Right-wing media figures have asserted that SEIU president Andy Stern’s appointment to President Obama’s bipartisan deficit reduction commission is a “mockery,” a “joke,” and a “cover to raise taxes and soak the rich.” However, Stern is the only labor representative on the panel; Obama also appointed two business leaders and members of both parties, including former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), who will serve as co-chair of the commission.

Right-wing media
attack Stern’s
appointment to
deficit
commission

Fox &
Friends asks if Stern appointment is “just
a cover to raise taxes and soak the rich.” On
the March 1 edition of Fox News’ Fox &
Friends, co-host Steve Doocy asked if Stern’s appointment was
“just a cover to raise taxes and soak the rich.” After co-host Brian Kilmeade
asked Fox Business contributor Stuart Varney if the deficit commission was “a
trap,” Varney replied, “The answer to your question is yes,” calling Stern a
“very big spender” and a “class warrior.” Varney also asserted that Stern’s
appointment means “[t]hey’re not going to look at cutting spending. They’re not
going to look at reigning in entitlement
programs.”

Malkin: “Biggest sign that White
House deficit panel is a joke: O wants to appoint Andy Stern.” On
February 22, Michelle Malkin called Stern’s appointment to the
panel the “[b]iggest sign that [the] White House deficit panel is a joke.”
Malkin claimed that Stern’s appointment made the panel “not just a dog-and-pony
show. It’s a dog-pony-and-thug show,” and called Stern a “corruptocrat.”

Hot Air: Stern “represents the
problem … not the solution.” In a February
26 blog post, Hot Air blogger Ed Morrissey said Stern represents
“the problem that Congress faces in making tough budget decisions — not the
solution,” claiming Stern “has a vested interest in keeping federal employees on
the job, as his union mainly represents public-sector workers.” Morrissey added,
“We can expect that this panel will recommend tax hikes in order to maintain
that cash flow and to subsidize Democratic power.”

American Thinker: “Stern’s
appointment to the deficit commission a mockery.” On February 28,
Greg Halvorson of American Thinker called Stern’s appointment to the
commission “a mockery.” Halvorson accused unions of “destroy[ing] fiscal
prudence” and “draining budgets,” and claimed that “placing Stern on the
deficit commission to influence budgetary matters has the dual affect of
undermining both the commission and the
president.”

Daily Caller post: “Administration
keeping cozy with union bosses.” In a March 1
Daily Caller post, Ivan Osorio, editorial director at the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, wrote that Stern’s appointment was
“disappointing” but “not surprising,” calling the appointment a “clear conflict
of interest” because “government employee unions constitute a permanent special
interest lobby favoring the growth of government, one that is motivated,
organized and well-funded.” Osorio further stated that Stern is likely to call
“for higher taxes to fund more ‘public services’ for SEIU to
unionize.”

But Obama’s
appointees reflect positions from both parties, business, and
labor

Obama named Republican as co-chair
of commission. The White House
stated in a February 18 press
release that “former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former
Republican Senate Whip Alan Simpson will serve as the Commission’s co-chairs.”
The press release further noted that “Alan Simpson served as a U.S. Senator from
Wyoming from
1979 to 1997. From 1985 to 1995, he was the Republican whip in the Senate, and
he also chaired the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Social
Security.”

Obama appointed two members with
business backgrounds. The Wall Street Journal called Obama’s four non-chairman
appointments “four names of widely different backgrounds.” In addition to
Simpson and Bowles, the commission includes two members with business
backgrounds — Republican and Honeywell CEO David Cote, and Ann Fudge, former CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands
and executive at General Mills and Kraft — Stern, the one representative from
labor, and Alice Rivlin, who the Journal called “the widely respected
founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and one of the nation’s
most authoritative voices on the federal debt.”

Washington
Post: Any action on
the panel “would depend on the support of at least two
Republicans.” According to The Washington Post, based on the
panel’s rules, “Fourteen commission members would have to agree on any
deficit-reduction plan, a prospect that skeptics called a recipe for gridlock
because action would depend on the support of at least two Republicans for a
plan that is sure to include tax increases.”

The
Hill: “Obama leans toward centrists on
new deficit-reduction panel.” The
Hill described Obama’s appointments as a
“roster of centrists who helped reduce deficits during the 1990s.” The article
called the appointments an “effort to stock the panel with centrists” that
appeared to be “aimed at paving the way for compromises between current
Democratic and Republican lawmakers.”

Republican
leaders will appoint six members to the commission. According to the White House, in
addition to the six members chosen by Obama, “12 members will be appointed by
Senate/House leaders (3 each by the Republican and Democratic leaders of both
chambers). All must be sitting members of
Congress.”

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