New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a speech before the Economic Club of New York on December 18, 2013, in one of his final acts of his twelve years in office. Bloomberg spoke about the “labor electoral complex,” a term similar to “military-industrial complex” that President Dwight D. Eisenhower coined for his farewell address in 1961.
 
NYC Mayor’s Office posted on Twitter on the morning of December 18, 2013:
 
“Mayor: Our pension & health care must be modernized to be sustained. I will stand w/those who will tackle the labor-electoral complex.”
 
The new term was praised by conservatives, such as the New York (NY) Post Editorial Board and The Wall Street Journal.
 
   
Wikipedia: Military-industrial complex
Military–industrial complex, or military–industrial–congressional complex, is a concept commonly used to refer to policy and monetary relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the military industrial base that supports them. These relationships include political contributions, political approval for military spending, lobbying to support bureaucracies, and oversight of the industry. It is a type of iron triangle. The term is most often used in reference to the system behind the military of the United States, where it gained popularity after its use in the farewell address of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 17, 1961, though the term is applicable to any country with a similarly developed infrastructure.
   
Twitter     
Mara Gay
‏@MaraGay
The mayor is warning of a pension crisis in American cities. Talks of a “labor-electoral complex.”
11:45 AM - 18 Dec 13
 
Twitter
NYC Mayor’s Office
‏@NYCMayorsOffice
Mayor: Our pension & health care must be modernized to be sustained. I will stand w/those who will tackle the labor-electoral complex.
11:49 AM - 18 Dec 13
 
Fox News
In last speech, NYC’s Bloomberg decries ‘labor-electoral complex’ around pensions, health care
Published December 18, 2013 Associated Press
Mayor Michael Bloomberg today took aim at the city’s rising pension and health costs, calling what he dubbed the “labor-electoral complex” the most pressing threat to New York in the final major speech as mayor.
 
Speaking in a grand ballroom in front of members of the Economic Club of New York, Mr. Bloomberg said that exploding health and pension benefits for municipal workers threatened to undermine the city’s progress and urged his successor, Bill de Blasio, to push through reforms.
(...)
“More and more mayors and governors in both political parties are asking across the country, which is the first real sign of a crack in the ‘labor-electoral complex’ that has traditionally stymied reform,” he said, dubbing a term aides said was a reference to President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address, in which the ex-president warned of the “military-industrial complex.”
 
New York (NY) Observer—Politicker 
PARTING SHOTS
Bloomberg Sounds Alarm Over ‘Labor-Electoral Complex’ in Final Speech as Mayor
BY JILL COLVIN 12/18 4:20PM  
Mayor Michael Bloomberg today took aim at the city’s rising pension and health costs, calling what he dubbed the “labor-electoral complex” the most pressing threat to New York in the final major speech as mayor.
 
Speaking in a grand ballroom in front of members of the Economic Club of New York, Mr. Bloomberg said that exploding health and pension benefits for municipal workers threatened to undermine the city’s progress and urged his successor, Bill de Blasio, to push through reforms.
 
“Right now our country appears to be in the early stages of a growing fiscal crisis that, if nothing is done, will extract a terrible toll on the next generation,” said Mr. Bloomberg. “It is one of the biggest threats facing cities because it is forcing government into a fiscal straight jacket that severely limits its ability to provide an effective social safety net and to invest in the next generation.”
 
New York (NY) Post
Bloomberg’s warning on the labor-electoral complex
By Post Editorial Board
December 20, 2013 | 1:41am
In one of his last public services to this city, Mike Bloomberg used his farewell mayoral address to underscore a grave threat to Gotham’s future.
 
He called it the labor-electoral complex. What he meant was the way public-sector unions dominate our urban elections, one reason why politicians refrain from doing anything to reform pension costs now gobbling up a greater and greater share of city budgets across America.
 
“Since 2010,” he said, “38 local governments have filed for bankruptcy, largely because of out-of-control pension costs. And more are now flirting with it.”
 
The Wall Street Journal
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
The ‘Labor-Electoral Complex’
Bloomberg coins a phrase that deserves national currency.
Updated Dec. 22, 2013 5:26 p.m. ET
New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is on a valedictory tour as he prepares to leave office at the end of the month, and it’s too bad he saved his best speech for last. The mayor isn’t known as a phrase-maker, but after 12 years in the job he coined a term this week that deserves national currency—the “labor-electoral complex.”
 
That’s how he described the public union political machine that has ruined so many American cities. “We cannot afford for our elected officials to put their own futures ahead of the next…”
 
Twitter
Soquel by the Creek
‏@SoquelCreek
@VictorB123 @pwc1011 I’m well aware. It’s called the “Labor-Electoral Complex” that NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg warned about. It afflicts CA, too.
12:57 PM - 24 Dec 13
 
The Lonely Conservative
GOVERNMENT SPENDING, UNIONS
The “Labor-Electoral Complex” – Michael Bloomberg Got Something Right
by Lonely Conservative • December 24, 2013
Outgoing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the big nanny who wants to control what people eat and drink, finally got something right in coining the term the “labor-electoral complex.” It’s a shame he didn’t spend his tenure as Mayor doing more about it.