Candidate Obama campaigned as a fierce opponent of special interests that use their clout and connections to secure special favors from the government. As President, Obama has made it clear that he only objected to particular special interests getting handouts. Obama happily gives some liberal special interests loopholes and exemptions from the laws that affect everyone else. The closed-door negotiations over the health care bill have made this clear. Unions strongly objected to the excise tax on “Cadillac” health plans. By some estimates the tax would hit one in four …
In today’s Washington Examiner, Barbara Hollingsworth writes about the injustice being committed to D.C. children by ending the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Hollingsworth’s impassioned words get at the heart of the crisis: It’s virtually impossible to get rid of federal programs that don’t work, so it’s even more astounding that a successful education program for low-income African American children is being phased-out by Democrats on Capitol Hill. Without, I might add, a peep of protest from President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Revs. Jesse Jackson …
American commentators, like Michael Barone, are starting to focus on the fact that, while the recession has hurt the private sector, it’s helping the public one. A Rasmussen poll found that 46 percent of government employees say the economy is getting better while just 31 percent say it’s getting worse. In the private sector, those proportions are reversed. While the private sector economy has lost millions of jobs, the public sector one has been stable. But anything the U.S. can do, Britain, in this context, can do worse. The Sunday …
When does Washington consider a successful small business a problem to be dealt with? When that small business successfully competes against unionized firms. Then it needs to be tied down with expensive red tape until it is no longer so successful. Say what? Members of Congress routinely extol the praises of small businesses as the engine of job creation – especially in these difficult economic times. This is standard practice on Capitol Hill – small businesses do not have the same resources as large ones, and they often cannot afford …
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has placed a hold on President Obama’s nominee for Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Erroll Southers. Since the attempted underwear bombing, many pundits have attacked DeMint for this on the grounds that the agency needs permanent leadership. DeMint should ignore these criticisms: his actions have protected American travelers. Current law gives the TSA Administrator discretion over whether to collectively bargain with airport security screeners. The TSA has determined that collective bargaining would endanger the safety of America’s air passengers. TSA screeners may belong to …
The Service Employees International Union takes the top prize as President Obama’s favorite labor union. President Andy Stern and Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger have visited the White House nearly 60 times, including 11 meetings with Obama and another with Vice President Biden. The White House yesterday released more than 25,000 visitor records from Sept. 16-30. Included in the release were nearly 2,000 pre-Sept. 16 records based on specific requests. The records are publicly available on WhiteHouse.gov. SEIU’s Stern and Burger visited the White House three times in September; a fourth meeting …
William Voegeli writes in City Journal: Before 1990, [California and Texas] grew much faster than the rest of the country. Since then, only Texas has continued to do so. While its share of the nation’s population has steadily increased, from 6.8 percent in 1990 to 7.9 percent in 2007, California’s has barely budged, from 12 percent to 12.1 percent. Unpacking the numbers is even more revealing—and, for California, disturbing. The biggest contrast between the two states shows up in “net internal migration,” the demographer’s term for the difference between the …
Writing on Townhall.com, Dr. Walter Williams asks an important question: “What’s to be done about this tragic state of black education?” Williams highlights the shockingly low test scores of students in predominantly African American cities like Detroit, where only 3 percent of 4th grade students scored proficient on the NAEP exam. He also examines a number of problems that contribute to the failing condition of black education in America, including: too much trust in the education establishment’s favored—but unsuccessful—policy solutions (including more school funding and teacher pay), a lack of …
Today’s Washington Post editorial page draws attention to the plight of the embattled D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which is now in critical condition due to language contained in the omnibus bill. The 2010 spending bill effectively kills the successful program by prohibiting any new students from receiving scholarships. The Post writes that contrary to being a compromise as some lawmakers claim, the OSP language tucked away in the omnibus bill is in fact a death sentence: IT IS DISTRESSINGLY clear that congressional leaders never really meant it when they said …
Yesterday, members of Congress released the text of their $446.8 billion spending measure – the Omnibus Appropriations bill – which will likely be enacted before December 18. To the dismay of low-income parents in the District of Columbia, the omnibus also contains language seriously jeopardizing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program – despite the wishes of the D.C. City Council and other leaders, District residents, and most importantly, District families. The omnibus language blocks new entrants to the Opportunity Scholarship program, stating explicitly that the funding can be used “only for …
