Since the beginning of the last recession (December 2007) the private sector workforce has shrunk by 6.6% while shedding more than 7.5 million jobs. Over that same time period, the federal government workforce (excluding Census and Postal workers) has grown by 11.7% while adding 230,000 jobs. This trend has continued throughout the Obama Administration. Since President Barack Obama was sworn into office, the private sector workforce has shrunk by 2.6% while shedding 2.9 million jobs while the federal workforce (excluding Census and Postal workers) has grown by 7% while adding …
Last week, Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) rejected $2.4 billion in federal funding for a proposed high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando. The governor’s decision was based upon the likelihood of an up to $3 billion cost overrun, the likelihood of operating subsidies, and the requirement that the federal grant would have to be repaid if trains were not operating frequently enough, even if they were nearly empty. Governor Scott joins other governors in this trend: Governor Chris Christie (R), who canceled a new Hudson River tunnel that was …
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius testified last week at the House Ways and Means Committee on the fiscal year 2012 budget—although the question period centered on Obamacare. Sebelius opined that the new health care law will increase patient access to physicians and hospitals, provide more choices for Medicare beneficiaries, create jobs, and allow those who are happy with their current plans to keep them. However, reality paints a different picture. First, Obamacare will not increase access to health care for many seniors. For example, as a …
Images of bloodless corpses and gasping babies would have to cover at least 50 percent of each cigarette pack under regulation proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although smoking rates have declined steadily for the past 40 years—down 52 percent since 1965—and every kindergartner can recite the evils of tobacco use, the FDA claims that current warnings are “ineffective.” According to the agency, there’s a “worldwide consensus” that tobacco health warnings should feature pictures of dead people. At least that’s the practice in the progressive places cited by …
Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi, the longest ruling Arab leader, appears to be on the verge of becoming the latest authoritarian leader to be ousted by his own people. Massive crowds of protesters have taken control of Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, and much of eastern Libya, long a hotbed of opposition to the regime. Libya’s repressive regime has reacted with ruthless violence, shooting at peaceful demonstrators from rooftops, helicopters, and warplanes. At least 233 Libyans have been killed since the protests began on Thursday, according to Human Rights Watch. Although …
“Will the unions help keep poor teachers from returning to the classroom?” asked Saturday’s Washington Post, reminding us that union intransigience stretches from Madison,WI to Washington, D.C. An independent arbitrator recently ruled that D.C. Public Schools will be required to hire back 75 teachers fired during Michelle Rhee’s tenure. On top of this, D.C. will also be required to pay two years in back wages, costing the city approximately $7.5 million. Although the dismissed teachers were still in their probationary period, arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum claims that they were improperly let …
MADISON, Wis. — Teachers’ unions and representatives of every liberal interest group in the country may have taken over the streets of Madison for demonstrations, marches and speeches, but inside the Wisconsin governor’s mansion its chief tenant remains calm and resolute. The Badger State’s budget will be balanced, Gov. Scott Walker (R) assured The Heritage Foundation in a one-on-one interview. The stakes in Wisconsin are high not just here, but across America. “I’ve said all along the protesters have every right to be there, but I’m not going to let tens …
The third Monday in February has come to be known—wrongly—as President’s Day. But, this is not a day to celebrate every president in our Nation’s history. The president who fails to wear a coat in cold weather should not be honored as much as the one who defeats the British’s Hessian mercenaries during a blizzard. This is the day that we celebrate the man who led America to victory in the War for Independence, who was instrumental in the creation of our Constitution, and whose character forever shaped the executive …
MADISON, Wis. — The fight in Wisconsin’s capital is marked by a fundamental disagreement over Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal. Protesters claim it’s a blatant assault on labor unions, while the governor’s supporters say it’s about government spending, plain and simple. The Heritage Foundation sent a team to Wisconsin to report on the action. Our video captures the claims of pro-union protesters as well as state Sen. Leah Vukmir, a Republican supporter of Walker’s budget plan. “It’s about rights; it’s not about the money,” protesters called out. Many told us …
“It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” That wasn’t Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul, or Ronald Reagan talking. That was George Meany — the former President of the AFL-CIO — in 1955. Government unions are unremarkable today, but the labor movement once thought the idea absurd. The founders of the labor movement viewed unions as a vehicle to get workers more of the profits they help create. Government workers, however, don’t generate profits. They merely negotiate for more tax money. When government unions strike, they strike against taxpayers. …
