The Right Opinion
Meet the Real Workers Obama Screwed Over
Chutzpah overload in full effect: President Obama's sleazy super-PAC, run by his former White House spokesman Bill Burton, just released an ad accusing GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney of causing the cancer death of a steelworker's wife.
It's not just a slanderous and false attack. It's a foolish attempt to camouflage the administration's massive jobs death toll, politicized pension plundering and Big Labor bailout cronyism. And it will backfire big time because the thousands and thousands of true victims of Obama's economic wreckage are speaking up and fighting back.
Let's dispense with the "Romney = murderer" meme first. The warped Priorities USA ad features the claims of one Joe Soptic, a former employee at the Kansas City-based GST Steel plant. The plant went bankrupt years after Bain Capital acquired it. Soptic blames Romney for the loss of his job and health insurance -- and for the subsequent death of his wife a "short time after" the plant's closure.
But Romney stopped working for Bain in 1999. The plant closed in 2001. And Soptic's wife died in 2006. Oh, and Soptic admitted to CNN on Tuesday afternoon that the family in fact had health insurance at the time of Soptic's wife's death. But it's still all-powerful, time-traveling, omnipresent Darth Romney's fault.
Obama flack turned super-PAC slime-master Burton shrugged off the facts and doubled down on the campaign's class-warfare bloviation. "Families and individuals had to find new jobs, new sources of health insurance and a way to make up for the pensions they lost," he told Politico. "Mitt Romney has had an enduring impact on the lives of thousands of men and women, and for many of them, that impact has been devastating."
Yet, the Soptic story is the best they could scrape together? Stamp this one "EPIC FAIL."
While Team Obama promotes fables to indict Romney, the incontrovertible stories of the current administration's economic malpractice are finally getting out. In 2010, I first reported on how Obama's UAW bailout threw tens of thousands of nonunion autoworkers under the bus. It's the ongoing horror story of some 20,000 white-collar workers at Delphi, a leading auto parts company spun off from GM a decade ago.
As Washington rushed to nationalize the U.S. auto industry with $80 billion in taxpayer "rescue" funds and avoid contested court termination proceedings, the White House auto team and the Treasury Department schemed with Big Labor bosses to preserve UAW members' costly pension funds by shafting their nonunion counterparts.
In addition, the nonunion pensioners lost all of their health and life insurance benefits. The abused workers -- most from hard-hit northeast Ohio, Michigan and neighboring states -- had devoted decades of their lives as secretaries, technicians, engineers and sales employees at Delphi/GM. Some workers have watched up to 70 percent of their pensions vanish.
"I worked for 34 years at GM/Delphi Corp. When Delphi went bankrupt, we lost everything," Dana Strickland of Michigan wrote me. "Because I was salaried (middle management), we lost our pension and health insurance. I did not belong to the union, so GM/Delphi could have cared less. I have never felt so betrayed. We never hear this brought to the public's attention. People need to know how we were screwed, while the Obama administration kissed up to the union."
"I'm one of the Delphi Salaried Retirees that lost the health care, life insurance and 67 percent of the pension I was promised in retirement after working hard for 40 years," Charles Stone of Michigan e-mailed. "Words cannot describe the frustration and let down these events have thrust on my family's lives, and to have GM's rescue all sugar-coated in the current political environment is like putting lipstick on a pig. ... We will continue to fight to right this grievous wrong."
Tom Rose of Ohio added: "I am one of the 20,000 salaried retirees that lost all of my health care and -- in my case -- a 40 percent pension cut. So I am now paying increased health care costs with fewer pension dollars and contributing what is left to our lawsuit to correct this injustice. Meanwhile, the politically connected union has their full pension and 90-plus percent of their health care. You have hit upon the key question: How can our own federal government pick winners and losers amongst its own citizens?"
Through two costly years of litigation and investigation, the Delphi workers have exposed how the stacked White House Auto Task Force schemed with union bosses to "cherry pick" (one Obama official's own words) which financial obligations the new Government Motors company would assume and which they would abandon based on their political expedience. Obama's own former auto czar Steve Rattner admitted in his recent memoir that "attacking the union's sacred cow" could "jeopardize" the auto bailout deal.
In June, 20 months after a federal judge first ordered the government to cooperate, the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association broke through the administration's information stonewall and dislodged 62,000 pages of documents in their lawsuit to right the administration's wrongs. As The Daily Caller reported on Tuesday, the documents included "internal government emails (that contradicted) sworn testimony, in federal court and before Congress, given by several Obama administration figures. They also indicate that the administration misled lawmakers and the courts ... and that administration figures violated federal law."
Meanwhile, the Delphi workers who got shafted are getting in the faces of the administration and the public with a new web ad produced by conservative advocacy group Let Freedom Ring. They are asking, "Why, Mr. President? Why?" They -- and America -- deserve answers and justice, not more Bizarro World smears and fantastical bedtime stories.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM

21 Comments
Doktor Riktor Von Zhades in Western KY
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 8:48 AM
"Families and individuals had to find new jobs, new sources of health insurance and a way to make up for the pensions they lost,"
Gee, what about the 8.2% that are currently unemployed thanks to the Keynesian in chief, along with his Neomarxist pals?
KN in Arkansas
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 10:25 AM
Don't leave out the under employed or the ones who have given up and don't show up in the "official" stats.
2012 U6 Rate:
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Rate 15.1 14.9 14.5 14.5 14.8 14.9 15.0
More at: http://portalseven.com/employment/unemploymentrateu6.jsp
Major Stu in Peru, IN
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 11:19 AM
These are people who had already retired, or qualified for retirement. Once you work for 30+ years, get your retirement pin, you expect the promises that have been made to be kept. This was directly as a result of Obama administration weasels "cherry-picking (their words)" how much they could get away with shafting the hard-working engineers, technicians, secretaries, clerks, and non-union people of Delphi. Trust me, I worked there 25 years and know hundreds of these people.
Scott in St Louis, MO
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 8:52 AM
Don't forget all the dealerships forced to close costing office staff, sales, mechanics, etc.... 10s of thousands of jobs. But Bain Capital is the big bad meanie??????
M Rick Timms, MD in Georgia
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 11:35 AM
Great point Scott! And remember also that they picked the dealerships which would be closed - and guess what -- nearly all were owned by Republicans. The dealerships were simply taken away, and the life'e work and investment of these folks were simply stolen. It was an act of political retribution by a tyrant and it has never been questioned.
Richard Ryan in Lamar,Missouri
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 5:04 PM
Dr Timms, you have to remember that the people who owned those dealerships didn`t build their businesses. The big daddys in government did, and therefore had the right to take it away. This bunch, from the oval office on down are the filthiest bunch to ever inhabit DC. The end for them cannot come too soon.
wjm in Colorado
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 9:26 AM
The Marxist Democrats don't make stuff up, but as part of their deflect, deny, and counter accuse strategy, any and all charges are what they are themselves guilty of. All of their current charges are lies. They are the despicable embodiment of all that is evil. If Obamao isn't the antichrist, then they are sodomite lovers.
Richard Ryan in Lamar,Missouri
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 5:07 PM
wjm, there`s nothing to say that Obama isn`t the antichrist and a sodomite lover to boot. After all the big-eared penis lover has been known to frequent the Mans Country Club in Chi town. Now I don`t know this for a fact, but the rumor is out there, and it`s up to him to disprove it.
Ct-Tom in NC
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 9:34 AM
Ho hum, so, what else is new? With this administration committing a felony or two a week, without a peep from the GOP or the press, this sort of thing is just more depressing news to the few folks that actually try to keep up.
Why will the press not wake up? Michelle nails these jokers on a regular basis and no one cares.
Sammy in Kansas
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 10:10 AM
Michelle, keep shouting from the rooftops. Sooner or later people will start to take notice. I don't know why the GOP isn't making these things a major part of their campaign ads.
alex torello in New Haven, CT
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Many of us are justifiable concerned that neither the RNC or Romney's campaign won't bring up the virtually thousands of examples of malfeasance, coverups, lies, corruption and vindictive actions against citizens. If they roll over this time, they're all toast. It's not just winning, we want, we want a total repudiation of this socialist-goon administration!
alex torello in New Haven, CT
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 10:40 AM
That's "justifiably" ... mi scusi.
Gil Putt in Wisconsin
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 11:19 AM
I am one of the 20,0000 Delphi Salaried Retirees this Administration has screwed. Lets wake up America before it is too late. It does not always happen to the "other guy", trust me. Our government picking winners and losers is just plain wrong! Please help us by demanding this injustice be corrected now! Regards
pete in CA
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 12:52 PM
I've been looking for a dependable ball-park figure of exactly how many UAW jobs were saved by the bail out to compare to the number of non-union jobs lost and can't find any definitive numbers.
The Delphi group is 20,000, and I know there are many others including dealerships that were forced out of business. I've also read that part of the agreement between UAW and the WH was that GM and Chrysler had to shed given numbers of employees to receive stimulus funds, so naturally any negotiation between union and management would target non-union employees right off the bat.
JAC in Texas
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 3:32 PM
What's often lost in these discussions is the illegal aspects of Obozo's turning over the companies to the unions. Companies are in business because of stockholders who own the debt issued by them (stocks or securities). That's what happens when someone buys stock in a company--he owns part of the company, exactly the same as when China buys bonds from the U.S. The preferred stockholders were screwed by the Obozo administration in the whole deal. Not to get too technical, but preferred stock represents ownership in the company. Preferred stock is generally non-voting, but when the company's board of directors declares dividends, owners of preferred stock receive theirs before others in the chain. Also, when a corporation goes bankrupt, preferred stockholders have a priority claim on the assets remaining after creditors are paid. Obozo turned the company over to the unions and the stockholders got screwed, being paid, I think, 20 cents on the dollar. Stock investments are what make it possible for companies to stay in business. If investors think their ownership rights are not going to be honored, why should they put out their money to see it given away? This sounds like a "high crime" described in the Constitution. Was anything done about it? Of course not.
Patrick in Houston
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 4:47 PM
For every "Joe Septic" whose wife would have miraculously survived stage 4 cancer (diagnosed 5 years after her husband's plant closed) if only Mitt Romney had never CEO of Bain Capital; you will find 10,000 people thrown out of work by this administration's policies.
Dan in Seattle, Wa
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 6:02 PM
That is because we do not have a two party system We have a two headed one party system. It's all the same garbage in different cans! I say throw the whole lot out and find people willing to do what is best for the country rather than their political aspirations!
India in Georgia
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 7:37 PM
LOL... "Darth Romney"....
Ms. Malkin--keep up the good work. Some of us are listening.
patricia siebert in Fenton MI
Thursday, August 9, 2012 at 7:20 AM
After 34years, 24 of those years as a skilled trade union worker, I was forced to retire with no promised severance, no medical, no life insurance (after paying in for many years), and 1/2 of my promised retirement. I have filed for bankruptcy, lost my home, and suvivor benefits for my domestic partner and 2 kids, (PBGC rules) applied to over 310 jobs with 3 degrees and years of experience (go figure). Now forced to leave my family and work in another state for the remaining years of this life. I just want to die. Thank You Obama and the rest of the crooks at GM/Delphi.
patricia siebert in Fenton MI
Thursday, August 9, 2012 at 7:21 AM
After 34years, 24 of those years as a skilled trade union worker, I was forced to retire with no promised severance, no medical, no life insurance (after paying in for many years), and 1/2 of my promised retirement. I have filed for bankruptcy, lost my home, and suvivor benefits for my domestic partner and 2 kids, (PBGC rules) applied to over 310 jobs with 3 degrees and years of experience (go figure). Now forced to leave my family and work in another state for the remaining years of this life. I just want to die. Thank You Obama and the rest of the crooks at GM/Delphi.