Stepping to the microphone during Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the gallingly misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act” will be Lawrence Mishel, head of the Economic Policy Institute. He may have the toughest job of all – to make union bosses’ math work so that 2 + 2 equals a banana. But it’s his job, because the “Institute” is little more than a front for labor leaders, who are desperate to push EFCA through Congress as a last-ditch effort to stave off declining membership.

The funding for the “Institute” is a who’s who of union largesse:

• $150,000 from the AFL-CIO, according to its most recent financial disclosure to the Department of Labor
• As The Wall Street Journal noted in October, “The Economic Policy Institute received $100,000 from the SEIU and $40,000 from the UFCW in 2005” – UFCW’s new financial figures from last week show another $48,000 for 2006
• $150,000 from the National Education Association for its 2006 fiscal year
• An eye-popping $550,000 from the American Federation of Teachers in 2005, plus another $160,000 in 2006

A quick look at the organization’s board of directors is even more telling. Gerald McEntee, the well-paid boss of AFSCME, is the chairman of the board. Here are some of the members of the labor front’s illustrious board:

• Machinists president Thomas Buffenbarger
• CWA president Larry Cohen
• Steelworkers president Leo Gerard
• UAW president Ron Gettelfinger
• AFT president Ed McElroy
• AFL-CIO number-two Richard “I Plead the Fifth” Trumka
• UNITE HERE president Bruce Raynor
• SEIU president Andy Stern