My parents have been acting kind of gloomy recently. You know, the whole nasty, arrogant government takeover of health care by Congress and the President. It might be part of the reason I didn’t put up anything on my blog yesterday. Things have started to cheer up a bit, though, since mom and dad learned there is something they can do to help defend our own Colorado from Obama Care.

But that’s not the main reason I’m writing. It is instead to point out one small overlooked aspect of this whole health care debate that has to do with education and teachers. Flash back to last August and this important (and still relevant) posting from Independent Teachers:

…If you were a full-time member of the National Education Association (NEA) through joining your local teachers union, then you sent money during the 2007-08 school year to support the current proposal from Congress and President Obama to promote socialized medicine.

According to the latest disclosure report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, NEA gave $500,000 in 2007-08 to the group Health Care for America Now, a 501c4 political organization that is backing President Obama’s health care plan. (It is likely that NEA has made further contributions to this group since 2007-08, since NEA is listed as being a member of the HCAN steering committee.)

Does anyone really think with 59 percent of Americans and 56 percent of Coloradans opposing this legislation, that all 35,585 public school employees who pay member dues to NEA and CEA support it?

Unlike the $39 Every Member Option political refund, however, there’s no way for teachers to get back their money used to support federal lobbying on health care, or any of their funds that go to the national teachers union headquarters ($162 for full-time teachers in 2009-10), for that matter.

There’s no denying that the NEA scheme at least follows the theme of the whole Obama Care mandate thing. Still, makes you feel even better about it all, huh?