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Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - DOL - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Policy - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unemployment - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Tell Obama and Congress to Halt The Assault on Small Business

September 3, 2010 by

From the folks at the Free Enterprise Alliance, a group of free market advocates backed by the construction industry.

Appearing on televisions in places near and far, ABC’s Free Enterprise Alliance this week will launch a new ad asking travelers to look around, find a representative, and tell them to Halt The Assault on free enterprise, small business, and jobs.

The FEA says they’ve booked time at on CNN’s Airport network, so this ad will appear right where our Congressmen are going to be as they make their way home for the holiday!

From the group’s About Us page:

At the heart of the Free Enterprise Alliance’s mission is the belief that while we need government for common sense regulations, the scales have tipped too far in favor of government intrusion and its advocates. The Free Enterprise Alliance believes small business and entrepreneurs grow jobs and our economy, not union bosses and federal bureaucrats.

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Israel - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Military - Paul Ryan - President - Republicans - Stimulus - Taxes - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Report: Pollak for Congress Luncheon raises $150,000 for Campaign (Ill, 9th District)

September 2, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

400 supporters packed the Four Seasons Hotel in beautiful downtown Chicago, Illinois to attend a luncheon for Joel Pollak who is running for Congress from the 9th Congressional District. Pollak’s special guest was Representative Paul Ryan (R, Wis), he of the famous “Roadmap for America’s Future.”

It is encouraging to see so many come out for a Republican candidate in so blue an area as Obama’s home town, Chicago. A wide range of supporters showed from all walks of life.
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Report: Pollak for Congress Luncheon raises $150,000 for Campaign (Ill, 9th District)”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Arrogance of The Public Employee Union Member

August 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a recent story detailing the efforts of 3,000 postal employee union members marching against USPS management in Detroit, one quote by a union member stuck me as wholly emblematic of the arrogance of government employee union members and it shows the disconnect between the real world and the cushy world of government workers.

As the 3,000 postal workers marched against proposed cuts in the U.S. Post office, tucked at the bottom of the Detroit Free Press piece was a quote by post office employee Kim Sauceda, of Tallevast, Florida.

“People have gone from being very confident and sure that this is a lifetime career to now not being so sure.”

Notice how this government employee imagined that her position with the USPS is supposed to be a never ending, permanent job? This shocking sense of entitlement does not exist outside of public employees unions.
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The Arrogance of The Public Employee Union Member”

Barack Obama - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Gary Karl - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Socialism

Communism – The Redistribution of Income – Follow The Money‏

August 29, 2010 by

-By Gary Karl

Article 1 – Unions

There is a clear and present danger in the White House and Congress for the last few years and we are quickly converting to a communist society. As long as I have my first amendment rights and even after that, if it means jail time for defending my constitutional rights as a 1st Amendment scholar, guardian of the constitution and free market, I will continue to write against communism in all of its forms and fight it dying until my last breath.

Even Congressman Michelle Bachmann from MN is quoted in saying that we are officially socialist with 51% of the economy under Federal Government control. General Motors (now jokingly known as Government Motors) had fired its CEO at the request of the Obama Administration. That’s scary

Even Thomas Jefferson, the founding father of the Democratic Party said “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty”. These guys and gals in the White House and Congress are not Democrats, but Communists.
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Communism – The Redistribution of Income – Follow The Money‏”

Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Environment - Jobs - Liberals - Spain - Taxes - UAW - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

UAW Joins Push For ‘Green Jobs’

August 26, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The United Auto Workers has announced that it will join a coalition of unions called the BlueGreen Alliance in an effort to push “green jobs.”

I was amused by what BlueGreen Alliance founder Leo Gerard said of this addition to the group.

“The American auto industry is poised to lead the world in the production of cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars and advanced vehicle technologies,” said Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers, a founder of the BlueGreen Alliance. “The members of UAW, working people who make America’s vehicles, are a welcome addition to our effort to create millions of good jobs while protecting the environment for future generations.”

Notice how he lumps his union pals in with those creating those new “advanced vehicle technologies.” The unions don’t have as much to do with creating that new technology as it does in merely building them after they’ve been designed. He takes a bit more credit than he deserves.

Still, the main problem with this alliance isn’t that they are taking too much credit for other people’s work, it’s that the idea of “green jobs” is a farce in the first place.
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UAW Joins Push For ‘Green Jobs’”

Budget - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - DuPage County - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Kane County - Liberals - Senate - Steve Rauschenberger - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

State Senator Noland Misleads With Untrue Campaign Mailings

August 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The 22nd State Senate District is being badly served by its incumbent Democrat Mike Noland. Several of the campaign fliers that Noland has sent out to his constituents are filled with half truths and untruths and one of his emailed campaign solicitations was listed as being sent from his taxpayer-funded offices in Springfield and Elgin, a violation of campaign finance laws.

In one flier, Noland claimed he “affected change” in three major areas – creating jobs, achieving ethics reform and fighting for tax relief.

Noland claimed he created jobs by being the chief sponsor of a microloan program for small businesses. But that fact is the bill he sponsored, while it did pass, had all the microloan language stripped from it before passage. As it happens Noland didn’t create a single opportunity as he claimed. His bill was materially altered making his flier claim an outright lie.

The same flier also claims that Noland got “$40 million and 500 jobs for Harper College.” But this is a half truth. While the state did include the $40 million in its future projects, the fact is no $40 has been allocated and the “future projects” plans are not assured to ever be funded. This project may never be funded at all so Noland’s claims are premature at the very least.
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State Senator Noland Misleads With Untrue Campaign Mailings”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Destroy Calif. Pension Reform Bill

August 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Like most bills, the legislation meant to reform California’s failing public pension system started out stronger than it ended up. But unlike most bills the final bill has been so gutted, so defanged, that it leaves the pension system in a worse mess than it was when the bill was introduced. Not surprisingly unions are the culprits.

One of the things that the bill was supposed to stop was the practice of “pension spiking.” This is the practice of government workers getting a sudden raise in position, salary and benefits just as they are about to retire. This sudden raise, often instituted only weeks or months before retirement, allows the employee to retire at a higher pension rate than they would have with their last, normal salary.
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Unions Destroy Calif. Pension Reform Bill”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Children - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Nancy Pelosi - Pensions - Politicians - Public Employees Unions - Stimulus - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Union Bailout: A Good Crisis Going to Waste

August 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even the New York Times can’t ignore the fact that Obama’s latest union bailout cash isn’t going to help anyone keep their jobs, and The New York Times is really good at ignoring things that make Democrats look bad.

A few weeks ago Nancy Pelosi called the House of Representatives back into a special session because there was a crisis in education, don’t you know. It was a crisis that she didn’t want to go to waste, naturally. As Speaker of the House she had the power — one likely to evaporate with the 2010 elections — to help Barack Obama give his union pals another $26.1 billion of the taxpayer’s money and she couldn’t resist the urge to fill pockets with other’s people’s money at least one more time.

Early in August, Pelosi triumphantly announced on her Twitter feed, “I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers’ jobs and help seniors & children.”

We’re helping old people, it’s for the children, we are saving teacher’s jobs. It’s a crisis that we can’t ignore, darn it! Yes, Rahm, it’s also a crisis that we can’t let go to waste.
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Obama’s Union Bailout: A Good Crisis Going to Waste”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Law - Liberals - Regulation - States - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

Welfare Bureaucrats Swarm Like Locusts Upon The States

August 20, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Mark Tapscott has an odd idea of a fun time, but I’m glad he does. He was casually tooling through the info posted on the website of the U.S. Census Bureau and decided to see how many welfare bureaucrats there were working in the states. I know, I know, Tapscott needs to take up bowling or something. But, still, the numbers he found are instructive.

He found, for instance, that out of every 100,000 residents, the State of New York has 256 welfare bureaucrats and Wisconsin has 249. That’s quite a number, isn’t it?

That means that New York, having 19,541,453 residents, has at least 50,026 welfare bureaucrats feeding off the taxpayers. Wisconsin, why it employs 14,080 welfare workers.

These number are, well, idiotic. But they are true nonetheless.
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Welfare Bureaucrats Swarm Like Locusts Upon The States”

Budget - Chicago - Children - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

New Chicago Teachers Union Head is Same-Old-Same-Old

August 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

New Chicago public teachers union chief Karen Lewis could have come into office as a visionary that would bring some sanity to teachers union bloated demands in this era of the worst economy since the Great Depression. She could have seen the good sense of lowering expectations. She could have taken the stance of refusing to take pay raises for Chicago’s teachers as a motion of good faith in negotiating. Unfortunately, Lewis has proven herself to void of vision and stuck in the 1990s by continuing obscene union demands of constant raises and ever greater perks for union members.

In a day when unions are losing the last shred of good will that they once enjoyed in the public, Karen Lewis stood stiff-necked and refused to compromise with Chicago School head Ron Huberman. Lewis rejected giving up an automatic 4% raise in exchange for preventing layoffs.

She’d rather grab for the cash than save teacher’s jobs.
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New Chicago Teachers Union Head is Same-Old-Same-Old”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Win The Lottery, Work for the Government

August 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s settled. People that play the lottery should lay down their scratchoff coins and take up an employment application to work for the government. After all, winning the lottery is a one-in-a-million proposition but if you get a job with the government your hitting the lottery seems to be a sure thing.

USA Today is reporting that federal workers are earning double their private sector counterparts these days. So, you see, all you have to do to get rich, apparently, is to go to work for government.

The reports tells us that federal workers have been the lucky recipients of bigger than average pay and benefit increases than those of the private sector for the last nine years in a row. It also finds that “the compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.”
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Win The Lottery, Work for the Government”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - Jobs - President - Republicans - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

New GOP Video: Deficit of Hope

August 10, 2010 by

“The American people have seen who is benefiting from Obama’s economy and it isn’t them. Barack Obama’s looming tax hikes on small businesses, job-killing regulations, and big government takeovers have created an economic climate saturated with uncertainty that is keeping employers from hiring. As a result, unemployment remains near 10 percent, nearly one in five Americans cannot find adequate work, and more people are losing their homes. In the meantime, President Obama has insisted upon leaving behind a mountain of debt and record deficits for future generations to pay. If Obama’s economy is all Democrats have to offer, the American people will vote to fire Nancy Pelosi and put this Democratic Congress out of business.”
– RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Not bad. The only thing I can say is that the lettering on the chryon should have been a tad larger to fill up the screen better. They get a little lost when you have to downsize the video to 400 pixels. Still, it’ll work.

Of course, there is one more aspect to this campaign season that is amazing if you think about it. Did you ever think that the GOP would be able to campaign against Obama himself? When he won that great election victory in 2008 and as he campaigned how the Old Media destroyed anyone that spoke against him as a “racist,” I’d have thought then that the GOP would never be able to run against Obama himself. But with the socialist direction he’s taken, with his tone deaf left-wingism, with his utter failure on the economic front — nearly a constant 10% unemployment rate — with his massive failures overseas with foreign policy, with his failure to even satisfy his extremist left-wing voting base by putting all their pet policies into place… the guy is a major disaster.

So, after one of the biggest electoral victories in decades, now he’s done so poorly in just a year and a half that the GOP has no fear at all of actually running against the president himself. Instead of merely alluding to him, they can level a finger directly in his face.

If nothing else, this fact alone shows what a failure Obama’s been. He’s utterly squandered his near total authority as the right man for the job. He’s fallen so far that his opponents no longer fear invoking his name as an example of failure.

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Outrageous Pensions Turning Ill. Teachers into Millionaires

August 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at Champion News Bill Zettler has been doing a fantastic job of following and chronicling the completely out of control pensions of Illinois public employees and this week he asks why Governor Quinn wants to raise taxes just to make millionaires of retiring teachers.

Zettler found two teachers that will be making in excess of a million dollars in pension payouts.

Check out this obscene total:
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Outrageous Pensions Turning Ill. Teachers into Millionaires”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - El Salvador - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Ohio - President - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Ohio’s Dem. Gov. Gave Stimulus $$ to Co. That Exported Jobs to El Salvador

August 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

What was it that Democrat President Barack Obama told us about the stimulus? Oh, yeah that it would “save or create” American jobs. Seems like a good idea, right? So what happened in Ohio when Democrat Governor Ted Strickland got his mitts on some of Obama’s stimulus cash? Why he gave it to a company to fund a call center that is operating out of El Salvador, Central America, of course.

Jobs for Americans? Heck no, jobs for El Salvadorans! And why? Because it was a good deal, you see?

Earlier this year Governor Strickland’s Department of Development awarded a $171,300 contract to a company named Parago. This company was hired by the state to operate a call center that Ohio residents can call to take advantage of a rebate program that the state set up so that Buckeyes could buy new household appliances and get a little sumpthin’ back.

Apparently everything was going wonderfully for most of this year until one Ohio resident happened to ask one of the El Salvadoran phone jockeys where the call center was at which they were taking the calls. When the Buckeye was told Central America, said resident became incensed that federal “stimulus” money was going to fund jobs in El Salvador instead of in the United States — like Obama promised it would.
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Ohio’s Dem. Gov. Gave Stimulus $$ to Co. That Exported Jobs to El Salvador”

Budget - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Policy - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

As They Live off Us, Some Federal Workers Pocket Fraudulent SS Benefits

August 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

News has emerged today of an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that has discovered hundreds of federal workers who are pocketing fraudulent Social Security disability payments. This is doubly galling, to say the least. Not only are these federal workers living off we the taxpayers, but now they are stealing from us outright.

The Government Accountability Office issued a report that showed at least 1,500 federal employees may have wrongly received benefits. The group’s investigation, which focused on two Social Security programs for people who have limited incomes due to disabilities, found several specific cases in which beneficiaries were earning well above the income cap while still receiving benefits. In one case, a Transportation Security Administration screener was overpaid $108,000, according to the report.

Worse, none of this fraud was uncovered by the Social Security Administration and the internal controls it has set up to catch this sort of stuff.

The GAO also found other fraud.
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As They Live off Us, Some Federal Workers Pocket Fraudulent SS Benefits”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Law - Liberals - Morals/Sex - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

As Fellows Lose Jobs Union Fights For Stiffer Drug Benefits: Free Viagra

August 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Unions have for years been figuring out new ways to screw employers and in Madison, Wisconsin a teacher’s union is looking for yet another way to slam it to the taxpayers by insisting that they get a free Viagra drug benefit.

In this bad economy, with states going bankrupt right and left, with teachers being laid off all across the country are Wisconsin’s teachers getting serious about negotiations and thankful they have a job at all? Apparently not, because in this dismal employment environment these teachers are trying to get free sex enhancement drugs.

The amorous union has demanded that a judge order the administration to reinstate the Viagra drug benefit that was sliced from the budget in 2005 to save money. And this demand comes at the same time that 482 teachers in Milwaukee have received layoff notices.
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As Fellows Lose Jobs Union Fights For Stiffer Drug Benefits: Free Viagra”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Lake County - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Good News: Big Money to be Made in Illinois. Bad news: it’s in Government

August 2, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

With recent revelations that the city manager of the small, mostly low-income Hispanic community of Bell, California makes nearly $800,000 a year and that its police chief makes almost $500,000 yearly, the spotlight might be leveled at city employees all across the country. Illinois, as it happens, is no better for the squandering of such cash, it appears.

On July 31, the Chicago Tribune reported that the an executive of the Highland Park, Illinois park district makes $435,203 a year. And then there were the big bonuses.
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Good News: Big Money to be Made in Illinois. Bad news: it’s in Government”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Is The American Middle Class Disappearing?

August 1, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michael T. Snyder has a disheartening piece in the New York Post today that lays out 25 statistics that shows that the American middle class is dying. Snyder tells us his statistics “prove that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.” Further he says, “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate.”

Snyder’s main point is that increasing government regulations on business is making it more and more expensive to employ people and that, in turn, is causing middle income jobs to disappear.

This echos the recent post I made where economics professor Richard Timberlake said that this current recession was made by overweening government regulations not by a failure of the market.
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Is The American Middle Class Disappearing?”

Budget - California - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Schwarzenegger Again Orders Furloughs for State Workers

July 31, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

California has been ground zero in the war between over paid state employees unions and government budgetary concerns and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has leveled yet another salvo in that battle by again ordering more furloughs for state workers.

After ending the previous program to furlough 200,000 state workers the Governor has introduced a scaled back plan after the state controller reported that state accounts would be in the red by October.

Unlike the last time, Schwarzenegger’s newest attempt is open ended and will end “when lawmakers pass a 2010-11 budget.” There are other differences in this scaled back plan including thousands of new employee exemptions.
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Schwarzenegger Again Orders Furloughs for State Workers”

Budget - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Attacking Fellow Union for Concessions

July 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Engineers and Architects Association, a 48,000 member public employees union in L.A., has come under attack from the politically active Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for having the civic sense to realize that the high times of ever rising pay at the taxpayer’s expense is coming to an end.

In a deal about to be voted on, the Engineers and Architects Association agreed to present to its members a new contract that would require them to pay a whopping extra $10 per visit to the doctor (that will put it up to $20 per visit). Also gone would be the $15 a month to “enhance their life insurance and disability insurance” paid by the city. Finally, union members would have to pay five percent of their monthly healthcare premiums.
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SEIU Attacking Fellow Union for Concessions”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Liberals - New York - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Bought and Paid For Gov. Finds Doing Right Thing Hard

July 28, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The unions in New York have the idea that they own state government. It’s not too easy to deny their claim seeing as how unions (all of them) have been paying the bills and filling the pockets of ruling Democrats for decades now.

But Accidental Governor of New York David Paterson is finding himself in a quandary, one that more and more politicians are finding themselves in these days. These pols are finding that doing the right thing is hard when all your financial backers don’t want you to do the right thing at all.

Like most deep blue states, New York is about bankrupt without having to say it out loud. Its financial responsibilities far out pace its treasury. From state pensions, welfare, Medicaid and healthcare, to the simple day-to-day operations of operating a government, New York State is unable to pay its way.
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Bought and Paid For Gov. Finds Doing Right Thing Hard”

American Enterprise Institute - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Card Check - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unemployment - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AEI: More Unions Means Fewer Jobs

July 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In April Lee Ohanian of the American Enterprise Institute published a paper on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that is a must read. But this month he published a shorter piece that is just as interesting. In it, Ohanian claims that if we increased unionism as the Obamaites want to do, we’d actually lose jobs; 4.5 million of them to be precise.

Obama has spent his entire year in office (hard to believe this much destruction only took a year) looking for ways to pay unions big dividends and despite that Congress has been dragging its feet on unions’ most cherished legislative agenda, the EFCA, Obama has been bending over backwards for them (as we discussed here).
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AEI: More Unions Means Fewer Jobs”

Business - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Jobs - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Lazy Union Hires Scabs to Protest For Them

July 21, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Disrupting a business and trying to extort them for undeserved riches is a tough job. It really makes a union thug tired, you know? So, what to do, what to do? Well, because protesting an employer is such tiring work, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters Union came up with the perfect solution: hire non-union scabs to man the picket lines in D.C.

The Wall Street Journal has the sordid tale:

the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line outside the McPherson Building, an office complex here where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.

“For a lot of our members, it’s really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else,” explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So, while these carpenters make $24 an hour and up — not including benefits — the union is paying their non-union stand-in protesters a whopping $8.25 an hour… oh, and no benefits.

In the real world this is called hypocrisy.
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Lazy Union Hires Scabs to Protest For Them”

California - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Calif: Union Goons Start Pushing and Hitting Videographers

July 20, 2010 by

This is how “nurses” act? The kind, gentle folks of the California Nurses Association are seen in this video intimidating, pushing and knocking around some videographers at the union’s recent pro-Democrat rally in California.

Mike Griffing is the bearded fellow acting the thug at the end of the video. But he isn’t just some run-of-the-mill union tough. He’s the CNA’s Director of Collective Bargaining! That’s right, he’s an official of high status one that makes almost $164K a year, as Moe Lane found out.

If this is how officials of unions act… well, what does that say about their legitimacy?

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Jobs - Lake County - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

For All Teachers’ Whining, Almost Half of Chicago Area Teachers Make $100K a Year

July 19, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the Obama economy tumbles farther and farther down into depression, as states begin to face the reality of a budget crunch that can only be solved by layoffs of public employees, and as teachers find they are open to those layoffs, we commonly hear teachers claim that they are perennially underpaid and don’t deserve layoffs. Yet the Chicago Tribune has found that nearly half the teachers in many of Chicago’s ritziest suburbs are making over $100,000 a year in salary.

The Tribune reviewed the salary information of 132,000 Illinois teachers and in Highland Park, Deerfield, Park Ridge, Hinsdale, and other Chicago area suburbs it found that in some cases half the teachers — and in other cases over 40% — make $100K yearly (not including benefits) even as the educational system in Illinois crying poor and cutting staff.
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For All Teachers’ Whining, Almost Half of Chicago Area Teachers Make $100K a Year”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pat Quinn - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

After Giving Raises, Now Ill. Gov Cuts Staffer’s Pay

July 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If this isn’t a reed-in-the-wind sort of move, I’m not sure what is? If you’ll recall a few weeks ago Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn was left trying to explain why he was giving his staffers big raises even as he was gallivanting about the state saying how we are out of money and that we’d need to cut the budget. Well this week he is cutting staffer’s pay giving them more furlough days.

After giving out raises, now Quinn is trying to save face from that tone deaf move and requiring his staffers to endure 24 furlough days this year instead of the previous 12 day cut.

And Quinn is now putting up a grand show of his seriousness on fiscal issues by hectoring every government office to make such cuts.
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After Giving Raises, Now Ill. Gov Cuts Staffer’s Pay”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Communism - Congress - Constitution - Crime - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Taxes

The Final Straw

July 16, 2010 by

-By Dan Scott

There comes a point in time when the cumulative actions of an individual or regime has become so outrageous that not only do they need to be called out but removed from a position of power. Over the past 19 months the country has endured a litany of embarrassment, missteps and outright criminality. The Obama regime has finally if not inevitably gone too far.

Among the many questionable actions of the Obama regime the country has been forced to endure is the continuing failure in regards to the oil spill clean up. Not only was the regime inept in its handling of the clean up by refusing help from foreign countries with the proper equipment, continually impeded clean up efforts via it’s numerous bureaucracies and then attempted to politicize one of the largest environment disasters in US history for Obama’s pet agenda item, namely Cap & Trade. To rub salt into the wound, Obama’s legal team has repeatedly attempted to put tens of thousands more people out of work via an oil-drilling moratorium. So far the Courts have struck down two attempts and Obama is trying again a third time. The effect of this latest behavior has just sent one oil-drilling rig off to Egypt with others sure to follow. To sum up Obama’s actions regarding the oil spill is incompetence. We are not talking about simple straightforward incompetence mind you, but stubbornly willful incompetence since Obama has yet to demonstrate he has actually “learned” anything from this experience. As you can see the use of the word “Administration” is a joke when recounting Obama’s actions and therefore the word regime is a far better descriptor.
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The Final Straw”

Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - New York - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

No Problems With Union Nap Time

July 15, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Do you get paid to sleep on the job? The union employees of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority apparently do. And if caught sleeping on the job, the punishment seems to be just a slap on the wrist, a wink and a nod, and business as usual afterward. All at $33 dollars an hour of the taxpayer’s money.

Must be nice “work” if you can get it?

Arnold Ahlert tells us of parking lots filled with MTA employee’s cars many of which contain pillows and blankets, supervisors locking themselves in offices for a soothing nap, and unions fighting to prevent any attempt to stop the outrageous practice of union members sleeping on the job.

Ahlert is yet another voice echoing our contention that unions are antithetical to good government.
Continue reading “

No Problems With Union Nap Time”

Bill Brady - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pat Brady - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

WATCH: Governor Quinn: ‘But that’s just how it works…’

July 13, 2010 by

From Bill Brady for Governor and the Illinois GOP…

Pay hikes for state government executives during a fiscal crisis is outrageous, but Governor Quinn? He defends his executive pay hikes, telling viewers on Chicago Tonight, “… that’s how it works.”

If Pat Quinn is serious about controlling state spending, he should immediately enact a wage freeze on state government payroll, and reverse his pay hikes for his executive staff today.