Conservative Wanderer

“A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.” — Ronald Wilson Reagan

Category Archives: Labor

Will Democrats Attempt To Recall This Governor?

We all know how Democrats feel about politicians that try to restrict public employee unions, right? So, do you think they’ll try to recall this governor who’s trying it?

Gov. Jerry Brown will propose sweeping rollbacks to public employee pension benefits in California, including raising the retirement age to 67 for new employees who are not public safety workers and requiring state and local employees to pay more toward their retirement and health care, according to a draft of the plan obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

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AP Calls Obama On False Statements

Yes, even the AP has decided that Obama isn’t always truthful:

In challenging Republicans to get behind his jobs bill Thursday, President Barack Obama argued Republicans have supported his proposals before, demanded that they explain themselves if they oppose him, and challenged others to come up with a plan of their own. The rhetoric in the president’s quick-moving press conference dodged some facts and left some evidence in the dust.

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Cain Blames Protesters For Lack Of Employment

Herman Cain just demonstrated the time-honored political tradition of “open mouth, insert foot.”

“Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself!” Cain said. “It is not a person’s fault because they succeeded, it is a person’s fault if they failed. And so this is why I don’t understand these demonstrations and what is it that they’re looking for.”

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Another Obama Supporter Turns Against Him

First, I’ll present Ted Leonsis’ bona fides as an Obama supporter, from his own article:

I voted for our President. I have maxed out on personal donations to his re-election campaign. I forgot his campaign wants to raise $1 billion. THAT is a lot of money–money–money–money! Money still talks. It blows my mind when I am asked for money as a donation at the same time I am getting blasted as being a bad guy!

Now, his plea to the President he voted for and supported:

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A Democrat vs. NLRB

Finally, a Democrat puts his state and his constituents before party.

As the former chairman of the N.C. Democratic Party, I am not only disinclined to criticize organized labor, but am rather sympathetic to their cause. The bigger question at play, however, is not why one side of this argument pressed hard for job protection, but why the NLRB chose to deny another area’s competitive advantage?

The unemployment rate in South Carolina is 10.9 percent, the third highest in the United States. Unemployment in North Carolina is 10.1 percent. Washington State’s rate is 9.3 percent. In light of these statistics, the NLRB should not be denying job creation investment in any location, save for egregious violations of worker rights. This case does not qualify.

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Romney’s Jobs Plan

Taking a short break from… well… taking a break!

Mitt Romney has unveiled his jobs plan:

Five Bills for Day One

The American Competitiveness Act: Reduces the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent

The Open Markets Act: Implements the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements

The Domestic Energy Act: Directs the Department of the Interior to undertake a comprehensive survey of American energy reserves in partnership with exploration companies and initiates leasing in all areas currently approved for exploration

The Retraining Reform Act: Consolidates the sprawl of federal retraining programs and returns funding and responsibility for these programs to the states

The Down Payment on Fiscal Sanity Act: Immediately cuts non-security discretionary spending by 5 percent, reducing the annual federal budget by $20 billion

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No Surprise: Sumi Strikes Down WI Budget Repair Bill

Nope, no surprise here, given that this judge is from the bluest county of Wisconsin. This one is almost certainly headed to the state supreme court, and Gov. Walker stands a good chance of winning, because of this fact pointed out by two legal experts:

“She doesn’t address the argument that the open meetings law wasn’t violated because of various senate and assembly and joint rules” that exempted the legislature from the law’s requirements, says Rick Esenberg, a professor at Marquette University Law School.

And…

The senate chief clerk, a nonpartisan official who advises the senate on parliamentary and legal issues, advised the senate majority leader that no notice was required to be given for the March 9 meeting other than a bulletin board posting because the senate was in special session. The open meetings law does not apply to special sessions, under which the legislature was convened on March 9.

The open meetings law states: “No provision of this subchapter which conflicts with a rule of the senate or assembly or joint rule of the legislature shall apply to a meeting conducted in compliance with such rule.”

And the Wisconsin senate and assembly each have a rule stating that during special sessions: “A notice of a committee meeting is not required other than posting on the legislative bulletin board, and a bulletin of committee hearings may not be published [emphasis added].”

In other words, the law that Sumi used to strike down this bill does not even apply in this situation.

ObamaCare Strips 30,000 Children Of Coverage

WSJ:

One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements.

(emphasis mine)

Once again, the Law of Unintended Consequences bites the Left right in the rump… these are the sorts of people that ObamaCare was supposed to help, and it’s having exactly the opposite effect!

The union fund faced a “dramatic shortfall” between what employers contributed to the fund and the premiums charged by its insurance provider, Fidelis Care, according to Mitra Behroozi, executive director of benefit and pension funds for 1199SEIU. The union fund pools contributions from several home-care agencies and then buys insurance from Fidelis.

“In addition, new federal health-care reform legislation requires plans with dependent coverage to expand that coverage up to age 26,” Behroozi wrote in a letter to members Oct. 22. “Our limited resources are already stretched as far as possible, and meeting this new requirement would be financially impossible.”

Behroozi estimated that the fund faced a $15 million shortfall in 2011 and more in the following years for the coverage of workers’ children.

There it is, laid out in plain English… the new requirement to cover “children” up to age 26 is just too costly.

Of course, the union knows who to ask for more money… the taxpayers!

“We hope the state of New York will do the right thing and provide the funding necessary for this most vulnerable population of direct caregivers,” the union said in a statement.

I gotta better idea. The state and Fedzilla (to borrow Ted Nugent’s term) should quit mandating who and what must be covered and let people shop for the coverage that fits them best, by either removing the tax break for employer funded medical insurance, or (preferably) extending the same tax breaks to individuals purchasing the coverage on their own… level the playing field, in other words.

For those who can’t afford coverage, let charities fill the gap, or, as a very last resort, let each state run its own high-risk pool, without micromanaging from DC.

But, since that reduces the power of politicians, they’ll never go for it. So, the children of some 30,000 hard-working people will lose their medical insurance. Thanks, Democrats.