Mike Barone Gets It  How taxpayers fund union politics  In his
recent article for National Review Online, columnist Michael
Barone highlights the influence that government employee unions
have over elections. In particular, he spotlights AFSCME and the
$87.5 million it plans to contribute to candidates. He then
follows the money trail back just a little bit to reveal the
real source of government union money and power:  Public
employees’ union dues and contributions to union PACs come
directly from taxpayers. So if you live in a state or city with
strong public-employee unions, you are paying a tax that goes to
elect Democratic candidates (plus, perhaps, a few malleable
Republicans).  Barone is being a bit sloppy by combining PAC
funds and union dues — in Michigan at least, PAC funds, which
are used for direct contributions to candidates, must be raised
separately from union dues and solicited from voluntary
donors. But his main point is dead-on. Unions can do a lot of
politicking with regular union dues: Car