wealthy union members want favorable tax treatment

Just another interest group, seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of others-- through the mechanism of government.

Union members are generally members of the upper-middle income class. Progressives, conservatives and libertarians will be appalled; statists will have mixed feeling about this; partisan Democratic and union hacks will be support the union efforts.

From the AP's Erica Warner (hat tip: C-J)...

Union leaders, among the most passionate backers of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, pressed Democratic senators Thursday to drop a tax on high-value insurance plans to pay for remaking the nation's system.

Members of several labor unions denounced the proposed tax on so-called "Cadillac plans"...

At issue for the labor unions is a proposed 40 percent excise tax on insurance companies, keyed to premiums paid on health care plans costing more than $8,500 annually for individuals and $23,000 for families. The tax would raise some $150 billion over 10 years to help pay for the Democrats' nearly $1 trillion health care bill....

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has authored an amendment with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to strip out the insurance plan tax but doesn't yet have agreement from Senate leaders to offer it.

Sanders and Brown?! Hypocrites and/or statists?