You can tell Obama still has a lot of Chicago in him just by watching how blatant the cronyism and favoritism is in his government.

In Chicago, they just don't care who knows how crooked they are. In fact, a sneering comeback heard often in the windy city from Machine pols is "prove it" - as in, you can't touch me legally.

The SEIU spent tens of millions of dollars to get Obama elected and the Chicago Way says, you don't forget your friends when it comes time to hand out the goodies:

Three local chapters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), whose political action committee spent $27 million supporting Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, have received temporary waivers from a provision in the Obamacare law.

The three SEIU chapters include the Local 25 in Obama's hometown of Chicago.

The waivers allow health insurance plans to limit how much they will spend on a policy holder's medical coverage for a given year. Under the new health care law, however, such annual limits are phased out by the year 2014. (Under HHS regulations, annual limits can be no less than $750,000 for 2011, no less than $1.25 million in 2012 and no less than $2 million in 2013.)

Recall that Daniel Stern, former President of the Union, was Obama's most frequent guest at the White House in 2009. Access to the most powerful office in the world also gets you special treatment by government when needed.

I think Obama just guaranteed himself another couple of hundred million for his re-election.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky