While the Department of Veterans Affairs lets people languish on waiting lists for years, it is much more attentive to the needs of union officials. Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal describes just how lavish is the assistance and subsidy offered to unions. Federal labor unions are generally weak by comparison to state public-sector unions, though the VA might be an exception. The VA boasts one of the largest federal workforces and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki bragged in 2010 that two-thirds of it is unionized. That's a whopping 200,000 union members, represented by the likes of the American Federation of Government Employees and the Service Employees International Union. And this is government-run health care—something unions know a lot about from organizing health workers in the private sector. Compared with most D.C. unions (which organize for better parking spots) the VA houses a serious union shop. (snip) Manhattan Institute scholar Diana...(Read Full Post)