If You Work for Government, You Deserve to be Fired

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yes, that title, If You Work for Government, You Deserve to be Fired, is meant literally. I really don’t care what you do for government I think you deserve to be fired.* In fact, I think that you need to be fired to save this republic. Not only do I want you fired, I want your pension negated. You don’t deserve one.

I’ll let that sink in a bit.

Of course, conservatives have the reputation of wanting to oust everyone in office and for wanting to “vote the scoundrels out.” But, I am not just wallowing in a trope, here. In fact, I’d like to add one more level to the throw-them-out-of-government concept. Let’s fire every government worker from the smallest village receptionist or sewer worker to the staffers of the highest Senator and every menial clerk and recalcitrant paper shuffler in between.

I am, here, indulging a little bombast, of course, but only a little. A very little.

It’s not just pique at the famous laziness of government workers I’m talking about. I’m also not only deploying that stereotype contending that the only reason government workers get their jobs is because they are pals with a politician — or another government worker, for that matter. It’s not just that they are better paid than just about any real American in the private sector — whether they deserve it or not — and it’s not because they are impossible to fire, nor is it because they get a better pension and health care than anyone who really contributes to society… well, OK, it is because of that stuff. All that stuff and more.
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If You Work for Government, You Deserve to be Fired”


Dangers of the Ballot Initiative

-By Warner Todd Huston

At first blush, the idea of having ballot initiatives on election day seems like such a great, democratic idea. Unfortunately, all too often, all they are is a way to enlarge government, chip away at freedom, and cost the taxpayers money without returning the benefits promised. California is the perfect example of these troubles.

The problem, of course, is not that it’s too much democracy, but that few of these ballot measures are true grassroots uprisings meant to make the lives of Californians better. Instead they are moneyed special interests using their deep pockets to buy the petition process in order to get their own narrow needs favored in Sacramento.

Even as far back as 2004, the L.A. Times had soured on ballot measures. In an editorial scoffing at the whole system, the Times ended saying, “Ballot-box legislating — often swayed by false or misleading advertising — is no way to run a state of 36 million people and such diverse needs.”

That same year in San Jose, for instance, a ballot measure appear that was supposed to go to funding of libraries. The measure was supposed to raise the budget for libraries to $48 million per year but despite that good natured taxpayers approved the budget measure the city ended up cutting the library expenditures down to $32 million annually. This is a typical case where tax hikes approved by voters never ended up going where voters thought they were going to go. This year, new ballot measures meant to correct the library budget deficiency are being proposed but these measures are likely to make matters worse.
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Dangers of the Ballot Initiative”


Media Misleads on California Prop 29

-By Warner Todd Huston

Californians are being asked once again to fund a government boondoggle with a ballot initiative which will levy more taxes on an already over taxed state. This time it is Proposition 29, intended to fund the California Cancer Research Act, a measure that appeals nicely to emotions but will likely be just another black hole for tax dollars when all is said and done — just like many other successful California ballot measures have been.

Naturally, many members of the media are in love with yet another new tax not to mention its chimerical promise of “cancer research.” Take Dan Morain of the Sacramento Bee, for instance, who recently pumped out the false dichotomy of having to choose between the wonderfulness of “cancer research” and those evil, rotten cigarette companies.

Here is how Morain characterizes the debate:
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Media Misleads on California Prop 29″


Growing Opposition, Conservatives Call for Prop. 29’s Defeat

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two new voices have joined the growing chorus calling for the defeat of next June’s ballot initiative Proposition 29, a nearly $1 billion annual spending binge that threatens to cast California deeper into insolvency.

David Spady of Americans for Prosperity, a non-profit conservative political advocacy group, and Nick Johnson, of conservative website Red County, penned columns last week calling for the defeat of Proposition 29, the so-called California Cancer Research Act.

“Stop me if you’ve heard this joke before,” writes Spady in Flash Report. “Liberal politician with pet cause and bureaucracy-building desire packages up his or her idea, tells voters they can achieve some laudable goal ‘for free’ and takes it to the ballot. First Five Commission. Stem-cell research. High-speed rail. And now the latest in this sad line of ballot-box boondoggles: Proposition 29.”
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Growing Opposition, Conservatives Call for Prop. 29’s Defeat”


Gov’t Waste Watch: Former California Treasury Official Slams Prop 29

-By Warner Todd Huston

The opposition to Proposition 29, the nearly billion dollar per year tax hike slated for the June ballot, is growing. A new wrinkle comes from former California Treasury official Mark Paul who hit the nail on the head in an interview with the Los Angeles Times last week.

It seems that another celebrity is barging into politics, this time it is bicycling champ Lance Armstrong who has signed on as the pitchman for Prop 29 the ballot initiative that, if approved by voters, will create a new agency whose task is to undertake research to cure cancer. Never mind that hundreds of other agencies across the country are already doing this, of course, but supporters of Prop 29, the so-called California Cancer Research Act, imagine that billions more taken from California taxpayers will find a cure that others have missed.

Paul is the author of a popular new book on California government, California Crack Up, and for his part he is skeptical over the efficacy of Prop 29, to say the least.
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Gov’t Waste Watch: Former California Treasury Official Slams Prop 29″


Would you trust these people with $1 billion?

-By Warner Todd Huston

If the members of the California State Legislature had to get real jobs, most of them would have been fired by now. Incapable of solving any of the problems that have crippled California, they instead fritter away their time giving perks to special interests and passing endless new regulations that have decimated California’s business community. Then, when voters passed a measure that would withhold their pay if they don’t pass a budget on time, two legislative chieftains turned around and sued the state’s Controller who handles their paychecks.

Imagine the gall of suing the taxpayers for refusing to pay legislators unless they actually perform their jobs and get work done! It’s just further proof that Sacramento is broken and politicians there have only the special interests in mind. Take, for example, the latest special-interest giveaway by the one career politician, former state Sen. Don Perata.

Proposition 29 raises taxes by nearly $1 billion and hands the money to a board including six political appointees who’ll have to power to dole out that cash however they may chose with no accountability. That money is protected under the terms of Proposition 29 for 15 years, meaning that not even the Governor can step in and change things even in cases of waste or abuse. Proposition 29 is literally a case of the fox guarding the hen house.
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Would you trust these people with $1 billion?”


Sen. Johnson: Obama and his Administration Have ‘Little Experience in Manufacturing or Business’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Senator Ron Johnson (R, Wis.) commented in advance of the President’s speech on manufacturing and is here to tell President Obama, “the government doesn’t create jobs, it creates debt and it is the private sector that creates long-term, self-sustaining jobs.”

Today the President is traveling to Pittsburgh to talk about manufacturing. As a person who spent 31 years building a successful manufacturing company, I am curious what President Obama might say about manufacturing. He has little personal experience in manufacturing or business. He has very few members within his administration with success in manufacturing or the private sector.

President Obama needs to change his way of thinking. He needs to realize that government doesn’t create jobs, it creates debt. It is the private sector that creates long term, self-sustaining jobs.
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Sen. Johnson: Obama and his Administration Have ‘Little Experience in Manufacturing or Business’”


New Open Government and Spending Transparency Reforms Introduced

-By Warner Todd Huston

While the Obama administration plays its games with “czars,” more “boards,” and “committees” to implement government accountability policies, Representative Darrell Issa (R, Calif.) has introduced some measures that would do a far better job to meet those goals.

President Obama has touted a “Government Accountability and Transparency Board” (GATB) as well as the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (RATB) meant to bring more accountability to federal actions. But what real power will these “boards” and “committees” have? What real good will they do? Worse, how can we expect boards appointed by the president to shine the light of transparency on the Executive branch?

So, what will these new presidential projects be doing? The GATB “shall work with the RATB to apply the approaches developed by the RATB across Government spending.” Absurdly, these new boards won’t even be making a report for six more months.
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New Open Government and Spending Transparency Reforms Introduced”


What Economic Turnaround?

Obama and his cohorts want to sell the American people a bill of goods. DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz is telling the country that Democrats “own” the “recovery.” Only one problem. There ain’t one.

Don’t buy the lies, folks. Don’t do it.


Class Of 2011 Faces Highest Unemployment Rate In History

From BankruptingAmerica.org…

Graduates Face 21.1 Applicants Per Job

Arlington, VA – Today, BankruptingAmerica.org (an awareness campaign by Public Notice) released a new Web video titled “Is Washington Creating Our Job Crisis?” As the 1.7 million college students of the class of 2011 graduate, they face one of the highest unemployment rates for college graduates in U.S. history.

This video (runtime 1:01) launches just days after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy produced just over 50,000 jobs in May, the lowest number of jobs created in 2011 and the fewest jobs in eight months.

With unemployment rising to 9.1 percent, college graduates aren’t the only ones worrying about their economic future. A recent poll conducted by the Daily Beast/Newsweek found that by almost four to one, Americans say our economy is not delivering the jobs we need. Americans are even losing sleep over the economic crisis: 56 percent are so angry about their personal economic situation that they have lost sleep.
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Class Of 2011 Faces Highest Unemployment Rate In History”


Tax Dollars Going to a 350-Pound Guy in Calf Who Pretends He’s a Diaper-Wearing Baby

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is the waste and fraud that your tax dollars are put to, America. Senator Tom Coburn has alerted the nation to a 30-year-old man in California named Stanley Thornton, Jr., who is paid by Social Security to lay about his house and pretend he is a baby replete with diapers, baby bottles for nourishment and a 300 pound “nurse” to take care of him.

No kidding. This guy pretends to be a baby and we, the people, send him Supplemental Security Income benefits to do it.

Of course, this California nut claims that he is mentally unable to cope with life and that his SSI benefits are needed because he is “disabled” by his mental state of thinking he is a baby. But Coburn thinks this guy is just scamming the government.
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Tax Dollars Going to a 350-Pound Guy in Calf Who Pretends He’s a Diaper-Wearing Baby”


VIDEO — Who’s More Responsible: Charlie or Washington?

Who is more fiscally responsible: Charlie Sheen or Washington? Duh! Charlie the Warlock. Washington spends $30 million, the same as Charlie’s salary, in less than five minutes. Now that’s a fastball… At least Charlie knew not to spend more than Two and a Half Men was paying him.

Courtesy of Bankrupting America.


Beer Tab Economics: How We All Lose With The Tax Code

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ten friends decided that they would pay for their bar tab the way they pay their taxes. The first $100 beer tab was paid like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing
The fifth would pay $1
The sixth would pay $3
The seventh would pay $7
The eighth would pay $12
The ninth would pay $18
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59

It seemed fair and equitable and they paid the bar tab like this for weeks.

Then one day, since they were such good customers, the bar owner happily announced that he’d reduce their bar tab by $20 to only $80

So the bar tab was paid like this:
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Beer Tab Economics: How We All Lose With The Tax Code”


Most Lawless President Ever: Hiding Lobbyist Meetings, Refusing to Prosecute Laws, Ignoring Duties

-By Warner Todd Huston

In 2008 Obama ran for president claiming that he wanted to make Washington more transparent than ever. Obama ran as the law-and-order man, he ran as the anti-lobbyist man, and he ran as the man for all the people, the great centrist that would finally work for the people. He ran saying that Bush was a lawless president and that he, Obama, would shut down the illicit Guantanamo facility and immediately end all the “illegal wars” that Bush was prosecuting.

As president we’ve seen that he’s lied with all those claims.

One of Obama’s main bogeymen has been lobbyists. He claimed that he’d purge them from Washington. But the truth was a far different thing once he fairly became president. In fact, as soon as he became president Obama began to waive the rules that were supposed to keep lobbyists out of his administration.
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Most Lawless President Ever: Hiding Lobbyist Meetings, Refusing to Prosecute Laws, Ignoring Duties”


How Did Ill. Representatives Vote on Cost Cutting (HR1)?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week, the House of Representatives passed HR 1. This bill was the 2011 continuing appropriations act, the bill that makes provisions to fund the federal government. It also contained $61 billion in cuts.

There were 21 different cost cutting measures in the bill. So, how did our Illinois Representatives vote on HR 1? How many of the amendments did our reps vote “yes” for?

Republicans
Walsh (R, 8th): 100%
Manzullo (R, 16th): 95%
Roskam (R, 6th): 81%
Johnson (R, 15th): 76%
Shimkus (R, 19th): 67%
Hultgren (R, 14th): 62%
Schilling (R, 17th): 57%
Schock (R, 18th): 57%
Dold (R, 10th): 38%
Kinzinger (R, 11th): 38%
Biggert (R, 13th): 25%

Congratulations to Joe Walsh for being a 100% man! Manzullo and Roskam are not too shabby, either. Sadly a few of our newest Reps are in Democrat territory with their weak support of the most number of cost cutting measures. I mean, 38 percent for Kinzinger?? That is horrible. Is Adam Kinzinger a big government guy after all his claims on the campaign trail? Left-winger Biggert’s Democrat-styled votes are no surprise. One is continually surprised she is still pretending to be a Republican.
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How Did Ill. Representatives Vote on Cost Cutting (HR1)?”


One of Obama’s Biggest Donors Now His ‘Economics Adviser’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week President Obama appointed the CEO of General Electric, Jeffery Immelt, to head up his Economic Advisory Board. This is, as Freedomworks’ Tabitha Hale wrote, “an obvious rent seeking arrangement between Big Government and Big Business.”

This could not have been a more clear product of a crony corporatist relationship, and it is one that has no place in government that professes to value the free market. So now, we fight it.

Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks sums it up well:

“It’s time to break up the unethical romance between government and big business. For too long, corporate elites have lobbied to profit from the size and growth of government at the expense of hard-working Americans. We’re here to let President Obama and Jeffrey Immelt know that the days of easy money through backroom deals are over.”

Let’s have a small reminder of who and/what Jeffery Immelt is, shall we?

Now, some of you out there may be confused about my post, here. “Aren’t you a conservative,” you might ask? “Aren’t you usually FOR the business community?”
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One of Obama’s Biggest Donors Now His ‘Economics Adviser’”


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

-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’”


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

-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.”


Obama Happy As Hell About That Tax Deal With GOP

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…


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

-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”


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

-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”


Obama to Dumb Down Car Ratings Stickers

-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”


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

-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”


The Tax Left-Wing Professors Act

-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”


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

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!”


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

-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!”


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

-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”


Is The American Middle Class Disappearing?

-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?”


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

-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”