NOW You are Working for YOU! Freedom From Taxes Day Has Arrived
July 17, 2008 | Filed Under Budget, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Foreign Policy, Government, Corruption, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Taxes, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment
-By Warner Todd Huston
Yesterday was finally the end of the days this year when you were working to pay the government its exorbitant fees. That’s right, July 16 was Cost of Government Day for the average American. Grover Norquist , author of the recent book “Leave Us Alone,” has once again crunched the numbers and determined how long it takes most of us to finally pay off our own personal bloated government debt and begin, at last, to make money for ourselves.
This year Americans have worked until today, July 16, to pay for the total costs of federal, state and local government. This is 197 days of the year consuming 53.9 percent of national income. Over the past 22 years, in only four years (1982, 1983, 1991 and 1992) did Cost of Government Day fall later in the year.
Its simply outrageous that it takes 197 days of a year to finally pay off our government obligations and utterly criminal that more than half our income is consumed by bloated, needless bureaucracy.
Federal spending will consume 83.7 days. State and local spending will consume 50.5 days effort. Federal regulations cost 4l.7 days and State regulations cost 20.9 days. The spending data is precise, the regulatory burdens are understated.
And it is a singular failing of the Bush administration that we have added three more days of slaving to pay the government to this burden since he took office. But it is even worse that six days have been added by our own state and local governments.
Obama Stands Against Lobbyists? Well, not to Fund His Big Party he Ain’t
July 16, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
The leftists of the nutroots went gaga when Barack Obama claimed that he’d stand against taking money from lobbyists with his campaign for president. It was because, of course, he was for a “new era” in politics. He is for “change.” Isn’t he special, the nutrooters sigh contentedly.
Well, apparently Obama’s standard of a “new age” in politics doesn’t carry too far into his campaign. Obviously Barack Obama has no real power over the Party from which he claims to head because the Democratic National Convention is being funded by… you guessed it… lobbyists.
As the New York Times reports, the man being tapped by the DNC to head the fundraising for their national convention is well connected lobbyist Steve Farber.
Mr. Farber’s vast contact list could prove crucial in raising the millions of dollars needed by the Denver host committee to showcase Senator Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in August in Denver. But Mr. Farber’s activities are a public display of how corporate connections fuel politics — exactly the type of special influence that Mr. Obama had pledged to expunge from politics when he said he would not accept donations from lobbyists.
Well, so much for getting the influence of lobbyists out of politics, eh Mr. Obama?
Barack Obama and Equal Pay for Women
July 16, 2008 | Filed Under Budget, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Selwyn Duke, Society/Culture, Taxes | No Comments
By Selwyn Duke
What do you call a man who sermonizes about the evils of paying women less than men but allows that very practice in his own office? While a certain unflattering noun would leap to the minds of most, we can now apply a proper one: Barack Obama.
Although the Illinois senator has vowed to make pay equity between the sexes a priority in his administration, it has been revealed that he doesn’t practice what he preaches. Writes CNSNEWS.com:
“On average, women working in Obama’s Senate office were paid at least $6,000 below the average man working for the Illinois senator . . . . Of the five people in Obama’s Senate office who were paid $100,000 or more on an annual basis, only one – Obama’s administrative manager – was a woman.”
Now, some might call Obama a hypocrite. Isn’t he guilty of the very invidious discrimination he claims plagues America? It’s certainly easy to take this tack, and many on my side will have a field day doing so. Yet, such an analysis only qualifies us for a job such as, well, working in a leftist senator’s office. Let’s look a little deeper.
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Binding Arbitration = Financial Collapse of Business Sector
July 15, 2008 | Filed Under Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
We are reminded here on the blog that there is one aspect of the lie that is the Employee Free Choice Act bill that isn’t much discussed. That is the binding arbitration feature of this business/economy killing legislation. Besides the card check aspect where a union can dispense with the ages old democratic system of the secret ballot when employees are voting as to whether or not they even want a union in the first place — leaving employees open to union pressure and thuggery — there is the binding arbitration aspect of this legislation.
The binding arbitration will force business to decide their contract within 120 days of the card check vote should that vote favor the union. If the contract isn’t settled in 120 days, then a federal arbitrator steps in to decide the matter. In other words, it will be taken out of the hands of both union and business owners and will become another illegitimate, nanny state venue of government.
Now, since unionism adds at least 22% to the administrative costs of business that are forced into unionism, this far, far easier path to unionism will surely force many smaller business to fold as well as force thousands of workers into underfunded pension plans all across the state, and later the country if this debacle spreads.
So, there is more in the EFC Act that is detrimental to our economy and way of life than just the anti-democratic idea of card check.
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SEIU Ripping Off It’s OWN Pensioners
July 14, 2008 | Filed Under Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | 5 Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
It must be nice to be spending 85 million dollars on political campaigns yet refuse to fully fund your own member’s pension plan. That, among other things, is exactly the sort of hypocrisy that it was revealed that the SEIU has been caught indulging in this week. Diana Furchtgott-Roth did yeoman’s work in detailing the state of the SEIU’s underfunded pension obligations in the New York Sun yesterday.
The Sun’s Furchtgott-Roth details the SEIU’s latest campaign against New York financier Henry Kravis of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts whom they accuse of all sorts of nefarious activities… none of which are actually breaking any laws. But as the SEIU attacks KKR, the Sun shows that they are not keeping their own house in order as they throw stones at others.
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L.A. Outlaws Non-Union Truckers
July 10, 2008 | Filed Under Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
Pretending they are interested in “clean air,” the kindly union bought folks in the Mayor’s office in Los Angeles signed a new law that makes independent trucking basically illegal in the ports of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the law on the 26th that requires independent truckers to join trucking companies, and, therefore, the unions.
The law requires independent truck drivers servicing the port to become employees of trucking companies, and bans independent contractors. Both Villaraigosa and port authorities argue that independent, low-income drivers will not be able to afford the new $100,000 trucks that meet the port’s strict low-emissions requirements.
And, of course, this makes sure every trucker is forced to join a union just to have a job, since their privately owner business have just been made illegal.
That requirement was backed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which believes the provision will make it easier to organize truckers. But it’s opposed by the American Trucking Assn., which has vowed to file a lawsuit to block that part of the plan.
“This isn’t about clean air,’’ Curtis Whalen of the trucking association said of the pending legal action. “It’s about control of a deregulated industry and LA’s a pro-Teamster point of view.’’
Exactly right. We have arrived at a day when the fake worries about global warming and the environment can be used to destroy businesses and force them into becoming vassals of the state and the minions of corrupt union thugs.
We are witnessing the death of the private sector, slow but sure.