Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Corporate cronyism isn’t just for Democrats. The “fiscal cliff averter” includes an extension of a special tax treatment for NASCAR. We’re loading up the nation in public debt, but at least the entertainment lobby will be happy! From The Detroit News: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/watercooler/index.php#ixzz2HggH5zMb
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If you’d like to see tedious, irrelevant government policy in action, you could start by looking at the world of aviation. Consider, for example, the ban on electronic devices during certain times of your next flight. From a commentary in the New York Times: “The agency has no proof that electronic devices can harm a [...]
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012
In an oddity of legal and political history, two major expansions of federal power have been enabled by two different members on the U.S. Supreme Court, both with the surname “Roberts.” People say “no more Bushes in the White House.” Perhaps it’s time for a new slogan: “No more Roberts on the Supreme Court.” In [...]
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Monday, December 17, 2012
Today is the day that the Electoral College meets, in 51 locations across the United States. It’s one of those important features by which the United States is constituted as a representative republic, not a direct democracy. Under the electoral college, a group of people in each state, called electors, vote for the presidential candidate who [...]
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
From the moment he stepped on the political scene, I was skeptical of Rick Snyder, thinking he was another go-along, get-along business-leader-turned politician. I also doubted that his business skills would translate into political leadership. It wasn’t the first time I’ve been wrong, of course. While Gov. Snyder has a history of discouraging the right-to-work [...]
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Thursday, December 6, 2012
Did the passage of Obamacare play a role in setting up Michigan’s move to right to work? Certainly, competitive pressures from Indiana are key, as Henry Payne points out. But the lessons of Obamacare should not be overlooked, either. Consider how Washington Democrats passed the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (ACA), as the law is formally [...]
When I went on a business trip a few weeks ago, I opted out (again) of the TSA’s scanners, and wondered: Is it just me, or have the pat downs become even more invasive? Instead of terrorists hiding bombs in their nether regions or shoes, have they taken to hiding them in their armpits? (Insert [...]
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Sometimes it’s good for governments to operate by rules that don’t apply to the rest of us (see the Bill of Rights). At other times, a different set of rules is to our peril. Take, for example, the financial state of the federal government (which is to say, all of us). The federal debt is [...]
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The ideas of the political left are taught, echoed, and amplified in the major cultural institutions of our country. Is it any surprise that our politics is on a long-term path towards the left? Hollywood pours out movies that paint business owners as evil exploiters who must be restrained by government regulation. Major religious institutions [...]
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Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Will Gov. Snyder and the Legislature make Michigan a right-to-work state, as my blogging colleague Charles Owens recommends? Even though unions, in the words of another blogging colleague, Shikha Dalmia ”lost big time,” I just don’t see that happening. For one thing, it’s easier in politics to play defense than offense. Shutting down Prop 2 was a fine act [...]
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