Source: Patriot Post | VIEW ORIGINAL POST ==>
This past week, Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Labor, former Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, faced questioning from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
Of all Trump’s cabinet nominees, Chavez-DeRemer may be the most objectionable to conservatives, especially given her selection as labor secretary. While Chavez-DeRemer was a one-term Republican representative from Oregon, her political views and history were troubling, to say the least.
First and foremost is the fact that Chavez-DeRemer cosponsored the terrible Protecting the Right to Organize or PRO Act, legislation that would effectively eliminate right-to-work laws across the entire nation, promote unionization, and drastically curtail the freedom of individuals to self-employ.
The PRO Act is the worst example of legislative overreach since ObamaCare, and Democrats and Big Labor are big proponents of the Liberty-limiting bill. Moreover, she also supported enshrining public union bargaining rights, which would effectively spread the costly blue state government model across the entire country.
As a result, Senator Rand Paul opposes her, and he warned that Chavez-DeRemer could lose the votes of at least 15 other Republican senators. *I’m not going to support her,“ said Paul in a recent interview. “I’m the national spokesman and lead author of the right-to-work bill. Her support for the PRO Act, which would not only oppose national right-to-work but would pre-empt state law on right-to-work — I think it’s not a good thing.”
When Paul questioned Chavez-DeRemer in the committee hearing regarding her past support for the PRO Act, her response was rather tepid. “So you no longer support the aspect of the PRO Act that would’ve overturned state right-to-work laws?” Paul asked. “Yeah,” she quietly answered, to which Paul pressed, “That’s a yes?” She replied, “Yes.”
In her opening remarks, Chavez-DeRemer sought to explain her past support for the PRO Act as motivated by her representing leftist Oregon while acknowledging “that bill wasn’t perfect.” But she added, “If confirmed, my job will be to implement President Trump’s policy division, and my guiding principle will be President Trump’s guiding principle, ensuring a level playing field for businesses, unions and, most importantly, the American worker.”
The trouble is that one of Trump’s most crucial policy agenda items is draining the swamp. He is seeking to reform the federal government away from the self-serving bureaucratic state it has become. Indeed, the Elon Musk-led DOGE is aggressively involved in auditing the executive branch agencies for the express purpose of cutting out the massive problem of government waste.
Chavez-DeRemer comes in touting the exact opposite policy record. She is about as big a government proponent and top-down regulator as it gets. There’s a reason why her fanbase includes individuals like teachers union head Randi Weingarten and Teamsters boss Sean O’Brien.
So, why did Trump choose her? It’s likely that his doing so is a nod to Big Labor, who, while not endorsing him, refrained from endorsing Kamala Harris. O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention, and an awful lot of rank-and-file union members supported Trump.
Will Chavez-DeRemer be confirmed? Given the positive yet noncommittal responses from several Democrats, they may be perfectly willing to help advance her out of committee. If that happens, her confirmation is almost guaranteed.
