Archive for category Politics
BO From the Madison Wisconsin Mob Turns Off Voters in 50 States
Two articles highlight the stink from the Wisconsin capital sit-in and the incongruity of public employee unions. In NewsWeek, Robert Samuelson tells the story of How Big Labor Became Little Labor, tracing the decline of the private union workforce from 36% to 6.9% since the mid 1950s. “For unions, this pitted present members’ expectations — for high wages, generous fringe benefits — against companies’ needs to lower costs and, thereby, protect future jobs.” He points out that now 36% of the public sector is unionized but now running into the same problems, expectations do not jive with reality. With the Madison Mob continuing its sit-in, he foresees little labor becoming mini-labor!
Mark McKinnon in his Daily Beast post, End of the Privileged Class, argues that we do not need public employee unions. In that he agrees with FDR who said that unions have no place in the public sector. McKinnon makes four good points to support his case:
1. Public Unions Are Big Money. 10 of the top 20 political contributors in the last 20 years are unions and only four are corporations. The three biggest unions gave over $170 million in the 2010 election cycle.
2. Public Unions Redistribute Wealth:
“Unlike private-sector jobs, which are more than fully funded through revenues created in a voluntary exchange of money for goods or serv-ices, public-sector jobs are funded by taxpayer dollars, forcibly collected by the government (union dues are often deducted from public employees’ paychecks). In 28 states, state and local employees must pay full union dues or be fired. A sizable portion of those dues is then donated by the public unions almost exclusively to Democratic candidates. Michael Barone sums it up: “public-employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party.”
3. Public Unions Silence the Voters Voice:
“Big money from public unions, collected through mandatory dues, and funded entirely by the taxpayer, is then redistributed as campaign cash to help elect the politicians who are then supposed to represent taxpayers in negotiations with those same unions. In effect, the unions sit on both sides of the table and collectively bargain to raise taxes while the voters’ voice is silenced.”
4. Public Unions Are Unnecessary:
“The primary purpose of public unions today, as ugly as it sounds, is to work against the financial interests of taxpayers: the more public employees are paid in wages and uncapped benefits, the less taxpayers keep of the money they earn. It’s time to call an end to the privileged class.”
I would argue that the big union bosses have misled the public employee rank and file. The teachers, engineers, social workers in government are basically dedicated people who have been misled into thinking they will get pensions that are not funded, medical care that is excessive and salary and fringes that will continue to outstrip the compensation of the people who pay the taxes that fund their salary and benefits. So I condemn the fat-cat union bosses long before the good public servants.
In any case, the handwriting is on the wall and this basic element of run away government will stop. Voters can’t stand the smell!
Time For A Little Humor…….Aw WTF!
Posted by Tom in Budgets, Deficit, Fiscal Policy, Humor, National Debt, Politics, Presidency on February 23, 2011
Sorry but I couldn’t resist!
Harry Reid…Nevada Doldrum
Posted by Tom in Housing, Nevada, Politics, Real Estate, Unions, Yucca Mountain on February 23, 2011
Old Harry sure has done a lot for Nevada, or is it to Nevada?
Here’s some recent foreclosure data for Reno and Las Vegas:
One in sixteen homes in Reno is in foreclosure; and one in nine homes is Las Vegas is in foreclosure, that’s 11%!
The unemployment rate in the state is 14.6%
Yet Reid rejects a Nevada Energy Park plan for nuclear reprocessing and generation which would not only bring thousands of jobs to the state but create a Nevada Permanent Fund, much like Alaska’s, that would pay each family an annual dividend of over $2,000! Harry is sending jobs and money to other states.
Oh, if that’s not enough, Harry now wants to ban prostitution! Yep, kick another industry out! Makes no sense at all. At least these folks work for a living, something Harry who had fed at the public trough for too many years, doesn’t understand!
Maybe Harry just got religion or something. If that’s the case, the gaming industry should start to worry. After all he may next consider gambling a vice!
The public union bosses should apologize to their members for getting this idiot elected. It’s the members who are suffering, not the fat cat bosses.
Open Letter to Congressman Dean Heller on Yucca
Posted by Tom in Nevada, Politics, State Finances, Yucca Mountain on February 21, 2011
Dear Congressmen Heller,
We were disappointed to learn of your support for Senator Harry Reid in blocking the Yucca Nuclear Repository. You proposed an amendment that would have defunded the project entirely. Many citizens of Nevada are pleased your amendment was defeated by voice vote.
As many informed citizens believe, Yucca could be an important resource to Nevada, every bit as important as the Alaska Pipeline was and is to Alaska. The proposition to convert Yucca to Temporary Storage, Nuclear Reprocessing, Energy Research and Development and eventually Nuclear Power Generation is a treasure available to Nevada that no other state has. With it Nevada can create a new industry, thousands of new jobs, and a more diverse economic base. With it Nevada can resolve its structural state deficit. And, most importantly, with it we can create a Nevada Permanent Fund under which each family in the state would receive an annual dividend eventually approximating $2,500 per year.
This concept has been overwhelmingly endorsed by several knowledgeable business groups, both in Reno and Las Vegas. It has been endorsed by every social service organization to which it has been presented. And it has been endorsed by every conservative political action group that has heard it.
We believe your amendment seems somewhat out of touch with current thinking.We have formed a group, the Reno Hayek Symposium, which is a voluntary group of conservatives in Northern Nevada. We are in conversations with our friends in Las Vegas to develop a comparable Hayek Group.
We hope to be able to support you in future elections. But, with all due respect, a word of caution is necessary: emulating Harry Reid in blocking the one uniquely available resource open to Nevada, is not the way to gain that support.
Sincerely,
Organizing For America
Posted by Tom in Employment, Politics, Presidency, Unions on February 20, 2011
Well, if you didn’t know by now, you now know what the job of a community organizer is. After all we have had one in the White House running the country for the past two years. The job of a community organizer is to promote dissension among various groups and thus gain political advantage, not for the groups mind you but for the “community organizer!”
John Fund covers President Obama’s current community organizing antics in his WSJ article, What’s at Stake in Wisconsin’s Budget Battle. “The real assault this week was led by Organizing for America, the successor to President’s Obama’s 2008 campaign organization. It helped fill buses of protesters who flooded the state capital of Madison and ran 15 phone banks urging people to call state legislators.”
“Myron Lieberman, a former Minnesota public school teacher who became a contract negotiator for the American Federation of Teachers, says that since the 1960s collective bargaining has so “greatly increased the political influence of unions” that they block the sorts of necessary change that other elements of society have had to accept.”
That’s right, a labor guy admits that the public employee unions control society. Even the most progressive of Democrats, FDR warned against this: ”The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service,” Roosevelt wrote in 1937 to the National Federation of Federal Employees. Yes, public workers may demand fair treatment, wrote Roosevelt. But, he wrote, “I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place” in the public sector. “A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government.”
So the public unions control the leftist politicians, they have the votes, they own the elected! Not only that, but they have a monopoly. They don’t need to worry about competition as do the private sector unions. They are living fat, fatter than the private sector while the rest of us put up with their mouth pieces and pay their unsustainable wages, benefits and pensions.
Bravo to Governor Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Republicans and this mild proposal to level the playing field!
The Epitome of American Exceptionalism
Posted by Tom in Individual Freedom, National Character, Politics, Presidency on February 18, 2011
Another segment from Chris Christie’s talk before the American Enterprise Institute.
To my way of thinking, this states the essence of American Exceptionalism, the individual’s desire to live freely and succeed. People still struggle and take great risks to come here just to have the opportunity to succeed.
Sorry, President Obama, your mealy mouth put downs of American Exceptionalism just don’t cut it.
‘People Ready to Hear the Truth” Chris Christie
Posted by Tom in National Character, Politics, Social Security, Welfare on February 18, 2011
What a wonderful contrast to the current President, Chris Christie is a leader:
We will post more segments from his hour long presentation to the American Enterprise Institute.
New Media Gets the Message Out
Posted by Tom in Free Speech, National Character, Politics, Symposium Notes on February 17, 2011
Greg Casey wowed his audience at this month’s Reno Hayek Symposium dinner. As president of BIPAC and the ultimate Washington insider, Greg educated us on “self selected media.” A growing plurality of today’s voters no longer rely on what’s fed to them by traditional news sources, witness the decline in circulation of major newspapers. Instead they self select, they choose their preferred news source on line. To prove the point, he reached in his pocket, pulled out an iPnone and ask, “how many of you have one of these.” He had ‘em believing for the rest of the evening.
Do you tweet? Are you active on Facebook or just a lurker? What’s that you say? The point is that to get the message out as a business, social group, or politician, you need to be expert in the online media. If you are, people will self select your Tweets, Facebook comments, or blog.
Greg continued with his BIPAC message. Employers need to communicate with their employees. Employers are the greatest source of information which effects their workers, yet they do not take advantage on this position. And surveys show that employees want more employer communication.
How will Obamacare effect my group medical plan? Will CO2 restrictions impact our company and my job? What’s this about the FHA forcing banks to lend to more deadbeats? How will the continued deficits and unsustainable debt effect our company’s products in international markets? The employer is the major credible source of information on all these close to home issues. Greg’s message is to get active and use new media to stay active.
Back to politics, Greg used the Tea Party and the growing number of independents to show that voters increasingly identify themselves not with a party but with values and ideas. The values and ideas win elections. And, as recently illustrated in Egypt, a minority of people, using new media to broadcast appealing values and ideas, can topple governments.
Which gets us back to our purpose at Reno Hayek, to articulate conservative solutions to current issues and to support their intelligent champions. With regard to this second part we announced the formation of a political action arm of the Hayek Group which will roll out in March.
We thank Greg Casey for a great evening; see: http://bipac.org.
We also thank Ryan Costella for his update on EmpowermentNV, check out the new website: http://www.Empowermentnevada.com, and “Own It.” Also John Dunn gave a status update on NV4CFE; see: http://NV4CFE.org.
Save the date for our next dinner Tuesday March 15th.
The Gavel!
Permit me a little fun with this from Mark Bailey: To Good To Be True!
California Bail Out?…….Not!
Posted by Tom in California, Democrats, Politics, State Finances, Unions on November 8, 2010
I hope the recent Republican tsunami in the U.S. House and state governments, and the Senate pick-ups will put the brakes on the leftists’ natural urge to bail out California and reward spendthrift socialism. It certainly looks that way.
In the recent election, California continued its profligate ways by electing Democrats across the board. It rewarded Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown, once again with the top slot on the ticket. Recall that it was he, thirty odd years ago, that gave public employee unions collective bargaining rights in the state. For the unschooled, this is called “watering the tree!” Well, the tree has grown up and now controls the state and elects every Democrat to every major office year after year. Old Jerry was certainly smart in providing for his own re-re-election!
Birkenstocks-shod, Allysia Finley, assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com, herself a left-coaster has a wonderful op-ed piece in today’s WSJ, California: The Lindsay Lohan of States. With acerbic wit she blasts the state for its tax/spend addiction.
“After enjoying ephemeral highs and spending binges, you suffer crashes that culminate in brief, unsuccessful stints in rehab. This cycle repeats itself every five to 10 years, as the rest of the country looks on with a mixture of horror and amusement. We’d feel sorry for you if you didn’t constantly flip us the bird.”
The outgoing Terminator’s budget compromise with the Democrats assumes Federal bailouts. Allysia points out that the next four years will show $80 Billion in budget shortfall! There’s a point at which the costs of doing business in the sunshine exceeds the benefits thereof. That would be when the bills come due and businesses forced to pay them can no longer compete internationally. What do they do but vote with their feet!
For fiscally smart states like Indiana or Wisconsin, California bail outs are a non starter; why should their citizens pay for the California entitlees to bask in the sun. For Republicans in the House, don’t buy the argument that California is too big or too important to fail. Only by failure will our other costal states get the message that spending and promising beyond your means leads to bankruptcy and that public employee unions should be outlawed.
Finley does the nation a service by quoting the new Lt. Governor Gavin Newson, the former mayor of San Francisco, reflecting on his election: ”We’re nothing but a mirror of our consistent thoughts. You tend to manifest what you focus on. If you look around for what’s wrong, you’ll find it. But as all we know up here in San Francisco, when you focus on what’s right, you see it all around you. . . . There is absolutely nothing wrong with California that can’t be fixed by what’s right with California. . . . If you’re from another state, you’d love to have the problems of California.”
Yeah….how about that! I guess this is how you get elected in the land of the fruits and nuts!