[Hoot Gibson]

It is impossible to overstate what unions cost taxpayers in this country. Obviously, public sector unions, which account for the majority of union members in this country, represent an enormous direct cost to every level of government with their salaries, benefits, and pension plans that far exceed those of average workers toiling in the private sector.

Costs that are not so obvious include:

1. Prevailing wage laws that are intended to bar private sector, nonunion companies from getting government contracts by virtue of their lower labor costs. These laws attempt to make it easier for unionized companies to get government work and gouge taxpayers.

2. The success that union bosses have had in blocking real immigration reform that would secure our borders and reduce the number of illegal immigrants collecting American welfare benefits. This one is inexplicable. How do union leaders get away with backing liberal Democrats while insisting that the borders remain open to illegal aliens willing to work for wages far below what their own union members demand? Yet they do. Democrats have union bosses in their pockets and vice-versa.

3. The cost of electing the Barack Obamas, Nancy Pelosis, and Harry Reids of this world to govern this country. Union dues are largely responsible for the Democratic majorities in Congress and the election of our inexperienced, incompetent, socialist president. How much blame do unions bear for tripling our annual budget deficit the past three years?

4. The biggest cost to American taxpayers may be the degradation of our public school system because of the influence of the NEA leaders.

I distinguish between union leaders and union members because I truly believe that for the most part, union bosses' affect on government policies does not reflect the will of the majority of union members. I don't believe that most union members are in favor of competing with Mexican workers who are here illegally or that most public school teachers place political considerations above concern for their students' welfare.