Unexpected: job growth consistently higher in right-to-work states

Why, this must be some sort of strange coincidence:

Currently, the U.S. has 22 right-to-work states. All of them are in the South, West, and Central Midwest. During the past 15 years, these states have collectively outperformed the rest of the nation to an almost embarrassing degree:

• “From 1995 to 2005, incomes of residents in right-to-work states grew by 142 percent more than the incomes of Ohioans,” and “private-sector job growth was 500% greater.”

• After passing right-to-work legislation in 1986 and 2001, respectively, Idaho and Oklahoma both experienced explosive growth in their economies and overall employment.

• An after-tax dollar earned in a right-to-work state has more real purchasing power than it does in other states, “because union labor tends to raise (the) costs of goods and services.”

I took a look at economic growth in the individual states during the past decade as measured by gross domestic product (GDP). What I found also shows that right-to-work states clearly outperformed the others [see table at right]...

...2001-2010 economic growth weighted by average population in all right-to-work states was 21.7%; in the rest of the states and the District of Columbia, it was only 13.6%. During the past thirty years, the tremendous leads in per-capita GDP industrial states like Ohio and Michigan once had over the right-to-work states have mostly and in a few cases entirely evaporated.

Wealthy union bosses like Dick Trumka proudly proclaim their hatred of capitalism and their desire to push America into a Soviet-style, socialistic economy.

Furthermore, union leadership has aligned itself with the environmental, flat-earth, no-growth "green" movement that has dedicated itself to the de-industrialization of America. Labor bosses support -- of all things -- the EPA, which is gutting energy exploration, pipeline construction, the drilling business, the mining industry, all power generation facilities, refinery construction, and the like.

In their rapacious quest for power, union bosses have thrown their members to the wolves.

At some point in the very near future, union members are going to rise up against their bosses -- who have aligned with far Left Marxists -- to destroy the economy and all of their members' jobs. A good start will be voting to pink-slip the top union boss, one Barack H. Obama, in 2012.

"Government Employees Are the True 1%"

We are on track in the United States to pay more money to 20 million public sector retirees – at an average pension of $65,000 we will pay these retirees $1.3 trillion per year, then we will be paying in social security to 80 million private sector retirees – at an average social security benefit of $15,000 per year that will cost less, about $1.2 trillion per year. Providing a level of retirement security to government workers that only the wealthiest 1% can enjoy in the private sector is not “protecting the middle class,” it is economic enslavement by government unions over the taxpayer.

Wayne Allen Root explains how public sector unions are bankrupting the United States, by the numbers:

How did America become broke and insolvent? How did we build up an unimaginable $115 trillion in debt and unfunded liabilities? How did we allow the American Dream to become a nightmare?

...The truth is that government employees are the true 1%. We have far too many of them (21 million), many of them are paid too much, and their union demands are straining taxpayers to the breaking point.

They have become a privileged class that expects to be treated superior to the taxpayers — the same folks who pay their salaries and pensions. But it is their obscene pensions that are the big problem moving forward for America.

• A retired New York City toll-taker will received a taxpayer-funded pension of $120,000 a year for the rest of his life. And he's only 50 years old.

• Nearly 80,000 federal employees earned more than the governor of their state of residence.

• The compensation of the average federal worker is more than $123,000-a-year, more than double the average private sector worker.

• The average firefighter in Las Vegas, NV earns $199,678 per year.

• Over the course of his or her career, the average janitor working in government makes over $600,000 more than a private sector janitor.

• More than a third of the Las Vegas teachers' union's entire $4.1 million annual budget went to pay just nine union leaders (including salaries of $632,546 and $546,133).

• Roughly 50% of all Clark County (Las Vegas, NV) firefighters retired with work-related injuries in recent years and received an average bonus payment of $320,000 each, in addition to gold-plated pensions for life.

...do you know any small business owners who retire with $5 to $10 million? They are few and far between. But that’s exactly what a private sector employee would need in the bank on the day of his or her retirement to match the $100,000 per year pensions (plus health care benefits and cost of living increases) of government employees paid out over 30 to 50 years.

Keep in mind that government employees never risk a dollar of their own money. They have lifetime job security. And they rarely work beyond 9 to 5, let alone weekends or holidays.

Yet government employees are paid millions by taxpayers to retire early, often on pensions fattened by gaming the corrupt system.

They are the true 1%.

No country anywhere in the world can afford this insanity.

The arithmetic is unassailable. If this country is to survive, public sector unions must be eradicated.


Related: A Brief, Illustrated History of the Public Sector Unions That Are Bleeding America Dry With the Full Support of the Democrat Party

Coinkadink: Obama rips small oil companies for their $4B in tax relief, which is roughly the same amount he blew on the Chevy Volt

Just yesterday, President Obama called on Congress to end $4 billion in tax breaks for small oil and gas companies. How this is supposed to reduce skyrocketing gas prices is best left as an exercise for the demented.

Speaking before a crowd of 1,000 at Nashua Community College in New Hampshire, Obama defended his energy policies for the second time in as many weeks, saying there were “no quick fixes” to escalating prices at the pump.

But the president insisted that lawmakers should vote in the next few weeks to repeal oil industry’s $4 billion federal subsidies, a demand he has made several times over the past three years. Ending the “industry giveaway,” Obama argued, would spur the development of alternative energy sources that could offer long-term relief from rising gas prices.

Alternative energy sources like Solyndra?

Well, those several billions of dollars were blown by Obama in pursuit of a coal-powered car, which has turned out to be L'Failure Epique, as they say in France.

After Obama Blew $3 Billion on the Chevy Volt – GM Suspends Production & Lays Off 1,300 Workers

Barack Obama blew more money on the Chevy Volt than the entire annual GDP of Belize...


General Motors announced today that the company was suspending production of the Chevy Volt and 1,300 workers would be laid off... The Chevrolet Volt, an extended-range electric car, is both a political lightning rod and a symbol of the company’s technological capability... Chevrolet sold 1,023 Volts in the U.S. in February and has sold 1,626 so far this year.

Of course, GM actually owes taxpayers in excess of $25 billion, so the Volt subsidy is just a down payment.

It's for the children: Nevada teachers union bosses hit the taxpayer-funded jackpot

Reason number 40 jazillion that collective bargaining must be banned.

In Las Vegas, you don’t have to be a gambling addict to strike it rich. In fact, you only need to become a union boss and the odds are, you too can be a ‘one percenter.’

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal [emphasis added]:

In 2009, the last year for which a required Internal Revenue Service report is available, more than a third of the union’s $4.1 million budget went to pay just nine leaders. Each earned between $139,785 and $208,683 for a total of $1.5 million, according to the Clark County Education Association’s report to the IRS.

John Jasonek, then executive director, got $208,683 for running the union but also received $423,863 from two affiliated organizations — the union’s Community Foundation and Center for Teaching Excellence — making his total pay $632,546.

In addition, union-created Teachers Health Trust CEO Peter Alpert was paid $546,133.

Unfortunately, unlike the one-armed bandits that line the Vegas Strip, becoming rich as a union boss is a little less random. [Hint: Knowing someone helps.]

Hey, the taxpayers, they gots plenty o' dough, right?

They'se never gonna miss it!

And it's for the kids, see?


Cartoon by: A. F. Branco.

GM: Only about 30 times worse than Solyndra

Say, how's that GM investment working out for taxpayers?

BailoutCost.com calculates to the second and to the penny how much we are in the hole on the Government Motors bailout.

Briefly: We own about 500 million GM shares. To break even, they need to be sold at $53 per. Right now they're trading at about $26.

Which loses us about $13 billion.

Remember, Solyndra lost us: $0.5 billion.

I'm not real good at math, but that seems like a lot more.

20-30 times more (again, depending on the share price whence we sell).

Besides abrogating bankruptcy law to hand the UAW an immense payoff, let's not forget the administration's skulduggery surrounding Dealergate and the hundreds of selective dealer closings that seemed curiously -- how you say in English? -- selective and partisan.

When the complete history of the Obama-Holder administration is finally written, I'm certain it will make Nixon and Mitchell look like the children who stole fizzy-lifting drinks from Willy Wonka's factory.

Chart: We Are The Forgotten 33%

Look up the word unsustainable in the dictionary and you might see a chart that looks like this.

Much has been made of the 1% vs. the 99%; the “super-rich” vs. the rest of us, who are presumably the hard working, loyal Americans who’ve been left behind. But who are the rest of us, and how does who we are affect how much we pay in taxes, and how we may vote?

The chart ... depicts the American electorate divided not into two groups – the 1% vs. the 99%, but four groups – the 1% super-rich, then 20% representing government workers, 46% representing citizens who either pay zero taxes or negative taxes (ala the “earned income credit”), and the remaining 33% who are neither super-rich, government employees, or not paying taxes. One might term this group the forgotten 33%, because no special interest will speak for them. They have neither the numbers nor the financial wherewithal to decisively influence elections...

...This identity of interests between the political class and the entitled class has created a supermajority of voters in America who have a self-interest in supporting big-government.

Perhaps the most appalling – and unchallenged – fallacy promoted by the big-government supermajority, primarily through their spokespersons in the public sector unions, is that the super-rich are “trying to destroy the middle-class by pitting the private sector workers against the public sector workers.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

With the dramatic extensions to unemployment insurance implemented by the Obama Democrats, the private sector is now paying people not to work:

President Obama is crowing that the unemployment rate is falling—to 8.3% in January—but he and his party are still insisting as part of the payroll tax deal that payments to the jobless must increase again. So add on another $30 billion or so to the $200 billion that this extra "unemployment insurance" has already cost since the recession...

...But for the last three and a half years those payments—about 35% to 40% of the worker's last pay check—have been extended eight times to an all-time high 99 weeks in many states. So now taxpayers pick up the check for as much as two years of not working, even as jobs become easier to find...

...[But t]wo of President Obama's most senior economists—former White House aide Larry Summers and current Council of Economic Advisers chairman Alan Krueger—have published studies documenting this antiwork incentive. According to a study co-authored by Mr. Krueger in 2002: "Higher and longer duration UI benefits will cause unemployed workers who receive UI to take longer to find a new job."

The sooner the Democrat Party is wiped out at the ballot box, the sooner this insanity can end. Before it's too late.

Democrat Civility, Exhibit #4,305

I wonder what Gabbi Giffords and her family think of this display:

Earlier this month, Arizona State Senator Rick Murphy introduced four bills designed to curb union’s collective bargaining rights in the state. Union members/occupiers held a protest rally against the measures on February 3rd. One of the signs carried at the rally shows the kind of civility we can expect from progressives:

You can see the video this came from here. Keep in mind, this protest took place in Tucson where, just last January, Jared Loughner shot 19 people, leading to a nationwide call for more civility and a “new tone” in politics. The President himself weighed in on this during a nationally televised memorial service.

So the unions want to kill state representatives for proposing bills let workers opt out of paying dues. Delightful.

Collective bargaining, which requires workers to pay dues whether they want to join a union or not, is legalized thievery. If you are compelled to pay dues against your will -- to a group of fat-cat union bosses with none of your interests in mind -- you are an indentured servant.

Collective bargaining needs to go.

Pictures: Your 3rd-Grader's Social Studies Text Book, a Cornucopia of Left-Wing Crackpottery

Wondering whether elementary school students are truly indoctrinated in the left wing agenda? Well, wonder no more. They are; and it's worse -- far worse -- than you can possibly imagine.

Consider, if you will, McGraw-Hill's Our Democratic Heritage, a textbook designed for third-graders and published in 2010. If you'd assume that it was intended to teach kids about America's founding and its institutions of government, you'd assume wrong.

The book is a veritable cornucopia of left wing spin.

There is but one sentence devoted to the Bill of Rights. It reads, "These rights [of citizens] are listed in the part of the U.S. Constitution called the Bill of Rights".

• Two pages cover the Declaration of Independence
• Two pages describe the Constitution, all of which are devoted to the three branches of government and separation of powers
• No pages are devoted to James Madison and the authors of the Constitution; there is no mention of federalism
• Six pages are spent describing the background of Paul Revere
• Ten pages are devoted to the history of democracy in ancient Greece.
• George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are mentioned only in passing, almost as if they are immaterial scenery on the road to diversity and social Utopia.

In the section entitled "America's Freedom Fighters":

• Eight pages are spent covering the life of Frederick Douglass
• Five pages on Susan B. Anthony
• Six pages on Mary McLeod Bethune,
• Zero pages are devoted to the life of Abraham Lincoln

In fact, the entire Civil War is described only as a backdrop to the lives of Frederick Douglas and Mary McLeod Bethune.

In the section entitled "The Fight for Freedom Continues":

• Seven pages are spent on praise for FDR (including 2 pages on Pearl Harbor)
• Six pages on Eleanor Roosevelt
• Six pages are devoted to Thurgood Marshall
• Six pages are spent on LBJ's life and the wondrous effects of "Great Society"
• Six pages are spent on Cesar Chavez and the lionization of the labor movement

There is no list of American Presidents.

There is no mention of the two-party system, nor the fact that there exists a group called "The Republican Party".

And there is no mention of a Republican President other than Abraham Lincoln, who merits but a picture and a single sentence. In fact, you would not know from reading this book that there ever was a Republican President.

A total of four paragraphs are spent describing World War II. There is no mention of President Harry S. Truman or of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan to mercifully end World War II.

There is, of course, no mention of Ronald Reagan.

One of the goals we Constitutional conservatives must have is to regain control of our public school systems, which appear to be -- if this book is any indication -- completely out of control.

Six charts from the CBO that spell big trouble for the U.S.

Jim Pethokoukis points us to a just-released report from the Congressional Budget Office (PDF) that includes some extremely troubling graphs.

Catastrophic budget deficits and unemployment levels (purposefully understated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) as far as the eye can see. The good news? By 2022 the economy will have collapsed been "fundamentally transformed" under soaring interest rates and unpayable debts.

Obama can blame Bush, Martin Van Buren, or Mary Tyler Moore -- but the facts are simple: those last four bars are owned 100% by the Democrat Party. The Stimulus package, which I like to call "the most audacious armed robbery in world history" continues to be spent every year as it is built into the baseline budget. Which somehow seems to escape legacy media's attention as they discuss taxing "the rich", "oil companies", "doctors who charge $30,000 for an amputation", and anyone else who tries to make an honest living.

The CBO defines the GDP gap as, essentially, the delta between where the GDP is and where it should be. They're too diplomatic to put it the way I would, which is: "the difference between where the GDP is now and where it would be if we didn't have a radical ideologue beholden to the environmental flat-Earth no-growth Marxists and the public sector union bosses as president".

I don't believe the CBO's projections for the future, especially in the case of this chart. There's a concept called "reversion to mean" that, roughly translated, says that figures generally return to their average. Note the average interest rates the country's seen over the last four decades. Now add in the monstrous amounts of global debt that lies lurking, ready to smash into the global economy at any moment thanks to the insanity of bankers and their surrogates in government. We'll be lucky if we only see a reversion to the mean over the next 10 or 15 years.

• "The U.S. housing industry, where experts believe the economic crisis began, is the target of President Barack Obama's latest initiative to strengthen the economy. Mr. Obama has unveiled a $75 billion plan to prevent as many as nine million Americans from losing their homes." (2/18/2009)

• "Obama expands mortgage modification effort - Under fire to do more to stop the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration announced new mortgage modification steps on Friday to help the unemployed and those who are "underwater" with a bigger loan than their home is worth." (3/26/2010)

• "OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR TARGETED FORECLOSURE-PREVENTION PROGRAMS TO HELP HOMEOWNERS STRUGGLING WITH UNEMPLOYMENT - Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund Will Provide $2 Billion of Additional Assistance in 17 states and the District of Columbia; HUD to Launch a New $1 Billion Program to Help Unemployed Borrowers in Other Areas..." (8/11/2010)

• "Obama’s Plan Announced - On Monday, the Obama administration announced a plan which will attempt to help struggling homeowners refinance their mortgages." (10/31/2011)

I got a million more of 'em.

Hey, isn't central planning grand?

If we don't vote these malevolent Statists out of office in November, this country may be gone.

SEIU Proudly Advertises Its Assocation With Fascist Ideology

Trevor Loudon describes the open and malevolent ties between the SEIU and the Democrat Socialists of America. You can subtitle this story "SEIU members hardest hit":

I have long contended that the US’ largest and most militant labor organization the Service Employees International Union, is allied to, or subordinate to, the country’s largest Marxist organization – Democratic Socialists of America... Here is proof of this connection, from the latest edition of DSA’s Democratic Left, Winter 2011/2012, page 11:

God bless Trevor Loudon for his unwavering fight against the failed, miserable, Utopian ideology of Marxist Fascism in all of its nefarious and destructive forms.

And for those who accuse mois of using "over-the-top" rhetoric with the word fascism, please consider "The Wiktionary Definition of Fascism."

Here are some photos you'll never see in legacy media: the Volt crash test that torched a whole series of cars

Odd. I must have missed this report on ABC, NBC, CBS and in The New York Slimes:

I attended Wednesday’s 8:00am (8am?!?) House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing entitled:

Volt Vehicle Fire: What Did NHTSA Know And When Did They Know It?

The witnesses [included] National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Barack Obama-appointee Administrator David Strickland... [and] General Motors (GM), Barack Obama-appointee CEO Dan Akerson.

...This hearing was all about a single June Volt blaze. The battery burst into flames about three weeks after a test crash at and by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

A fire about which Obama’s NHTSA did tell the Obama White House. But a fire about which neither Obama’s NHTSA, the Obama Administration nor Obama’s GM told the American people for nearly six months – and then did so only when forced by a looming Bloomberg news story.

...Joan Claybrook, a former administrator at NHTSA believes part of the reason for the delay was the “fragility of Volt sales.” Yet she also believes that “NHTSA could have put out a consumer alert, not to tell them [customers] for six months makes no sense to me.” ...For Obama, notifying Americans of their potential immolation-by-Volt is of less import than his keeping his gig past November.

The one NHTSA Volt fire discussed at the hearing was not the only NHTSA Volt fire that occurred. In November, there were two others. After conducting three different tests two weeks ago, the NHTSA found that the Volt’s battery either caught fire or began to smoke in two out of the three.

So that’s three Volt fires – all in the hands of the Obama Administration, all after crashes... There were [also] three other, private-owner Volt fires. None of which involved Volts that were in crashes.

...There was the Volt that in April burst into flames – twice. These were the fires that led to Obama’s NHTSA beginning its investigation. And then in November another Volt leapt into flames. While Obama’s NHTSA was still investigating – but after the NHTSA-Obama Administration-GM cover-up had come to light (get it?)...

...We still have no idea what caused these fires. The only thing we do know is that they were not caused by crashes – because these cars were never in crashes. So why did Obama’s NHTSA, the Obama Administration and Obama’s GM singularly focus on (but one of three) post-crash Volt fires ... [w]hen none of these three privately-owned combustible Volts had been in accidents?

We – still – don’t know. Anything.

But don’t worry: The Obama Administration has declared that the Obama-owned GM Chevy Volt is perfectly safe – just in time for Obama’s reelection campaign.

Indeed. The Volt is safe. We guarantee it. Who's we? Shut the hell up, peons.


Related: Exclusive Photo: First Chevy Volts arrive at local dealers


Photos: Charging Point.

Breaking: Indiana poised to deal crushing blow to labor

In other words, Indiana is banning indentured servitude, which is how I define being forced to pay union dues when you have no desire to belong to a union.

In another blow to organized labor in the traditionally union heavy Midwest, Indiana is poised to become the first right-to-work state in more than a decade after Republican lawmakers cleared the way on Wednesday to ban unions from collecting mandatory fees from workers.

Over the past year, Republicans have pushed for other anti-union laws in battleground Rust Belt states where many of the country's manufacturing jobs reside, including Wisconsin and Ohio, but they also have faced backlash from Democrats and union supporters. Wisconsin last year stripped public sector unions of collective bargaining rights.

Despite massive protests outside the Capitol, Wisconsin's GOP-dominated Assembly passed a law backed by Gov. Scott Walker in March that strips nearly all collective bargaining rights from organized labor. Walker is now preparing for a recall election after opponents turned in a million signatures aimed at forcing a vote and ousting him from office. In November, Ohio voters repealed a law limiting collective bargaining rights that was championed by Gov. John Kasich and fellow Republican lawmakers.

Indiana would mark the first win in 10 years for national right-to-work advocates who have pushed unsuccessfully for the measure in other states following a Republican sweep of statehouses in 2010. But few right-work states boast Indiana's union clout, borne of a long manufacturing legacy... Oklahoma, with its rural-based economy that produces comparatively fewer union jobs than Indiana, passed right-to-work legislation in 2001.

Indiana's vote came after weeks of protest by minority Democrats who tried various tactics to stop the bill. They refused to show up to debate despite the threat of fines that totaled $1,000 per day and introduced dozens of amendments aimed at delaying a vote. But conceding their tactics could not last forever because they were outnumbered, they finally agreed to allow the vote to take place.

Marxist Democrat Rep. Linda Lawson termed the anti-slavery law an attack on the community.

"What you are doing is destroying my community!" said Lawson, who represents a northwest Indiana district packed with heavy manufacturers and a major BP oil refinery. "We want to turn my district into Detroit!"

I might have misheard that last sentence.


Hat tip: Winterspirit.

Say, didn't Illinois just try Obama's "tax the rich" crap last year? And didn't it fail, miserably?

Why, yes. Yes it did.

Republicans looking to combat President Obama's Castro-like State of the Union speech have an easy case laid out for them. It's called the state of Illinois, which dramatically increased taxes on individuals (especially the "rich") and businesses last year.

And not only did Illinois fail to close its budget gap, but Obama's ultra-left wing, union-controlled home state also got a ratings downgrade. Which means -- for you drones out there -- that its future borrowing costs will go still higher.

It's called circling the drain: more borrowing begets lower ratings, which increases borrowing costs, and so on...

Run up spending and debt, raise taxes in the naming of balancing the budget, but then watch as deficits rise and your credit-rating falls anyway. That’s been the sad pattern in Europe, and now it’s hitting that mecca of tax-and-spend government known as Illinois.

…Moody’s downgraded Illinois state debt to A2 from A1, the lowest among the 50 states. That’s worse even than California.

…This wasn’t supposed to happen. Only a year ago, Governor Pat Quinn and his fellow Democrats raised individual income taxes by 67% and the corporate tax rate by 46%. They did it to raise $7 billion in revenue, as the Governor put it, to “get Illinois back on fiscal sound footing” and improve the state’s credit rating. So much for that.

…And—no surprise—in part because the tax increases have caused companies to leave Illinois, the state budget office confesses that as of this month the state still has $6.8 billion in unpaid bills and unaddressed obligations.

Turn out that raising taxes, especially on the "rich", does three basic things:

• It destroys productivity, because the "rich" are the ones who invest, take risks, start businesses, and -- in general -- create productivity in the economy;

• It encourages the government to continue reckless spending;

• And never raises as much money as projected.

In other words, allowing government to raise taxes without first restraining spending is irresponsible at best.

And such a plan, should Obama somehow convince people to support it, is guaranteed to fail just like every other one of his fiascoes*.


* Including, but not limited to: "Stimulus" programs, HAMP, HARP, Cash-for-Clunkers, Obamacare, "Financial Reform", permanent 9% unemployment and 20% underemployment, the unlawful takeovers of GM and Chrysler, "Quantitative Easing", a new war, and $5.2 trillion in new Obama debt.

Exclusive Photo: Prepping Your Garage For a Chevy Volt

If asbestos is still legal, I recommend plenty of it.

Electric cars might save you money at the pump, but they sure don’t save you time filling up. A typical electric car... takes upwards of 20 hours to recharge a fully drained battery when using an standard 120-volt outlet. While this might not be a problem for those looking to buy a second car for occasional outings, it certainly won’t cut it if an electric car is meant to be your primary vehicle.

In order to achieve a quicker charge, you’ll need to hire an electrician to install a 240-volt, 40-amp line that connects directly to the circuit breaker, a hookup similar to the one you might have for an electric oven or clothes dryer. With the increase in voltage, you can cut your charging time down to seven hours for a Nissan LEAF and four hours for the Chevy Volt, which means an overnight charge makes it a more practical purchase for daily use.

Super-fast charging stations capable of pumping out 480 volts are already on the market, and can recharge a car in 30 minutes or less. But these souped-up charging stations are currently for commercial use only because most homes can’t handle the kind of voltage and amperage required, at least not without some major rewiring of the power grid.

In related news, the federal government has decided to close its investigation of Volt fires.

The U.S. government on Friday closed its investigation of Chevy Volt battery fires, concluding that there is no apparent defect trend and that electric vehicles generally do not pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles.

Of course not. All of those modifications GM had to make were just for show.

There's nothing to be concerned about. Just go about your business.

Illinois suffers yet another downgrade thanks to mysterious unicorn deaths and Democrat stupidity, but mostly Democrat stupidity

You say that raising taxes makes fiscal problems worse? Gee, that's only happened -- oh -- about 57,000 consecutive times in American history, but we wouldn't expect Democrats to learn anything from facts, logic and reason, would we?

I don’t blame Democrats for wanting to seduce Republicans into a tax-increase trap. Indeed, I completely understand why some Democrats said their top political goal was getting the GOP to surrender the no-tax-hike position.

I’m mystified, though, why some Republicans are willing to walk into such a trap. If you were playing chess against someone, and that person kept pleading with you to make a certain move, wouldn’t you be a tad bit suspicious that your opponent really wasn’t trying to help you win?

...European nations, for instance, have been raising taxes for decades, almost always saying the higher taxes were necessary to balance budgets and control red ink. Yet that obviously hasn’t worked. Europe’s now in the middle of a fiscal crisis... So why do some people think we should mimic the French and the Greeks?

But we don’t need to look overseas for examples. Look at what’s happened in Illinois, where politicians recently imposed a giant tax hike:

Run up spending and debt, raise taxes in the naming of balancing the budget, but then watch as deficits rise and your credit-rating falls anyway. That’s been the sad pattern in Europe, and now it’s hitting that mecca of tax-and-spend government known as Illinois.

…Moody’s downgraded Illinois state debt to A2 from A1, the lowest among the 50 states. That’s worse even than California.

…This wasn’t supposed to happen. Only a year ago, Governor Pat Quinn and his fellow Democrats raised individual income taxes by 67% and the corporate tax rate by 46%. They did it to raise $7 billion in revenue, as the Governor put it, to “get Illinois back on fiscal sound footing” and improve the state’s credit rating. So much for that.

…And—no surprise—in part because the tax increases have caused companies to leave Illinois, the state budget office confesses that as of this month the state still has $6.8 billion in unpaid bills and unaddressed obligations.

In other words, higher taxes led to fiscal deterioration in Illinois, just as tax increases in Europe have been followed by bad outcomes.

Whenever any politician argues in favor of a higher tax burden, just keep these two points in mind:

1. Higher taxes encourage more government spending.

2. Higher taxes don’t raise as much money as politicians claim.

And higher taxes simply indicate tacit acceptance of government irresponsibility.

Which is why the dial must be turned back on all levels of income. Preferably that's accomplished through the Fair Tax or a flat tax.

Pity the poor taxpayers of Illinois. They have been enslaved by the unholy alliance of Democrats and union bosses. And it's probably too late to save them, unless the citizens are willing to organize and rise up to salvage their freedom.

Thank goodness we don't have Democrat hacks from Illinois running the whole damn country.


Update: Tax Hike Doesn't Prevent Moody's From Downgrading Connecticut

I love the smell of red-on-red warfare in the morning: unions vow war with Obama over Keystone XL

In the battle between the flat-earth, no-growth, environmental Marxists and the labor unions for control of President Subprime McDowngrade, it would appear that the ecotards just won a major victory (oh, and "ecotards" is the term they prefer, I hear).

After months of playing political ping-pong with 20,000 potential (mostly union) jobs, the Obama administration decided on Wednesday to kill the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried crude oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries...

For more than three years, the State Department has conducted its “transparent, thorough, and rigorous review.” However, apparently, the Obama Administration believed that three years wasn’t enough to be transparent, thorough, or rigorous enough...

...As a result of the Obama’s job-destroying decision, Laborers’ union president, Terry O’Sullivan issued a blistering statement:

The score is Job-Killers, two; American workers, zero. We are completely and totally disappointed. This is politics at its worst. Once again the President has sided with environmentalists instead of blue collar construction workers – even though environmental concerns were more than adequately addressed. Blue collar construction workers across the U.S. will not forget this.

The project would create thousands of good jobs at a time when unemployment in the construction industry is 16 percent with 1.3 million men and women jobless.

Environmental groups have used the Keystone XL as a disingenuous proxy for arguments about global warming. The pipeline would carry up to 900,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada’s Tar Sands to the U.S., reducing reliance on oil from hostile nations. While environmental groups decry Tar Sands development, the Canadian government and Trans-Canada, the company developing the Tar Sands, have made clear the oil will be developed – and possibly sold to China – regardless of whether Keystone XL is built...

Hey, O'Sullivan: did Obama at least buy you flowers beforehand?

Dick Trumka and Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. could not be reached for comment at press time. I just wanted to know whether they would miss the roughly 100,000 jobs (direct and indirect) that would have been created by the Keystone. I guess not, since they're sitting in their multi-million dollar homes, insulated from the concerns of their hapless members.

Exclusive Photo: GM Executives Announce Recall of All Chevy Volts

The headline reads -- and I quote -- "Because of Multiple Fire Problems, General Motors ‘Calls Back’ Every Chevy Volt Ever Sold":

Straining mightily to avoid the word “recall,” General Motors (GM) is “ask(ing) owners to return (Chevy Volts) to dealers” in what is being called a “customer satisfaction program call back” – of every single Volt ever sold...

...There were multiple Volt fires in 2011. Two private fires in April. Three government fires in National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) testing. And another private fire in November.

Remember: The two fires in April and the one in November involved Volts that were not involved in crashes. Yet GM and the Obama Administration are now claiming that the Volt fire problems only arise “days or weeks after a severe crash.”

Remember: GM and the Obama Administration until very recently only copped to one NHTSA fire. Now they are saying there were three...

Note: our lawyers tell us that the accompanying photograph may not be real, although Cub Reporter (Level II) Biff Spackle insists that it is.


Related: Exclusive Photo: First Chevy Volts arrive at local dealers.

President Barack Obama's Complete List of Historic Firsts [Updated]

Yes, he's historic, alright.

• First President to Preside Over a Cut to the Credit Rating of the United States Government

• First President to Violate the War Powers Act

• First President to Orchestrate the Sale of Murder Weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels

• First President to issue an unlawful "recess-appointment" while the U.S. Senate remained in session (against the advice of his own Justice Department).

• First President to be Held in Contempt of Court for Illegally Obstructing Oil Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico

• First President to Defy a Federal Judge's Court Order to Cease Implementing the 'Health Care Reform' Law

• First President to halt deportations of illegal aliens and grant them work permits, a form of stealth amnesty roughly equivalent to "The DREAM Act", which could not pass Congress

• First President to Require All Americans to Purchase a Product From a Third Party

• First President to Spend a Trillion Dollars on 'Shovel-Ready' Jobs -- and Later Admit There Was No Such Thing as Shovel-Ready Jobs

• First President to sue states for requiring valid IDs to vote, even though the same administration requires valid IDs to travel by air

• First President to Abrogate Bankruptcy Law to Turn Over Control of Companies to His Union Supporters

• First President to sign into law a bill that permits the government to "hold anyone suspected of being associated with terrorism indefinitely, without any form of due process. No indictment. No judge or jury. No evidence. No trial. Just an indefinite jail sentence."

• First President to Bypass Congress and Implement the DREAM Act Through Executive Fiat

• First President to Threaten Insurance Companies After They Publicly Spoke out on How Obamacare Helped Cause their Rate Increases

• First President to Threaten an Auto Company (Ford) After It Publicly Mocked Bailouts of GM and Chrysler

• First President to "Order a Secret Amnesty Program that Stopped the Deportations of Illegal Immigrants Across the U.S., Including Those With Criminal Convictions"

• First President to Demand a Company Hand Over $20 Billion to One of His Political Appointees

• First President to Terminate America's Ability to Put a Man into Space.

• First President to Encourage Racial Discrimination and Intimidation at Polling Places

• First President to Have a Law Signed By an 'Auto-pen' Without Being "Present"

• First President to Arbitrarily Declare an Existing Law Unconstitutional and Refuse to Enforce It

• First President to Tell a Major Manufacturing Company In Which State They Are Allowed to Locate a Factory

• First President to refuse to comply with a House Oversight Committee subpoena.

• First President to File Lawsuits Against the States He Swore an Oath to Protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN, etc.)

• First President to Withdraw an Existing Coal Permit That Had Been Properly Issued Years Ago

• First President to Fire an Inspector General of Americorps for Catching One of His Friends in a Corruption Case

• First President to Propose an Executive Order Demanding Companies Disclose Their Political Contributions to Bid on Government Contracts

• First President to allow Mexican police to conduct law enforcement activities on American soil

• First President to Golf 90 or More Times in His First Three Years in Office

But remember: he will not rest until all Americans have jobs, affordable homes, green-energy vehicles, and the environment is repaired, etc., etc., etc.


Linked by: Don Surber and Parkway Rest Stop. Thanks!

Bummer: Seven State Unions Sue New York Over Obamacare

When you've lost the public sector unions... oh, and please note -- this article was written from the perspective of a drone Obamacare supporter named "Melissa Freeman" (if that is her real name):

Seven New York state unions have filed federal lawsuits against the state over what they claim is an unconstitutional increase in health care costs for retired workers. This is not a promising beginning for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), now that Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has given more power to the states in implementing the law.

HHS announced Dec. 16 that individual states will be left to select their own “benchmark” minimum health insurance plan under the national law. As a key step in defining universal health care in the U.S., determining minimum standards of health care should be done on a national level. Sebelius’ choice to delegate this duty to states is a cowardly attempt to evade tough decision-making, leading to a less efficient and effective policy of accommodation rather than full national change, and decreased federal accountability for the outcome of the ACA...

...By delegating this responsibility to the states, Sebelius has also deflected federal, mainly executive, responsibility for the plan’s possible failure, though assuredly not its potential success. The unfolding details of the law will undoubtedly draw many critics: The greater the benefits, the higher the costs; yet the lower the benefits, the less successful the law – a trophy of Obama’s first term. With its validity and effectiveness questioned early on, the ACA is already in a weak position to affect change. Sebelius has further weakened it by giving up the federal government’s ability to establish a major component of how the law will affect the millions of uninsured people across the country...

...With the passage of the ACA as a move towards universal health care, the national government needs to be more involved in establishing the standards that will detail the bill’s vaguely stated requirements. Allowing states to determine their own benchmark plan is a disappointing indicator of the ACA’s potential to bring about actual change...

Hey, genius: we don't have a "national" government. We have a federal government, established by the Constitution. You know, that's the document your pathetic Democrat hack politicians take an oath to uphold and promptly spit upon. And it's the same document that enumerates the federal government's powers.

And, last time I checked, there was no "Obamacare" clause in the Constitution. Or maybe it's hidden next to the "Abortion" clause.

Finally, Ms. Rocket Scientist, please list just one time in the history of mankind that a tiny authoritarian cabal of masterminds were able to centrally-manage an economy.

I'll wait here while you check, Einstein.

Sounds sustainable: Philadelphia councilwoman will 'retire' for one day, collect $478K union pension, then return to work on Monday

Consider this Exhibit 5,394 in the ongoing saga of public sector unions and their Democrat toadies sucking the life out of the private sector.

Marion B. Tasco, who has been described as being “politically savvy,” will retire from her sixth term as councilwoman, collect $478,057, and then be sworn in on Monday to serve her seventh term, Catherine Lucy and Chris Brennan of the Philadelphia Daily News.

...Tasco, along with many of her fellow Council members, is enrolled in Philadelphia’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP)...

...DROP allows city workers to collect salary and build up pension money during the last four years of their employment, writes Aaron Kase of Philadelphia Weekly.

...Naturally, when DROP was originally introduced, it was touted as being “revenue neutral.” It’s been anything but that. SInce its introduction, Philadelphia’s DROP program has cost the city $258 million in extra pension costs over a decade, according to a 2010 Boston College study...

Gee, it's so odd and unpredictable that a "revenue neutral" pension program designed by Democrat-slash-union hacks could cost the city a quarter of a billion dollars in only 10 short years.

And greatly enrich the same strain of said Democrat-slash-union hacks at the expense of the taxpayers.