VIDEO: The Story of Broke Response, Why Annie Leonard is Wrong… AGAIN!

January 13, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, Senate, Socialism, Stimulus, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

Extremist “progressive” Annie Leonard recently perpetrated another video attempting to “explain” why capitalism and the United States is evil. Well, LearnLiberty.org couldn’t let her lies and left-wing propaganda go by unaddressed. So, they made this excellent video…

Prof. Art Carden responds to “The Story of Broke”, a recent video by the creators of “The Story of Stuff.” In “The Story of Broke,” Annie Leonard claims that the government isn’t actually broke. Rather, the government just wastes resources on the wrong things like subsidies to the dinosaur economy and war. She claims that the government should change its ways, and instead, subsidize firms that will bring us the future we really want.

Art Carden agrees with Leonard that war and subsidies are wasteful, but is skeptical of notion that there is one unified vision for the future. To Carden, everyone has a different vision for the future. Our path to the future, he argues, is determined by the interactions of billions of unique individuals pursuing their own objectives.

Additionally, Carden questions Leonard’s distinction between bad subsidies and good subsidies. Every subsidy, deemed good or bad, must be allocated through the political process. Lobbyists and special interests exert a large degree of influence on political decisions, and they use this power to direct subsidies in their own favor at everyone else’s expense.

Carden concludes that government spending won’t buy a brighter future. A brighter future will emerge when people are allowed to spend money on things they care about. Put another way, positive change will come from billions of people cooperating freely and voluntarily with one another, not from pushing trillions of dollars through a broken political process.

Business Roundtable: Regulations Are Killing Business

October 28, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Banks, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Conservatives, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, EPA, Ethics, Financial Reform, Free Trade, Freedom, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Government, Ill. County, House of Representatives, Illinois, Illinois State Government, Jobs, Liberals, Policy, President, Public Employees Unions, Regulation, Republicans, Senate, Taxes, The Law, Unemployment, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Friday I attended an informative business roundtable meeting of Chicago-area small businessmen who came together to discuss how government intervention and its avalanche of regulations are killing jobs and businesses not only in Illinois, but nation wide. Some of the stories were chilling, to say the least. These trials go to show how anti-business the most famously capitalist country in the world has become. No wonder we can’t get out of this second great depression!

The event was held at the headquarters of The Rabine Group in Schaumburg, Illinois. The Rabine Group is a group of nationwide companies that specializes in driveway paving, roofing, and other contracting work. The company is headed by owner and CEO Gary Rabine.

Filling out the panel was Moderator, Brian Kelly of Bulk Lift International; Gary Rabine, The Rabine Group; Garrett Patten, Patten Industries; Randy Truckenbrodt, Randall Industries, Inc, and Former State Senator Steve Rauschenberger, Rauschenberger Partners.

The panel began with some of the regulatory horror stories experienced by the panel. Each story illustrated how government stands in the way of job creation, small business, and expansion, and how government is not working hand-in-hand with small business but actually fosters an inimical relationship. The panel showed how the oppressiveness of these regulations actually tempts business to break laws just to be able to carry on with business.
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Government Kills… Businesses, Anyway

October 15, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Government, Corruption, Illinois State Government, Jobs, Liberals, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

A small business named Nice Cream found that government wasn’t very nice to its bottom line. In fact, due to its heavy hand, government froze the company into nonexistence. So much for everyone loving ice cream!

The other day, while discussing the failures of government unions and their pliant, paid-for, lapdog politicians, one of my Publius commenters said that government should “stick to its guns” and turn a blind eye to the needs of the business sector. This commenter wanted government to continue sticking it to the business sector and maintained that business would simply stand there and take it because of the “value they receive” from government. I said that business did react to a bad business climate fostered by government regulations, taxation, and interference. He didn’t think so.

Well, here is a story of how one small business was crushed, not by the market but by government. It was crushed because of government “sticking to its guns” and slamming it with idiotic regulations and rules made for multi-billion dollar corporations that did not make sense for small business.
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Roskam Statement on September Jobs Report

October 9, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Congress, Economy/Finances, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Illinois, Jobs, Peter Roskam, Republicans, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

From the office of Rep. Peter Roskam (R, Illinois 6th District)…

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Peter Roskam (R-IL), Chief Deputy Whip, issued the following statement after the Department of Labor released their September jobs report showing the national unemployment rate remains over 9 percent:

“This is yet another disappointing example that the White House’s policies need to change direction. It’s been over two and a half years since the stimulus first passed, yet trillions in debt later, unemployment is 9.1% – well above the 8% peak promised by this Administration.

“Republicans stand ready and willing to work with Democrats on commonsense solutions that remove barriers to private-sector job creation. We’ve recently passed numerous bills reforming excessive Washington-imposed regulatory practices that would kill jobs — though the Senate has yet to act on these job-saving measures or any of the dozen job-creating bills we’ve passed this year.

“It is a positive step forward that the White House sent the long-stalled pro-export trade agreements to Congress. I urge them to work with us on places where we agree, like the trade agreements, and eschew the tired playbook of proposing increasing taxes, regulatory madness, and more ‘stimulus.’”

http://roskam.house.gov/

Oil is There. Obama Doesn’t Care.

October 2, 2011 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Declaration of Independence, Energy, Huffington Post, Jobs, Kevin Roeten, Oil, Uncategorized, Unemployment, Washington Post | Comments Off

-By Kevin Roeten

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has told the Obama Administration they’ve found enough oil under US territory that estimates 163 billion barrels of recoverable oil and enough natural gas to meet the country’s demand for 90 years. [Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/10/new-report-says-u-s-has-largest-fossil-fuel-reserves-in-world/#ixzz1ZAKRYXDD.]

Back in 2006, the Department of Energy (DoE) and the Mineral Management Service (MMS) both revealed the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) had enough oil to last at least another 50 years [Assessment of Undiscovered Technically Recoverable Oil and Gas Resources of the Nation’s Outer Continental Shelf, 2006 (Summary Brochure)].

The map above is from a 2006 MMS titled “Assessment of Undiscovered Technically Recoverable Oil and Gas Resources of the Nation’s Outer Continental Shelf”. Additional details are here.

That was well before the CRS report. In fact, the CRS report shows how the US leads all nations in World Fossil Fuel Resources. That includes Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran–everyone.
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Illinois Jobs Need to be Job One

September 21, 2011 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Economy/Finances, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Illinois, Illinois State Government, Jobs, Republicans, Taxes, Tom Cross, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Illinois GOP House Leader Tom Cross

For nearly 100 years, Modern Drop Forge employees have been manufacturing metal forging tools in Blue Island. In August, the company announced it was moving to Indiana and taking 240 jobs with it. The reason: Illinois’ “poor business environment”–specifically, workers compensation laws and high taxes.

How many more companies and good jobs are we willing to let go before we get serious about workers compensation, regulatory, tort and tax reform?

In January, after Illinois’ governor and Democrats in the General Assembly passed the largest income tax hike and corporate tax hike in state history, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels actively began recruiting Illinois businesses. He isn’t alone. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey came to Illinois and ran TV ads after the tax vote marketing his state to businesses.
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California Loses Another Business Over Tax Hikes

September 10, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Business, California, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Jobs, Liberals, RightPundits.com, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Savings.com has just given California the big kiss off. They are closing their doors, moving to another state, and taking their 100+ jobs with them. Savings.com isn’t the only California-based company that has pulled up roots and moved to another state, either.

So, what is going on? It’s all about California’s confiscatory taxes, the newest of which is the Affiliate-Nexus Tax bill — a tax that hits all Internet companies that have brink and mortar facilities of any kind, office or warehouse, in the state…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Hultgren Statement on August Jobs Report

September 3, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Illinois, Jobs, Liberals, President, Randy Hultgren, Republicans, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

From the office of Rep. Randy Hultgren (Ill. 14th District)…

Geneva, IL – U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren (IL-14) today released the following statement regarding the August unemployment report released by the U.S. Department of Labor.

“August’s dismal jobs report is disappointing, but unsurprising, so long as this Administration continues to pursue its anti-jobs agenda of burdensome regulations, taxes, and out-of-control spending,” said Hultgren. “Despite his claims to be cutting red tape, the reality is that President Obama and his appointed bureaucrats are proposing even more regulations that threaten to do enormous damage to our fragile economy.”

“Before he comes to Congress next week, I urge President Obama to study the commonsense pro-growth agenda Republicans will be adopting this fall. More taxes and spending won’t get our economy moving and put Americans back to work; that requires fostering a pro-growth economic climate; lessening intrusions by unaccountable bureaucrats; and providing certainty about what Washington will do in the future.”

http://hultgren.house.gov/

Infant Tyro: Obama’s One-Upmanship of GOP Debates Clearly a Power Play

August 31, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Harry Reid, House of Representatives, Jobs, John Boehner, Liberals, President, Republicans, Senate, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

President Obama wants to give us his jobs plan. Yeah, three years after he got elected saying he was all about jobs. It isn’t the speech that is important, here, though — he won’t say anything new or important in it. It is the fact that he’s trying to bury the GOP debate that is being held on the same night he suddenly wants to issue his speech. This is childish, one-upmanship of the highest order.

Worse, when his press mouth, White House Press Sec. Jay Carney, was asked about the date question, Carny haughtily told the GOP to go ahead and change the timing of the debate they had scheduled months ago.

Obama suddenly announced today that he wants to appear at a joint session of congress so that he can present his jobs plan. He then announced, without fully confirming the date with congress, that the date of the speech would be September. Sept. 7, of course, is the date that the next GOP debate had been scheduled for, a date that had been announced many months ago.
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Obama Blames Job Loss on Technology, Internet and Efficiency

August 18, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Blogging, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Inernet, Jobs, Liberals, President, Regulation, Socialism, Technology, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

During his Midwest Misery Tour, President Obama was back to blaming technology, the Internet, and ATMs again for America’s job loss.

At a stop in Atkinson, Illinois Obama spoke about the need for education at an agricultural company named Wyffels Hybrids, Inc. He said that America is no longer a place where you can just “work hard” and find a good job doing so. Those days are gone he told his audience.

Obama lamented that bank tellers and travel agents have been replaced by automation. This is, apparently, why we have high unemployment.

Excerpt
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Union Thugs Deface Funereal Homes Over Union Fight

August 18, 2011 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Chicago, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Illinois, Jobs, Liberals, Teamsters, Unemployment, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently unions don’t even respect the dead. In Chicago, union thugs are defacing funereal homes over a contract dispute. Yeah. Property damage. That sure is a legitimate way to go about business, isn’t it? Good thing some of the people in those businesses are already dead or they’d have something to fear from the union thugs, too.

Naturally, the perpetrators are the Teamsters, Local 727. No surprise that it’s the Teamsters, either. These thugs have a long, long history of violence.

The contract for 16 embalmers, drivers, and funeral directors ran out with the Alderwoods funeral home chain on June 30. Unsurprisingly, the businesses were defaced by the unionists.
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Union Thuggery: More Criminality in Verizon Strike

August 13, 2011 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Jobs, Liberals, Unemployment, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

In Pennsylvania union thuggery, violations of the law, and criminality is abundant in the strike by the Communications Workers of America against Verizon. It’s expected that unionistas don’t respect businesses, of course, but not to respect the safety of children? That’s beyond the pale.

Sadly, theft, property destruction, and otherwise breaking the law is no hurdle union thugs won’t jump. In fact, it is threats of and use of violence and thuggery that unions have always relied on to extort money from the business community. The situation in Pennsylvania is no exception to the illicit rule of unionism.

Yes, law breaking prevails. These Penn. union members, for instance, are breaking the law by preventing other workers from entering their place of work. It is illegal to do this according to the National Labor Relations Act.
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Obama Jobs By The Numbers

July 8, 2011 | Filed Under Banks, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Dan Scott, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Republicans, Taxes, Unemployment | 2 Comments

-By Dan Scott

President Obama recently claimed the economy grew by some two millions jobs. This claim was on a seasonally adjusted basis to the middle of 2011. We expect politicians to put their best foot forward and also put the best face they can on their performance, however, as with all things to do with Obama, his rhetoric does not match reality. His claims typically come with an expiration date or a dictionary in liberal speak is needed to decipher his rhetoric into normal understanding. In Obama’s view of the world, we the average person are at fault for not properly understanding what he says, he can’t help if you are not of sufficient intelligence or understanding to grasp the reality of his statements.

Since it’s upon us to elevate our understanding, let’s examine the Bureau of Labor Statistics raw unmassaged numbers to see what actually happened since this recession took hold with a vengeance. Using 2008 as the base year we see some interesting things. Total Employment (total of full and part time workers) on an annual basis was 143,194,000 people holding jobs. In 2009 the first year of his presidency, total employment dropped to 137,775,000. 5,419,000 people lost their jobs in 2009. By 2010, having spent billions on stimulating the economy, and increasing the annual federal budget deficits by over a trillion dollars a year, total employment dropped to 136,858,000. Instead of creating jobs, the total number of people who lost their jobs cumulatively increased to 6,336,000 since 2008. So far by the numbers can you see where President Obama’s policies created 2 million jobs?
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Unionists Next Target for Destruction: Apple, Inc.

June 13, 2011 | Filed Under Business, California, Capitalism, Cities, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Jobs, Liberals, Los Angeles, Technology, Unemployment, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

A four-year Apple store employee in San Francisco wants to unionize the low wage workers that help customers in Apple Stores across America. Should he succeed, this will, of course, take one of the few successful companies we have left in America, hobble it with jobs-killing union rules, and destroy its jobs like the rest of them.

Cory Moll, 30, has a plan to take a bite out of Apple, it seems. He is claiming that the minimum wage, retail jobs of the floor helpers at Apple stores are beset with “unfair practices.” So, he wants to organize the 30,000 retail employees in Apple’s 325 brick-and-mortar stores.

Using Twitter and Facebook, Moll is trying to get the rest of the country’s Apple store employees on his jobs killing bandwagon. Fortunately, he has yet to gain much support from them.
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Class Of 2011 Faces Highest Unemployment Rate In History

June 13, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, President, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

From BankruptingAmerica.org…

Graduates Face 21.1 Applicants Per Job

Arlington, VA – Today, BankruptingAmerica.org (an awareness campaign by Public Notice) released a new Web video titled “Is Washington Creating Our Job Crisis?” As the 1.7 million college students of the class of 2011 graduate, they face one of the highest unemployment rates for college graduates in U.S. history.

This video (runtime 1:01) launches just days after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy produced just over 50,000 jobs in May, the lowest number of jobs created in 2011 and the fewest jobs in eight months.

With unemployment rising to 9.1 percent, college graduates aren’t the only ones worrying about their economic future. A recent poll conducted by the Daily Beast/Newsweek found that by almost four to one, Americans say our economy is not delivering the jobs we need. Americans are even losing sleep over the economic crisis: 56 percent are so angry about their personal economic situation that they have lost sleep.
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600 More Days of Obama

June 6, 2011 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Anti-Americanism, Banks, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, President, Stimulus, Taxes, Unemployment | Comments Off

-By Alan Caruba

As of May 30, 2011, America has 600 days more of rule by President Barack Hussein Obama.

He is the 44th President and, while we have had incompetent Presidents in the past, we have never had one determined to destroy the nation. It has taken more than two years for most sentient Americans to grasp this extraordinary threat. He has not solved problems. He has exacerbated them.

Granted the financial crisis began in 2008 as President George W. Bush was finishing his second term, but President Obama—aside from blaming Bush for everything that has occurred on his watch—literally tripled the national debt with dubious and failed “stimulus” programs, plunging the nation into debt that rivals all others in our history.

President Obama had a lot of help in getting elected and will no doubt get it in his effort to secure a second term. The mainstream media has utterly debased itself, sounding more like the state monopolies of fascist nations.
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MSNBC: Obama’s Job Loss Blamed on Natural Disasters, Bush’s Job Growth ‘False’ Because of… Natural Disasters?

June 2, 2011 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, George W. Bush, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Journalism, Labor Law, Liberals, Media Bias, MSNBC, President, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

From the “figures lie, but liars figure” department we find that left-leaning cable newser MSNBC reported that the main reason Obama’s job stats are tumbling and unemployment is so high is because of the harsh tornado season and other natural disasters we have been experiencing over the first half of 2011. Yet, hypocritically, if we take a peak back to the unemployment rates reported by MSNBC in 2004, during Bush’s era, his jump in hiring was called false because of — you guessed it — hurricanes and other natural disasters.

That’s right, folks, MSNBC is using natural disasters to explain away Obama’s high unemployment rates when they used the very same excuse, natural disasters, to say that Bush’s rise in employment was false.

Talk about tailoring the “news” to fit the ideological objective that MSNBC wants to push, eh?
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Roskam Statement on February Jobs Report

March 5, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Congress, GOP, Government, House of Representatives, Illinois, Peter Roskam, Republicans, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

From the office of Republican Congressman Peter Roskam (IL, 6th District)…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Peter Roskam (R-IL), Chief Deputy Whip, issued the following statement after the Department of Labor released their February jobs report:

“Today’s jobs numbers indicate that our economy is showing slight signs of recovery from the failed policies of the last few years, but there are far too many Americans still out of work. Unemployment is still well above eight percent over two years after the failed ‘stimulus’ – due to the trillions in wasteful spending and debt and the constant threat of higher taxes under Democrats’ rule.

“From day one of our Majority, Republicans’ number one focus has been to remove the barriers to job creation and today’s report shows that our efforts are starting to work. From preventing job-crushing tax increases this past December, to voting to cut Washington’s spending in a meaningful way, to just yesterday passing the repeal of an onerous mandate on small businesses, Republicans are working to restore certainty to the marketplace.

“Yet millions of Americans are still struggling to find a job. And unfortunately for the millions that remain out of work, Washington can’t get out of the private-sector’s way fast enough. We need to continue to focus on cutting Washington’s spending and debt and restoring certainty to the marketplace through initiatives like reforming our tax code and passing the stalled free trade agreements. These reforms will create a better environment for the private sector to create jobs.”

http://roskam.house.gov/

Policy Failures

February 9, 2011 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Capitalism, Dan Scott, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Taxes, Unemployment | Comments Off

-By Dan Scott

Over the past year President Obama and liberal Democrats in general have been taking a pounding on the issue of unemployment and their prescription to solve this problem via Keynesian pump priming. They went so far as to issue the now infamous graphic showing their projection of what would happen if they didn’t do anything versus spending money we didn’t have via Stimulus Spending. In two years time, the hype about creating or saving three million jobs has pretty much been dropped by the Obama Administration. Having VP Joe Biden continually and somewhat comically demonstrate the lack of credibility of such a measureless assertion created more cynicism among the voters than confidence. The elections of November 2010 put an end to this silly meritless assertion since the voters seeing 9+% unemployment demonstrated they weren’t buying what was being foisted.

The wild annual trillion dollar deficit spending by a prolificate Congress with little to show for it frightened the voters enough that change was deemed necessary. Now that Barack Obama is looking to get re-elected in 2012, it seems the metrics need to be changed in his favor. Perversely, part of this change was the faulty definition of unemployment. By the definition a person is only considered unemployed if their period of joblessness is less than a year. To be fair, this definition was in place long before Obama became president. Under normal recessions this definition never truly impacted the math determining the unemployment rate. However, this is no normal recession and it is not unusual for a person to be unemployed for greater than a year in high unemployment areas, which brings us to some needed context.
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As Japan Abandons Emissions Caps, Obama Rushes Headlong Toward It

January 1, 2011 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Cap and Trade, Capitalism, Climate Change, Coal, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Environment, EPA, Global Warming, Government, Government, Corruption, Japan, Jobs, Law, Liberals, Nuclear Power, Oil, President, Regulation, Republicans, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even as the Japanese have abandoned its national emissions trading scheme because they’ve realized how many jobs would be lost as a result of the draconian regulations involved, President Obama continues to claim that he wants to impose similar jobs-killing regulations on America.

Japan initially announced that its national carbon trading scheme was to have been approved in the now concluding parliamentary session. But common sense and business interests have delayed the bill until the next session begins in January putting the future of the law into question.

Japan’s National Strategy Minister, Koichiro Gemba, who was appointed to review the government’s core green policy steps, said the trading scheme needed further careful study, indicating that it had effectively been shelved.

Japanese authorities are coming to realize that the emissions cuts that the island nation had imagined it would achieve will cost jobs and severely hamper their business sector. Stark realizations are dawning on the Japanese that emissions goals would be “nearly impossible to meet” without deep cuts in emissions by manufacturers, the power infrastructure, not to mention homes and business buildings.
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Another Big Labor Union Payoff: Obama Adds $3.3 Million to Construction Project

December 9, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, PLA, President, Taxes, Unemployment, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The government is over spent. This single fact is beyond dispute. Even Democrats say so. We have but to recall that Democrat after Democrat attempted to run for office this last election by claiming fealty to small government, cost cutting, and lower spending. So with all this small government/low spending fever sweeping the political classes, what does Barack Obama do? He forces policies on federal building projects that inflates costs by the millions. And why would he do this? As a payoff to unions that gave him millions in campaign contributions, of course.

The latest bloated price tag for a federal project is that of the Lafayette Federal Building in Washington D.C., a project that has seen costs rise at least $3.3 million thanks to Obama’s payoffs to unions. That’s right in a day when we are drowning in government overspending, Obama is making sure costs rise, not insuring that they fall.

Barack Obama’s political tin ear is nowhere better revealed than in his constant payoffs to Big Labor. One of Obama’s very first actions, for instance, was to write an Executive Order that forced all government building projects to follow union marching orders in pay scale, work rules, and pension payouts by imposing Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on all of them.
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Unions: Who Needs ‘Em?

December 4, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Michigan, Thierry Godard, UAW, Unemployment, Unions | 1 Comment

-By Thierry Godard

Detroit in 2010 is unlike any other American city. Once a bastion of American industrial might, Detroit was not only home to the Big Three, but a thriving community of small business owners who supported the automotive industry. In a sad twist of fate, Detroit has come to symbolize the crippled state of the American economy.

Foreclosure has rendered the city nearly vacant. Detroit is a modern-day ghost town. The infamous bailout of GM and Chrysler came about largely because of the massive obligations these automotive companies had to pay to their labor unions. The Democratic Congress, left with the option of propping up failing companies or risking a complete breakdown of mid-western society, chose the bailout instead of confronting the true problem—unions—head on.

It’s no secret to industry insiders that the United Auto Workers’ unreasonable demands played a large role in the collapse of the auto industry in 2008. The irony, of course, is that the UAW’s rampant waste prompted the downfall of the very industry it not only claims to serve, but wholly relies on for the employment of its members.
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Another Sign Unions Losing Influence

November 29, 2010 | Filed Under AFL-CIO, Business, Capitalism, Economy/Finances, Liberals, Unemployment, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Unions in America really are under assault from every direction. Certainly they are still powerful and not to be under estimated, but unions really have lost much of the power they once had. At less than 20 percent of the work force these days, the unions that are left have been finding themselves being forced to make the sort of concessions that they once would never even consider.

The New York Times reports on one more bit of news showing that unions are taking deals just to stay working that once would have been flatly refused as two-tiered wage scales are becoming more common in this recessionary economic climate.
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Obama’s NLRB Appointee Says Unions Need to be Voted in Quicker

November 7, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Free Trade, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, NLRB, President, Public Employees Unions, Taxes, Unemployment, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now that the election is over and we’ve seen in stark light the rebuke that Obama has received, many are wondering if he’ll moderate his far left agenda. But a few movements in the Labor Dept. will disabuse anyone of the notion that Obama intends to drop his left-wing agenda. Leave it to an Obama appointee to the National Labor Rights Board (NLRB) to want to push votes to install unions in the workplace on an accelerated schedule. I guess all the payoffs and special favors that Obama and his cohorts have given to labor unions in these two of the longest years any president ever had have not been enough.

On Oct. 21, NLRB Member Mark Gaston Pearce said that the time period between filing and the holding of elections for new union representation in a company should be “as brief as possible.”

Of course, this shortened election period is nothing but a sop to Big Labor and intended to hurt businesses that might try to put up a fight against the encroachment of unions. As “>Jay Summer of the Labor Relations Counsel website says:
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Unemployment Worsens: What Happened to 3.5 Million Workers, Mr. President?

November 6, 2010 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Free Trade, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, President, Senate, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge asks an interesting question about the latest jobs data that the Obama administration has released to the public — and to a mostly unquestioning Old Media. As Durden calculates it, 3.5 million workers have mysteriously disappeared from the work force. If this is true then the unemployment rate is a lot higher than that being bandied about by the administration.

According to Durden the data show that there is actually a workforce of 157.4 million workers as opposed to the 153.9 million that the administration has claimed. So, where did 3.5 million workers go?

Durden says, “labor force participation has now dropped to the lowest rate it has been since 1984, at 64.5%. Assuming a reversion to the long-term average participation rate of 66%, means that the civilian labor force is in reality 157.4 million as opposed to the disclosed 153.9 million, a delta of 3.5 million currently unaccounted for.”

After that, Durden had a question for President Obama. “Maybe someone can ask the president during his imminent press conference what happened to the unemployed population, which would have been 18.3 if this labor force delta was incorporated, resulting in an unemployment rate of 11.6%.”

Would it be a surprise if the Obama administration has fiddled with the numbers to present a false image of just how bad it is out there?
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BREAKING: Democrat Introduces Legislation to End Right-to-Work States

October 4, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Federalism, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Right To Work, Rights, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

From LaborUnionReport.com

[ed: yet another example of the extreme left in America trying to use the federal government to destroy local control and state's rights.]

Back in June, we reported that California Congressman Brad Sherman (D) was circulating a letter to his fellow Democrats to introduce legislation to repeal “Right-to-Work” laws in 22 states. Now, with less than a month before the mid-term elections and five weeks before a lame-duck session in Congress, Sherman has introduced legislation to eliminate state Right to Work laws all across America.

Currently, there are 22 states in the U.S. that have laws where workers who are employed at companies that are unionized have a choice whether or not to join or pay the union. These states are known as Right-to-Work states.
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Rep. Roskam on The ‘Pledge To America’ (Answers to Earmarks Question)

September 28, 2010 | Filed Under Barney Frank, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Earmarks, Economy/Finances, Elections, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Illinois, Jobs, Liberals, Lobbyists, Nancy Pelosi, Peter Roskam, President, Regulation, Republicans, Stimulus, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week the House Republicans issued their update of the 1994 “Contract With America.” They have labeled it the “Pledge To America,” and it was launched to a standing ovation from House Republicans. On Friday I spoke to Representative Peter Roskam (R, Ill.) and asked a few questions about this new effort.

Roskam said that the preamble of the pledge, “which is really, I think, moving,” was met with a standing ovation when it was presented to all the Hose Republicans and the representative was pleased that the National Review said that the new pledge was bolder than the original 1994 contract.

Click to download document

He also threw out a little taunt to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi saying, “our members are game on and ready to go… if the Speaker wants to mock this stuff then the best way for her to deal with it is to call us out, which of course she won’t.”
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Feels Like a Depression to Me

September 13, 2010 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Banks, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Government, Corruption, History, Jobs, Taxes, The Great Depression, Unemployment | Comments Off

-By Alan Caruba

Between the time that George Washington took the first oath of office as president and when Barack Obama did—1789 to 2009, the United States had borrowed nine trillion dollars. Since Obama took office, it has borrowed or imposed nearly three trillion more debt. Tell me he is not deliberately seeking to bankrupt the nation.

In an August 28 Wall Street Journal editorial it noted that “To no one’s surprise except Vice President Joe Biden’s, second quarter economic growth was revised down yesterday to 1.6% from the prior estimate of growth of 2.4% which was down from first quarter growth of 3.7%, which was down from the 2009 fourth quarter’s 5%. Economic recoveries are supposed to go in the other direction.”

I was born during the Great Depression of the 1930s and have lived long enough now to find myself in a new one. There are similarities between the two, but the first one led to the creation of a variety of government regulatory entities and programs that should have avoided or at least were expected put the brakes on the current one.
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Obama Panders to Union Thugs on Labor Day And Whines A Bit, Too

September 6, 2010 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Lobbyists, President, Public Employees Unions, Unemployment, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

President Obama dutifully went to Wisconsin today under orders from his union patrons to make a big show of his support for union thugs on Labor Day.

The bought and paid for president gave his remarks (text of prepared remarks) as expected but there was a little wrinkle this time. Apparently the poor widdle president is upset at his critics. He whined to his union patrons that his critics “talk about me like a dog.” President Obama, I, for one, would never insult dogs like that.

Obama: They talk about me like a dog

(CNN) – Those following President Obama’s prepared remarks during a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Monday were thrown a bit of a curveball when it came to a description of his critics:

“Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time and they’re not always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog. That’s not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true,” he told a crowd largely consisting of union members.

The line was a rare departure from a president who normally sticks close to the text of his speech and may forecast a more aggressive tone on the part of Obama as the midterms approach.

The address is the first of two speeches this week in which Obama will try and frame his administration’s response to the recession, less than two months ahead of midterm elections where Democratic majorities in the House and Senate are on the ropes.

Tell Obama and Congress to Halt The Assault on Small Business

September 3, 2010 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, DOL, Economy/Finances, Elections, Free Trade, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, Policy, President, Public Employees Unions, Taxes, Unemployment, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

From the folks at the Free Enterprise Alliance, a group of free market advocates backed by the construction industry.

Appearing on televisions in places near and far, ABC’s Free Enterprise Alliance this week will launch a new ad asking travelers to look around, find a representative, and tell them to Halt The Assault on free enterprise, small business, and jobs.

The FEA says they’ve booked time at on CNN’s Airport network, so this ad will appear right where our Congressmen are going to be as they make their way home for the holiday!

From the group’s About Us page:

At the heart of the Free Enterprise Alliance’s mission is the belief that while we need government for common sense regulations, the scales have tipped too far in favor of government intrusion and its advocates. The Free Enterprise Alliance believes small business and entrepreneurs grow jobs and our economy, not union bosses and federal bureaucrats.