Jobs

Budget - Business - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Beware When They Say a Government Program Will ‘Make Money’

December 28, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The New York Times had a small story that it likely thought was just an amusing little tale of a quirky government program from Los Angeles. Centered on the gift shop run by the L.A County Coroner’s Department, the Times indulged such lines as “we’re dying for your business,” and headlined the piece “Dealing in Death, and Trying to Make a Living.” But one little part of the story should serve as a warning not to believe any politician or government hack that says their office or project will “make money.”

According to the Times the gift shop at the L.A. Coroner’s office was initially started in the early 1990s when a secretary working for the county noticed that mugs and T-shirts with the county coroner’s logo on them were popular items at forensics conferences. The county thought that a gift shop would be a moneymaker and when the coroner’s office floated the idea to the county government it claimed that the money the shop would make would pay for an anti-drunken driving course for teens.

Turns out it’s the ‘tother way ’round.
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Beware When They Say a Government Program Will ‘Make Money’”

Americans for Tax Reform - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - Liberals - President - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

ATR: Why Business Extenders in the Tax Deal Aren’t Earmarks, TARP, Pork, Etc.

December 13, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Americans for Tax Reform has a must read piece on some of the provisions in the tax deal that Obama is trying to work out with Republicans. Many on the left are saying that the business extenders in the deal are pork, or are an earmark, or are even “costing the government.” Ryan Ellis explains why these claims are incorrect re the business extenders.

The first thing he mentions is that business extenders aren’t new to this tax deal and that they’ve been around for a long time. For the left and the Old Media to be focusing on them as if they are new policy is simply wrong.

In any case, whatever else is wrong with this idea — such as the pork that is being added every other hour at this point — the business extenders are not a detraction here.
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ATR: Why Business Extenders in the Tax Deal Aren’t Earmarks, TARP, Pork, Etc.”

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

Unemployment Worst since the Great Depression, NOT Getting Better

December 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Don’t believe a word of the happy talk you hear from the Obama Administration when they say that the jobs situation is getting better. It isn’t.

In fact, the current job loss stats are the worst since the years right after the Great Depression and it is not getting better.

The CalculatedRiskBlog had this disheartening graph showing that the jobs situation is worse than every down turn from 1948 to date.

What the graph also shows is that, contrary to what the administration is constantly saying, jobs have flattened out and are not coming back at this time. The other dips in previous recessions show that jobs came back fairly quickly, but this time they are not coming back.

CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE

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Unemployment Worst since the Great Depression, NOT Getting Better”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Happy As Hell About That Tax Deal With GOP

December 7, 2010 by

This just in, President Obama was thrilled to announce the deal he made with the Republicans to further cement Bush’s legacy tax rates.

Why, just look at the giddy happiness with which he made the announcement…

Business - Capitalism - Competitive Enterprise Institute - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Public Employees Unions - Right To Work - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Video: CEI’s Vincent Vernuccio on Where Union Dues Go

November 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Vincent Vernuccio of the Competitive Enterprise Institute appeared on Fox Business Channel’s “Follow the Money” show and talked a little bit about where the dues that union members pay goes.

Fox Business only gave a snippet of the video that CEI made so here is the full video.

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Video: CEI’s Vincent Vernuccio on Where Union Dues Go”

Budget - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

States that Force Union Membership Losing Population to Those that Don’t

November 19, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Americans for Tax reform have done a study (download .pdf) that shows a very interesting trend. States that are losing population the fastest are predominantly those that force employees to join unions as a condition for employment while those that are growing are mostly states that feature right to work rules.

Because congressional representation is measured by population, those states whose population has shrunk will lose seats and those that are growing will gain them. ATR looked at those states losing congressional seats in the coming reapportionment and compared them to states that are gaining seats and found some interesting things where it concerns taxes and unions.

The average top personal income tax rate among gainers is 116 percent lower than among losers. The total state and local tax burden is nearly one-third lower, as is per capita government spending. In eight of ten losers, workers can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. In 7 of the 8 gainers, workers are given a choice whether to join or contribute financially to a union.

As ATR notes, this shows that conservative fiscal policies spurs economic growth, creates jobs, and helps a state grow.
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States that Force Union Membership Losing Population to Those that Don’t”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Minimum Wage - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Minimum Wage-Pushing Democrats Don’t Pay Congressional Interns

November 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Hypocrisy, they name is Democrat. Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy has laid bare another example of the hypocrisy of Congressional Democrats. In this case while those representatives that are all hot and bothered to push an ever rising minimum wage law are making noise about how inequities exist in the workplace, these same congressmen are sponsoring unpaid internships in their own offices.

How can one be all for the control of wages from Washington D.C. and feel that business should not be allowed to set its own pay rates, yet at the same time offer only unpaid internships in your own offices> It is a hypocrisy that is at once galling and awe inspiring for its brazenness. Yet this is where our out-of-touch, arrogant Congress has come to.

There is nothing wrong with an unpaid or a low paid internship, to be sure. Back in 1981 I served as a $50 a week intern at Chicago Magazine as a way to get some experience in the publishing industry. The money was sort of pointless, really. It wasn’t even enough to buy lunch for the week! But it made sense to me to do this and it makes sense for those with political leanings to get their young feet wet in a congressman’s office to see how it all works and to make contacts for the future.
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Minimum Wage-Pushing Democrats Don’t Pay Congressional Interns”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Senate - Taxes - Unemployment - Warner Todd Huston

Unemployment Worsens: What Happened to 3.5 Million Workers, Mr. President?

November 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge asks an interesting question about the latest jobs data that the Obama administration has released to the public — and to a mostly unquestioning Old Media. As Durden calculates it, 3.5 million workers have mysteriously disappeared from the work force. If this is true then the unemployment rate is a lot higher than that being bandied about by the administration.

According to Durden the data show that there is actually a workforce of 157.4 million workers as opposed to the 153.9 million that the administration has claimed. So, where did 3.5 million workers go?

Durden says, “labor force participation has now dropped to the lowest rate it has been since 1984, at 64.5%. Assuming a reversion to the long-term average participation rate of 66%, means that the civilian labor force is in reality 157.4 million as opposed to the disclosed 153.9 million, a delta of 3.5 million currently unaccounted for.”

After that, Durden had a question for President Obama. “Maybe someone can ask the president during his imminent press conference what happened to the unemployed population, which would have been 18.3 if this labor force delta was incorporated, resulting in an unemployment rate of 11.6%.”

Would it be a surprise if the Obama administration has fiddled with the numbers to present a false image of just how bad it is out there?
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Unemployment Worsens: What Happened to 3.5 Million Workers, Mr. President?”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Money - President - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Said ‘Things Will Get Better,’ For This Woman They Didn’t

November 5, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last January, Jennifer Cline sent a letter to President Obama telling him of her woes. She had been diagnosed with two kinds of cancer, she lost her job and was about to lose her home. Surprisingly the president wrote her back and told her that “things will get better.”

Apparently they haven’t.

Cline has been forced to sell Obama’s letter to an historical autographs dealer for $7,000 to try and help her over the hump because things have gotten no better for the woman and her family in the nearly nine months since she sent her original letter.
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Obama Said ‘Things Will Get Better,’ For This Woman They Didn’t”

AFSCME - Chicago - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Give More Campaign $$ To Dems Than Corporations To GOP

October 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The left’s meme about campaign contributions since the Supreme Court beat down some of the McCain/Feingold Act has been that the Republicans are awash in illicit political donations from those eeevil corporations — and unfair donations at that — and this puts the poor Democrats at a disadvantage. Why all those evil rich corporate raiders are burying the Democrats, dontcha know?

The truth is a far different animal, however, as Democrats haven’t lost a step in fund raising due to the millions upon millions that their favorite special interest have given them. The fact is unions have donated far, far more to Democrat politicians than corporations have mustered for Republicans.
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Unions Give More Campaign $$ To Dems Than Corporations To GOP”

Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Postal Workers Union Election on Hold Over Ballots Lost in the Mail

October 7, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The incompetence of public employee unions strikes again. The American Postal Workers Union has been forced to extend its election because too many mail-in ballots have yet to get to their final destination. That’s right, the postal workers election is on hold because the post office lost the ballots in the mail.

The union’s election committee was supposed to be counting those ballots this week in downtown Washington, D.C., following a tradition mail-in election. But the union announced that only about 39,000 ballots were turned in — and that “a large number of union members had not received their ballots.”

Government workers doing their normal substandard work, eh?

And these are the same people that want to takeover our healthcare?
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Postal Workers Union Election on Hold Over Ballots Lost in the Mail”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Military - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Feds Build $1 Billion Virginia Office Complex Without Parking Or Roads to Get To It

October 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The federal government has built a one billion dollar office complex in Virginia to house some 6,400 Pentagon workers that are to be moved soon. It’s a beautiful new office complex that rises like a mountain next to Northern Virginia’s I-395. But there are a few little problems. There is no parking for one thing and for another, even if there was a parking lot for 6,400 workers, there are no roads to GET them there!

That’s right, there is no access that won’t cause tremendous traffic jams for the area. Worse, there aren’t any bus or Metro train stops anywhere near the building so workers cannot even take advantage of the Washington area’s extensive public transportation network to get to their new offices.

Since the problem was fully realized the state and the feds have been arguing back and forth about the traffic problem all to no avail. No ramp from the highway has been built because the plan offered put that ramp too close to a nature area and no local roads can handle the additional traffic for 6,000 some workers.
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Feds Build $1 Billion Virginia Office Complex Without Parking Or Roads to Get To It”

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

Unions: Democrat’s Own Extremists Taking The Local Parties Over?

September 27, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michael Barone, one of media’s sharpest observers of America’s political scene, has noted an interesting trend in Democrat politics: unions are knocking out regular liberal Democrats in America’s big cities. Barone calls it a civil war raging in the Democrat Party.

He points to several big city campaigns in which unions rose up to defeat the “gentry liberals,” as Barone calls them, and have replaced them in primaries with union backed, ultra liberals. For proof Barone points to several races in New York, Maryland, and Washington D.C.

In each there was a split between the public employee unions that do so much to finance Democratic campaigns and the gentry liberals who provide Democratic votes in places like Manhattan, the Montgomery County suburbs of Maryland, and Northwest Washington, D.C. And in each case the public employee unions won.

The most disastrous election result, at least for school children, is the loss of Mayor Adrian Fenty whose hiring of school chief Michelle Rhee gained accolades from school reformers across the nation and an equal amount of opprobrium from unions. Fenty lost to ultra lib Vincent Gray — a wholly bought union hack — who has promised to dump reformer Rhee and kowtow to all teacher’s union demands.
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Unions: Democrat’s Own Extremists Taking The Local Parties Over?”

Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Environment - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Oil - President - Regulation - Warner Todd Huston

Obama to Dumb Down Car Ratings Stickers

September 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier this month the Obama administration floated a trial balloon about changing the way vehicle information stickers on new cars would be structured. The administration floated the idea of letter grades instead of the more full information that vehicle stickers now contain. The most fuel-efficient would get and “A” rating with less green cars having descending grades.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the letter grades would be used to rate compliance with reen policies. Electric vehicles would be the only ones to get the “A” rating with gas-powered cars getting lesser grades.

On the website of Edmunds.com, a consumer advocate outlet, the response to the letter grading idea was swift and negative. One point made on the site is particularly poignant. An Edmunds respondent said, “Having a giant letter grade will influence buyers too much. Auto companies will start making incredibly fuel efficient cars to get an A grade, which is good, but the over-all quality of the car itself could be lowered.” The rest of the comments were equally negative.
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Obama to Dumb Down Car Ratings Stickers”

Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Retreat on Criticism of Dems That Didn’t Support Obamacare

September 22, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier in this election cycle unions were pumped up with an assumed sense of supreme power, they had spent millions to elect their guy to the White House and they were ready to flex their muscles. Unions began to direct that assumed power against Democrats that were reticent to support Obama’s takeover of our healthcare system. In some early primaries unions spoke out against these so-called Blue-dog Democrats and said they would not support them but at the other end of this primary season unions are singing a different tune.

With the obvious downturn in support that Democrats have seen in these primaries and in the polls of American voters unions have gotten the hint (like a club over the head) that the arrogance they evinced of daring to attack Democrats for not having a pure enough devotion to union ideals was maybe not such a great idea.
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Unions Retreat on Criticism of Dems That Didn’t Support Obamacare”

AFL-CIO - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Labor Law - Liberals - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Struggling to Get Members to Rally Behind Dems

September 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

When voters are not enthused even unions find it harder to get their supporters to rally to an election and this is one of the worst years for Democrats on record. Unions are finding their efforts hard slogging just like the rest of the Democrat Party is. It’s so bad even The New York Times is reporting the Union’s woes.

As we’ve repeatedly talked about here, The Times reports that Big Labor is pumping millions into the Democrat’s pockets in hopes of fighting off the conservative Tea Party enthusiasm out there this election year. Apparently, though, unions are finding that, like other Democrat constituencies, their members are not “feeling particularly enthusiastic about the party.”

Unions have been bitterly disappointed by Obama. When they voted for him only 2 years ago they thought that they had won the battle for all the freebies and payoffs that they’d ever want. But they’ve been frustrated by key losses — such as an inability to get cap and trade, green initiatives, and their most desired legislation the Employee Free Trade Act (EFCA).
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Unions Struggling to Get Members to Rally Behind Dems”

California - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Liberals - Lobbyists - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Calif. Unions Already Spent $14 Million In Elections

September 2, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times recently reported that in California unions have already spent $14 million to defeat Republicans in California’s coming elections. This is what any Republican has to face anywhere in the country, though not always at such a high spending rate.

The fact is that when Republicans run for office they face not only the campaign coffers of their Democrat opponent, but they also face the millions of dollars that public employee unions and other far left-wing advocacy groups will spend against them. Rarely do Republicans find much support from high-spending outside forces in anywhere near the same numbers that Democrats command.

While many of Californian’s Democrats have yet to put much of their campaign cash into the race, unions have more than made up for that lack of spending.
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Calif. Unions Already Spent $14 Million In Elections”

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

Quincy, Illinois Takes $6 Million for Train Station While Schools are $6 Million Unfunded

August 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If the situation in Quincy, Illinois doesn’t scream “government stupidity,” nothing does. The city of Quincy is being offered $6 million in state funds to build a new train station that it doesn’t really need while at the same time the city’s school system is owed the exact same amount in unpaid state education funds.

This is government at work, folks. Starving the necessary expenditures while chasing pointless programs and waste.

Steve McQueen has all the sordid details in his post at BigGovernment.com, but the upshot is that this is waste and corruption plain and simple.
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Quincy, Illinois Takes $6 Million for Train Station While Schools are $6 Million Unfunded”

Budget - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - Lobbyists - Taxes - Virginia - Warner Todd Huston

$400 K For State Employee That Never Showed for Work For 12 Years

August 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

CNN reports that an employee contracted with the state of Virginia for 12 years seems to have never actually done any work for the agency she was attached to, Norfolk officials say.

This employee was discovered by the new director of the Norfolk Community Services Board who was looking through the office’s records finding the no-show job. Once the new director found this freeloader she was terminated and charges may be filed over the more than $400,000 she was paid for her “work” these last 12 years.

Apparently this woman “worked” for some sort of community program that isn’t run directly by the city that supplies some of its funding. These politically created “jobs” are mandated by law and seem to have little or no oversight.
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$400 K For State Employee That Never Showed for Work For 12 Years”

Budget - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Liberals - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Tax Left-Wing Professors Act

August 14, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

James Lileks of the Minneapolis Star Tribune recently had a brilliant idea. Let’s tax tenured professors at a higher rate than everyone else. And how could they complain? After all, these left-wing, communist sympathizers are always saying everyone should pay more taxes. How could they complain about being called to “pay their fair share”?

Lileks came up with this idea on a recent Ricohet podcast with Jonah Goldberg and Hollywooder Rob Long.

His brilliant proposal should be loved by everyone; both those that hate our anti-American professoriate, and those professors that hate America because Americans won’t pay enough taxes for social programs.

And here is that proposal:
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The Tax Left-Wing Professors Act”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pat Quinn - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

More Taxes and Less Jobs, Enough is Enough — Let’s Stop the Overtaxation on September 18th!

August 6, 2010 by

The Democrats are showing their true colors once again. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has plans to increase the Illinois income tax — continuing his policy of killing jobs and stagnating the economy.

In a recent Bloomberg article, the Illinois budget director shined the light on Quinns tax increase plan:

“Lawmakers will likely increase the personal tax to 5 percent from 3 percent, generating $6 billion of new revenue,” the budget director, David Vaught, said in an interview.
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More Taxes and Less Jobs, Enough is Enough — Let’s Stop the Overtaxation on September 18th!”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - New York - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Democrats: Say, Let’s Exempt Rich People in Blue States From Tax Hike!

August 5, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

If this doesn’t exemplify the left’s propensity to act in the mode of for-thee-but-not-me, nothing does. The Wall Street Journal (by way of the Wash. Examiner’s Mark Hemingway) reports that at least one Democrat has suddenly realized that when the Bush tax cuts fade away his state will be hit by a massive tax hike on the same rich people that donate to his election campaign.

The Journal notes that the “irony” of the tax increase coming on January 1 is that the bluest states will be hardest hit. New York, California, Connecticut, and New Jersey will be hit pretty hard and this poses a “problem” for those pro-tax Democrats that will suddenly find rich constituents who will be angry about the new hit on their income.

But, Representative Jerrold Nadler (D, NY) has come up with the perfect solution. Nadler wants to pass a law that exempts his rich constituents and those of other taxpayers in areas with a higher cost of living, i.e. other Democrats. The Journal reveals that Nadler’s new law would “require the IRS to adjust tax brackets proportionally in regions where the average cost of living is higher than the national average.”
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Democrats: Say, Let’s Exempt Rich People in Blue States From Tax Hike!”

Associated Press - Business - Capitalism - CNN - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - History - Journalism - Labor Law - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - New Hampshire - NPR - Regulation - Taxes - Unemployment - Warner Todd Huston

Down Economy: America’s ‘Oldest Family Farm’ Up For Sale

August 3, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a sign of these dismal times, the oldest family farm in America is up for sale because its owners just cannot survive this down economy. After 378 years of contiguous family ownership and operation, the Tuttle family of Dover, New Hampshire is selling its 134-acre farm.

Founded in 1632 by John Tuttle fresh off the boat from the Old World, the Tuttle family farm has moved on with the times, improved and changed to continue operating. But, at long last, this economy is too much for them to bear.

Curiously, the Associated Press worked very hard to downplay the economic side of this argument in its coverage and instead played up the fact that the Tuttles are aging and have decided to discourage their own sons from taking up the family business. The APs story also turned the focus away from the bad economy and toward blaming WalMart and the “growth of supermarket chains.”
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Down Economy: America’s ‘Oldest Family Farm’ Up For Sale”

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?”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - George W. Bush - Government - Liberals - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Tax Calculator Tells You What You’ll Pay With and W/O Bush Tax Cuts

July 28, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

We all know that time is running out for Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts and if it doesn’t do so we will all see our taxes go up. To help you figure out what your tax burden will be with and without the Bush tax cuts the folks at the Tax Foundation have created an excellent new “tax calculator” that will show you how much your tax burden will be for 2011. You can try the calculator out at: www.mytaxburden.org/

The calculator shows you what you’ll pay if the Bush tax cuts remain in place, what you’ll pay with them removed (as they are about to be), and what you’ll pay under Obama’s tax proposals.

You have to know your income for 2011 (or at least an estimate), your filing status, dependents, and all the usual basic info that affects your filing.

Obama is about to preside over a massive tax hike, folks. The Tax Foundation’s calculator will help you understand how it will affect you.
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Tax Calculator Tells You What You’ll Pay With and W/O Bush Tax Cuts”

Animals - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - President - Taxes - Unemployment - Warner Todd Huston

Noblesse Oblige: Obama’s Dog Gets Own Plane on Vacation Trip

July 17, 2010 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Morning Sentinel, a small paper from the state of Maine, has a travelogue story of the Obama’s vacation in and about Maine today. It has a very interesting little tidbit in it that should enrage every American. It is something that really shows Barack Obama’s arrogance and his obviously assumed air of noblesse oblige.

Among the exciting details of the Obama’s visit to Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor is this tidbit:

Arriving in a small jet before the Obamas was the first dog, Bo, a Portuguese water dog given as a present by the late U.S. Sen Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.…

As the rest of us toil on the unemployment line, as millions of Americans find their retirement accounts dwindling, their hours at work cut, and their pay scale trimmed, King Barack and Queen Michelle are flying their little doggie, Bo, on his own special jet airplane for his own little vacation adventure.

Well, it must be nice to be able to afford to fly your doggie about the country whenever you feel like it. It must be nice to hire people to act as your dog’s escort. It must be comforting to know that you have the power to arrange such luxury for a dog.
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Noblesse Oblige: Obama’s Dog Gets Own Plane on Vacation Trip”

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.
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No Problems With Union Nap Time”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Michelle Obama - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

First Lady to Waste Millions ‘Visiting’ The Gulf Oil Spill

July 8, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

When times were flush, I guess it didn’t seem so outrageous for the First Lady of the White House to fly about the country “visiting” places as if she were an important part of our national government.

I suppose it was nice to have a First Lady leading by example with her advocacy programs and helpful ideas. There were the anti-drug programs, the literacy programs, the this-n-that programs that taxpayers spent millions on. There’s the big staff and millions of dollars in office expenses. Maybe when we weren’t trillions in debt these boondoggles didn’t seem so outrageous?

That was back when millions were to be had at the drop of a hat. Today is a different era. Today a First Lady should be leading austerity programs, and cost-savings drives.

But not our Queen Michelle. She’s flying about the country on million dollar “date nights” with the prez, she’s flying off to Camp David every time you turn around and she’s taking whirlwind trips around the world all on the taxpayer’s dime.

No austerity for our little Miss Michelle, I’ll tell you what.
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First Lady to Waste Millions ‘Visiting’ The Gulf Oil Spill”