CHICAGO – If you had any question about the pro-government orientation of the Obama administration, here is a clue.

Labor Secretary Thomas Perez was a keynote speaker at the national convention of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and declared:

I’ve now spent about 25 years in government service. I was a career attorney in the Justice Department for a decade. I was an elected official at the county level. I ran a state agency. I’ve worked shoulder-to-shoulder throughout my career with proud and dedicated AFSCME members. I know firsthand about the sacrifices you make, about your devotion to public service, about your contribution to the common good.

And that’s why I’m fighting so hard for all of you. That’s why President Obama is fighting so hard for all of you. We know that public employees — and the labor movement more broadly — are the linchpin of the American middle class. We know that it’s you — our nurses, corrections officers, home care workers, EMTs, child care providers, sanitation workers and more — that keep America strong.

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Government employees are the “linchpin of the middle class”?

According to statistics from the federal government, there are 22 million employees in all levels of government. Overall, government employees make up 15.3 percent of the workforce.

Other stats, also provided by the feds, tell us there are 54.4 million people working for small businesses in the private sector.

But Perez wasn’t finished.

The Obama appointee threw red meat to the Big Government union crowd.

But for home care workers to get the full fair treatment they deserve — good wages, decent benefits and workplace protections — they also need a union to be the wind at their back. That’s why they are organizing at such a steady clip. But two weeks ago, the Supreme Court unleashed a powerful headwind in the form of its 5-4 decision in Harris v. Quinn.

This decision is bad for workers, bad for consumers and bad for the public interest. It will make it harder for home care workers to get a fair shake on the job. It will mean fewer people benefit from the professional development and training opportunities that AFSCME so capably provides. It means it will be harder to build that pipeline of skilled home care workers whose services are in growing demand. It will make it harder for states and cities to ensure that the elderly and people with disabilities get the best possible care. It also means we’ll have to work that much harder together to find ways to lift up and protect home care workers.

But as you well know, the Court’s decision is par for the course these days. What we’ve seen in recent years, over and over again, is mindless scapegoating of public employees.

In reality, Harris v. Quinn afforded employees the opportunity to not be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. But collectivists like Perez think that’s a terrible idea.

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To put it another way, Forbes contributor George Leef wrote:

In brief, the case was about the way public unions had importuned their political allies (specifically, two Illinois governors) to help them extract money from people working as home health care assistants by declaring them to be government employees.

If ever there was a perfect illustration of the way labor unions use political clout to obtain members and money that they could not get through voluntary means, this case is it. The plaintiffs in Harris just wanted to be left alone to handle life’s travails. They did not want any of their money seized for dues, much less by a union whose political objectives some of them vigorously opposed.

So for such a travesty, Obama’s administration must publicly punish and ridicule the Supreme Court and Perez did just that.

In a video message to unionists, President Obama told delegates, “If I were looking for a good job with good wages that lets me build some security for my family, I’d join a union.”