Govt To Investigate Obama’s Big Labor Bailout

Barack Obama is facing yet another well-deserved corruption investigation. Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general who oversees federal bailouts, has announced he will look into what the New York Times calls “a lingering mystery”: why the government fully funded the pensions of union workers at Delphi following Obama’s hostile takeover of General Motors, while the government simultaneously gutted the retirement accounts of non-union employees.

Some 21,000 white collar employees of the GM spin-off company, Delphi, will see their pensions lose 30 to 70 percent of their value. To put that in perspective, a small city of retirees who thought they earned an annual retirement of $75,000 will receive less than $23,000.

On the other hand, members of the United Auto Workers will retire with 100 percent of their benefits.

Rep. Christopher Lee, R-NY, has asked for the investigation into whether federal funds went to bail out.

This massive payoff to a pillar of the Democratic Party may prove a bridge-to-nowhere too far. However, it is hard to see any concrete response arising from this investigation, for all the good Barofsky and Lee plan to do. The Times notes, “Mr. Barofsky has extensive power to investigate, but no real power to act on his findings.”