Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) slammed union "thugs" while discussing the latest in the scandal surrounding the Internal Revenue Service on Fox News Saturday morning.
Palin and Fox host Eric Bolling were discussing $70 million that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said the IRS is about to pay in employee bonuses.
“It’s a federal government program, we’re paying their salaries, yet they’re a union! Does this not drive you crazy?" Bolling asked Palin.
“Only in an Orwellian government would a collective bad deed be so generously rewarded,” Palin said. “You can anticipate that the Obama administration will not even push back on what this union is demanding for its employees. The Obama administration will kowtow to the friends who are union thugs -- the leadership of so many of these unions are thugs -- and they will not push back. Unfortunately because it gives a bad name to the brothers and sisters within the union who just want to produce well for the American public and do their job. It’s the leadership that is engaged in the thuggery that unfortunately Obama will not push back against.”
On Wednesday, the IRS said it was still negotiating with the union over the matter. Under the union contract, employees can get individual performance bonuses of up to $3,500 a year.
"Because bargaining has not been completed, there has been no final determination made on the payment of performance awards for the bargaining unit employee population," IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said in a statement.
"IRS is under a legal obligation to comply with its collective bargaining agreement, which specifies the terms by which awards are paid to bargaining-unit employees," Eldridge said. However, she wouldn't say whether the IRS believes it is contractually obligated to pay the bonuses.
Palin has criticized union bosses before, saying in March 2011 that union leaders in Wisconsin were acting "like thugs" in the midst of a collective bargaining battle with Gov. Scott Walker (R).
On Fox Saturday, Palin also dismissed Edward Snowden, the man who leaked information about the National Security Agency's phone surveillance programs.
"Snowden is not the problem,” Palin said. “The problem is government violating our Fourth Amendment right and taking away our privacy.”
She compared the government's role in the NSA scandal to a hacking incident that took place as she was running for Vice President in 2008.
“Government in this case is doing the same thing that that punk hacker kid did during the VP campaign,” Palin said. “It’s not a safe, ethical, moral nor a legal measure taken by our government.”
Palin was recently re-signed by Fox News as a paid contributor. Fox News previously hired Palin as a contributor but did not renew her contract earlier this year.
(h/t Mediaite)
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