As we reported last week, 2009 will mark the first time ever in American history that the majority of union members work for federal, state, or local governments. The percentage shift has been staggering. In 1973 only 17.3% of union members worked for government. Today that number is 51.2%. When unions depended on steel plants, coal mines, and automobile factories for their livelihood there was at least a chance that they would support some pro-growth public policies. But now that unions are dependent on the government, and not the private …
This week the House is set to debate the “Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2009” which would provide 4 weeks of PAID leave to federal government workers. At a time when public sector employees are already seeing their wages rise while private sector workers deal with the recession, bill sponsor Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has the audacity to claim that the bill is revenue neutral. That claim inspired CNN to dub her the “Wingnut of the Week.” Watch: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BJBNEgrHjg[/youtube]
Last week the Department of Labor reported that employers shed a net 539,000 jobs in the month of April, bringing the nation’s unemployment rate to 8.9%. The manufacturing sector lost 149,000 jobs, business services lost 122,000 jobs, and construction lost 110,000 jobs. All told, the private sector lost 611,000 jobs. So how was the total job loss only 539,000? Because one sector of the economy has proven impervious to economic realities: the public sector. Government actually added 72,000 jobs. The continued growth of the public sector while all other sectors of the …
We like to think of Britain, the U.S. and the rest of the Anglosphere as nations that reject the statist European economic model. But from 1997 to 2008, the government’s share of the British economy increased from 38.4 percent to 41.9 percent. This expenditure was funded by debt that the government, as the Financial Times put it, “concealed . . . with off-balance-sheet finance that would have made Wall Street blush.” These off-balance-sheet liabilities, taken together, raise Britain’s official public debt by almost one-third, to 62.8 percent of GDP. And …
According to the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio’s inspector general is investigating why a state agency director approved checking the state child-support computer system for information on “Joe the Plumber.” The Dispatch reports: Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed today that she OK’d the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate. She said there were no political reasons for the check on the sudden presidential campaign fixture though the Support Enforcement Tracking System. No political reasons? Really? According to Open Secrets, …
On Sunday, Oct. 12, Joe Wurzelbacher was playing football in his front yard with his son Joey when Barack Obama made an unscheduled stop to ask voters for their support in his neighborhood. Wurzelbacher took the opportunity to be a good citizen, and questioned the candidate about his tax policies. Three nights later during a presidential debate, John McCain echoed Joe’s concern about Obama’s “spread the wealth” comment and mentioned Wurzelbacher (dubbed “Joe the Plumber”) by name. The blow back was swift and furious. MSNBC, Washington Post and New York …
Yesterday the Senate voted to end debate on a bill that requires police officers, firefighters and other first responders across the nation to submit to collectively bargaining. Before the Senate votes on final passage of the bill later this week, lawmakers really ought to take a very close look at a city council vote in the sleepy California town of Vallejo last week. The Vallejo City Council voted May 6 to become the largest city to ever declare bankruptcy in California. The cause of Vallejo’s demise? Contracts with fire and …
Any doubt that the Democratic Party is completely beholden to organized labor is now over. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) unprecedented step to strip the up-or-down vote requirement from the Colombia Free Trade Agreement undermines the spirit of fast-track trade law and deals a death blow to any administration’s ability to conduct good-faith trade negotiations with foreign nations. Pelosi reportedly told a closed-door meeting of Democrats that she was not doing this at the behest of organized labor, but every fair-minded journalist covering the story reports that opposition to free trade …
Stephen Moore has a must read article in the Weekly Standard this week detailing not only how public sector unions have bankrupted the city of Vallejo, California, but also demonstrating that local governments nation wide are also at risk. noting that 80% of Vallejo’s budget is eaten up by labor and pension costs, Moore warns: “Welcome to the next great financial bubble in America–a fiscal time bomb that could cause your local and state tax bills to double or even triple in years to come.” Other details in the piece …
