It’s campaign season. Our televisions and radios are full of advertisements that tell us about the different candidates trying to win our votes. If you are like me, at the end of some of these ads, you wonder, "Who paid for that?"

Between now and November 3, you might notice a lot of advertising that talks about "giving America a raise" or electing candidates who believe in "protecting American workers" by increasing government regulation of healthcare and other benefits.

While the messages may sound altruistic and appealing, the type of mandates and regulations that these ads discuss are extremely harmful to small businesses - the economic lifeblood of our country. Raising the minimum wage comes at a cost – a cost that small business cannot afford. Healthcare mandates cost, too. And higher costs mean that those least able to afford health insurance (usually small business and its employees) could lose their coverage altogether.

In light of how damaging this type of public policy can be, when you see or hear these ads, think about how much they cost and whose money is paying for them.

No matter how altruistic the ads may sound, the money behind the union political campaign is money that has been involuntarily stripped from the dues of hardworking union members – and not all of those members agree with the politics of those ads!

The ads are really about power. The ads are about big labor bosses getting their friends elected to perpetuate a system that continues to line big labor’s pockets, ignoring the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Beck v. Communications Workers Union. This case won union workers the right NOT to support union political activity.

Beck gave all union members the right to stop the collection of any union fees not related to the costs of collective bargaining. Beck also gave union members the right to join with other workers for the specific purpose of challenging the political activities of union officials.

Campaign season is a good time to remember that Beck is the law, and workers who disagree with those political ads ought to become Beck objectors, keeping the money that he or she earned, spending it as they wish. If only 25 percent of union workers chose to hold onto that dues money that used to go toward politics, Big Labor would lose at least $532 million each year. That’s a lot of TV ads.

The American campaign season should be a season of pride in the American democracy, which ensures a freedom for all of us to shout our political beliefs from the rooftops if we want. This season should not be tainted by the use of campaign funds that were taken, not given. We all work too hard for our money to have someone else use it as their voice.