In the debate surrounding the Affordable Healthcare Act, widely known as Obamacare, much was made about the “Astroturf” Tea Party members who were opposed to the massive government healthcare takeover. However, as this shocking video demonstrates, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is directly paying individuals, and in a shady brown envelope no less.

“That’s why they gave us that $20 to spend… in that brown envelope”

What’s surprising about this is that the SEIU has previously called out conservative groups as “fake grassroots” in 2009, accusing their conservative counterparts of being dishonest:

Astroturfing by conservative opponents of reform is particularly dishonest because it masks the true motivations of the powerful interests–like the desire of industries to maintain the status quo.

Now that the SEIU has been caught red-handed, you can expect them to try to ignore this story despite the clear hypocrisy and dishonesty of their own actions. The SEIU is a powerful interest indeed, representing approximately 2.1 million members in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

What you may not know is that according to Mary Kay Henry, President of the SEIU, about 30% of SEIU members vote Republican, and an additional 20% are independents. And yet all of their dues money goes to pay for the SEIU’s considerable political operations, which go to predominantly left-wing causes that are entirely unrelated to the working needs of their members.

The SEIU is spending their members dues money on issues that have nothing to do with salaries or working conditions. On top of that, they’re paying people to protest, after accusing anti-Obamacare groups of being “Astroturf”. This is not only a poor use of dues money, but dishonest and hypocritical as well.

Cross-Posted from SEIUMonitor.com.