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Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - Jobs - New Jersey - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

New Jersey’s Gov. Taking on Unions

March 25, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barbara Hollingsworth of the Washington Examiner has a piece celebrating the efforts of New Jersey’s new Governor Chris Christie in his effort to take on the state’s over indulged public employees unions.

Christie has taken on one of the worst budgets in the country and the task ahead of him will be difficult in every way imaginable. Unfortunately, the former Governor, John Corzine, made matters worse by negotiating a deal that will prevent Christie from furloughing state workers until 2011.

But Christie is forging ahead making the cuts he can.
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New Jersey’s Gov. Taking on Unions”

Budget - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - New Jersey - Public Employees Unions - Socialism - Taxes - Truth in Accounting - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

New Jersey Legislators Should Know the FACTS Before Budget Vote

March 24, 2010 by

From Truth In Accounting…

Truth In Accounting Issues New Jersey’s “Financial State of the State”

Today, the Institute for Truth in Accounting released New Jersey’s “Financial State of the State.” The numbers are not good and they are getting worse every day. The state’s bills as of June 30, 2009 were $143 billion and the state had already used $33 billion of assets that were supposed to be set aside to met established legal and contractual obligations. To pay bills and obligations past legislators should have already covered current and future, taxpayers will have to come up with $176 billion—$66,200 per family.

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New Jersey Legislators Should Know the FACTS Before Budget Vote”

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

Cato Study: Unions Violate Freedom

March 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Cato Institute has issued its latest Tax and Budget bulletin, this one centered on public-sector unions. The essence of the report is that public employee unions violate freedom, make government more expensive and inefficient, and the incestuous relationship between unions and politicians takes away power from the voters.

While labor unions do play a diminishing role in the private sector, the study points out that they play are playing an increasingly larger role in government these days through their “vigorous lobbying efforts.” I’d add that they are also playing a larger role due to the personal greed of our politicians who are the happy recipients of large amounts of the campaign donations that unions typically provide, as well.

And it’s all bad for government finds Cato. “Collective bargaining is a misguided labor policy,” the report says, “because it violates civil liberties and gives unions excessive power to block needed reforms.”

To fix this evil, Cato recommends that collective bargaining in the public sector be banned.
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Cato Study: Unions Violate Freedom”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Ranks At Bottom of Best Business Climates in America

March 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois ranks a dismal 45th place in state rankings for the best business climates in the country according to a new study by the Institute for Legal Reform.

The study finds Illinois trailing the rest of the country in legal fairness with a litigation climate that is bad for businesses. Two Illinois counties, Cook County and Madison County, were also found to be the most unfair litigation climate in the nation.

In the press release, ILR says that Illinois is a “jackpot” state.

“Home to two of the most notorious jackpot jurisdictions in America and known for imposing expansive liability, Illinois has rolled out an ‘unwelcome mat’ to business,” said Lisa A. Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. “Illinois needs more jobs, not more lawsuits. Yet, even with an unemployment rate higher than the national average, the state’s anti-business legal climate discourages economic growth at a time when it needs it most.”

This ease at filing and constant upholding of frivolous lawsuits is reprehensible and decimates Illinois jobs just at a time when we need more jobs because of this bad economy.
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Illinois Ranks At Bottom of Best Business Climates in America”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - Stimulus - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Forcing Gov’t Costs to Rise With Union Sop

March 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here we are in an economic downturn and Barack Obama is forcing government costs to rise. The Detroit News has noticed it, too, with a recent editorial on Obama’s absurd “responsible contractor” rule on vendors that contract with the federal government.

This new rule would force all vendors that contract with the government to exist under union rules, union pay scales, and union pensions, whether they belong to a union or not. Even entities that are not unionized will be forced to observe union rules if this plan is implemented.
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Obama Forcing Gov’t Costs to Rise With Union Sop”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

California’s Brown Tells Unions to ‘Attack’ His GOP Opponent

March 19, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

You couldn’t get any better proof that unions are little else but hatchet men for the Democrat Party than Jerry Brown’s recent visit to a labor group meeting in California this week.

At a meeting of the Laborers’ International Union of North America in Sacramento, Brown gave marching orders to the unions in his race for the Democratic nomination for California Governor. He wanted them to “attack” the GOP for him.

“We’re going to attack whenever we can, but I’d rather have you attack. I’d rather be the nice guy in this race. We’ll leave [the attacks] to … the Democratic Party and others.”

That’s a pretty cynical campaign, isn’t it? Brown hopes to unleash the “attack” dogs of the unions in his favor, but expects to stand clear of the mud flying so as to appear untarnished… yet HE’S the guy that ordered the mud to fly in the first place?

Jerry Brown may think the voters are stupid but let’s hope they disabuse him of that notion.
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California’s Brown Tells Unions to ‘Attack’ His GOP Opponent”

Bill Brady - Budget - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Pat Quinn - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Quinn Lies About ‘Losing Middle Class’ Without Unions

March 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Pat “the accidental governor” Quinn told a union crowd that Illinois GOP Gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady would somehow destroy the middle class by his anti-union stance. Quinn also made the essential claim that without unions there’d be no “middle class.”

“We’re not going to have a middle class if we allow a lot of anti-labor, anti-union operators to get in politics and tear to shreds fundamental things we all agree on,” Quinn said. “He doesn’t believe in the minimum wage. He wants to abolish it.”

There is, of course, a glaring error in Quinn’s wild-eyed union claim. As of 2009 union members accounted for only 12.4 percent of America’s workforce. With this fact one wonders how the middle class could be eliminated by anti-union forces when union workers make up such a tiny percentage of the total U.S. workforce already?
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Quinn Lies About ‘Losing Middle Class’ Without Unions”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Federalism - Frank Salvato - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Socialism - Taxes - Welfare

We Simply Can’t Afford Another Entitlement Program

March 18, 2010 by

-By Frank Salvato

Congressional Progressives are arm-twisting, threatening, promising and cajoling each and every member of the Legislative Branch in an effort to advance proposed healthcare insurance reform legislation. They are setting the stage to use the reconciliation process to advance the legislation in the Senate, even though the process was created to address budgetary financial issues, exclusively. And one House member, Louise Slaughter (P-NY), is even concocting procedure that would literally bypass any need for the House to vote on the Senate proposal. The effort that is going into circumventing the will of the American people is wickedly stunning.

But in the end, there is only one question that lawmakers of every political persuasion must ask themselves when it comes time to cast their votes: can we, as a nation, really afford to add another behemoth entitlement program onto the backs of the American taxpayers?

We have heard all of the arguments about how it will and won’t affect healthcare insurance premiums. Ironically, even the Senate Majority Whip, Dick Durbin (D-IL), has come to admit that the Progressive’s healthcare insurance reform legislation will not lower the cost of healthcare insurance premiums and said as much on the floor of the Senate:
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We Simply Can’t Afford Another Entitlement Program”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - DuPage County - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pat Quinn - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Hits Highest Unemployment Rate in 27 Years

March 17, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois has reached an unemployment rate of 12.2 percent. ChicagoBreakingNews says that this is the highest rate in 27 years.

The state’s monthly jobless rate, which soared from last years up from 8.7 percent, outpaced the national rate of 10.6 percent. The U.S. unemployment rate in January 2009 was 8.5 percent. The rates are not seasonally adjusted.

Thank you Governor Pat “union hack” Quinn and President Obama “economy killer” Obama. Good work for the both of you… if you intend the destruction of the country, that is.

(For an ongoing update of unemployment stats, see this National Conference of State Legislatures page.)

Budget - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Media - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Liebau on Unions: ‘The System is Unsustainable’

March 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Carol Platt Liebau posted a piece on RealCleaPolitics.com that also clangs the warning bells over the unsustainable situation that the various states find themselves in between their public employees unions and the states’ fiscal obligations. She focuses on California, but nearly every state in the union is quickly approaching the mess California is in.

Liebau writes of the effort that the teachers union in California led to get kids as young as five-years-old out of school so that they could be bussed to the state capitol in Sacramento in order to protest school budget cuts. Me, I think she races by this outrage too quickly.
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Liebau on Unions: ‘The System is Unsustainable’”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Free Trade - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - President - Senate - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston

‘Restoring’ Unions ‘Right’ to Bargain Collectively

March 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Not long ago union advocate Stewart Acuff penned a piece for the Huffington website that was filled with soaring rhetoric about unions “creating the middle class” and pleading for voters to pressure Congress to pass the absurdly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). He claimed that this piece of… legislation would “restore the right to form unions and bargain collectively.”

Despite Acuff’s urgent pleading, however, he misses an elephant in the room. No one has taken anyone’s “right to collectively bargain” away from them. Of course that wasn’t the only thing that Acuff was factually incorrect about.

Why is it that union folks have to lie about everything, anyway?

Acuff starts out with a whopper.
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‘Restoring’ Unions ‘Right’ to Bargain Collectively”

Budget - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dear Chicago Taxpayer, You Owe Us a Pension so Pay Up

March 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Civic Federation is reporting that every Chicago resident is on the hook for 444 percent more in unfunded retirement pension benefits to city workers than they were a decade ago.

The watchdog Civic Federation said Monday that the funding deficit for the 10 largest Chicago-area public pension funds soared from $3.4 billion in 1998 to $18.5 billion in 2008, the last year for which figures are available.

This is the fault of both politicians for spending the money instead of investing it as well as unions for “negotiating” ever higher and undeserved benefits with each new contract.

But no matter who is at fault, I’d guess that all the perpetrators imagine that the federal government should bail them out when the inevitable collapse arrives.

That way neither the unions nor the profligate democrat politicians will ever have to pay any substantive price.

Only one problem: the US government doesn’t have the cash or credit, either.

I foresee the collapse of pensions all across the county and millions of people that thought they had retirement available for them will find out that it doesn’t exist. A major mess will soon come to town and no one can prevent its arrival.

Both rank and file Democrats and their unions and politicians deserve all the pain coming their way, too.
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Dear Chicago Taxpayer, You Owe Us a Pension so Pay Up”

Budget - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Coming Union Pension Plan Collapse

March 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

At the blog YidWithLid.blogspot.com Sammy Benoit has posted an interesting piece about the mess befalling so many failing union pension funds across the nation. The post includes a very useful chart that shows the trouble in which some of the largest union pension funds find themselves.

The upshot is that these pensions are on the verge of total collapse which will leave millions of retiring union members and those already retired bereft of the pensions that they had assumed would carry them into their golden years.

The list is extremely scary. This is a disaster for many people. But what is the solution? Naturally the unions are hoping that government is the solution. But the problem with a government bailout is that should a bailout happen the unions will not learn the important lesson that they should learn from the necessary collapse, necessary to reign in their excess. Sadly, many will be hurt by this reigning in of unions, but these same members should never have allowed their unions to get so out of hand in the first place!

So, courtesy of YidWithLid…
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The Coming Union Pension Plan Collapse”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Media - Michigan - Public Employees Unions - Rights - SEIU - Socialism - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Support This Detroit Socialist

March 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The left is constantly attempting to wave its hand dismissively at our claims that they are socialists and communists. They claim they are true blue Americans and we are lying about them. Unions are one of the biggest perpetrators of this misinformation.

Well, it appears that in Detroit unions came out in support of a goof ball that claimed himself to be a socialist. They all stood in the Michigan cold saying their “yeas” as he spoke about getting a free university degree, and as he touted a socialist “right” to food and their own house.

Here we see members of the AFT and the SEIU nodding in appreciation of this socialist’s ideas. They stood by his side as he pronounced these socialist “principles.”

Anyone that tells you that unions aren’t socialists and communists needs to explain why unions came out in support of this un-American nut in Detroit.
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Unions Support This Detroit Socialist”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Media - President - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Gov’t Employees Now Make More Than Private Sector Workers

March 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The news we have been warning you about is in. Government workers on average exceed the pay scale of those in private industry. The unsustainable situation is here. It is now clear that Bill Clinton was a bit premature when he said that the “era of big government is over.” Sadly he didn’t count on the era of big Obama to come.

One word explains why this upside down situation has come to fruition: unions.

USA Today is reporting that “the number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession.” The paper finds that workers at the high end of the salary scale are well represented in government. I’d say overly represented.
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Gov’t Employees Now Make More Than Private Sector Workers”

Andy Stern - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Media - President - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

More On Stern’s Appointment to Deficit Reduction Panel

March 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ed Barnes of FoxNews has a nice recap on Barack Obama’s appointment of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Chief Andy Stern to his deficit reduction panel.

Barnes tells us that Obama’s appointment of Stern set off a “round of criticism.” That’s putting it mildly.

President Obama’s decision to appoint his close political ally, union leader Andrew Stern, to the newly created National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has set off a firestorm of criticism from business and conservative groups who charge he is a political radical who should be investigated for failure to register as a lobbyist.

The failure to register as a lobbyist charge is over the fact that Stern was one of the most frequent visitors to the White House but never registered as a lobbyist to legally cover his visits. Whatever the case is concerning the legality of Stern’s constant visits to the Obama White House, those that criticize this appointment couldn’t be more right.
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More On Stern’s Appointment to Deficit Reduction Panel”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Three Current Union Stories

March 5, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Shuffling through the web I see a few current stories that might be of interest to union watchers everywhere…

Pennsylvanians awoke today to a tale from Investor’s Business Daily headlined, “Specter Tells Business He’ll Back Pro-Union Card Check.”

Apparently Benedict Arlen is a yes vote for cloture on the pro-union card check legislation. Not much of a surprise as he’s been very pro-union since his sudden switch to the Democrat Party last year.
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Three Current Union Stories”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Media - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AP: Unions Stymied Under Obama?

March 1, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press posted a story lamenting that Big Labor has failed so far to get Obama to heel by their commands. Big Labor has said “jump” and Obama has but skipped. The article is correct, though, that Big Labor has failed in its two biggest goals: socialist healthcare and card check. At least, they’ve failed so far.

A third failure has also been forced upon Big Labor. As a result of newly seated Republican Senator Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts, Big Labor was not able to install Craig Becker as the head of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Becker was Big Labor’s back up plan in case Congress didn’t pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or the card check bill. Being a former Big Labor lawyer and activist, labor groups expected that if installed as NLRB chief Becker would change rules, alter processes, and invent systems that would implement card check through the back door instead of through actual legislation.
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AP: Unions Stymied Under Obama?”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Elections - Free Trade - GOP - Government - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - SEIU - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Washington

Washington State’s SEIU Bought Republican

February 26, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

On February 24, Moe Lane posted a short piece alerting one and all to the fact that one of the Republican candidates for Washington State’s 3rd Congressional District is a favorite of the hard-core lefties in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — one of Obama’s favorite Big Labors cohorts. Mr. Lane, though, was sure that Jaime Herrera “regrets that endorsement now.” Unfortunately, I am not so sanguine because Herrera has been far more compliant with Big Labor’s goals than is evident from what Lane might have thought was a mere wayward endorsement.

There is a reason, it appears, that the SEIU endorsed Herrera. As a Republican she seems to be far more one of them than one of us at least as far as Big Labor’s needs go!

Moe Lane cited the Clark County Politics blog on the SEIU’s endorsement, but if you don’t want to believe the CCPblog — admittedly a right leaning site — here is a Progressive Voters Guide for Washington and here is the Voters Guide for Equal Rights Washington, both left-wing groups that show SEIU support for Herrera. On top of that here is SEIU Local 1199 NW’s endorsement page which also announces its endorsement of Herrera.

But, let’s address that possible “regret” that Mr. Lane so casually extends to Ms Harrera. Could Lane be right, could it be that Herrera was just by happenstance on the receiving end of an SEIU endorsement and now wishes it never happened? Was it all just an unfortunate incident? I have to say that after looking up some of her votes over the last few years, I must conclude that Herrera was given the thumbs up by the SEIU for a reason. Jaime Herrera was quite a friend to Big Labor.
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Washington State’s SEIU Bought Republican”

Britain - Budget - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Government - Jobs - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

Now The Brits are Having Tea Parties!

February 26, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s just plain odd, but funny and telling all at the same time. Apparently the Brits are going to have their own tea party to protest their own plight of over taxation.

Accordingly, Member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan is sponsoring a Brighton Tea Party to be held on February 27.

Hannan thinks that Brits have had enough of being raked over the coals as their government wastes tax money at a rate even higher than that of America’s profligate government.

The Tea Party Movement in the USA has demonstrated the huge scale of public opposition to excessive taxation. In the UK, tax is much higher and, in addition, British membership of the democratically unaccountable EU raises the issue of “no taxation without representation”. From the Boston Tea Party to the Brighton Tea Party, it’s time to demonstrate our opposition to excessive taxation.

Perhaps you’ll recall Daniel Hannan giving British Prime Minister Gordon Brown the what fer last year? You might also remember that he became an instant celebrity with American conservatives, too!

One of my favorite lines…
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Now The Brits are Having Tea Parties!”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Republicans - Senate - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Fiscal Responsibility Lasted Two Weeks In Senate

February 25, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two weeks ago the U.S. Senate passed new rules that would require new spending to be offset somewhere else in the budget, the so-called paygo rule. They did this because Democrats and Obama got tired of being called big spending socialists and wanted the veneer of fiscal responsibility with which to cloak themselves. It lasted two weeks before the Senate broke its own new Obama-sponsored rule and went headlong for just another big spending program with its supposed jobs bill.

On February 13 President Obama celebrated the paygo rule as a “common sense” rule that would “rein in spending.” Obama then said that the new rule would assure that Congress would be forced to “pay for what it spends, just like everybody else.”

It all sounds so grand. But it wasn’t to last. Maybe that’s why the Senate couldn’t abide by the rule, it was too much “common sense” for them to put up with?
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Fiscal Responsibility Lasted Two Weeks In Senate”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - California - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Jobs - Media - Public Employees Unions - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Public Employees Unions Destroying California

February 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Mark Tapscot echoes our current theme here on the blog by reporting that California is once again in a disastrous budget shortfall and one of the biggest reason that this is so is the undue power of the recalcitrant public employees unions. Tapscot says that California cannot get out of its mess because, “the unions refuse to consider relaxing their death grip on California’s rapidly shrinking legion of tax payers.”

Tapscot thinks that California is coming to realize that the unions are going to have to be confronted in order to solve the spiraling budget woes, but I am doubtful. Looking at the mess from the outside would certainly cause one to draw such a conclusion, but inside the legislature at Sacramento one sees no hint that the unions are becoming the bad guys as they should be.

Still, I hope that Tapscot is right and the California can finally lead the country in a good thing by breaking the public employees unions and, hope of hopes, eliminating them.

And why are these unions so dangerous? Tapscot’s conclusion is a refrain we’ve been touting for years.

It’s not only that public sector unions are driving many state and local governments into fiscal insolvency by forcing them to accept contracts providing compensation benefits that far exceed those in the private sector for comparable work and that cannot be paid for without crippling tax increases.

We agree, of course.

Add this report to the mounting number of individuals coming to the same conclusion we came to here on the blog.
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Public Employees Unions Destroying California”

Colorado - Communism - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Jimmy Carter - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Longtime Dem Consultant Torpedoed by Union Thugs

February 19, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In Democrat political consulting circles Pat Caddell is a big name. One-time adviser to President Jimmy Carter and longtime political strategist for the left, Caddell isn’t someone you throw off a campaign easily. But the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) doesn’t care about past success. It only cares about its power.

After being thrown off the campaign of Colorado Democrat Andrew Romanoff’s campaign for Senate, Caddell spoke to the folks at The Daily Caller and said he’d been axed by the “thugs” at the SEIU.

“What I said about Andy Stern and the SEIU? Sure, they’re thugs,” said Caddell, a former adviser to President Jimmy Carter, who until Monday* had an informal advising role with the primary challenger to incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

“The unions have been considering endorsing Romanoff, and basically they told him that if I was involved with the campaign, ‘sayonara,’ which I think is the definition of thuggery isn’t it?” said Caddell, who has worked for a who’s who of Democratic politicians over the last few decades, including Ted Kennedy, George McGovern, Mario Cuomo and Gary Hart.

I couldn’t agree more. Unions will brook no opposition and even the smallest disagreement marks you for destruction with a union… even if you are on the same political side as they!

He pointed out, as have we — repeatedly — that public employees unions are destroying the country:
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Longtime Dem Consultant Torpedoed by Union Thugs”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Norvell S. Rose - Socialism - Stimulus - Taxes

Liberal Virus Alert! Reprogramming the Language of Job Creation

February 18, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Norvell S. Rose

I thought I would take the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the Obama stimulus package to issue an urgent warning: Don’t let your thinking be infected by the left’s insidious attack on the language of job creation in the United States. We must not allow the destructive virus of big government to reprogram our discourse – how we seek to understand and deal with issues surrounding labor and employment in the American free market.

If we don’t guard against this incessant viral attack, the operating system of our cherished free enterprise will become totally corrupted. And our drive for self-determination will inevitably crash.

Make no mistake – President Obama and his conniving crew are engaged in a purposeful, methodical campaign of thought-bending. Every policy they propose, every discussion they promote, every media move they make – all are designed to establish and implant in our language and culture a new framework for discussing and developing jobs.

That new socialist structure: government = jobs.
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Liberal Virus Alert! Reprogramming the Language of Job Creation”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Status of Obama’s PLA Order

February 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

CNSNews did a story today giving an update on Obama’s Executive Order number 13502 requiring all federal construction projects to operate under Project Labor Agreements (PLAs). Thus far the EO has been stymied by the commission that Obama set up to handle the initiative.

A PLA is a contract agreement that would force union rules, union dues, and union control of any construction project that the federal government undertakes. The PLA rules would even descend upon any non-union labor hired for the work meaning that employees would be forced to pay dues even if they do not belong to a union.

This PLA requirement is only another Obama payoff to unions and the construction industry says that PLAs will make any federal project go over budget, take longer to complete making the projects needlessly expensive.
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Status of Obama’s PLA Order”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Jobs - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How To Become a Millionaire Easy: Become a Gov’t Worker

February 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Having trouble making ends meet? Eating your meals from a dog food can? Lost your job, seen your retirement accounts dwindle or disappear, having a hard time getting work? Millions of Americans are facing these problems. Some, however, aren’t. And those some are government workers, apparently. Unionized government workers at that.

Doug Ross has a very startling post at his website that really brings this home in stark and easy to grasp numbers. Under the rubric of “How’s this for an investment” Ross gives us the following:

You pay a total of $124,000 into your pension plan and, upon retiring at age 49, you receive $3.3 million in pension payments and $500,000 in health care benefits. You receive $3.8 million in total on a $124,000 investment.

You pay a total of $62,000 towards a pension plan and absolutely nothing for health care (medical, dental and vision coverage) over your working career. Upon retirement, you are paid $1.4 million in pension and $215,000 in health care benefits. You receive $1.6 million on a $62,000 investment.

This is what happens when you work for the State of New Jersey as Ross discovered.
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How To Become a Millionaire Easy: Become a Gov’t Worker”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Mayor Richard Daley - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Why Is Chicago losing Trade Shows?

February 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This photo is a great example of why Chicago’s MacCormick Center is cost prohibitive for trade shows and why so many of them have pulled out of the city.

I’ve been to the auto show several times (not this year, but last) and I’ve seen these whateveryoucallthem workers that loll around the show with a plastic bag in one hand and a feather duster in the other. They lazily stroll about occasionally taking a swipe at something with their little duster but other wise just enjoying a nice leisurely stroll about the place.

This woman in this picture and all the union guys that twist in a light bulb, the union guys that plug in an extension cord, the union guys that move things, the union guys that pull the legs down on a fold-up table… each with their own unions and each forced on the exhibitors at union scale of up to $40 an hour.

It makes you realize why these trade shows are leaving Chicago like it was still on fire, fer cripes sakes!

Wouldn’t it make much more sense to have the guys manning the booth to be the ones to keep their own inventory dust free and save the stupid union costs that no one can afford anyway?

Yep, no wonder no one wants to be robbed in Chicago. Who needs Al Capone when we have Richard “King” Daley and his union thug army?
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Why Is Chicago losing Trade Shows?”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Government - Jobs - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

CNBC Slams Obama’s ‘Unholy Alliance’

February 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, CNBC’s Media and Technology Editor, Dennis Kneale, is only the latest to jump my little “Unions are Antithetical to Good Government” bandwagon. Kneale slams Obama’s “unholy alliance” with Big Labor and proclaims it a danger to the country. He couldn’t be more right.

Here is the article: “Obama’s Unholy Union-With Unions”

Here are a few choice quotes:

  • It is an unholy union. It’s bad for business, bad for the economy, bad for our country. Worse, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment, this alliance could lead to bigger government at all levels, which will require higher taxes on everyone (not just the top 5 percent of earners, those grossing $155,000 or more, who already pay 60 percent of federal income tax).
  • Let’s be blunt about it: Unions hurt profits, and that hurts stock prices. The typical union salary is 20 percent to 30 percent higher than the pay for a comparable job in a non-union shop, BLS data show.
  • The unions’ expansion into all levels of government already is having a pernicious impact. Today the average government job pays MORE than the average pay in the private sector.
  • On which side of the bargaining table does President Obama sit — with the union workers, in fat government bureaucracies and old ailing industries, who helped him get elected? Or with the Real Majority — the rest of the people he was elected to represent?
  • My fear is that the answer is all too obvious, and it isn’t the right one.

Now if only I could get them all to pinpoint me as the mastermind of this mantra! I couldda been a contender. Ha, ha.
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CNBC Slams Obama’s ‘Unholy Alliance’”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

NLRB Nominee Stymied

February 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two Democrats joined newly seated Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown Tuesday to uphold the Republican-led filibuster against President Obama’s nomination of Craig Becker to head the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The Democrats that joined the filibuster were Blanche Lincoln (D, Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D, Neb.). Both are thought to face losing their seats in the upcoming 2010 elections over the many left-wing votes they’ve recently cast.

The GOP is against the elevation of Becker to the NLRB Chair because his past statements show that he’ll take the position with a Big Labor agenda firmly in mind.

“Mr. Becker’s previous statements strongly indicate that he would take an aggressive personal agenda to the NLRB, and that he would pursue a personal agenda there, rather than that of the administration,” Senator Nelson said.

The final vote was 52-33, falling short of the 60 that Becker needed to sail out of committee and toward an open vote.
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NLRB Nominee Stymied”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Jobs - Liberals - Maryland - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Maryland’s Toxic Teachers Union

February 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We all know the drill, right? Unions curry favor with compliant politicians, the unions then donate campaign cash to them hoping for political favors later down the line. Yes, that’s the drill… unless you are the Montgomery County, Maryland teachers union. See, in that case candidates are expected to pay the union for its favors, not the other way ’round, apparently.

As the Washington Post says, this upside down relationship “distorts and perverts the political process.” Folks, if even the left-wing Washington Post understands that unions are bad for our democracy, you have to know things have gotten horribly out of hand.

In some unusually harsh language, the WP takes after these union thugs big time:
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Maryland’s Toxic Teachers Union”