The left is in full attack mode against Joe the Plumber. The leftist website Daily Kos has even posted his home address (and, mistakenly, even the home address of his ex-wife). Now the plumber’s union in Toledo, Ohio, is moving to put him out of business. Joe’s crime? He doesn’t like Barak Obama’s redistributionist tax policy and he does not have an official state plumbing license. The Toledo Blade reports that even though Joe’s employer has a state plumbing license and one with the City of Toledo, it is illegal …
Last week the House approved a $25 billion loan for Detroit’s Big Three that, if signed into law, would cost taxpayers $7.5 billion. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler claim they need assistance to make the switch from gas-guzzling vehicles to more cars with better fuel-efficiency. We’ve broken down a few of the reasons why Detroit’s business model has been failing. One reason is simply their choice to remain committed to building minivans and SUVs. As gas prices rose and consumer demand slowly shifted to more miles per gallon, Detroit’s Big …
When it comes to retirement and pension benefits, federal, state, and local government officials have all been humming the same mantra: never pay for something today if you can put off paying for it until tomorrow. Unfortunately, tomorrow is here. The federal government is on the hook for $41 trillion in unfunded obligations for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and state and local governments owe an additional $1.5 trillion to their state employees for health and pension benefits. The national reality of these promises started hitting home this year when …
The president of California’s largest union local, the 160,000-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Los Angeles, yesterday announced he would take a leave of absence and the local would be placed in a temporary trusteeship. Tyrone Freeman’s departure comes after an in-depth series of Los Angeles Times articles detailing how Freeman fleeced union members — who make about $9 an hour caring for the infirm and disabled — of over $1 million in 2006 and 2007 alone. Freeman did not go quietly. Union staff members report Freeman’s lieutenants pressured …
Debunking myths about the supposed harm free trade inflicts on U.S. manufacturing, Cato Institute’s Daniel Ikenson notes: While the rest of U.S. manufacturing has recovered, Michigan’s manufacturing economy remains stagnant. Real GDP growth between 2005 and 2006 in Michigan ranked dead last among the 50 states. Meager manufacturing value-added growth contributed only 0.05 percentage points to what was a net, contraction of the state’s economy to the tune of -0.5 percent. Nationwide, the contribution of manufacturing was .41 percentage points to an overall GDP growth rate of 3.4 percent. Had …
McClatchy columnist Daniel Weintraub takes California lawmakers to task for opposing the Colombia Free Trade Agreement despite its many benefits for the Golden State: Californians gain more from free trade than the people of almost any state in the country. But their leading representative in Congress – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco – is trying to kill a new trade agreement with Colombia, aligning herself with a wing of the Democratic Party that has grown increasingly hostile to consensual acts of commerce. By itself the Colombia deal is …
