Big Labor's Compulsory Politics = $1.1 Billion in 2010 Election Cycle

The chart below represents dollars flowing to politicians from the “Top-100” special interest donors over the last 20 years.

The blue skyscraper on the left of the chart is the money spent by Big Labor – it exceeds all other special interests combined.

Further investigation reveals that the money represented on this chart is only the tip of the iceberg. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Big Labor spent $2.2 Billion on political activities during the 2008 & 2010 election cycles alone — eclipsing by four times the 20-year $1/2 Billion from the chart.

But, then no one should be shocked by this. You see Big Labor has special powers above all other special interests..

Big Labor has the power to force workers to pay union dues and fees as a condition of employment. Without the power to compel the unwilling, Big Labor and the Democrat party would be forced to fight on the battlefield of ideas rather than choking the airwaves with its propaganda.

While Duquesne University Professor Anthony Davies’ series of charts about reported political donations provide marvelous visual comparisons (h/t NRO’s Veronique de Rugy), they still fail to take in the full magnitude of forced-dues financed politics and the absolute control Big Labor has over the Democrat party and the political system.

Occasionally a Big Labor PAC might give a Republican $5,000 or even a bit more; meanwhile, its union bosses will use ithe union’s treasury and human capital to spend a hundred-fold in an effort against that very Republican candidate.

In one year alone, just 3,000 of the more than 20,857 of DOL electronic union reports spent more on political activities from their compulsory-fees filled coffers than Big Labor reported in their 20 years of political campaign disclosure reports. And, these DOL reports do not include unions that exclusively represent government employees or AFL-CIO central bodies.

Big Labor is quite simply a political organization that has been allowed to spend billions collected by force on political activities. It is time to end the Big Labor forced-dues political machine.