How bad an idea is the "card check" bill Democrats have introduced to force workers to vote yea or nay on unions right in front of their peers?

It's such a bad idea that, with the mere threat of the legislation, Citigroup downgraded the stock of Wal-Mart, the world's leading retailer.

The bill would be even more damaging to small business. And it would put a knife in the back of an economy already staggering from a housing and banking crisis.

Barack Obama says he wants to create jobs. This bill will be a job destroyer. An increasingly union-laden American business and industry sector will buckle under the weight of union wages, benefits and inflexibility. Companies will close or flock to the borders.

Consider: the areas where unions are strongest -- government, public education and the U.S. automobile industry -- are some of the costliest, worst-performing sectors in our economy.

The National Association of Manufacturers estimates the bill would cost the country 600,000 jobs in 2010.

This is what Big Labor and its friends in the Democratic Party want to spread around?

Again, just the threat of it is costing businesses, which are feeling it necessary to embark on a $200 million campaign to block the co-called "card check" bill that would strip workers of secret ballots and "allow" them to sign off on becoming unionized in front of union bosses.

It sounds like something out of the old Soviet Union. But it's actually being considered by the Democratic Congress in Washington.

Thankfully, big-name Democrats are joining Republicans in opposing this anti-American job-killer known, Orwellian enough, as the "Employee Free Choice Act."

The president and his friends in Congress need to make a decision. They can't claim to be pro-jobs while pushing a bill that is anti-business.

Or perhaps they don't know where jobs come from?