union workers lost their pensions, The Daily Caller writes that Delphi's union workers "saw their pensions topped off and made whole." And no doubt many of you will recall that when it came time to consolidate Chrysler dealerships, Republican-owned dealerships appeared to take the brunt of the closures, while well-connected Democrat dealerships were spared.